The battle of Gettysburg was the largest engagement of the Civil War, and--with more than 51,000 casualties--also the deadliest. The highest regimental casualty rate at Gettysburg, an estimated 85 percent, was incurred by the 26th North Carolina Infantry. Who were these North Carolinians? Why were they at Gettysburg? How did they come to suffer such a grievous distinction? In Covered with Glory, award-winning historian Rod Gragg reveals the extraordinary story of the 26th North Carolina in fascinating detail. Praised for its "exhaustive scholarship" and its "highly readable style," Covered with Glory chronicles the 26th's remarkable odyssey from muster near Raleigh to surrender at Appomattox. The central focus of the book, however, is the regiment's critical, tragic role at Gettysburg, where its standoff with the heralded 24th Michigan Infantry on the first day of fighting became one of the battle's most unforgettable stories. Two days later, the 26th's bloodied remnant assaulted the Federal line at Cemetery Ridge and gained additional fame for advancing "farthest to the front" in the Pickett-Pettigrew Charge.

During World War II, as the United States called on its citizens to serve in unprecedented numbers, the presence of gay Americans in the armed forces increasingly conflicted with the expanding antihomosexual policies and procedures of the military. In Coming Out Under Fire , Allan Berube examines in depth and detail these social and political confrontation--not as a story of how the military victimized homosexuals, but as a story of how a dynamic power relationship developed between gay citizens and their government, transforming them both. Drawing on GIs' wartime letters, extensive interviews with gay veterans, and declassified military documents, Berube thoughtfully constructs a startling history of the two wars gay military men and women fough--one for America and another as homosexuals within the military. Berube's book, the inspiration for the 1995 Peabody Award-winning documentary film of the same name, has become a classic since it was published in 1990, just three years prior to the controversial ""don't ask, don't tell"" policy, which has continued to serve as an uneasy compromise between gays and the military. With a new foreword by historians John D'Emilio and Estelle B. Freedman, this book remains a valuable contribution to the history of World War II, as well as to the ongoing debate regarding the role of gays in the U.S. military. |Drawing on GIs' wartime letters, extensive interviews with gay veterans, and declassified military documents, Berube constructs a startling history of the two wars gay military men and women fought-one for America and the other for their own survival as homosexuals within the military. This book has become a classic since it was published in 1990 and remains a valuable contribution to the history of World War II, at home and abroad, as well as to the ongoing debate regarding the role of gays in the U.S. military.