In the following pages I have endeavored to present a correct description of the service performed by Company F, 1st Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers, during the spring and summer of 1861. While many of my comrades who served in that company may differ with me in some of the statements I have made, still I think that all will agree that what I have presented is as correct an account as can be had at this late period of that service. Thirty years is a long time for men to remember the particulars of any event, unless some memoranda of the same is at hand. During that service I endeavored to keep as correct as possible a daily journal of events, and from that journal I have prepared this brief history of the company, and I trust that my comrades who may read this will excuse any inaccuracies that in their opinion may appear; for it is my desire to place before you a correct history of Company F, the first company of volunteers that left Newport on the 17th of April, 1861, for the defence of the Stars and Stripes in the great war of the rebellion. -- Charles H. Clarke.

"The American negroes are the only people in the history of the world. . . . that ever became free without any effort on their own." W. E. Woodward stated this in his biography of General Ulysses S. Grant. Nothing could be farther from the truth as will be seen in this history which will show that the African Americans fighting in the Civil War may have been the deciding factor in determining the outcome.

Historians are only beginning to address the religious as a facet of the Civil War. Because neither war department had an office governing military chaplains, almost 4,000 of them were nearly lost to future study. After many years of research, their names, assignments, and denominational affiliations were listed in Faith in the Fight. In an organization created to destroy the enemy, chaplains ate, drank, and slept dissonance. Older than most soldiers and looking at battle with very different eyes, chaplains had their beliefs brutally tested at the same time they instilled faith that sustained men through adversities and tragedies. The Spirit Divided is a collection of letters, reports, and recollections in which army chaplains describe their motives and methods, their failures and achievements. Some threw away their somber black uniforms and became dashing staff officers who rode over battlefields to deliver orders, even capture enemy soldiers. Scorning these "chaplains militant," others were, in the words of a battlefield journalist, "bearers of the cup of cold water and the word of good cheer--the strong regiment may be the colonel's, but the wounded brigade is the chaplain's." Chaplains wondered whose side God was on, and if their ministries might be in vain. They saw, on both sides, God's Spirit at work. Was the Spirit divided, was God punishing both North and South for their sins, or was there some other explanation for this seemingly endless war? The reflections of these men of the cloth, who were underfed, underpaid, and largely unappreciated, have much to teach modern readers. They had to find, above all, the faith and perseverance to sustain the spirit of their people during the greatest war ever fought on this continent.

Based largely on Civil War veterans' own words, this book documents how many of these men survived the extraordinary horrors and hardships of war with surprising resilience and went on to become productive members of their communities in their post-war lives. Nothing transforms "dry, boring history" into fascinating and engaging stories like learning about long-ago events through the words of those who lived them. What was it like to witness-and participate in-the horrors of a war that lasted four years and claimed over half a million lives, and then emerge as a survivor into a drastically changed world? Veterans North and South: The Transition from Soldier to Civilian after the American Civil War takes readers back to this unimaginable time through the words of Civil War soldiers who fought on both sides, illuminating their profound, life-changing experiences during the war and in the postbellum period. The book covers the period from the surrender of the armies of the Confederacy to the return of the veterans to their homes. It follows them through their readjustment to civilian life and to family life while addressing their ability-and in some cases, inability-to become productive members of society. By surveying Civil War veterans' individual stories, readers will gain an in-depth understanding of these soldiers' sacrifices and comprehend how these discrete experiences coalesced to form America's memory of this war as a nation. Documents how Civil War veterans' combat experience changed them in ways that allowed them to become productive members of their communities and leaders in their sections-a largely overlooked "benefit" to the war Identifies overarching trends among veterans' experiences while also underscoring how varied Civil War soldiers' experiences were, depending on which side they fought for, where they fought, and their socioeconomic status

Georgians, like all Americans, experienced the Civil War in a variety of ways. Through selected articles drawn from the New Georgia Encyclopedia (www.georgiaencyclopedia.org), this collection chronicles the diversity of Georgia's Civil War experience and reflects the most current scholarship in terms of how the Civil War has come to be studied, documented, and analyzed.

The Atlanta campaign and Sherman's March to the Sea changed the course of the war in 1864, in terms both of the upheaval and destruction inflicted on the state and the life span of the Confederacy. While the dramatic events of 1864 are fully documented, this companion gives equal coverage to the many other aspects of the war--naval encounters and guerrilla war-fare, prisons and hospitals, factories and plantations, politics and policies-- all of which provided critical support to the Confederacy's war effort. The book also explores home-front conditions in depth, with an emphasis on emancipation, dissent, Unionism, and the experience and activity of African Americans and women.

Historians today are far more conscious of how memory--as public commemoration, individual reminiscence, historic preservation, and literary and cinematic depictions--has shaped the war's multiple meanings. Nowhere is this legacy more varied or more pronounced than in Georgia, and a substantial part of this companion explores the many ways in which Georgians have interpreted the war experience for themselves and others over the past 150 years. At the outset of the sesquicentennial these new historical perspectives allow us to appreciate the Civil War as a complex and multifaceted experience for Georgians and for all southerners.

A Project of the New Georgia Encyclopedia; Published in Association with the Georgia Humanities Council and the University System of Georgia/GALILEO.

In Lieu of a Draft: A History of the 153rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment documents the daily chores of camp life and the long hours spent waiting to engage the enemy, Historian James I. Robertson, Jr. has noted that soldiers spent "more time in camp than on marches and in battle combined." This book presents the uncensored story and explores the deep political divisions within the regiment. William R. Kiefer, the regiment's historian, admitted that many incidents recorded in diaries had to be omitted, because they dealt with "certain personal matters," offensive to some of the survivors, but which admittedly "would otherwise have added relish to the stories." Kiefer also had to exclude material he felt was "heavily tainted with odium cast upon certain officers" and "written in such partisan style" that the reader would find it unacceptable. The battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg are retold through the eyes of the 153rd volunteers as only they could have seen and experienced them. Every effort has been made to present this story as a chronological narrative of their service.

Relying principally on Ian Saberton's edition of The Cornwallis Papers: The Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Theatre of the American Revolutionary War, 6 vols (Uckfield: The Naval & Military Press Ltd, 2010), this work opens with an essay containing a groundbreaking critique of British strategy during the momentous and decisive campaigns that terminated in Cornwallis's capitulation at Yorktown and the consolidation of American independence. The essay begins by analysing the critical mistakes that led the British to disaster and ends, conversely by describing how they might have achieved a lasting measure of success. The remaining essays address certain characters and events in or connected to the war.

The Dakota Conflict, or Great Sioux Uprising as it was called, occurred 150 years ago in 1862 and became identified as part of the American Civil War. The Dakota Conflict caused the greatest loss of civilian life in an Indian war in U.S. history, and resulted in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The author is a direct descendant of settlers living in Blue Earth County, Minnesota, who witnessed htis dark chapter in American history. We commemorate all victims of the Sioux Uprising, we forgive the crimes of our ancestors, and we support efforts at reconciliation between the white and Indian cultures. This hardcover book, Blood on the Prairie A Novel of the Sioux Uprising Sesquicentennial Edition, is a collector edition intended for personal and community libraries.

The Native Peoples of the United States could only take so much from the world. "Blood on the Prairie" is a novel set amongst this theater of the American Civil War, where the Sioux Nation rebelled against Minnesota and led to some of the bloodiest conflicts of the period. Author Steven Ulmen draws on his own personal history to tell the story of the conflict. "Blood on the Prairie" is a strong pick for fans of historical fiction, recommended. Burroughs Bookshelf, MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW, September 2012

This edited collection of Civil War correspondence between Col. Thomas Cahill and his wife, Margaret, offers a rare glimpse into the symbiotic relationship between soldiers and their home communities. In the only substantial extant collection of letters from an Irish American woman on the northern home front, Margaret's pivotal role as a go-between in the financial affairs of men in the regiment and their wives is made evident, as is the broader interplay between the community of New Haven, Connecticut, and the regiment. The couple's correspondence was nearly constant in their four years apart. There is an inherent intimacy in the way that daily life during the Civil War is documented and in particular in the gradual revelation of the emotional toll taken by a long-distance relationship. Because the volume includes letters from both Cahill and his wife, the interplay between the regiment and the home front is traced in a way most collections are not able to achieve. This lively correspondence provides a great introduction to primary source reading for students of the Civil War home front. These teaching opportunities will supplemented by a companion website that features more correspondence, maps, and additional learning materials.

The war and views of a foot soldier in gray
The author of this book has written of his experiences of the American Civil War from the perspective of an ordinary private soldier of the North Carolina Infantry. Modern readers should allow for the fact that James Carson was very much a man of his time and place. His support for the Confederacy and the Southern way of life of the mid-nineteenth century is evident within these pages and include an ardent belief in the slave system. Nevertheless, this book is invaluable for those interested in a Confederate view of life on the sharp end of the infantryman's war including scenes of the march, camp life and the battlefield particularly at Petersburg. Available in soft cover and hard cover for collectors.