In early 1864, as the Confederate Army of Tennessee licked its wounds after being routed at the Battle of Chattanooga, Major-General Patrick Cleburne (the "Stonewall of the West") proposed that "the most courageous of our slaves" be trained as soldiers and that "every slave in the South who shall remain true to the Confederacy in this war" be freed. In Confederate Emancipation, Bruce Levine looks closely at such Confederate plans to arm and free slaves. He shows that within a year of Cleburne's proposal, which was initially rejected out of hand, Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, and Robert E. Lee had all reached the same conclusions. At that point, the idea was debated widely in newspapers and drawing rooms across the South, as more and more slaves fled to Union lines and fought in the ranks of the Union army. Eventually, the soldiers of Lee's army voted on the proposal, and the Confederate government actually enacted a version of it in March. The Army issued the necessary orders just two weeks before Appomattox, too late to affect the course of the war. Throughout the book, Levine captures the voices of blacks and whites, wealthy planters and poor farmers, soldiers and officers, and newspaper editors and politicians from all across the South. In the process, he sheds light on such hot-button topics as what the Confederacy was fighting for, whether black southerners were willing to fight in large numbers in defense of the South, and what this episode foretold about life and politics in the post-war South. Confederate Emancipation offers an engaging and illuminating account of a fascinating and politically charged idea, setting it firmly and vividly in the context of the Civil War and the part played in it by the issue of slavery and the actions of the slaves themselves.

Every leader needs a trusted confidant. For Nathan Bedford Forrest, one the Civil War's greatest military minds, that man was David Campbell Kelley. Kelley began adulthood in the clergy, serving for two years as a missionary in China, and returning home just a year before the Civil War. He then raised a company of cavalry from his family's large congregation, which became a part of Forrest's original regiment. Kelley quickly became Forrest's second-in-command, assisting in some of his most daring engagements, offering support in key decisions, and serving as his unofficial chaplain. Following the war, Kelley returned to preaching, helped establish Vanderbilt University, and launched a campaign for governor of Tennessee. Now, for the first time, author Michael R. Bradley brings Kelley's dynamic life to the fore.

Analyses the role of long-term continuities in the political and religious culture of Wales from the eve of the Civil War in 1640 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 In Royalism, Religion and Revolution: Wales, 1640-1688, Sarah Ward Clavier provides a ground-breaking analysis of the role of long-term continuities in the political and religious culture of Wales from the eve of the Civil War in 1640 to the Glorious Revolution. A final chapter also extends the narrative to the Hanoverian succession. The book discusses three main themes: the importance of continuities (including concepts of Welsh history, identity and language); religious attitudes and identities; and political culture. As Ward Clavier shows, the culture of Wales in this period was not frozen but rather dynamic, one that was constantly deploying traditional cultural symbols and practices to sustain a distinctive religious and political identity against a tide of change. The book uses a wide range of primary research material: from correspondence, diaries and financial accounts, to architectural, literary and material sources, drawing on both English and Welsh language texts. As part of the 'New Regional History' this book discusses the distinctively Welsh alongside aspects common to English and, indeed, European culture, and argues that the creative construction of continuity allowed the gentry of North-East Wales to maintain and adapt their identity even in the face of rupture and crisis.

The Civil War was trying, bloody, and hard-fought combat for both sides. What was it, then, that sustained soldiers low on supplies and morale? For the Army of Tennessee, it was religion. Onward Southern Soldiers: Religion and the Army of Tennessee in the Civil War explores the significant impact of religion on every rank, from generals to chaplains to common soldiers. It took faith to endure overwhelming hardship. Religion unified troops, informing both why and how they fought, and providing the rationale for enduring great hardship for the Confederate cause. Using primary source material such as diaries, letters, journals and sermons of the Army of Tennessee, Traci Nichols-Belt, along with Gordon T. Belt, present the first-ever history of the vital role of the Army's religious practices.

The 29th Mississippi Infantry Regiment 29th Infantry Regiment was organized at Corinth, Mississippi, in April, 1862 with men from Grenada, Lafayette, Panola, Yalobusha, Washington, and De Soto counties. The unit served in Mississippi, then moved to Kentucky where it saw action in Munfordville. Later it joined the Army of Tennessee and was placed in General Walthall's and Brantly's Brigade where it participated in many battles from Murfreesboro to Bentonville. The 29th lost 5 killed and 36 wounded at Munfordville, had 34 killed and 202 wounded at Murfreesboro, and suffered fifty-three percent disabled of the 364 engaged at Chickamauga. It reported 191 casualties at Chattanooga and in December, 1863 was consolidated with the 30th and 34th Regiment and totalled 554 men and 339 arms. This unit reported 5 killed and 22 wounded at Resaca, and in the fight at Ezra Church the 29th/30th lost 8 killed and 20 wounded. Very few surrendered in North Carolina in April, 1865.

The Puritan Revolution escaped the control of its creators. The parliamentarians who went to war with Charles I in 1642 did not want or expect the fundamental changes that would follow seven years later: the trial and execution of the king, the abolition of the House of Lords, and the creation of the only republic in English history. There were startling and unexpected developments, too, in religion and ideas: the spread of unorthodox doctrines; the attainment of a wide measure of liberty of conscience; new thinking about the moral and intellectual bases of politics and society. God's Instruments centres on the principal instrument of radical change, Oliver Cromwell, and on the unfamiliar landscape of the decade he dominated, from the abolition of the monarchy in 1649 to the return of the Stuart dynasty in 1660. Its theme is the relationship between the beliefs or convictions of politicians and their decisions and actions. Blair Worden explores the biblical dimension of Puritan politics; the ways that a belief in the workings of divine providence affected political conduct; Cromwell's commitment to liberty of conscience and his search for godly reformation through educational reform; the constitutional premises of his rule and those of his opponents in the struggle for supremacy between parliamentary and military rule; the relationship between conceptions of civil and religious liberty. The conflicts Worden reconstructs are placed in the perspective of long-term developments, of which historians have lost sight, in ideas about parliament and about freedom. The final chapters turn to the guiding convictions of two writers at the heart of politics, John Milton and the royalist Edward Hyde, the future Earl of Clarendon. Material from previously published essays, much of it expanded and extensively revised, comes together with freshly written chapters.

An artillery man's experience of the war between the states
Carlton McCarthy, the author of this book, was a serving soldier in the Army of the Confederacy during the great American Civil War. As a humble private soldier of the second company of the Richmond Howitzers, Cutshaw's Battalion of Artillery, he had an intimate experience of life on campaign and upon the battlefield from within the Second Corps of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. McCarthy has painted a fascinating portrait of his experience of war and army life taking the reader to the very heart of the everyday business of soldiering for the Southern states. Much detail will be found in these pages concerning the minutiae of camp and campaign in all its aspects. McCarthy gives a vivid account of the closing stages of the war, the collapse of the Confederacy and his return homeward immediately after the surrender and the difficulties of subsisting in its aftermath.

There have been thousands of books put out about the Civil War, but none by a Civil War Buff, so I wrote one. This book was a produce of five years' work and puts the war in a way that casual fans of the war will be surprised at what took place.This book is in three parts: Civil War Timeline: the events, battles, politics, and personal observations of those who were a part of the war.Things that any good soldier of the Civil War should know: the weapons, uniforms, food, duties, marching, fighting, medical advice, and slang (with a little tribute to the Navy and Marines).Amazing Facts: starting with the issues, this part displays many facts that usually do not make it into the history books.

On an "I will if you will" dare, John Haley enlisted in the 17th Maine Regiment in August 1862 "for three years, unless sooner discharged." ("Discharged, shot, or starved" would have been more accurate, Haley later wryly observed.) Though a reluctant soldier at first, he served steadfastly in the Army of the Potomac for nearly three years, participating in some of the most significant battles of the Civil War. John Haley was not the only soldier to record each day's events in his journal by firelight or by picket's lantern, for his was a literate generation. He was unusual in that he later painstakingly rewrote his battlefield notes, "reflecting at leisure" and adding fascinating political and personal commentary to produce the remarkable volume he calls Haley's Chronicles.

"First at Bethel, farthest at Gettysburg and Chickamauga and last at Appomattox" is a phrase that is often used to encapsulate the role of North Carolina's Confederate soldiers. But the state's involvement stretched far beyond these few battles. The state was one of the last to leave the Union but contributed more men and sustained more dead than any other Southern state. Tar Heels witnessed the pitched battles of New Bern, Averysboro and Bentonville, as well as incursions like Sherman's March and Stoneman's Raid. Join Civil War scholar Michael Hardy as he delves into the story of North Carolina in the Civil War, from civilians to soldiers, as these valorous Tar Heels proved they were a force to be reckoned with.

A second edition of Harold Elk Straubling's work that covers the trials and triumphs of medical professionals, long neglected in most histories of the Civil War. He has collected a wide variety of original writings, each of which tells the story of these heart-wrenching days from an eyewitness perspective. These selections convey the thoughts and experiences of the people who served their country by serving its defenders.

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Philadelphia was the second-largest city in the country and had the industrial might to earn the title "Arsenal of the Union." With Pennsylvania's anthracite coal, the city mills forged steel into arms, and a vast network of rails carried the ammunition and other manufactured goods to the troops. Over the course of the war, Philadelphia contributed 100,000 soldiers to the Union army, including many free blacks and such notables as General George McClellan and General George Meade, the victor of Gettysburg. Anthony Waskie chronicles Philadelphia's role in the conflict while also taking an intimate view of life in the city with stories of all those who volunteered to serve and guard the Cradle of Liberty.

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.

With Union armies poised to launch the final campaigns against the Confederacy in 1864, three of its five commanders were "political generals"--appointed officers with little or no military training. Army chief of staff Henry Halleck thought such generals jeopardized the lives of men under their command and he and his peers held them in utter contempt. Historians have largely followed suit. Thomas Goss, however, offers a new and more positive assessment of the leadership qualities of these Northern commanders. In the process, he cuts through the stereotypes of political generals as superfluous and largely inept tacticians, ambitious schemers, and military failures. Goss examines the reasons why the selection process yielded so many generals who lacked military backgrounds an explores the tense and often bitter relationships among political and professional officers to illuminate the dynamics of Union generalship during the war. As this book reveals, professional generals viewed the war as a military problem requiring battle-field solutions, while appointees (and President Lincoln) focused more emphatically on the broader political contours of the struggle. The resulting friction often eroded Northern morale and damaged the North's war effort. Goss challenges the traditional idea that success was measured only on the battle-field by demonstrating significant links between military success and the achievement of the Union's political objectives. Examining commanders like Benjamin Butler, Nathaniel Banks, John McClernand, John Fremont, and Franz Sigel, Goss shows how many filled vital functions by raising troops, boosting homefront morale, securing national support for the war--andsometimes even achieving significant success on the battlefield. Comparing these generals with their professional counterparts reveals that all had vital roles to play in helping Lincoln prosecute the war and that West Pointers, despite their military training, were not necessarily better prepared for waging war. Whether professional or appointed, Goss reminds us, all generals could be considered political inasmuch as war is a continuation of politics by other means. He shows us that far more was asked of Union commanders than to simply win battles and in so doing urges a new appreciation of those appointed leaders who were thrust into the maelstrom of the Civil War.

"The long agony" was over: Kansas, as of January 29, 1861, was a state--it had "moved to America." In Leavenworth, Lawrence, Topeka, and other towns Kansans celebrated the "glorious news" of the coming of statehood in a "fury of excitement." Cannons boomed, cheering crowds gathered on the street corners, a judge and a militia general stood on their heads, and the saloons were scenes of inebriated revelry. So begins Albert Castel's classic history of Kansas during the Civil War. Long recognized as a key study on the war in the trans-Mississippi West, Civil War Kansas describes the political, military, social, and economic events of the state's first four years. Castel contributes to a better understanding of the Civil War in this region through a realistic presentation and analysis of the Kansas-Missouri border conflict, the operations of the Missouri guerrillas under Quantrill, and the Union and Confederate military campaigns in Missouri, Arkansas, the Indian Territory, and Kansas itself.

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.