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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > War & defence operations > Civil war
This set was written by distinguished men of the South, producing a
work which truly portrays the times and issues of the Confederacy.
It was edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans of Georgia. Two volumes--the
first and the last--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. There are also individual volumes for each
state: Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia,Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky
Missouri, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas & Florida. An additional
volume covers the Confederate Navy.
The name Andersonville, from the American Civil War to the present,
has come to be synonymous with "American death camp." Its horrors
have been portrayed in its histories, art, television, and movies.
The trial of its most famous figure, Captain Henry Wirz, still
raises questions about American justice. This work unlocks the
secret history of America's deadliest prison camp in ways that will
spur debate for many years to come. However, more than a story of a
notorious place of death, this work sets out to uncover unknown
aspects of life among Americans immediately before and during the
Civil War. Persons who found themselves connected with this prison
tell the story of a new country in a period of rapid change. They
include, among others, the mysterious figure known as Limber Jim,
mercenary D. W. Vowles, sea captain Herbert Hunt, lawyer O. S.
Baker, and even general William Tecumseh Sherman. This work
uncovers the lost history of the prison itself, the least
understood element of this massive human tragedy in Civil War
Georgia. While a work of deep introspection and high adventure, it
also corrects myths, misunderstandings, and major mistakes that
have appeared in print and popular history.
"The Blue, the Gray, and the Green" is one of only a handful of
books to apply an environmental history approach to the Civil War.
This book explores how nature--disease, climate, flora and fauna,
and other factors--affected the war and also how the war shaped
Americans' perceptions, understanding, and use of nature. The
contributors use a wide range of approaches that serve as a
valuable template for future environmental histories of the
conflict.
In his introduction, Brian Allen Drake describes the sparse body of
environmental history literature related to the Civil War and lays
out a blueprint for the theoretical basis of each essay. Kenneth W.
Noe emphasizes climate and its effects on agricultural output and
the battlefield; Timothy Silver explores the role of disease among
troops and animals; Megan Kate Nelson examines aridity and Union
defeat in 1861 New Mexico; Kathryn Shively Meier investigates
soldiers' responses to disease in the Peninsula Campaign; Aaron
Sachs, John C. Inscoe, and Lisa M. Brady examine philosophical and
ideological perspectives on nature before, during, and after the
war; Drew Swanson discusses the war's role in production and
landscape change in piedmont tobacco country; Mart A. Stewart muses
on the importance of environmental knowledge and experience for
soldiers, civilians, and slaves; Timothy Johnson elucidates the
ecological underpinnings of debt peonage during Reconstruction;
finally, Paul S. Sutter speculates on the future of Civil War
environmental studies. "The Blue, the Gray, and the Green" provides
a provocative environmental commentary that enriches our
understanding of the Civil War.
"The Union" meant meant many things to Americans in the years
between the Revolution and the Civil War. Nagel's thesis is that
the idea served as a treasure-trove of the values and images by
which Americans tried to understand their nature and destiny. By
tracing the idea of Union through the crucial, formative years of
America's history, he makes clear the nature of the intellectual
and emotional responses Americans have had to their country.
While conscientious objection in the twentieth century has been well documented, there has been surprisingly little study of its long history in America's early conflicts. Peter Brock, one of the foremost historians of American pacifism, seeks to remedy this oversight by presenting a rich and varied collection of documents, many drawn from obscure sources, that shed new light on American religious and military history. These include legal findings, church and meeting proceedings, appeals by non-conformists to government authorities, and illuminating excerpts from personal journals.One of the most striking features to emerge from these documents is the critical role of religion in the history of American pacifism. Brock finds that virtually all who refused military service in this period were inspired by religious convictions, with Quakers frequently being the most ardent dissenters. A dramatic, powerful portrait of early American pacifism, Liberty and Conscience presents not only the thought and practice of the objectors themselves, but also the response of the authorities and the general public.
After multiple editions and printings in just two years, the
bestselling 'The Maps of Gettysburg' is available for the first
time in a full-color, hardcover edition
Thousands of books and articles have been written about
Gettysburg, but the operation remains one of the most complex and
difficult to understand. Bradley Gottfried's groundbreaking 'The
Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 -
July 13, 1863' is a unique and thorough study of this multifaceted
campaign.
The 'Maps of Gettysburg' breaks down the entire operation into
thirty map sets or "action-sections" enriched with 144 detailed,
full-page color maps comprising the entire campaign. These
cartographic originals bore down to the regimental and battery
level and include the march to and from the battlefield and
virtually every significant event in between. At least two-and as
many as twenty-maps accompany each map set. Keyed to each piece of
cartography is a full facing page of detailed text describing the
units, personalities, movements, and combat (including quotes from
eyewitnesses) depicted on the accompanying map, all of which makes
the Gettysburg story come alive.
This presentation makes it easy for readers to quickly locate a
map and text on virtually any portion of the campaign, from the
march into Pennsylvania during June to the last Confederate
withdrawal of troops across the Potomac River on July 13, 1863.
Serious students of the battle will appreciate the extensive and
authoritative endnotes and complete order of battle. They will also
want to bring the book along on their trips to the battlefield.
Perfect for the easy chair or for stomping the hallowed ground
of Gettysburg, 'The Maps of Gettysburg' is a seminal work that
belongs on the bookshelf of every serious and casual student of the
battle.
About the Author: Bradley M. Gottfried, Ph.D., is the President
of the College of Southern Maryland. An avid Civil War historian,
Dr. Gottfried is the author of five books, including 'Brigades of
Gettysburg: The Union and Confederate Brigades at the Battle of
Gettysburg' (2002). He is currently working with co-editor Theodore
P. Savas on a Gettysburg Campaign encyclopedia.
The author's first book, The 50th Pennsylvania's Civil War Odyssey,
addressed the wartime journey of a regiment that fought in six
Southern states. In this, his second Civil War tale, you follow the
hardships faced by a regiment that fought in only two. It fought in
McClellan's Virginia Peninsula Campaign and then, in its second
major fight at Plymouth, NC in April 1864, the entire Union
garrison was captured by General Hoke's Confederate forces. This
book also focuses on a lucky lieutenant from Bedford, Pennsylvania,
who escaped from rebel captivity with two companions and, with help
from field slaves and Unionists in the mountains of North Carolina
and Tennessee, walked 250 miles in 42 days to Union lines. His
regiment, the 101st Pennsylvania, was not so fortunate. Captured in
April of 1864 in its entirety at Plymouth, NC, nearly half of its
enlisted men perished in Confederate POW camps.
General John A. Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, "You couldn't get American soldiers today to make an attack like that." Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as war progresses -- not hold true in the Civil War? It is to this question--why did they fight-- that James McPherson, America's preeminient Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout the conflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious faith, these men wrote frequently of their firm belief in the cause for which they fought: the principles of liberty, freedom, justice, and patriotism. Soldiers on both sides harkened back to the Founding Fathers, and the ideals of the American Revolution. They fought to defend their country, either the Union--"the best Government ever made"--or the Confederate states, where their very homes and families were under siege. And they fought to defend their honor and manhood. "I should not lik to go home with the name of a couhard," one Massachusetts private wrote, and another private from Ohio said, "My wife would sooner hear of my death than my disgrace." Even after three years of bloody battles, more than half of the Union soldiers reenlisted voluntarily. "While duty calls me here and my country demands my services I should be willing to make the sacrifice," one man wrote to his protesting parents. And another soldier said simply, "I still love my country." McPherson draws on more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate soldiers in history, and most of them wrote home frequently, as it was the only way for them to keep in touch with homes that many of them had left for the first time in their lives. Significantly, their letters were also uncensored by military authorities, and are uniquely frank in their criticism and detailed in their reports of marches and battles, relations between officers and men, political debates, and morale. For Cause and Comrades lets these soldiers tell their own stories in their own words to create an account that is both deeply moving and far truer than most books on war. Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." For Cause and Comrades deserves similar accolades, as McPherson's masterful prose and the soldiers' own words combine to create both an important book on an often overlooked aspect of our bloody Civil War, and a powerfully moving account of the men who fought it.
This study describes the creation of the Primitive Baptist movement
and discusses the main outlines of their thought. It also weaves
the story of the Primitive Baptists with other developments in
American Christianity in the Early Republic.
The battle of Shiloh, fought in April 1862 in the wilderness of south central Tennessee, marked a savage turning point in the Civil War. In this masterful book, Larry Daniel re-creates the drama and the horror of the battle and discusses in authoritative detail the political and military policies that led to Shiloh, the personalities of those who formulated and executed the battle plans, the fateful misjudgments made on both sides, and the heroism of the small-unit leaders and ordinary soldiers who manned the battlefield.
The South's raiding cavalry on campaign
This substantial, well known and highly regarded work presents
itself to the reader as a history of a renowned unit of Confederate
Cavalry. Whilst that is undoubtedly the case, the narrative is made
the more relevant, interesting and indeed entertaining because its
author rode within its ranks. So the book also works admirably as a
first hand account of the experiences of a cavalier of the South at
war. John Hunt Morgan was a Kentuckian and a regular soldier who
was drawn, in common with so many of his native state, reluctantly
into war against the federal government. He raised the 2nd Kentucky
Cavalry regiment and as its Colonel fought at Shiloh, but it was as
a raider that Morgan's Cavalry achieved most fame and, for some,
notoriety. 'Morgan's Raid' which took place in July 1863 was a
remarkable feat of cavalry command. With lightning manoeuvres
Morgan broke past the Union lines and led nearly 2,500 Confederate
cavalrymen deep into Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio making this action
the deepest incursion into the north of any body of uniformed
Confederate troops in the war. For those interested in the dash,
elan and actions of this redoubtable body of horse soldiers and
their talented commander, Duke's book-a deservedly recognised
classic-is essential. Available in soft cover and hard cover with
dust jacket for collectors."
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