Published in 1861 just as the War Between the States was getting under way, this now almost impossible to find manual provided caregivers - primarily nurses sponsored by the Woman's Central Association of Relief (WCAR) - with a host of recipes and treatments for internal and external ailments. While not comprehensive by any means, the manual still gives us an invaluable glimpse into the treatments that were available to doctors and nurses as the United States embarked on its great fratricidal war. This edition of "A Manual of Directions Prepared for the Use of the Nurses in the Army Hospitals" also includes an introduction by historian Charles Culbertson; a look at the life of Elizabeth Blackwell, WCAR's founder and the first woman to graduate from a medical school in the United States; an 1862 New York Times article describing activities of the WCAR; and an overview of the practice of medicine in the Civil War.

A Long-Lost World War I Narrative "Once A Marine" is the true story of the life of a private in the U.S. Marines on the battlefields of Northern France during the First World War. The author, Levi E. Hemrick, did not set down his narrative until nearly 50 years after the somber, bloody, exhausting and at times hilarious event he describes. Blessed with the vivid, selective memory of an artist and a half century of gestation, Hemrick penned a memoir that was a skillfully blended admixture of prosaic fact and deeply pondered comment. The day-by-day incidents of almost forgotten battles are recalled with a purity refined by the passage of time. In this book - the first edition of which is now extremely hard to find - Hemrick did not attempt a strategic assessment of the battles in which he took a valorous part. His is the frankly confessed worm's-eye-view of one private soldier who was unaware of even the most minor tactics of his own platoon. One Man in the Trenches The result was a memoir unfettered by any complicated responsibilities or a temptation to rewrite events to justify his own part in them. Hemrick's is the straightforward account of what he himself saw and was called upon to do - first to carry food up to the men in the front line and, later, to bear the wounded to the most forward ambulance position. In the course of these stretcher-bearing duties he received wounds to arm and ear that handicapped him for the rest of his life. "Once A Marine" may not be history in the wide, all-inclusive sense, but any historian of the Great War would be unwise to ignore a story the veracity of which shines out of every line and which can claim with complete confidence to represent the experiences of the average Boche, Pollu, Tommy and Yank in the trenches long ago. With a new foreword by historian Charles Culbertson - who, as a boy, knew Hemrick and read the original manuscript of "Once A Marine" - and biographical material, one of the rarest of World War I memoirs is now available for the first time in more than half a century. From "Once a Marine" "As we moved deeper into this stream of human misery, our men for the first time were brought face to face with the fact that war was a sad business, a costly one whose product was mostly misery and despair, pain and death, a kind of reward only the devil and his kind could want or enjoy."

"The Germans were professionals. They didn't expect or believe that the amateur, undisciplined, over-indulged, soft life our boys lived at home, plus absence of training and experience, could or would produce the physical toughness and the will to stand the pain and hardships required of a good fighting soldier. So the Germans waded into the Americans with the confidence of old time professionals expecting to smash and push them aside and get going on their march to Paris. To their surprise, these Americans did not push so easy."

The Ultimate Big Book of Staunton, Virginia Historic Tales This anthology of previously unpublished stories from historic Staunton, Virginia contains a whopping 87 chapters, dozens of images and 70,000 words - all calculated to delight and inform the Virginia history afficionado. Staunton historian Charles Culbertson has assembled a vast array of tales from Staunton's past and has arranged them in chronological order from the Revolutionary War period to the mid 1960s. Forgotten Virginia History Brought to Life Did you know about the theater started in Staunton by British captives during the Revolution? Or the Muslim pirate captive who escaped, walked 2,000 miles and was found nearly starved to death by a Staunton farmer? What about Patrick Henry's lost boot or the Staunton hanging that drew10,000 spectators? They're all here, and more, including chapters on:

Why Staunton is pronounced STAN-ton instead of STAWN-ton
Lust, greed and murder in 1830s Staunton
Staunton inventor whose repeating gun could have won the Civil War
Unruly Confederates
The Lunatic Asylum ghost
The first Tribe of Tarzan
Staunton during the Great War
Ingleside Hotel becoming a Nazi prison
A local man has a close encounter with a UFO The Best Staunton, Virginia History Yet Mr. Culbertson - whose extensive research and writings have resulted in a number of other books also available through Amazon - has put together a remarkable collection in this anthology. He has told the story of this beautiful, historic city in a reader-friendly manner, yet hasn't skimped on research and scholarship. This is an important companion piece to his previous works on Staunton, Virginia.

At 6 feet 7 inches, Jack "Shorty" Manch was the tallest of Jimmy Doolittle's fliers and also one of the most colorful. This biography details his life as a rambunctious kid growing up in Staunton, Virginia, his pranks in military academies and his incredible adventure as a member of the group who launched the first bombing raid on Tokyo. Manch died a hero, also, and his sacrifice over the skies of Las Vegas is explored in print here for the first time.

Bivouac of the Dead On September 18, 1937 - 75 years after the bloodbath at Sharpsburg (Antietam) - the people of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, dedicated a lovingly fashioned monument to Confederate soldiers from the area. The Memorial to Confederate Soldiers was installed in historic Elmwood Cemetery and today remains a treasured part of the area's history and legacy.

The booklet that was privately printed and distributed to participants and attendees of the 1937 cemetery has been out of circulation for many years. It has been reproduced in its entirety here for the first time. With a fresh layout, corrections to typographical and substantive errors, and a table of contents, the booklet (with its exhaustive lists of soldiers from specific Confederate units within the Stonewall Brigade) is once again available as a historic resource.

Originally published in 2004, this second edition (2013) of "Staunton, Virginia: A Treasury of Historic Tales" is a gold mine of information about one of the most beautiful, historic and fascinating cities in the United States. Written by Staunton historian Charles Culbertson, "Treasury" contains 35 chapters that tell little-known stories of the movers, shakers, saints and scalawags who have made Staunton the Queen City of the Shenandoah. Chapters topics include the 1911 fire that all but destroyed Staunton's Wharf district; how schoolmistress Mary Julia Baldwin outfoxed Yankee invaders during the Civil War; the Statler Brothers and their 25-year "Happy Birthday, U.S.A." gift to the city; the shooting death of a Staunton waiter by a Confederate soldier over a plate of oysters; Stuart Hall and its sale of a priceless gift - J.E.B. Stuart's battle flag; the haunting of a Staunton mansion by a Confederate ghost; and much more. Includes preface, more than 100 illustrations, selected bibliography and index.