This book presents the most accurate picture of the United States Marine Corps at the onset of the American Civil War and describes the actions of the Marines at the Battle of First Manassas, or as the Union called it, Bull Run. To tell the story of the actions of the U.S. Marines in the Manassas Campaign, distinguished Marine Corps historians Bruce H. Norton and Phillip Gibbons begin with Marine actions in October 1859 at Harpers Ferry, where they were instrumental in suppressing John Brown's raid on the town's Federal Armory and attempted slave insurrection. The Marines were the only professional fighting force that could respond immediately when the call for assistance came to retake the Armory, which Brown's men had seized. The Marines were led by highly professional and well-trained officers and non-commissioned officers who represented a decades-old standard of excellence well established by the eve of the Civil War. The book then discusses Marine actions at the Battle of First Manassas, the Civil War's first battle, on July 21, 1861, a story that has never been adequately or accurately told. In both engagements, the Marines proved that they were "at all times ready," as the Corps remains to this very day.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Georgia ranked third among the Confederate states in manpower resources, behind only Virginia and Tennessee. With an arms-bearing population somewhere between 120,000 and 130,000 white males between the ages of 16 and 60, this resource became an object of a great struggle between Joseph Brown, governor of Georgia, and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Brown advocated a strong state defense, but as the war dragged on Davis applied more pressure for more soldiers from Georgia. In December 1863, the state's general assembly reorganized the state militia and it became known as Joe Brown's Pets. Civil War historians William Scaife and William Bragg have written not only the first history of the Georgia Militia during the Civil War, but have produced the definitive history of this militia. Using original documents found in the Georgia Department of Archives and History that are too delicate for general public access, Scaife and Bragg were granted special permission to research the material under the guidance of an archivist and conducted under tightly controlled conditions of security and preservation control.

Revered in his lifetime, Robert E. Lee achieved legendary status after his death. This memoir by Lee's son gathers a wealth of material written by the General, offering rare glimpses of the man behind the uniform, with scenes from family life and touching letters from a loving husband and father.

In a series of columns published in the African American newspaper The Christian Recorder, the young, charismatic preacher Henry McNeal Turner described his experience of the Civil War, first from the perspective of a civilian observer in Washington, D.C., and later, as one of the Union army's first black chaplains. In the halls of Congress, Turner witnessed the debates surrounding emancipation and black enlistment. As army chaplain, Turner dodged ""grape"" and cannon, comforted the sick and wounded, and settled disputes between white southerners and their former slaves. He was dismayed by the destruction left by Sherman's army in the Carolinas, but buoyed by the bravery displayed by black soldiers in battle. After the war ended, he helped establish churches and schools for the freedmen, who previously had been prohibited from attending either. Throughout his columns, Turner evinces his firm belief in the absolute equality of blacks with whites, and insists on civil rights for all black citizens. In vivid, detailed prose, laced with a combination of trenchant commentary and self-deprecating humor, Turner established himself as more than an observer: he became a distinctive and authoritative voice for the black community, and a leader in the African Methodist Episcopal church. After Reconstruction failed, Turner became disillusioned with the American dream and became a vocal advocate of black emigration to Africa, prefiguring black nationalists such as Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X. Here, however, we see Turner's youthful exuberance and optimism, and his open-eyed wonder at the momentous changes taking place in American society. Well-known in his day, Turner has been relegated to the fringes of African American history, in large part because neither his views nor the forms in which he expressed them were recognized by either the black or white elite. With an introduction by Jean Lee Cole and a foreword by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Freedom's Witness: The Civil War Correspondence of Henry McNeal Turner restores this important figure to the historical and literary record.

This is one volume in a library of Confederate States history, in twelve volumes, written by distinguished men of the South, and edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans of Georgia. A generation after the Civil War, the Southern protagonists wanted to tell their story, and in 1899 these twelve volumes appeared under the imprint of the Confederate Publishing Company. The first and last volumes comprise such subjects as the justification of the Southern States in seceding from the Union and the honorable conduct of the war by the Confederate States government; the history of the actions and concessions of the South in the formation of the Union and its policy in securing the territorial dominion of the United States; the civil history of the Confederate States; Confederate naval history; the morale of the armies; the South since the war, and a connected outline of events from the beginning of the struggle to its close. The other ten volumes each treat a separate State with details concerning its peculiar story, its own devotion, its heroes, and its battlefields.

This book tells the life story of William T. Sherman, one of the Civil War's most accomplished generals and an American military professional who changed how wars were fought. William T. Sherman: A Biography provides readers with a glimpse into the life of one of America's foremost military leaders and a top Union general in the Civil War. From his early life and military education, to his Civil War service and beyond, this book examines the career of a military professional who changed the way wars were fought. Prolific military history author Robert P. Broadwater follows Sherman's early development in the war and examines his most famous campaigns: the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign. An engaging read, the book details how the iconic leader hailed as the first "modern" general achieved the military successes that enabled the North to achieve victory and bring the war to a close. Uses Sherman's own words to give readers insight as to what he felt and thought Provides easy-to-read commentary of events in Sherman's life Describes interaction between Sherman and his peers that contributed to the outcome of battles Analyzes Sherman's accomplishments and failures in a fair and balanced manner

A French count's commentaries on America at the birth of the Civil War. While he has obviously examined different parts of the U.S. at length, his book is not really an account of his travels, and speaks of the country not in specifics but in broad strokes: The South, the West, the North. No list of places visited can be provided.

A major Civil War battle-and Lee's triumph
The Battle of Chancellorsville was one of the principal engagements of the American Civil War. It was fought between Hooker's Army of the Potomac and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia which was half the size of the enemy. Battle was joined in Spotsylvania County, Virginia on April 30th 1863 and it raged until May 6th. Irrespective of the eventual outcome of the war, Chancellorsville has remained a text book battle for military historians. Lee, always renowned for command capability, here showed military nerve and audacity by dividing his army in the face of a vastly numerically superior enemy. Further, he demonstrated the maxim of 'know your opponent' for he clearly had the measure of the timid prevaricating Hooker. The outcome was an overwhelming Confederate victory and won the accolade, 'Lee's Perfect Battle'. The edge was taken off the success by the death of 'Stonewall' Jackson-a military genius both Lee and the Confederate cause could ill afford to lose. Dodge's history, written from a Union perspective, provides interesting mitigating circumstances concerning Federal actions and personalities-usually absent from later histories-for the student of the period to evaluate.

Sam Postlethwaite was a Confederate soldier buried in an unmarked grave in Rhode Island. Beginning with nothing more than a handful of dirt, author Les Rolston's innocent curiosity about this mysterious soldier's grave became a journey of thousands of miles that eventually led him to the soldier's family. The result is this factual account of Postlethwaite's odyssey and the author's determined efforts to learn his story. Other important facets of this affecting historical account are the experiences of Postlethwaite's fourteen-year-old brother, who found glory with Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley; and a boy from a prominent Rhode Island family who was emotionally ruined by the Civil War. Both their families, embittered by war, were destined to merge through a Civil War romance and marriage. This book is a tribute to all of the people, Northerners and Southerners, who joined together to choose forgiveness and understanding over bitterness and hatred.

This extensive two-way exchange of letters between Rufus Robbins and members of his family provides a highly personalized view of the life of a Union soldier, as well as life on the home front in South Abington, Massachusetts, an important source of war materiel. Enlisting in the Seventh Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment at the seasoned age of 31, Rufus carefully crafts letters that are articulate, graphic, and often witty and that contribute much to our understanding of the daily course of the war. Notes from home reflect the Robbins family's ever-present worry and concern for Rufus' well-being. His brothers detail their involvement in the sewing of army boots, an activity for which South Abington held a large contract.

As a confirmed Universalist, Rufus struggled to live a life of faith in the midst of war. His letters demonstrate the depth of his character, showing both maturity and confidence. However, as the war continued, one sees his belief in the righteousness of the Union cause, his confidence in God, and his sometimes naive simplicity replaced with a more realistic form of idealism. In this collection, those interested in military affairs can learn about the economic workings of the camps, the recreational outlets for the soldiers, and the grim realities of the Peninsula Campaign, while scholars focussing on civilian life will gain a greater understanding of the impact of the war on the families and friends left behind.

In 1859, a thirteen-year-old-girl began a diary, detailing the emotions and events of everyday life. Daily life in her small hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee was not destined to remain quiet and routine, however. When the Civil War began, the diary entries provide a firsthand account of the sorrows inflicted when the Civil War tore families apart in the border South. Myra, a staunch Confederate, gave a vivid account of the war, how it divided her community and left misery in its wake. Her diary became a bosom friend to whom she could confide her pain and grief. While she never knew the historical importance of her diary, her descendants did, and preserved this precious legacy.

Like the famous diary of Anne Frank, Myra Inman's diary begins with ordinary events and proceeds to tell the story of a child's view of the horrors of war. This book offers a unique perspective on the Civil War -- that of a child in the borderlands, where families were torn apart by differing loyalties.

"The Port Royal Experiment" builds on classic scholarship to present not a historical narrative but a study of what is now called development and nation-building. The Port Royal Experiment was a joint governmental and private effort begun during the Civil War to transition former slaves to freedom and self-sufficiency. Port Royal Harbor and the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina were liberated by Union Troops in 1861. As the Federal advance began, the white plantation owners and residents fled, abandoning approximately 10,000 black slaves. Several private Northern charity organizations stepped in to help the former slaves become self-sufficient. Nonetheless, the Point Royal Experiment was only a mixed success and was contested by efforts to restore the status quo of white dominance. Return to home rule then undid much of what the experiment accomplished.

While the concept of development is subject to a range of interpretations, in this context it means positive, continuously improving, and sustained change across a variety of human social conditions. Clearly such an effort was at the heart of the Port Royal Experiment. While the term "nation-building" may seem misplaced given that no "nation" was the beneficiary of these efforts, the requirement to build institutions critical to nation-building operations was certainly a large part of the Port Royal Experiment and offers many lessons for modern efforts at nation building.

"The Port Royal Experiment" divides into ten chapters, each of which is designed to treat a particular aspect of the experience. Topics include planning considerations, philanthropic society activity, civil society, economic development, political development, and resistance. Each chapter presents the case study in the context of more recent developmental and nation-building efforts in such places as Bosnia, Somalia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan and incorporates recent scholarship in the field. Modern readers will see that the challenges that faced the Port Royal Experiment remain relevant, even as their solutions remain elusive.

This is one volume in a library of Confederate States history, in twelve volumes, written by distinguished men of the South, and edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans of Georgia. A generation after the Civil War, the Southern protagonists wanted to tell their story, and in 1899 these twelve volumes appeared under the imprint of the Confederate Publishing Company. The first and last volumes comprise such subjects as the justification of the Southern States in seceding from the Union and the honorable conduct of the war by the Confederate States government; the history of the actions and concessions of the South in the formation of the Union and its policy in securing the territorial dominion of the United States; the civil history of the Confederate States; Confederate naval history; the morale of the armies; the South since the war, and a connected outline of events from the beginning of the struggle to its close. The other ten volumes each treat a separate State with details concerning its peculiar story, its own devotion, its heroes, and its battlefields. Volume 9 is Kentucky and Missouri.

Victor Dalmau is a young doctor when he is caught up in the Spanish Civil War, a tragedy that leaves his life - and the fate of his country - forever changed. Together with his sister-in-law, he is forced out of his beloved Barcelona and into exile in Chile. There, they find themselves enmeshed in a rich web of characters who come together in love and tragedy over the course of four generations, destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world.

This appealing narrative history of one of the Civil War's most pivotal campaigns analyzes how the western Confederate army under John B. Hood suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of George H. Thomas's Union forces. Ideal for general readers interested in military history of the Civil War as well as those concentrating on the western campaigns, The 1864 Franklin-Nashville Campaign: The Finishing Stroke examines how the strategic and tactical decisions by Confederate and Union commanders contributed to the smashing Northern victories in Tennessee in November-December 1864. The book also considers the conflict through the lens of New Military History, including the manner in which the battles both affected and were affected by civilian individuals, the environment, and common soldiers such as Confederate veteran Sam Watkins. The result of author Michael Thomas Smith's extensive research into the Civil War and his recognition of inadequate coverage of the final western campaigns in the existing literature, this work serves to rectify this oversight. The book also questions the concept of the outcome of the Civil War as being essentially attributable to superior Northern organization and management-the "organized war to victory" theory as termed by its proponents. Emphasizes that the Northern high command suffered from serious dissension and divisions just as its Southern counterpart did-a historic reality often obscured by the ultimate Union victory Presents detailed information about the 1864 Franklin-Nashville campaign that suggests that Northern leadership was remarkably disorganized and often seriously at odds with one another, even during the war's last major campaign in the western theater Provides readers with rare insights into the often chaotic workings of the Civil War high commands, which suffered from deficiencies stemming from personal rivalries and honor-related conflicts as well as confused, ineffective organization and communication

Examining refugees of Civil War-era North Carolina, Driven from Home reveals the complexity and diversity of the war's displaced populations and the inadequate responses of governmental and charitable organisations as refugees scrambled to secure the necessities of daily life. In North Carolina, writes David Silkenat, the relative security of the Piedmont and mountains drew pro- Confederate elements from across the region. Early in the war, Union invaders established strongholds on the coast, to which their sympathisers fled in droves. Silkenat looks at five groups caught up in this flood tide of emigration: enslaved African Americans who fled to freedom; white Unionists; pro-Confederate whites-both slave owners (who often forced their slaves to migrate with them) and non-slave owners; and young women, often from more besieged areas of the South, who attended the state's many boarding schools. From their varied experiences, a picture emerges of a humanitarian crisis driven by mobility, shaped by unprecedented economic pressures and disease vectors, and exacerbated by governments unwilling or unable to provide meaningful relief. For anyone seeking context to current refugee crises, Driven from Home has much to say about the crushing administrative and logistical challenges of aid work, the illusory nature of such concepts as home fronts and battle lines, and the ongoing debate over links between relief and dependence.