A brilliant appraisal of the Civil War and its long-term consequences, by an acclaimed historian. The political upheaval of the mid-seventeenth century has no parallel in English history. Other events have changed the occupancy and the powers of the throne, but the conflict of 1640-60 was more dramatic: the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, to be replaced by a republic and military rule. In this wonderfully readable account, Blair Worden explores the events of this period and their origins - the war between King and Parliament, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's rule and the Restoration - while aiming to reveal something more elusive: the motivations of contemporaries on both sides and the concerns of later generations.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War: The definitive Civil War classic as Sam wanted it revised complete with his edits, new perspectives, authoritative text, and images of his changes.
"Company Aytch" has reigned as one of the most memorable and honest depictions of the American Civil War since its original publication in 1882. Sam R. Watkins's firsthand account of life as a Confederate soldier eloquently captured the realities of war, the humor and pathos of soldiering, and the tragic, historic events in which he participated. Although there have been other versions of "Company Aytch" published, this is the first with new material and revisions by Sam Watkins himself. Featuring over forty images, including his own pencil-marked edits, this volume combines the ageless text with Sam's intended revisions a treasure for lovers of history, academia, and Civil War enthusiasts alike.

Many Americans, argues Michael C. C. Adams, tend to think of the Civil War as more glorious, less awful, than the reality. Millions of tourists flock to battlefields each year as vacation destinations, their perceptions of the war often shaped by reenactors who work hard for verisimilitude but who cannot ultimately simulate mutilation, madness, chronic disease, advanced physical decay. In Living Hell, Adams tries a different tack, clustering the voices of myriad actual participants on the firing line or in the hospital ward to create a virtual historical reenactment. Perhaps because the United States has not seen conventional war on its own soil since 1865, the collective memory of its horror has faded, so that we have sanitized and romanticized even the experience of the Civil War. Neither film nor reenactment can fully capture the hard truth of the four-year conflict. Living Hell presents a stark portrait of the human costs of the Civil War and gives readers a more accurate appreciation of its profound and lasting consequences. Adams examines the sharp contrast between the expectations of recruits versus the realities of communal living, the enormous problems of dirt and exposure, poor diet, malnutrition, and disease. He describes the slaughter produced by close-order combat, the difficulties of cleaning up the battlefields-where tens of thousands of dead and wounded often lay in an area of only a few square miles-and the resulting psychological damage survivors experienced. Drawing extensively on letters and memoirs of individual soldiers, Adams assembles vivid accounts of the distress Confederate and Union soldiers faced daily: sickness, exhaustion, hunger, devastating injuries, and makeshift hospitals where saws were often the medical instrument of choice. Inverting Robert E. Lee's famous line about war, Adams suggests that too many Americans become fond of war out of ignorance of its terrors. Providing a powerful counterpoint to Civil War glorification, Living Hell echoes William Tecumseh Sherman's comment that war is cruelty and cannot be refined. Praise for Our Masters the Rebels: A Speculation on Union Military Failure in the East, 1861-1865 "This excellent and provocative work concludes with a chapter suggesting how the image of Southern military superiority endured in spite of defeat."- Civil War History "Adams's imaginative connections between culture and combat provide a forceful reminder that Civil War military history belongs not in an encapsulated realm, with its own categories and arcane language, but at the center of the study of the intellectual, social, and psychological currents that prevailed in the mid-nineteenth century."- Journal of American History Praise for The Best War Ever: America and World War II "Adams has a real gift for efficiently explaining complex historical problems."- Reviews in American History "Not only is this mythologizing bad history, says Adams, it is dangerous as well. Surrounding the war with an aura of nostalgia both fosters the delusion that war can cure our social ills and makes us strong again, and weakens confidence in our ability to act effectively in our own time."- Journal of Military History

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.

This book brings together fourteen of the most influential articles on the English Civil War, which have appeared over the last thirty years, introduced and contextualized for the reader. Peter Gaunt provides a substantial and wide-ranging introduction giving the essential background to the period and key debates within it, and helping readers to understand and interpret the following chapters.

"The English Civil War: The Essential Readings" includes coverage of all the major debates on this key period in English and British history. It examines the different interpretations of the causes of the war, encompassing long-term origins and short-term causes in the British as well as an English context. It covers key themes surrounding the course of the civil war of 1642-46, and aspects of the impact and consequences of the civil war during the late 1640s and beyond. It discusses military and political affairs alongside social, religious and economic developments, providing a rounded picture of the period.

This book not only presents an essential source of key articles, it also provides the critical context to understanding the nature of past and continuing historical debates surrounding the major aspects of the civil war.

Leading historians from around the world have been commissioned to write 42 accessible and definitive guides to every major war throughout history, with an emphasis on the people who fought and the impact on the world at large. Eyewitness accounts are used to give a soldier's-eye view of the conflict and expose the reality of the battlefield. Illustrated with colour photographs and maps throughout, Essential Histories will provide for a deepened understanding of the nature of war and human history.

In Jubal Early: Robert E. Lee's Bad Old Man, a new critical biography of Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early, Civil War historian B.F. Cooling III takes a fresh look at one of the most fascinating, idiosyncratic characters in the pantheon of Confederate heroes and villains. Dubbed by Robert E. Lee as his "bad old man" because of his demeanor, Early was also Lee's chosen instrument to attack and capture Washington as well as defend the Shenandoah Valley granary in the summer and fall of 1864. Neither cornered nor snared by Union opponents, Early came closest of any Confederate general to capturing Washington, ending Lincoln's presidency, and forever changing the fate of the Civil War and American history. His failure to grapple with this moment of historical immortality and emerge victorious bespeaks as much his own foibles as the counter-efforts of the enemy, the effects of weather and the shortcomings of his army. From the pinnacle of success, Jubal Early descended to the trough of defeat within three months when opponent General Philip Sheridan resoundingly defeated him in the Valley campaign of 1864. Jubal Early famously exhibited a harder, less gallant personal as a leading Confederate practitioner of "hard" or destructive war, a tactic usually ascribed to Union generals Hunter, Sheridan, and Sherman. An extortionist of Yankee capital in northern towns in Pennsylvania and Maryland-typically in the form of tribute-Early also became forever associated with the wanton destruction of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, as well as Congressman Thaddeus Stevens private commerical ironworks, and the private dwellings of Maryland governor Augustus Bradford and then Postmaster General Montgomery Blair. How war hardened a crabbed, arthritically hobbled but brilliantly pragmatic soldier and lawyer offers one of the most fascinating puzzles of personality in Civil War history. One of the most alluring yet repellent figures of Southern Confederate history, Jubal Early would devolve from the ideal prewar constitutional unionist to the postwar personification of the unreconstructed rebel and progenitor of the "lost cause" explanation for the demise of the Confederacy's experiment in rebellion or independence. This critical study explains how one of Virginia's loyal sons came through war and peace to garner a unique position in the Confederacy's pantheon of heroes-and the Union's cabal of military villains. Jubal Early: Robert E. Lee's Bad Old Man will appeal to anyone interested in Civil War history and Confederate history.

William Tecumseh Sherman, a West Point graduate and veteran of the Seminole War, became one of the best-known generals in the Civil War. His March to the Sea, which resulted in a devastated swath of the South from Atlanta to Savannah, cemented his place in history as the pioneer of total war. In The Scourge of War, preeminent military historian Brian Holden Reid offers a deeply researched life and times account of Sherman. By examining his childhood and education, his business ventures in California, his antebellum leadership of a military college in Louisiana, and numerous career false starts, Holden Reid shows how unlikely his exceptional Civil War career would seem. He also demonstrates how crucial his family was to his professional path, particularly his wife's intervention during the war. He analyzes Sherman's development as a battlefield commander and especially his crucial friendships with Henry W. Halleck and Ulysses S. Grant. In doing so, he details how Sherman overcame both his weaknesses as a leader and severe depression to mature as a military strategist. Central chapters narrate closely Sherman's battlefield career and the gradual lifting of his pessimism that the Union would be defeated. After the war, Sherman became a popular figure in the North and the founder of the school for officers at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, known as the "intellectual center of the army." Holden Reid argues that Sherman was not hostile to the South throughout his life and only in later years gained a reputation as a villain who practiced barbaric destruction, particularly as the neo-Confederate Lost Cause grew and he published one of the first personal accounts of the war. A definitive biography of a preeminent military figure by a renowned military historian, The Scourge of War is a masterful account of Sherman' life that fully recognizes his intellect, strategy, and actions during the Civil War.

In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the U.S. Congress in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery. These fights didn't happen in a vacuum. Freeman's dramatic accounts of brawls and thrashings tell a larger story of how fisticuffs and journalism, and the powerful emotions they elicited, raised tensions between North and South and led toward war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities - the feel, sense, and sound of it - as well as its nation-shaping import. The result is riveting - and it reveals fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.

Flowing from its source in northern Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River borders or passes through ten different states and serves as one of the most important transportation systems in the country. During the Civil War, both sides believed that whoever controlled the river would ultimately be victorious. Cotton exports generated much-needed revenue for the Confederacy, and the Mississippi was also the main conduit for the delivery of materials and food. Similarly, the Union sought to maintain safe passage from St. Louis, Missouri, to Cairo, Illinois, but also worked to bisect the South by seizing the river as part of the Anaconda Plan. Drawing heavily on the diaries and letters of officers and common sailors, Barbara Brooks Tomblin explores the years during which the Union navy fought to win control of the Mississippi. Her approach provides fresh insight into major battles such as Memphis and Vicksburg, but also offers fascinating perspectives on lesser-known aspects of the conflict from ordinary sailors engaged in brown-water warfare. These men speak of going ashore in foraging parties, assisting the surgeon in the amputation of a fellow crewman's arm, and liberating supplies of whiskey from captured enemy vessels. They also offer candid assessments of their commanding officers, observations of the local people living along the river, and their views on the war. The Civil War on the Mississippi not only provides readers with a comprehensive and vivid account of the action on the western rivers; it also offers an incredible synthesis of first-person accounts from the front lines.

A dashing young orator during the Great Hunger of the 1840s, Thomas Francis Meagher led a failed uprising against British rule, for which he was banished to a Tasmanian prison colony for life. But two years later he was "back from the dead" and in New York, instantly the most famous Irishman in America. Meagher's rebirth included his leading the newly formed Irish Brigade in many of the fiercest battles of the Civil War. Afterward, he tried to build a new Ireland in the wild west of Montana - a quixotic adventure that ended in the great mystery of his disappearance, which Egan resolves convincingly at last.

This study uses an abundance of primary sources to restore African American female participants in the Civil War to history by documenting their presence, contributions and experience. Free and enslaved African American women took part in this process in a variety of ways, including black female charity and benevolence. These women were spies, soldiers, scouts, nurses, cooks, seamstresses, laundresses, recruiters, relief workers, organizers, teachers, activists and survivors. They carried the honor of the race on their shoulders, insisting on their right to be treated as "ladies" and knowing that their conduct was a direct reflection on the African American community as a whole.
For too long, black women have been rendered invisible in traditional Civil War history and marginal in African American chronicles. This book addresses this lack by reclaiming and resurrecting the role of African American females, individually and collectively, during the Civil War. It brings their contributions, in the words of a Civil War participant, Susie King Taylor, "in history before the people."

In the Civil War, both sides understood that closing the Souths ports would halt the introduction of war matriel to the industrially weak region. Though the North captured New Orleans in 1862, they did not attack the Confederate navy in Mobile Bay or the city of Mobile, Alabama, until 1864. The two-year delay allowed much needed supplies to enter the Confederacy and changed the face of the ensuing Mobile Campaign, as technological advances in ships submarines, mines and fortification made a striking difference in the fighting. This book examines the politics, preparations, leaders, and battles that made the Mobile Campaign a microcosm of the overall conduct of the Civil War.

During the Civil War women did a lot more than keep the home fires burning. Expanding on his pioneering ""Patriots in Disguise"", Richard Hall has now produced the most accurate and up-to-date survey available of women who were determined to serve their nation in that time of crisis. Drawing on a wealth of regimental histories, newspaper archives, and a host of previously unreported accounts, Hall shows that women served in more capacities and in greater number - perhaps several thousand - than has previously been known. They served in the infantry, cavalry, and artillery and as spies, scouts, saboteurs, smugglers, and frontline nurses. From all walks of life, they followed husbands and lovers into battle, often in male disguise that remained undiscovered until they were wounded (or gave birth), and endured the same hardships and dangers as did their male counterparts. Hall presents the most complete portrait yet available of these courageous women - including Sarah Bradbury, Lizzie Compton, Frances Hook, and Confederate spy Loreta Janeta Velazquez - many of whom earned the praise of the male soldiers they served with and rose through the ranks to become sergeants, even officers. Through his investigation of specific case histories, he has authenticated many previously undocumented reports while debunking myths and exposing previously published errors about the subject. The book also includes a biographical directory of nearly 400 women participants and dozens of Civil War documents attesting to women's role in the war. As a new synthesis and critical appraisal, ""Women on the Civil War Battlefront"" is a richly anecdotal work that unearths a hidden history and opens a new window on women's lives in the nineteenth century. These women were determined to serve, and Hall's research confirms that they did so in significant numbers - and with distinction.

The story begins in March 1865 as Union troops closed in on Richmond. Jefferson Davis tries to establish new capitals in Danville, Greensboro, and Charlotte and is ultimately captured in Georgia. Secretary of War Breckinridge dons the style of a pirate to escape. Secretary of State Benjamin disguises himself as a poor farmer--with his gold sewn inside his clothes. Nearly 60 primary and secondary sources were used to research this dramatic history. The book contains sketches made by an artist who accompanied Davis on much of the escape, and includes maps of the escape route.

The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal but it took the Civil War and the adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed due process and the equal protection of the law, and equipped black men with the right to vote. By grafting the principle of equality onto the Constitution, the amendments marked the second founding of the United States. Eric Foner conveys the dramatic origins of these revolutionary amendments and explores the court decisions that then narrowed and nullified the rights guaranteed in these amendments. Today, issues of birthright citizenship, voting rights, due process and equal protection are still in dispute; the ideal of equality yet to be achieved.

" While Father is Away reveals the intimate story of a British-American's role in the American Civil War. William Bradbury's letters home provide a rare window on the unique relationships among husband, wife, and children while a father was away at war. Yorkshire attorney turned Union volunteer soldier Bradbury became a "privileged private" with extraordinary access to powerful Union generals including Daniel Butterfield, future president Benjamin Harrison, and Clinton B. Fisk, the region's administrator for the Freedmen's Bureau during Reconstruction. The letters also provide an in-depth look at this driven land speculator and manager for the Atchison Topeka Santa Fe Railway. As a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and the Manchester Guardian, Bradbury was both eyewitness to and participant in the shaping of events in the world as it moved west.

The American Civil War (1861-65) was the bloodiest war of the nineteenth century and its impact continues to be felt today. It, and its origins have been studied more intensively than any other period in American history, yet it remains profoundly controversial. Brian Holden Reid's formidable volume is a major contribution to this ongoing historical debate. Based on a wealth of primary research, it examines every aspect of the origins of the conflict and addresses key questions such as was it an avoidable tragedy, or a necessary catharsis for a divided nation? How far was slavery the central issue? Why should the conflict have errupted into violence and why did it not escalate into world war?

Originally published in 1948, this book tells the story of the three fateful days of Gettysburg in the words of the men and women who lived it. No mere chronicle of troop movements and military decisions, it is a path-breaking work in the reporting of Civil War history. Praised by "The New York Times Book Review" as "the very best collection of firsthand accounts, written by soldiers and civilians" of the battle of Gettysburg, this volume has been out of print for many years. Edited by Earl Schenk Miers (1910-1972), one of the pioneers in reviving popular interest in the American Civil War and in Lincoln, this new edition is enriched with a foreword by noted Civil War scholar James I. Robertson, Jr. For many years a favourite among Civil War buffs and enthusiasts, this edition is ideally suited for use in American history courses on the Civil War and military history and in American history survey courses.

Between September 1936 and February 1939, the Soviet Union was covertly aiding the Spanish Republic in its civil war with the right wing forces of General Francisco Franco, which had revolted against the government and were being aided semi-covertly by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Soviets were not only supplying the Republic with oil, gasoline, and food stuffs, but also the aircraft, tanks, artillery pieces, and small arms they needed to conduct the war. The Soviets also began sending military advisers and personnel from all branches of the service, plus engineers, translators, merchant seamen and war industry factory workers. Of the approximately 3,000 people sent from the Soviet Union, 772 were from the air force, and of these 100 were killed in action or died as a result of accidents or wounds received in battle.

Originally published in 1948, this book tells the story of the three fateful days of Gettysburg in the words of the men and women who lived it. No mere chronicle of troop movements and military decisions, it is a path-breaking work in the reporting of Civil War history. Praised by "The New York Times Book Review" as "the very best collection of firsthand accounts, written by soldiers and civilians" of the battle of Gettysburg, this volume has been out of print for many years. Edited by Earl Schenk Miers (1910-1972), one of the pioneers in reviving popular interest in the American Civil War and in Lincoln, this new edition is enriched with a foreword by noted Civil War scholar James I. Robertson, Jr. For many years a favourite among Civil War buffs and enthusiasts, this edition is ideally suited for use in American history courses on the Civil War and military history and in American history survey courses.

The American Civil War: A Literary and Historical Anthology brings together a wide variety of important writings from the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, including short fiction, poetry, public addresses, memoirs, and essays, accompanied by detailed annotations and concise introductions. Now in a thoroughly revised second edition, this slimmer volume has been revamped to: Emphasize a diversity of perspectives on the war Showcase more women writers Expand the number of Southern voices Feature more soldiers' testimony Provide greater historical context. With selections from Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman, Sidney Lanier, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Kate Chopin, and many more, Ian Finseth's careful arrangement of texts remains an indispensable resource for readers who seek to understand the impact of the Civil War on the culture of the United States. The American Civil War reaffirms the complex role that literature, poetry, and non-fiction played in shaping how the conflict is remembered. To provide students with additional resources, the anthology is now accompanied by a companion website which you can find at [insert URL]. There you will find additional primary sources, a detailed timeline, and an extensive bibliography, among other materials.

This collection of late antebellum U.S. Senate speeches exemplifies the official statements of the public men from the South, North, and West as they struggled with the questions of national identity and the right of self-government within the context of the rule of law.

This is the first book-length study devoted to the vessels of the Confederate Navy, including all types used during the conflict: ironclads (both domestic and foreign-built), commerce raiders, blockade runners, riverine and ocean-going gunboats, torpedo and submersible vessels, and floating batteries. The book emphasizes the development, construction, and design of these vessels using, where available, original plans, photographs, and contemporary descriptions. The author describes these vessels in context with wartime conditions as well as with the transitional naval technology of the era. Over 100 vessels are detailed, including more than 30 ironclads, both American and foreign built. Over 150 illustrations are included, many of which have not previously been published. Also included is a section on steam engine technology of the era.