Were Lincoln alive today what would his response be to the immense and complex issues confronting the United States of America? In Lincoln's day the issues facing the country dating from Lincoln's first political speech (1838) until his death in the opening of his second term (1865) were momentous to his generation, just as the issues facing the country in the early 21st Century are immense to its generation. The people of Lincoln's day needed leadership. The people of the United States today also need leadership-not just any kind of leadership-but leadership that is anchored solidly on the fundamental principles and practices of the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. Within the understanding that people of Lincoln's generation were as people are today in their essential characteristics, good and bad, join in an investigation that utilizes Lincoln's own words from his early career and adapts them in principle to the practices of today. Lincoln was a great leader who rescued the Union and restored the country. We can learn from his leadership-if we simply take the time to read and then apply what we learn into the contemporary circumstances that define our issues.

Often Civil War histories embody stories about politicians and generals. Ordinary soldiers, wives, mothers, children, slaves, farmers, merchants, Unionists, and deserters are only occasionally mentioned. To convey a comprehensive history is to include a wide array of sources. Newly discovered material expand our understanding.. The 1863 Gaston County tax list defines people's lives economically and socially, and diaries, soldier letters, and other previously unpublished documents tell the story of the war from each perspective. Wives and mothers, children, soldiers, politicians, deserters, and slaves communicate their feelings, reflect their fears and aspirations. The 1863 Tax List transcription delineates what taxpayers owned, describe slaves by name, age and monetary value, and defines the ownership of luxury items. The tax document communicates a first of its kind portrait of a county. Soldiers' and family letters, letters to the governor, cotton mill operations, political disagreements, and the lives of slaves are described in this microscopic study of a typical Piedmont county. The rationale for soldier enlistments, reasons for desertion, and economic struggles on the home front are examined. Many engaging and newly discovered historical revelations await the reader. Your perception of the times and its people will be expanded through their words and actions.

Generals South, Generals North highlights twenty-four commanders-twelve each from the Confederacy and the Union. Best-selling author and military historian Alan Axelrod presents a biography of each, narrates the major engagements in which each fought (emphasizing tactical leadership and outcome produced), and explores each man's ever-controversial reputation. His consequent rankings are based on both historical and modern-day sources.

A border county in a border state, Barbour County, West Virginia felt the full terror and tragedy of the Civil War. The wounds of the Civil War cut most bitterly in the border states, that strip of America from Maryland to Kansas, where conflicting loyalties and traditions ripped apart communities, institutions, and families. Barbour County, in the mountainous Northwest of (West) Virginia, is a telling microcosm of the deep divisions which both caused the war and were caused by it. By examining and interpreting long-ignored documents of the times and the personal accounts of the people who were there, Clash of Loyalties offers a startling new view of America's most bitter hour. Nearly half of the military-age men in the county served in the armed forces, almost perfectly divided between the Union and the Confederacy. After West Virginia split with Virginia to rejoin the Union, Confederate soldiers from the regions could not safely visit their homes on furlough, or even send letters to their families. The county's two leading political figures, Samuel Woods and Spencer Dayton, became leaders of the fight for and against secession, dissolved their close personal friendship, and never spoke to one another again. The two factions launched campaigns of terror and intimidation, leading to the burning of several homes, the kidnapping of a sheriff, the murder of a pacifist minister, and the self-imposed exile of many of the county's influential families. The conflicting loyalties crossed nearly all social and economic lines; even the county's slave owners were evenly divided between Union and Confederate sympathies. With a meticulous examination of census and military records, geneologies, period newspapers, tax rolls, eyewitness accounts, and other relevant documents, Clash of Loyalties presents a compelling account of the passion and violence which tore apart Barbour County and the nation.

Ulysses S. Grant was responsible for orchestrating the activities of all the Union armies into a single strategy, providing the leadership that eventually doomed the Confederacy and brought about the end of the Civil War. This book documents Grant's contributions to the Civil War as well as his early life and presidency. Ulysses S. Grant: A Biography takes an in-depth look at one of the most well-known figures to emerge from the American Civil War, the famed Union commander and 18th President of the United States who has become an iconic part of our nation's history. The book provides a balanced overview that encompasses all the major events of Grant's life as well as his ancestry, portraying him as a common man who endured defeats and setbacks instead of a flawless noble hero. It accurately chronicles his life as it took place and tells a story of perseverance that illuminates Grant's successes as a testimony to determination and pluck rather than the result of luck or raw talent. This work will be especially helpful to high school and college-age audiences, and can be enjoyed by anyone interested in the Civil War period. Contains photographs of Grant at various stages of his life or that depict important events Includes a comprehensive bibliography as well a timeline of Grant's life and career

In June 1864, General Ulysses Grant ordered his cavalry commander, Philip Sheridan, to conduct a raid to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad between Charlottesville and Richmond. Sheridan fell short of his objective when he was defeated by General Wade Hampton's cavalry in a two-day battle at Trevilian Station. The first day's fighting saw dismounted Yankees and Rebels engaged at close range in dense forest. By day's end, Hampton had withdrawn to the west. Advancing the next morning, Sheridan found Hampton dug in behind hastily built fortifications and launched seven dismounted assaults, each repulsed with heavy casualties. As darkness fell, the Confederates counterattacked, driving the Union forces from the field. Sheridan began his withdrawal that night, an ordeal for his men, the Union wounded and Confederate prisoners brought off the field and the hundreds of starved and exhausted horses that marked his retreat, killed to prevent their falling into Confederate hands.

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, called "Rooney" by his family, was born the second son of the famous commander and general of the Confederacy, Robert E. Lee. After graduating from Harvard, Rooney planned to take up farming on his family's plantation. When the Civil War broke out, however, he immediately volunteered and was commissioned a captain in the Confederate cavalry. During the war years, he was quickly promoted on his talents -his famous father was careful not to interfere in his son's promotion track. Rooney Lee earned a reputation for bravery and effective command at Gettysburg and Chancellorsville. He was wounded at Brandy Station and shortly after was captured by Federal raiders and placed in prison. After his release in a prisoner exchange, he was promoted to the rank of major general-the youngest man in the Confederacy to hold this rank. By the war's end, he was one of the highest-ranking cavalry commanders in the Confederate army.There has been no study of the military career and accomplishments of this important Confederate commander-until now. Using previously unavailable material from the Lee family archives, this new biography presents a balanced appraisal of one of the South's most important commanders.

It was 1862, the second year of the Civil War, though Kansans and Missourians had been fighting over slavery for almost a decade. For the 250 Union soldiers facing down rebel irregulars on Enoch Toothman's farm near Butler, Missouri, this was no battle over abstract principles. These were men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry, and they were fighting for their own freedom and that of their families. They belonged to the first black regiment raised in a northern state, and the first black unit to see combat during the Civil War. "Soldiers in the Army of Freedom" is the first published account of this largely forgotten regiment and, in particular, its contribution to Union victory in the trans-Mississippi theater of the Civil War. As such, it restores the First Kansas Colored Infantry to its rightful place in American history.
Composed primarily of former slaves, the First Kansas Colored saw major combat in Missouri, Indian Territory, and Arkansas. Ian Michael Spurgeon draws upon a wealth of little-known sources--including soldiers' pension applications--to chart the intersection of race and military service, and to reveal the regiment's role in countering white prejudices by defying stereotypes. Despite naysayers' bigoted predictions--and a merciless slaughter at the Battle of Poison Spring--these black soldiers proved themselves as capable as their white counterparts, and so helped shape the evolving attitudes of leading politicians, such as Kansas senator James Henry Lane and President Abraham Lincoln. A long-overdue reconstruction of the regiment's remarkable combat record, Spurgeon's book brings to life the men of the First Kansas Colored Infantry in their doubly desperate battle against the Confederate forces and skepticism within Union ranks.

Sometimes a war's greatest heroes are its survivors, those who manage to forge new lives despite the tragedy they have experienced. For the sixteen unsung heroes profiled in Beyond Their Years, surviving also meant surrendering their childhood. These children found themselves on the edge of the fray - both in combat and in the throes of daily life - helping, or simply enduring, as best their interrupted youths allowed. Their behind-the-scenes stories illustrate what it was really like for children during the Civil War. Meet Ransom Powell, a thirteen-year-old drummer boy who survived grueling Confederate prison camps; writer and patriot Maggie Campbell, only eight years old when the war ended; Ulysses S. Grant's son Jesse, who rode proudly alongside Abraham Lincoln's son Tad and Ella Sheppard, daughter of a slave mother and a freed father, who lived through the backlash of slave rebellions. Each of these young survivors' lives represent an amazing contribution to the war effort and to postbellum life. Learn the inspiring stories of these American children who displayed courage, devotion, and wisdom beyond their years.

An insignificant crossroads in northeast Mississippi was an unlikely battleground for one of the most spectacular Confederate victories in the western theater of the Civil War. But that is where two generals determined destiny for their men. Union general Samuel D. Sturgis looked to redeem his past military record, while hard-fighting Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest aimed to drive the Union army out of Mississippi or die trying. In the hot June sun, their armies collided for control of north Mississippi in a story of courage, overwhelming odds and American spirit. Blue Mountain College professor Stewart Bennett retells the day's saga through a wealth of first-person soldier accounts.

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2017 This book provides a comparative history of the domestic and international nature of Spain's First Carlist War (1833-40) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), as well as the impact of both conflicts. The book demonstrates how and why Spain's struggle for liberty was won in the 1830s only for it to be lost one hundred years later. It shows how both civil wars were world wars in miniature, fought in part by foreign volunteers under the gaze and in the political consciousness of the outside world. Prefaced by a short introduction, The Spanish Civil Wars is arranged into two domestic and international sections, each with three thematic chapters comparing each civil war in detail. The main analytical perspectives are political, social and new military history in nature, but they also explore aspects of gender, culture, nationalism and separatism, economy, religion and, especially, the war in its international context. The book integrates international archival research with the latest scholarship on both subjects and also includes a glossary, a bibliography and several images. It is a key resource tailored to the needs of students and scholars of modern Spain which offers an intriguing and original new perspective on the Spanish Civil War.

This book focuses on the short but crucial period that led to the collapse of the Spanish Republic and set the stage for the ensuing civil war. Stanley G. Payne, an internationally known scholar of modern Spanish history, details the political shifts that occurred from 1933 to 1936 and examines the actions and inactions of key actors during these years. Using their own memoirs, speeches, and declarations, he challenges previous perceptions of various major players, including President Alcalá Zamora.   The breakdown of political coalitions and the internal rifts between Spain’s bourgeois and labor classes sparked many instances of violent dissent in the mid-1930s. The book addresses the election of 1933 and the destabilizing insurrection that followed, Alcalá Zamora's failed attempts to control the major parties, and the backlash that resulted.  The alliances of the socialist left with communism and the right with fascism are also explored, as is the role of forces outside Spain in spurring the violence that eventually exploded into war.    

From a riverboat worker who dressed as a woman to the abolitionist who died for his beliefs, It Happened on the Underground Railroad offers a gripping look at heroic individuals who became a part of the famous "road" to freedom. Read about Peter Still, a former slave who came to the Philadelphia Antislavery Society in search of his family, only to discover that the man sitting in front of him was his brother. Meet the individuals who may have inspired characters in the novels Uncle Tom's Cabin and Beloved. Learn about the bakery where Frederick Douglass was first helped to freedom. And experience the heart-pounding fear of a man who mailed himself north.

James M. McPherson is acclaimed as one of the finest historians writing today and a preeminent commentator on the Civil War. Battle Cry of Freedom, his Pulitzer Prize-winning account of that conflict, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." Now, in Drawn With the Sword, McPherson offers a series of thoughtful and engaging essays on some of the most enduring questions of the Civil War, written in the masterful prose that has become his trademark.
Filled with fresh interpretations, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Drawn With the Sword explores such questions as why the North won and why the South lost (emphasizing the role of contingency in the Northern victory), whether Southern or Northern aggression began the war, and who really freed the slaves, Abraham Lincoln or the slaves themselves. McPherson offers memorable portraits of the great leaders who people the landscape of the Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant, struggling to write his memoirs with the same courage and determination that marked his successes on the battlefield; Robert E. Lee, a brilliant general and a true gentleman, yet still a product of his time and place; and Abraham Lincoln, the leader and orator whose mythical figure still looms large over our cultural landscape. And McPherson discusses often-ignored issues such as the development of the Civil War into a modern "total war" against both soldiers and civilians, and the international impact of the American Civil War in advancing the cause of republicanism and democracy in countries from Brazil and Cuba to France and England. Of special interest is the final essay, entitled "What's the Matter With History?," a trenchant critique of the field of history today, which McPherson describes here as "more and more about less and less." He writes that professional historians have abandoned narrative history written for the greater audience of educated general readers in favor of impenetrable tomes on minor historical details which serve only to edify other academics, thus leaving the historical education of the general public to films and television programs such as Glory and Ken Burns's PBS documentary The Civil War.
Each essay in Drawn With the Sword reveals McPherson's own profound knowledge of the Civil War and of the controversies among historians, presenting all sides in clear and lucid prose and concluding with his own measured and eloquent opinions. Readers will rejoice that McPherson has once again proven by example that history can be both accurate and interesting, informative and well-written. Mark Twain wrote that the Civil War "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." In Drawn With the Sword, McPherson gracefully and brilliantly illuminates this momentous conflict.

In this anthology of Civil War memoirs, we get a clearer impression of some of the chaplains who served during that Great Conflict. Chaplains were among the most omnipresent observers on the battlefield, and some wrote extensively about their experiences. Eighty-seven of the 3,695 chaplains who served in both armies wrote regimental histories or published personal memoirs, not counting a multitude of letters and more than 300 official reports. Yet, there has never been an extensive collection of memoirs from chaplains of both the Confederate and Union armies presented together. In this groundbreaking work, many of the Confederate chaplains write that they opposed secession and submitted to it only when war was inevitable. Moreover, some of the ministers who became chaplains were active in ministry to black slaves. They spoke out against the neglect and abuse of those held in bondage both before and during the war. For example, Reverend John L. Girardeau formed a large mission church for slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, before the war; Reverend Isaac Tichenor criticized the abuses of the slave system before the Alabama Legislature in 1863; and Chaplain Charles Oliver preached to black laborers in the Army of Northern Virginia in 1864 with the thought that more needed to be done for them. While these efforts may appear trivial in the face of the enormity of the entire slave system, they do reflect that a social conscience was not completely lacking among the Southern chaplains. From the battlefield to the pulpit, Confederate chaplains were surprising and complex individuals. For the first time, explore this aspect of the great struggle in each chaplain's own words.