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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Civil war
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.
"Ty Seidule scorches us with the truth and rivets us with his
fierce sense of moral urgency." --Ron Chernow In a forceful but
humane narrative, former soldier and head of the West Point history
department Ty Seidule's Robert E. Lee and Me challenges the myths
and lies of the Confederate legacy--and explores why some of this
country's oldest wounds have never healed. Ty Seidule grew up
revering Robert E. Lee. From his southern childhood to his service
in the U.S. Army, every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause
myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the
Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor. Now,
as a retired brigadier general and Professor Emeritus of History at
West Point, his view has radically changed. From a soldier, a
scholar, and a southerner, Ty Seidule believes that American
history demands a reckoning. In a unique blend of history and
reflection, Seidule deconstructs the truth about the
Confederacy--that its undisputed primary goal was the subjugation
and enslavement of Black Americans--and directly challenges the
idea of honoring those who labored to preserve that system and
committed treason in their failed attempt to achieve it. Through
the arc of Seidule's own life, as well as the culture that formed
him, he seeks a path to understanding why the facts of the Civil
War have remained buried beneath layers of myth and even outright
lies--and how they embody a cultural gulf that separates millions
of Americans to this day. Part history lecture, part meditation on
the Civil War and its fallout, and part memoir, Robert E. Lee and
Me challenges the deeply-held legends and myths of the
Confederacy--and provides a surprising interpretation of essential
truths that our country still has a difficult time articulating and
accepting.
This highly original work explores a previously unknown
financial conspiracy at the start of the American Civil War. The
book explains the reasons for the puzzling intensity of Missouri's
guerrilla conflict, and for the state's anomalous experience in
Reconstruction. In the broader history of the war, the book reveals
for the first time the nature of military mobilization in the
antebellum United States.
One of the Confederacy's most loyal adherents and articulate
advocates was Lieutenant General James Longstreet's aide-de-camp,
Thomas Jewett Goree. Present at Longstreet's headquarters and party
to the counsels of Robert E. Lee and his lieutenants, Goree wrote
incisively on matters of strategy and politics and drew revealing
portraits of Longstreet, Jefferson Davis, P. G. T. Beauregard, John
Bell Hood, J. E. B. Stuart, and others of Lee's inner circle. His
letters are some of the richest and most perceptive from the Civil
War period. In addition to their inside view of the campaigns of
the Confederacy, Goree's Civil War letters shed light on their
remarkable author, a onetime lawyer whose growing interest in
politics and desire for "immediate secession", as he wrote to his
mother in 1860, led him in July 1861 to Virginia and a new career
as Longstreet's associate. He stayed with Longstreet through the
war, ultimately becoming a major and participating in nearly all
the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. His letters include
vivid descriptions of many battles, including Blackburn's Ford,
Seven Pines, Yorktown, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg,
Chickamauga, the siege of Petersburg, and the surrender at
Appomattox. Fortunate in war, he was exposed to constant fire for
seven hours in the battle of Williamsburg. Although his saddle and
accoutrements were struck seventeen times, he never received a
wound. Thomas Cutrer has collected all of Goree's wartime
correspondence to his family, as well as his travel diary from June
- August 1865, in which he recorded his trip with Longstreet from
Appomattox to Talledaga, Alabama. As a special feature Cutrer
includes Goree's postwar letters to andfrom Longstreet and others
that discuss the war and touch on questions regarding military
operations. With its wide scope and rich detail, Longstreet's Aide
represents an invaluable addition to the Civil War letter
collections published in recent years. While Goree's letters will
fascinate Civil War buffs, they also provide a unique opportunity
for scholars of social and military history to witness from inside
the workings of both an extended Southern family and the forces of
the Confederacy.
Full of true stories more dramatic than any fiction, The
Underground Railroad: A Reference Guide offers a fresh, revealing
look at the efforts of hundreds of dedicated persons-white and
black, men and women, from all walks of life-to help slave
fugitives find freedom in the decades leading up to the Civil War.
The Underground Railroad provides the richest portrayal yet of the
first large scale act of interracial collaboration in the United
States, mapping out the complex network of routes and safe stations
that made escape from slavery in the American South possible. Kerry
Walters' stirring account ranges from the earliest acts of slave
resistance and the rise of the Abolitionist movement, to the
establishment of clandestine "liberty lines" through the eastern
and then-western regions of the Union and ultimately to Canada.
Separating fact from legend, Walters draws extensively on
first-person accounts of those who made the Railroad work, those
who tried to stop it, and those who made the treacherous journey to
freedom-including Eliza Harris and Josiah Henson, the real-life
"Eliza" and "Uncle Tom" from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's
Cabin. Original documents, from key legislation like The Fugitive
Slave Act of 1850 to first-person narratives of escaping slaves
Biographical sketches of key figures involved in the Underground
Railroad, including Levi Coffin, William Lloyd Garrison, Robert
Purvis, and Mary Ann Shadd
This concise introduction to the Gettysburg campaign relates
fascinating facts about all aspects of the battle and its
participants. Revised and expanded for the 150th anniversary of the
battle, it explains why the battle began, how it was fought, who
was in command, what the soldiers experienced, and how the nation,
the armies, and the town of Gettysburg dealt with the aftermath of
the fighting -- all in a compact, fun-to-read format. * Fascinating
facts about all aspects of the battle and its participants *
Revised and expanded for the 150th anniversary of the battle Just
some of the fascinating topics covered: * What led to the battle
and why it was fought at Gettysburg * Who led the troops on both
sides of the field * What average soldiers experienced, in their
own words * Heroic actions and calamitous mistakes in judgment *
What weapons were used and how effective they were * What happened
to local civilians during and after the fight
What happened to a soldier's soul during the Civil War as he faced
the horrors of war? Why did a man leave behind a wife and two very
young children to serve in the army? Who was Samuel K. Miller
before, during and after the Civil War? What was the Mounted
Pioneer Corps, and what was their critical role in keeping an army
moving? Why was he chosen to be in that unit? When a woman was left
with children while her husband went off to the Civil War, what
pressures did she face because he was away? How did the women
manage their homes while their husbands were away?
What were the feelings of a Union soldier as he faced his
"brothers" across the picket lines, the Confederates whom he came
to know personally? What did they eat? Where did they live and
sleep? What did they wear, and where did they get what they needed?
What volunteer organizations sprung up to help the soldiers as they
fought in the battlefields, either by providing physical help, or
in aiding them to be in contact with their loved ones?
From his vantage point, somewhat unique because of the positioning
of the Mounted Pioneer Corps during battles, what did he see of the
battles? What were the forces for and against the war in his
community back in Pennsylvania? Who were the Copperheads? What
happened to his four Ellis family brothers-in-law who also served
in the Union Army?
All these questions are answered in this book, "The Soul of a
Soldier: the True Story of a Mounted Pioneer in the Civil War." At
age 42, Samuel K. Miller volunteered for the 211th Pennsylvania
Volunteer Infantry in September 1864 and served until June 1865.
During his nine months in the service, he wrote 46 letters to his
wife and, through her, to their one and five year old sons at their
home in the little town of Hartstown, Crawford County,
Pennsylvania, population less than 200.
This book contains the 46 letters that Samuel wrote during his
time in the service of the Union Army, first as an infantryman,
then in the Mounted Pioneer Corps attached to the Headquarters of
the Union Ninth Corps. Portions of those letters are organized into
17 thematic chapters, which provide the answers to the questions
raised above.
Samuel's letters provide a penetrating look into his soul, because
of the highly personal nature of his letters. His letters reveal
his character, values, his aspirations. Demetrius, an ancient Greek
orator, literary critic, rhetorician and governor of Athens for ten
years, once wrote: "Everyone reveals his own soul in his letters.
In every other form of composition it is possible to determine the
writer's character, but in none so clearly as the epistolary the
letters]." Demetrius' words apply to Samuel Miller, for Samuel
revealed his soul in his letters.
A major contribution to debates about the origins of the Civil War,
this study of English forests and hunting from the late
sixteenth-century to the early 1640s explores their significance in
the symbolism and effective power of royalty and the nobility in
early modern England. Blending social, cultural and political
history, Dan Beaver examines the interrelationships among four
local communities to explain the violent political conflicts in the
forests in the years leading up to the civil war. Adopting a
micro-historical approach, the book explores how local politics
became bound up with national political and ideological divisions.
The author argues that, from the early seventeenth-century, a
politics of land use in forests and other hunting reserves involved
its participants in a sophisticated political discourse, touching
on the principles of law and justice, the authority of the crown
and the nature of a commonwealth.
Rhoda is just eighteen when her family arranges for her to marry
a wealthy and powerful plantation owner from Quincy, Florida, in
1853. Rhoda quickly adjusts to life on a plantation with 160
slaves, but it takes more time getting used to her husband,
William.
The couple grows closer with time, and William promises Rhoda
she "can have the moon" if she gives him a son. On Jan. 15, 1858,
she gives birth to Albert Waller Gilchrist, who will eventually
become Florida's governor. Mary Elizabeth is born the next year.
Not long after, however, Rhoda finds herself a young widow. While
she is still coping with William's death, another tragedy strikes;
Rhoda's daughter dies of illness two years after her husband.
In the fall of 1862, in the midst of the Civil War, she
discovers a new love when she meets Captain James Barrow, who is
fighting for the Southern cause. When he asks her to marry him, she
stalls, but she already knows the answer will be "yes." Throughout
her life, she never loses her fighting spirit, remembering where
she comes from and stays true to her ideals.
Based on the true story of Rhoda Elizabeth Waller Kilcrease
Gibbes, this biographical narrative describes how her life in and
around Quincy, Florida, took her indomitable spirit to the heights
of leadership in Florida society.
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