When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, a central question for British intellectuals was whether or not the American conflict was proof of the viability of democracy as a foundation for modern governance. The lessons of the American Civil War for Britain would remain a focal point in the debate on democracy throughout the war up to the suffrage reform of 1867, and after. Brent E. Kinser considers four figures connected by Woodrow Wilson's concept of the "Literary Politician," a person who, while possessing a profound knowledge of politics combined with an equally acute literary ability to express that knowledge, escapes the practical drudgeries of policy making. Kinser argues that the animosity of Thomas Carlyle towards democracy, the rhetorical strategy of Anthony Trollope's North America, the centrality of the American war in Walter Bagehot's vision of British governance, and the political philosophy of John Stuart Mill illustrate the American conflict's vital presence in the debates leading up to the 1867 reform, a legislative event that helped to secure democracy's place in the British political system.

This new volume deals with two momentous and interrelated events in American history --the American Civil War and Reconstruction--and offers students a collection of essential documentary sources for these periods.
Provides students with over 60 documents on the American Civil War and ReconstructionIncludes presidential addresses, official reports, songs, poems, and a variety of eyewitness testimony concerning significant events ranging from 1833-1879Contains an informative introduction focused on the kinds of materials available and how historians use themEach chapter ends with questions designed to help students engage with the material and to highlight key issues of historical debate

This book is the second in a series which will feature the colonels of the Union Army in the Civil War. Most of them were citizen soldiers from a wide variety of backgrounds. Motivated by patriotic enthusiasm and personal ambition but often lacking any real military expertise, they nevertheless offered their services in defense of the Union. Through photographs and biographical sketches their lives are now being remembered. This volume documents the colonels who commanded regiments from New York state. Volume one in the series covers the New England states.

This is the first published biography of Lieutenant Commander Le Roy Fitch, U.S. Navy. Fitch saw action on the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers; fought against Morgan, Wheeler and Forrest, as well as irregulars; commanded an ironclad monitor during the Battle of Nashville; and was renowned for his abilities in counterinsurgency and convoy tactics.

Frank Bartlett was an indifferent student at Harvard when the Civil War began in 1861, but after he joined the Union army he quickly found that he had an aptitude for leadership and rose from captain to brevet major general by 1865. Over the course of the war he was wounded three times (one injury resulted in the loss of a leg), but he remained on active duty until he was captured in 1864. His political stance gained him some national fame after the war, but he struggled with repeated business stress until tuberculosis and other illnesses led to his early death at age 36.

This is the story of Collett Leventhorpe (1815?1889), an Englishman and former captain in the 14th Regiment of Foot. Leventhorpe came to North Carolina about 1843, settled there, and later served the Confederacy as a colonel in the 34th and 11th N.C. and brigadier general commanding the Home Guard in eastern North Carolina. Though he trained as a physician at the College of Charleston in the late 1840s, he never practiced and was a restless man, endlessly in search of fortune?before the war in the gold fields of North Carolina and Georgia, and after it in the pursuit of lost estates, art treasures and inventions. But he excelled first and foremost as a Confederate soldier. As a field commander he was never defeated in battle, and his record was marred only by his own rejection of a much deserved but very late promotion to CSA brigadier. He lies buried in the beautiful Happy Valley section of Caldwell County.

The power of the American press to influence and even set the political agenda is commonly associated with the rise of such press barons as Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst at the turn of the century. The latter even took credit for instigating the Spanish-American War. Their power, however, had deeper roots in the journalistic culture of the nineteenth century, particularly in the social and political conflicts that climaxed with the Civil War. Until now historians have paid little attention to the role of the press in defining and disseminating the conflicting views of the North and the South in the decades leading up to the Civil War. In The Civil War and the Press historians, political scientists, and scholars of journalism measure the influence of the press, explore its diversity, and profile the prominent editors and publishers of the day. The book is divided into three sections covering the role of the press in the prewar years, throughout the conflict itself, and during the Reconstruction period. Part 1, "Setting the Agenda for Secession and War," considers the rise of the consumer society and the journalistic readership, the changing nature of editorial standards and practice, the issues of abolitionism, secession, and armed resistence as reflected in Northern and Southern newspapers, the reporting on John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid, and the influence of journalism on the 1860 election results. Part 2, "In Time of War," includes discussions of journalistic images and ideas of womanhood in the context of war, the political orientation of the Jewish press, the rise of illustrated periodicals, and issues of censorship and opposition journalism. The chapters in Part 3, "Reconstructing a Nation," detail the infiltration of the former Confederacy by hundreds of federally subsidized Republican newspapers, editorial reactions to the developing issue of voting rights for freed slaves, and the journalistic mythologization of Jesse James as a resister of Reconstruction laws and conquering Unionists. In tracing the confluence of journalism and politics from its source, this groundbreaking volume opens a wide variety of perspectives on a crucial period in American history while raising questions that remain pertainent to contemporary tensions between press power and government power. The Civil War and the Press will be essential reading for historians, media studies specialists, political scientists, and readers interested in the Civil War period.

The volumes in this set, originally published between 1967 and 2011, available as ebooks for the first time, include succinct, accessible books on two of the most important periods of American history which offer concise treatment of these major historical topics, as well as some lengthier, finest single-volume studies of the American Civil and Revolutionary Wars ever written and an outstanding reference tool in a 2 volume Encyclopedia. Among other things they: Bring central themes and problems into sharper focus. Discuss the pivotal roles played by Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. Examine the role of medical doctors in the northern campaigns during the revolutionary war. Elucidate the character of the underlying moral and political problem of slavery. Discuss the social and political experience of the civil war whilst examining the centrality of what happened on the battlefield. Evaluate the legacy of the Civil War for America and for the world and emphasize its relationship to many of the dominating themes of modern history - democracy, freedom, equality and nationalism.

Originally published in 1967 this book tells the full story of the breach between the United States and Great Britain and the pivotal role played by Benjamin Franklin in both the declaration of independence and the American Treaty. Accessibly written, and richly illustrated with half-tones and maps, this is an introductory text which will be of use to both A Level students and as an introductory text for under-graduates.

From the training field at West Point to the entrenchments at Fort Donelson, Charles Ferguson Smith was the soldier's soldier. During his nearly forty-two year career, General Smith was a teacher, mentor, and role model for many young officers who became prominent Civil War generals. He was respected and admired by his former students and future officers including Grant, Halleck, Longstreet, and Sherman. This long overdue biography reveals a man who was a faithful officer, an excellent disciplinarian, an able commander, and a modest gentleman. Smith served at the US Military Academy from 1829 to 1842 as Instructor of Tactics, Adjutant to the Superintendent, and Commandant of Cadets. However, he was more than a instructor training cadets in the art of war. He set an example to junior officers in the Mexican War leading his light battalion to victories and earning three field promotions. Smith served with Albert Johnston and other future Confederate officers in the Mormon War. He mentored Grant while serving under him in the Civil War. Smith rose to the rank of major general while refusing to solicit political favours and court journalists. He ""turned the tide"" at Fort Donelson which led to Grant's rise to fame.

The Nashville Campaign, culminating with the last major battle of the Civil War, is one of the most compelling and controversial campaigns of the conflict. The campaign pitted the young and energetic James Harrison Wilson and his Union cavalry against the cunning and experienced Nathan Bedford Forrest with his Confederate cavalry. This book is an analysis of contributions made by the two opposing cavalry forces and provides new insights and details into the actions of the cavalry during the battle. This campaign highlighted important changes in cavalry tactics and never in the Civil War was there closer support by the cavalry for infantry actions than for the Union forces in the Battle of Nashville. The retreat by Cheatham's corps and the Battle of the Barricade receive a more in-depth discussion than in previous works on this battle. The importance of this campaign cannot be overstated as a different outcome of this battle could have altered history. The Nashville Campaign reflected the stark realities of the war across the country in December 1864 and would mark an important part of the death knell for the Confederacy.

" Honorable Mention, 2003 Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship When Slavery Was Called Freedom uncovers the cultural and ideological bonds linking the combatants in the Civil War era and boldly reinterprets the intellectual foundations of secession. John Patrick Daly dissects the evangelical defense of slavery at the heart of the nineteenth century's sectional crisis. He brings a new understanding to the role of religion in the Old South and the ways in which religion was used in the Confederacy. Southern evangelicals argued that their unique region was destined for greatness, and their rhetoric gave expression and a degree of coherence to the grassroots assumptions of the South. The North and South shared assumptions about freedom, prosperity, and morality. For a hundred years after the Civil War, politicians and historians emphasized the South's alleged departures from national ideals. Recent studies have concluded, however, that the South was firmly rooted in mainstream moral, intellectual, and socio-economic developments and sought to compete with the North in a contemporary spirit. Daly argues that antislavery and proslavery emerged from the same evangelical roots; both Northerners and Southerners interpreted the Bible and Christian moral dictates in light of individualism and free market economics. When the abolitionist's moral critique of slavery arose after 1830, Southern evangelicals answered the charges with the strident self-assurance of recent converts. They went on to articulate how slavery fit into the "genius of the American system" and how slavery was only right as part of that system.

Themes of the American Civil War offers a timely and useful guide to this vast topic for a new generation of students. The volume provides a broad-ranging assessment of the causes, complexities, and consequences of America s most destructive conflict to date. The essays, written by top scholars in the field, and reworked for this new edition, explore how, and in what ways, differing interpretations of the war have arisen, and explains clearly why the American Civil War remains a subject of enduring interest. It includes chapters covering four broad areas, including The Political Front, The Military Front, The Race Front, and The Ideological Front.

Additions to the second edition include a new introduction added to the current introduction by James McPherson a chapter on gender, as well as information on the remembrance of the war (historical memory). The addition of several maps, a timeline, and an appendix listing further reading, battlefield statistics, and battle/regiment/general names focuses the book squarely at undergraduates in both the US and abroad.

Journey to thirteen of Virginia's most haunted Civil War sites in search of spectral residents. Hear stories that have swayed skeptics and learn about new encounters with Civil War ghosts. Visit Cold Harbor, Henry House Hill, and the Bull Run Bridge at Manassas, Fredericksburg's Sunken Road, Grant's Headquarters at Appomattox Manor, and many more ghostly places! Do spirits still replay the past at Virginia's battlefields? Most definitely.

The largest and most destructive military conflict between the Napoleonic Wars and the First World War, the American Civil War has inspired some of the best and most intriguing scholarship in the field of United States history. This volume offers some of the most important work on the war to appear in the past few decades and offers compelling information and insights into subjects ranging from the organization of armies, historiography, the use of intelligence and the challenges faced by civil and military leaders in the course of America's bloodiest war.

One of the most influential philosophers of liberalism turns his attention to the complexity of Lincoln s political thought. At the center of Lincoln s career is an intense passion for equality, a passion that runs so deep in the speeches, messages, and letters that it has the force of religious conviction for Lincoln. George Kateb examines these writings to reveal that this passion explains Lincoln s reverence for both the Constitution and the Union.

The abolition of slavery was not originally a tenet of Lincoln s political religion. He affirmed almost to the end of his life that the preservation of the Union was more important than ending slavery. This attitude was consistent with his judgment that at the founding, the agreement to incorporate slaveholding into the Constitution, and thus secure a Constitution, was more vital to the cause of equality than struggling to keep slavery out of the new nation. In Kateb s reading, Lincoln destroys the Constitution twice, by suspending it as a wartime measure and then by enacting the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. The first instance was an effort to save the Constitution; the second was an effort to transform it, by making it answer the Declaration s promises of equality.

The man who emerges in Kateb s account proves himself adequate to the most terrible political situation in American history. Lincoln s political life, however, illustrates the unsettling truth that in democratic politics perhaps in all politics it is nearly impossible to do the right thing for the right reasons, honestly stated."

In April 1861 the United States erupted into fighting at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, beginning what would become the most cataclysmic military struggle in the western world between Waterloo and the World War I. This volume focuses on events in the Virginia theatre during the conflict's first two years, highlighting Union and Confederate strengths and weaknesses, leadership and strategy on each side, and the ways in which events on the battlefield influenced politics, diplomacy, and debates about emancipation

This is the story of the soldiers of Hardcastle's 3rd Battalion Mississippi Infantry from enlistment to the end of the war. It includes their mid-war incarnation as the 45th Mississippi Regiment and the role they played in Cleburne's fabled division during almost every major engagement of the Army of Tennessee. Told as much as possible from the point of view of the private soldier, the book attempts to understand not only the causes of the Civil War, but the social and political factors that motivated the original volunteers to join and continue fighting to the end. The battles are discussed and analyzed in their strategic context with emphasis on the battalion's role in the outcome, including the specific Federal units they fought against and first person accounts from both sides about what happened. Twenty battles and skirmishes are covered in detail, highlighted by excerpts from personal diaries. Appendices include an annotated roster, the diary of Lieutenant Samuel Asbury, the story of Captain John Sloan, and the stories of the 3rd Mississippi Battalion's battle flag and the flag of the Duncan Riflemen. An extensive bibliography completes the work.

'The Revenue Imperative' provides a comprehensive overview of the Union financial policies during the American Civil War. Flaherty argues that the revenue imperative, the need to keep pace with the burgeoning expenses of the conflict, governed the development of fiscal policy.

Originally published in 1967, this book is a concise and ideal study of one of the most important periods of American history and is ideal for A Level students and as an introduction for undergraduates. It discusses the social, economic and political context for Lincoln's meteoric rise and the legacy of his many achievements including the abolition of slavery.

This book examines the portrayal of themes of boundary crossing, itinerancy, relocation, and displacement in US genre paintings during the second half of the long nineteenth century (c. 1860-1910). Through four diachronic case studies, the book reveals how the high-stakes politics of mobility and identity during this period informed the production and reception of works of art by Eastman Johnson (1824-1906), Enoch Wood Perry, Jr. (1831-1915), Thomas Hovenden (1840-95), and John Sloan (1871-1951). It also complicates art history's canonical understandings of genre painting as a category that seeks to reinforce social hierarchies and emphasize more rooted connections to place by, instead, privileging portrayals of social flux and geographic instability. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, literature, American studies, and cultural geography.

The US Military Academy trained officers for both sides in the American Civil War. The Commandant of Cadets played an important role in this education by overseeing the Corps of Cadets' drills and tactical instruction. Historians criticize the tactical program as antiquated because it did not consider the impact of rifled weapons, the unique American terrain, and suitability of Napoleonic tactics and strategy. Much of this blame is due to confusion between strategy and tactics and differences between minor tactics and grand tactics. The Army assigned sixteen officers as commandants between 1817 to 1864. Their impact on cadets and tactical education varied based on the amount of time as commandant and their attitude about the assignment. These commandants made changes to the program, developed new textbooks, and taught many cadets who became Civil War generals. Historians have generally ignored the roles of the commandants despite their major influence on cadets. Readers who want a better understanding of antebellum military training will appreciate discussions about preparing cadets to become officers. The biographies of the forgotten men who influenced future officers present an account of the commandant's contributions to the Academy, notable graduates, and other military service.

Avenging Lincoln's Death: The Trial of John Wilkes Booth's Accomplices is an examination of the 1865 military commission trial of eight alleged accomplices of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin who murdered President Abraham Lincoln. The book analyzes the trial transcript and other relevant evidence relating to the guilt of Booth's alleged accomplices, as well as a careful application of basic constitutional law principles to the jurisdiction of the military commission and the fundamental fairness of the trial. The author found that the military commission trial was unconstitutional and unfair because Congress never authorized trial by military commission for these eight civilians. President Johnson exceeded the scope of his authority as commander in chief by ordering the accomplices to be tried by military commission. He failed to follow the Habeas Corpus Act of 1863 that required him to turn over the alleged accomplices to civilian authorities for prosecution. The accomplices were convicted on perjured testimony and the Government was allowed to drag in unrelated evidence of Confederate atrocities to poison the minds of the panel of officers.