With lively narration, telling anecdotes, and vivid battlefield accounts, Michigan and the Civil War tells the story as never before of Michigan's heroic contributions to saving the Union. Beginning with Michigan's antebellum period and anti-slavery heritage, the book proceeds through Michigan's rapid response to President Lincoln's call to arms, its participation in each of the War's greatest battles, portrayal of its most interesting personalities, and the concluding triumph as Custer corners Lee at Appomattox and the 4th Michigan Cavalry apprehends the fleeing Jeff Davis. Based on thorough and up-to-date research, the result is surprising in its breadth, sometimes awe-inspiring, and always a revelation given how contributions by the Great Lake State in the Civil War are too often overlooked, even by its own citizens.

From the initial enlistment and recruitment of men for the opposing armies, through their demobilization during the spring, summer, and fall of 1865, Paul A. Cimbala always places the solider at the center of the story. This book shows how the men who signed up with the Union and the Confederacy fought their way through the bloody U.S. fields, how they adjusted to peace (often badly wounded and scarred), and how they remembered their experiences. How did they cope with wounds and disease in the 1860s? What was the role of black soldiers on both the Union and Confederate sides? In wartime politics, why and how did soldiers continue to participate in the electoral process and what did they think about their politicians? Relying on his primary research on such topics as invalid soldiers and postwar experiences, Cimbala presents a vivid picture of the Civil War soldier's life. Highlights include: Motivations for men to enlist, and why blacks and other ethnic groups joined up; the mental and physical consequences to soldier survivors; drug and alcohol addiction in the Civil War; women's contributions on both sides of the war; daily life in the camp, letter writing crazes to newspapers, camp followers and sex; prisoners' and guards' lives; the Freedmen's Bureau; veterans, including black veterans; and organizations, including the Ku Klux Klan. The book also includes a timeline to put dates and events in better perspective; a comprehensive, topically arranged bibliography of primary and secondary sources; and a comprehensive index.

JIM BRIDGER- MOUNTAIN MAN: A BIOGRAPHY by STANLEY VESTAL. Contents include: PREFACE ix PART 1 TRAPPER I ENTERPRISING YOUNG MAN 1 II. SET POLES FOR THE MOUNTAINS 8 HI. HIVERNAN 21 IV. THE MISSOURI LEGION 28 V. HUGH GLASS AND THE GRIZZLY 40 PART 3 BOOSHWAY VI. BLANKET CHIEF 57 VIL THE BATTLE OF PIERRE S HOLE 69 VHI. SHOT IN THE BACK 86 IX. DEVIL TAKE THE HINDMOST 95 X. ARROW BUTCHERED OUT 105 XL OLD GABE TO THE RESCUE 112 XII. INJUN SCRAPES 119 XIII. THE LAST RENDEZVOUS 132 vii mil CONTENTS PART 3 TRADER XTV. FORT BRIDGER 142 XV. MILK RIVER . 154 XVI. THE OVERLAND TRAIL 162 XVH. THE TREATY AT LARAMIE 168 XVm. THE SAINTS RAID FORT BRIDGER 182 PART 4, GUIDE XIX. SIR GEORGE GORE 192 XX. THE MARCH SOUTH 199 XXI. TALL TALES 206 PART 5 CHIEF OF SCOUTS XXII. THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 220 XXHI. RED CLOUD S DEFIANCE 241 XXIV. THE CHEYENNES WARNING 249 XXV. BLOODY JUNKET 258 XXVI. FORT PHIL KEARNEY 268 XXVEL AMBUSH 278 XXVttL MASSACRE 284 XXIX. THE END OF THE TRAIL 295 APPENDIX 301 INDEX PREFACE EVER since tlie days when, as a boy, I raced Indian ponies and swam in a Western river with the Cheyenne lads, I have felt the lack of a satisfying portrait of Jim Bridger. The intervening years permitted much research, but somehow the books about Bridger never seemed to do him justice. In his own time he was a legend, and since his death historians have been content for the most part merely to pile up facts around these retold incidents. There has been no adequate biog raphy to bring the man to life. quot Few men have beenjso misrepresented. On the one hand, he was represented in fiction and on the screen as a drunken, loutish polygamist and liar, in a carica ture so monstrous that his outraged relatives brought suit to recover damages. The court ruled that no one could confuse this caricature with the real Jim Bridger, and denied the suit. On the other hand, Jim Bridger s real achievements have been ignored or neglected by writers, who have tried to rep resent him as an Injun fighter with aE the dash and daring of Kit Carson, as a wag with all the wit and love of fun of Joe Meek, or as a crusty, ignorant hillbilly, unable to hold his own in the society of civilized men...

ELLA CORRIGAN'S despair at being jilted pales in light of what follows after she makes the hasty decision to marry a man she has long avoided. Unaware that a friend's secret act of jealousy is responsible for her bitter heartache, she enters an existence never imagined during sweeter days as Mistress of her father's Savannah River plantation - where a mystery is building around the family's phenomenal natural spring, Corrigans' Pool. . . . The South is embroiled in a bloody Civil War by the time Ella discovers that Corrigans' Pool, on her family's property, is much more than the exquisite pond she had thought it to be all her life, but by the time she learns its dangerous secret, she is trapped by a secret of her own, blackmailed, and powerless against one man's unspeakable evil. Haunted by the threat of scandal, she struggles against the horrors of her new existence, an existence she must keep private even from the very people who could help her. Her life comes full circle when the past she has long blamed for her wretchedness steps unexpectedly out of the darkness to face her . . . FIVE STAR FOREWORD CLARION REVIEW (EXCERPT): Ryan's storytelling ability and masterful use of setting, dialogue, and characterization, adds up to an exquisite piece of historical fiction. Corrigans' Pool manages to blend romance, mystery, humor, and tragedy with flawless precision. The romance is moving but subtle, the mystery is suspenseful, and the story flows smoothly to a dramatic and satisfying conclusion. Readers are sure to be enthralled with this exceptional novel. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

On April 16, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln issued a blockade of the Confederate coastline. The largely agrarian South did not have the industrial base to succeed in a protracted conflict. What it did have - and what England and other foreign countries wanted - was cotton and tobacco. Industrious men soon began to connect the dots between Confederate and British needs. As the blockade grew, the blockade runners became quite ingenious in finding ways around the barriers. Boats worked their way back and forth from the Confederacy to Nassau and England, and everyone from scoundrels to naval officers wanted a piece of the action. Poor men became rich in a single transaction, and dances and drinking - from the posh Royal Victoria hotel to the boarding houses lining the harbor - were the order of the day. British, United States, and Confederate sailors intermingled in the streets, eyeing each other warily as boats snuck in and out of Nassau. But it was all to come crashing down as the blockade finally tightened and the final Confederate ports were captured. The story of this great carnival has been mentioned in a variety of sources but never examined in detail. Breaking the Blockade: The Bahamas during the Civil War focuses on the political dynamics and tensions that existed between the United States Consular Service, the governor of the Bahamas, and the representatives of the southern and English firms making a large profit off the blockade. Filled with intrigue, drama, and colorful characters, this is an important Civil War story that has not yet been told.

A great deal has been written about the military career of Comfederate General Earl Van Dorn, but his death at the hands of infuriated Dr. George B. Peters hinted spying and espionage. A baby a short time later by Jessie McKissack Peters, the young wife of a much older physician and state senator husband who had been absent for a year, came into question. The fascinating families left to cope with the situations include servants who were taught trades that allowed them to erebuild the area. Descendants became the first blacks to receive architectural licenses.

Not much has been written about the Italian immigrant experience prior to 1880. This book, through careful analysis of primary and archival sources, brings to life the Civil War-time trials and tribulations of several notable Italian Americans--Bancroft Gherardi, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, Francis B. Spinola, Decimus et Ultimus Barziza, and Edward Ferrero, among others. Though their numbers were few, Italian Americans played central roles in the bloodiest war in our country's history. Included in this book are samples of John Garibaldi's wartime correspondence to his wife, lists of Italian Americans who served as officers and noncommissioned sailors in the Union Navy, and first-hand correspondence of William Howell Reed (Virginia hospitals overseer under President Grant) and the brother of a young Italian who died in the hospital during the war. Sons of Garibaldi in Blue and Gray fills a critical gap in studies of Italian American life in the United States in the late 1800s.

Because of Union victories at Fort Donaldson and Fort Henry, the outer perimeter of defenses that protected western and middle Tennessee left the city of Memphis, Tennessee exposed to Union attack by river. After Grant's victory at Shiloh the Confederate forces would concentrate their strength along the Ohio and Mobile Railroad in northern Mississippi. The disastrous defeat of General Earl Van Dorn at Corinth, Mississippi left the door wide open for a union victory at Vicksburg and the fall of her sister fortress at Port Hudson, Louisiana. The Mississippi River represents the jugular vein of the South. The capture of New Orleans by Admiral Farrago effectively shut commerce that the South depended upon. The northern strategist fully recognized that the control of the Mississippi and her tributaries would prevent any Southern expansion into Missouri and Kentucky. The 18th Arkansas infantry played a role in the defense of both the upper and lower Mississippi River. This is their story.

Cavalryman, Infantryman and Prisoner of War
This personable first hand account of the American Civil War was written by William Tyler of the 9th Illinois Cavalry of the Union Army. It is an eye-witness narrative where the good nature of the author shines through the text and, as a consequence, as well as being a first rate source work of the horse soldiers in blue it is also a story full of humour, adventure and anecdote. The first part of the narrative deals with the business of war from the perspective of a trooper in the Union Cavalry, but Tyler's role was soon to change due to his singular success in the carrying of an important dispatch. As often happens, especially in military life, having demonstrated some talent Tyler became the 'expert on hand' and was given further dispatches to carry through perilous, enemy occupied country on a regular basis. He gives the impression that he relished the independence of action and the adventures that came his way. Discharged after a wound, Tyler re-enlisted, not to return to his old unit but in the 95th Illinois Infantry because he wished to be close to his brother who had joined that regiment. In a battle near Guntown, Mississippi, against Forrest's Confederates, Tyler was captured and sent to the notorious Andersonville prisoner of war jail. In the final part of his book he describes the appalling conditions and brutality suffered by the Union men in Andersonville which makes for revealing if harrowing reading.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

Slavery on the Periphery focuses on nineteen counties on the Kansas-Missouri border, tracing slavery's rise and fall from the earliest years of American settlement through the Civil War along this critical geographical, political, and social fault line. Kristen Epps explores slavery's emergence from an upper South slaveholding culture and its development into a small-scale system characterised by slaves' diverse forms of employment, close contact between slaves and slaveholders, a robust hiring market, and the prevalence of abroad marriages. She demonstrates that space and place mattered to enslaved men and women most clearly because slave mobility provided a means of resistance to the strictures of daily life. Mobility was a medium for both negotiation and confrontation between slaves and slaveholders, and the ongoing political conflict between proslavery supporters and antislavery proponents opened new doors for such resistance. Slavery's expansion on the Kansas-Missouri border was no mere intellectual debate within the halls of Congress. Its horrors had become a visible presence in a region so torn by bloody conflict that it captivated the nineteenth - century American public. Foregrounding African Americans' place in the border narrative illustrates how slavery's presence set the stage for the Civil War and emancipation here, as it did elsewhere in the United States.

First published in 1882, Samuel Watkins' 'Co. Aytch - A Sideshow of the Big Show' is widely recognized as one of the most important Civil War memoirs. Written in a lively, engaging style, the book captures the pride, misery, glory, and horror experienced by the common foot soldier.

The Civil War resulted from the insistence of Southern "firebrands" that the 1820 restrictions on where slavery could be practiced in the Western territories of the USA be removed. And the dogged determination of some Northerners to restrict the brutal treatment of blacks and finally put slavery on the road to extinction. In the 1850's big shoes dropped one after another in staccato fashion to dash such hopes. The final straws were the Dred Scott Decision in 1857 saying blacks weren't even people and Congress had no power to restrict slavery anywhere And Civil War was going on in "bleeding Kansas" between adherents of the two stances. John Brown was radicalized there by the sacking of Abolitionist stronghold Lawrence. He and his sons killed some Jayhawkers (slavery adherents) from Missouri. Then Brown, his sons, and a few others, lit a fuse in Oct 1859 by a hare brained scheme to seize the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry to arm slaves and precipitate action to free them. So when Lincoln was elected in 1860-the South bolted As they had threatened for 15 years. America was almost destroyed. Until July 4, 1863 when two Union victories insured: "that these honored dead (800,000) shall not have died in vain" Abraham Lincoln Gettysburg, Pa Nov. 1863.

The Battle of Gettysburg remains one of the most controversial military actions in America's history, and one of the most studied.Professor Coddington's is an analysis not only of the battle proper, but of the actions of both Union and Confederate armies for the six months prior to the battle and the factors affecting General Meade's decision not to pursue the retreating Confederate forces. This book contends that Gettysburg was a crucial Union victory, primarily because of the effective leadership of Union forces--not, as has often been said, only because the North was the beneficiary of Lee's mistakes. Scrupulously documented and rich in fascinating detail, The Gettysburg Campaign stands as one of the landmark works in the history of the Civil War.