William McKnight was a member of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry from September 1862 until his death in June of 1864. During his time of service, McKnight penned dozens of emotion-filled letters, primarily to his wife, Samaria, revealing the struggles of an entire family both before and during the war. This collection of more than one hundred letters provides in-depth accounts of several battles in Kentucky and Tennessee, such as the Cumberland Gap and Knoxville campaigns that were pivotal events in the Western Theater. The letters also vividly respond to General John Hunt Morgan's raid through Ohio and correct claims previously published that McKnight was part of the forces chasing Morgan. By all accounts Morgan did stay for a period of time at McKnight's home in Langsville during his raid through Ohio, much to McKnight's horror and humiliation, but McKnight was in Kentucky at the time. Tragically, McKnight was killed in action nearly a year later during an engagement with Morgan's men near Cynthiana, Kentucky.

"It is well that war is so terrible," Robert E. Lee reportedly said, "or we would grow too fond of it." The essays collected here make the case that we have grown too fond of it, and therefore we must make the war ter-rible again. Taking a "freakonomics" approach to Civil War studies, each contributor uses a seemingly unusual story, incident, or phenomenon to cast new light on the nature of the war itself. Collectively the essays remind us that war is always about "damage," even at its most heroic and even when certain people and things deserve to be damaged.

Here then is not only the grandness of the Civil War but its more than occasional littleness. Here are those who profited by the war and those who lost by it--and not just those who lost all save their honor, but those who lost their honor too. Here are the cowards, the coxcombs, the belles, the deserters, and the scavengers who hung back and so survived, even thrived. Here are dark topics like torture, hunger, and amputation. Here, in short, is war.

100 photos taken on field during the Civil War. Famous shots of Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Lincoln, Richmond, slave pens, etc.

Despite the seemingly never-ending torrent of books about the American Civil War, relatively little has been written about the role of the United States Revenue Marine Service (now the U.S. Coast Guard) in the naval struggle against the Confederacy. The United States Revenue Cutters in the Civil War presents a ship-by-ship study of this neglected aspect of the war, from the decisions of individual cutter commanders as to which side they would take in the struggle to their ships key role in enforcing the Northern blockade of the South s coasts. The author, an expert on the early history of the Revenue Service, also tells the amazing story of the capture of the cutter Caleb Cushing by Confederates under the command of Lieutenant Charles W. Savez Read, CSN in the harbor of Portland, Maine, his daring escape, brief battle with Union ships, and the scuttling of the Cushing. This hard-to-find publication also documents the other combat actions, nautical mishaps, and ultimate fates of these unsung participants in the naval side of the Civil War.

A famous American writer's experiences of the Civil War
The title of this book, of course, refers to the men of the United States who rallied to their nation's flag and the cause of the maintenance of the union between all the states at the first trumpet call to arms in 1861. The dissatisfaction of the eleven Southern states which would form the Confederacy burst into violence in April of that year with the attack on Fort Sumter and these first shots heralded four years of appalling bloodshed and acrimony before the United States of America could once again be declared a whole nation. This is not a general history of the war, it is, in the person of Charles Carleton Coffin, an account of personal experiences by an expert observer who is now regarded as one of the most important journalists the American nation has ever produced-Coffin was also a fine author and accomplished politician. The term 'embedded correspondent' has become a familiar term to describe newsmen who accompany an army in the field. The nineteenth century was however a golden age of special correspondents, of various nations, who joined fighting forces at the sharp end of conflict all over the globe and not a few of them-as they do to this day-paid the ultimate price for their dogged persistence in placing the facts before the public. Coffin was determined to experience the Civil War at close quarters and in this substantial book he takes us on campaign, from the intimacy of the march and the camp, among ordinary men and officers-and close by the commanders of the Union Army, as momentous events unfolded and important decisions were made. All first hand accounts are invaluable source works irrespective of the skill in penmanship of their authors. They record events and the exploits of individuals long gone and are, quite simply, the lifeblood of history. Nevertheless, when history is seen by a keen eye and related by those with a vivid turn of phrase and command of language it is at its best. Coffin was such an observer, he experienced the war in full measure at Bull Run, the Tennessee Campaign, Pittsburg Landing, the invasion of Maryland and Kentucky, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Petersburg and the fall of Richmond and witnessed many other momentous events on land and afloat. Available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

In antebellum society, women were regarded as ideal nurses because of their sympathetic natures. However, they were expected to exercise their talents only in the home; nursing strange men in hospitals was considered inappropriate, if not indecent. Nevertheless, in defiance of tradition, Confederate women set up hospitals early in the Civil War and organized volunteers to care for the increasing number of sick and wounded soldiers. As a fledgling government engaged in a long and bloody war, the Confederacy relied on this female labor, which prompted a new understanding of women's place in public life and a shift in gender roles.

Challenging the assumption that Southern women's contributions to the war effort were less systematic and organized than those of Union women, "Worth a Dozen Men "looks at the Civil War as a watershed moment for Southern women. Female nurses in the South played a critical role in raising army and civilian morale and reducing mortality rates, thus allowing the South to continue fighting. They embodied a new model of heroic energy and nationalism, and came to be seen as the female equivalent of soldiers. Moreover, nursing provided them with a foundation for pro-Confederate political activity, both during and after the war, when gender roles and race relations underwent dramatic changes.

"Worth a Dozen Men" chronicles the Southern wartime nursing experience, tracking the course of the conflict from the initial burst of Confederate nationalism to the shock and sorrow of losing the war. Through newspapers and official records, as well as letters, diaries, and memoirs--not only those of the remarkable and dedicated women who participated, but also of the doctors with whom they served, their soldier patients, and the patients' families--a comprehensive picture of what it was like to be a nurse in the South during the Civil War emerges.

In 1967, Nigeria was plunged into a brutal civil war with secessionist Biafra. The war, which lasted for 30 months and led to the death of over one million ethnic Igbo, has been described as the first genocide in post-colonial Africa. Although much has been written about the Nigeria Civil war, most of what has been written remains the perspectives of the major actors and generals who conducted the war. This book, through careful analysis of the experiences of those who witnessed the war on the Biafra side as well as other primary and archival sources, brings to life the Civil War-time trials and tribulations of ordinary Biafrans. Focusing primarily on the Biafran side of that civil war, the book reexamines the civil war from the perspective of non-military support of the war effort and the lingering human costs of that conflict. It also presents the Biafra experience in the context of issues of genocide, the role of humanitarian and international civil or advocacy groups; International Organizations and conflict resolution; and the impact of the Cold War and resources control (oil) in shaping the contours of the Nigeria-Biafra War. Based on personal experiences of the Biafra-Nigeria War, this book speaks to some elements in the causes of the war, the actual conduct of the war on both sides, and the underlying genocidal rather than political motivations for the war. As Michael J. C. Echeruo notes "Biafra should stand in the world's conscience as a monument to the possibility of successfully resisting 'final solutions.'"' This is an important book for collections in African studies, history, international studies, and political science.

The first book-length treatment of an important Confederate regiment composed mostly of Irish immigrants who were involved in most of the important Civil War battles in the East.

The Civil War on Film will inform high school and college readers interested in Civil War film history on issues that arise when film viewers confuse entertainment with historical accuracy. The nation's years of civil war were painful, destructive, and unpleasant. Yet war films tend to embrace mythologies that erase that historical reality, romanticizing the Civil War. The editors of this volume have little patience for any argument that implies race-based slavery isn't an entirely repugnant economic, political, and cultural institution and that the people who fought to preserve slavery were fighting for a glorious and admirable cause. To that end, The Civil War on Film will open with a timeline and introduction and then explore ten films across decades of cinema history in ten chapters, from Birth of a Nation, which debuted in 1915, to The Free State of Jones, which debuted one hundred and one years later. It will also analyze and critique the myriad of mythologies and ideologies which appear in American Civil War films, including Lost Cause ideation, Black Confederate fictions, Northern Aggression mythologies, and White Savior tropes. It will also suggest the way particular films mirror the time in which they were written and filmed. Further resources will close the volume. Makes clear that depictions of the Civil War on film are often mythologized Analyzes films in a manner that shows students the historical context in which the films were made and viewed Goes beyond just synopses and historical facts, helping students to develop critical thinking skills Stimulates debate over the various ways the war was interpreted and experienced

One of the iconic moments in English history, the trial and execution of King Charles I has yet to be studied in-depth from a contemporary legal perspective. Professor Ian Ward brings his considerable legal and historical acumen to bear on the particular constitutional issues raised by the regicide of Charles, and not only analyses the unfolding of events and their immediate historical context, but also draws out their wider importance and legacy for the generations of historians, politicians, and writers over the ensuing three and a half centuries. This is a book about constitutional history and thought, but also about the writing of constitutional history and thought and the forms they have taken -whether as scholarship, polemics, or literary experiments - in collective British memory. Chapters range from the events leading up to and through the trial and execution of Charles; to their theatricality, legality, and constitutionality; to the political writings such as Milton's Tenure of Kings and Hobbes' Leviathan that followed; and finally trace the various subsequent histories and trials of Charles I that presented him either as martyr, Tory or -- in the 18th and 19th centuries -- the Whig.

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 Civil War is often credited with giving birth to the modern American state. The demands of warfare led to the centralization of business and industry and to an unprecedented expansion of federal power. But the Civil War did more than that: as Melinda Lawson shows, it brought about a change in American national identity, redefining the relationship between the individual and the government.

Though much has been written about the Civil War and the making of the political and economic American nation, this is the first comprehensive study of the role that the war played in the shaping of the cultural and ideological nation-state. In Patriot Fires, Lawson explains how, when threatened by the rebellious South, the North came together as a nation and mobilized its populace for war.
With no formal government office to rally citizens, the job of defining the war in patriotic terms fell largely to private individuals or associations, each with their own motives and methods. Lawson explores how these "interpreters" of the war helped instill in Americans a new understanding of loyalty to country. Through efforts such as sanitary fairs to promote the welfare of soldiers, the war bond drives of Jay Cooke, and the establishment of Union Leagues, Northerners cultivated a new sense of patriotism rooted not just in the subjective American idea, but in existing religious, political, and cultural values. Moreover, Democrats and Republicans, Abolitionists, and Abraham Lincoln created their own understandings of American patriotism and national identity, raising debates over the meaning of the American "idea" to new heights.

Examining speeches, pamphlets, pageants, sermons, and assemblies, Lawson shows how citizens and organizations constructed a new kind of nationalism based on a nation of Americans rather than a union of states--a European-styled nationalism grounded in history and tradition and celebrating the preeminence of the nation-state.

Original in its insights and innovative in its approach, "Patriot Fires" is an impressive work of cultural and intellectual history. As America engages in new conflicts around the globe, Lawson shows us that issues addressed by nation builders of the nineteenth century are relevant once again as the meaning of patriotism continues to be explored.