Download or read book The Real Horse Soldiers written by Timothy B. Smith and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2020-02-08 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This epic account is as thrilling and fast-paced as the raid itself and will quickly rival, if not surpass, Dee Brown’s Grierson’s Raid as the standard.” —Terrence J. Winschel, historian (ret.), Vicksburg National Military Park Winner, Operational/Battle History, Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Book Award Winner, Fletcher Pratt Literary Award, Civil War Round Table of New York There were other simultaneous operations to distract Confederate attention from the real threat posed by U. S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. Benjamin Grierson’s operation, however, mainly conducted with two Illinois cavalry regiments, has become the most famous, and for good reason: For 16 days (April 17 to May 2) Grierson led Confederate pursuers on a high-stakes chase through the entire state of Mississippi, entering the northern border with Tennessee and exiting its southern border with Louisiana. Throughout, he displayed outstanding leadership and cunning, destroyed railroad tracks, burned trestles and bridges, freed slaves, and created as much damage and chaos as possible. Grierson’s Raid broke a vital Confederate rail line at Newton Station that supplied Vicksburg and, perhaps most importantly, consumed the attention of the Confederate high command. While Confederate Lt. Gen. John Pemberton at Vicksburg and other Southern leaders looked in the wrong directions, Grant moved his entire Army of the Tennessee across the Mississippi River below Vicksburg, spelling the doom of that city, the Confederate chances of holding the river, and perhaps the Confederacy itself. Based upon years of research and presented in gripping, fast-paced prose, Timothy B. Smith’s The Real Horse Soldiers captures the high drama and tension of the 1863 horse soldiers in a modern, comprehensive, academic study. Readers will find it fills a wide void in Civil War literature.

Download or read book Those Damn Horse Soldiers written by George Walsh and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Cavalry Raids of the Civil War written by Robert W. Black and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2004-09-16 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covers raids from J. E. B. Stuart's 1862 ride around McClellan's army to James Wilson's crashing raids in Alabama and Georgia in 1865.

Download or read book The Second Colorado Cavalry written by Christopher M. Rein and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2020-02-13 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Civil War, the Second Colorado Volunteer Regiment played a vital and often decisive role in the fight for the Union on the Great Plains—and in the westward expansion of the American empire. Christopher M. Rein’s The Second Colorado Cavalry is the first in-depth history of this regiment operating at the nexus of the Civil War and the settlement of the American West. Composed largely of footloose ’59ers who raced west to participate in the gold rush in Colorado, the troopers of the Second Colorado repelled Confederate invasions in New Mexico and Indian Territory before wading into the Burned District along the Kansas border, the bloodiest region of the guerilla war in Missouri. In 1865, the regiment moved back out onto the plains, applying what it had learned to peacekeeping operations along the Santa Fe Trail, thus definitively linking the Civil War and the military conquest of the American West in a single act of continental expansion. Emphasizing the cavalry units, whose mobility proved critical in suppressing both Confederate bushwhackers and Indian raiders, Rein tells the neglected tale of the “fire brigade” of the Trans-Mississippi Theater—a group of men, and a few women, who enabled the most significant environmental shift in the Great Plains’ history: the displacement of Native Americans by Euro-American settlers, the swapping of bison herds for fenced cattle ranges, and the substitution of iron horses for those of flesh and bone. The Second Colorado Cavalry offers us a much-needed history of the “guerilla hunters” who helped suppress violence and keep the peace in contested border regions; it adds nuance and complexity to our understanding of the unlikely “agents of empire” who successfully transformed the Central Plains.

Download or read book Confederate Cavalry West of the River written by Stephen B. Oates and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-07-22 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Another Confederate cavalry raid impends. You hear the snort of an impatient horse, the leathery squeaking of saddles, the low-voiced commands of officers, the muffled cluck of guns cocked in preparation—then the sudden rush of motion, the din of another attack. This classic story seeks to illuminate a little-known theater of the Civil War—the cavalry battles of the Trans-Mississippi West, a region that included Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, the Indian Territory, and part of Louisiana. Stephen B. Oates traces the successes and defeats of the cavalry; its brief reinvigoration under John S. "Rip" Ford, who fought and won the last battle of the war at Palmetto Ranch; and finally, the disintegration of this once-proud fighting force.

Download or read book Stoneman s Raid 1865 written by Chris J. Hartley and published by John F. Blair, Publisher. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring of 1865, Federal major general George Stoneman launched a cavalry raid deep into the heart of the Confederacy. Despite its geographic scope, Stonemans 1865 raid failed in its primary goal of helping to end the war. Based on exhaustive research in thirty-four repositories in twelve states and from more than 200 books and newspapers, Hartleys book tells the complete story of Stonemans 1865 raid for the first time.

Download or read book The Cavalry at Gettysburg written by Edward G. Longacre and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1993-02-01 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bristles with analysis, details, judgments, personality profiles, and evaluations and combat descriptions, even down to the squadron and company levels."-Civil War Times Illustrated

Download or read book In the Saddle written by Timothy Daiss and published by Schiffer Pub Limited. This book was released on 1999 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Saddle is the touching story of a memorable Civil War unit, and covers the first days of the war, the middle war with its exhausting battles, skirmishes and cavalry raids, and the end of the war with depleted ranks, death and surrender. The unit distinguished itself in battle from the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, to the pathos and drama of the Atlanta battles, and in harassing Shermans blue hosts on his infamous march of destruction to the sea. The story is told using narratives, military sketches, and letters of members of the 5th Georgia from the teenage boy from the back woods of Georgia who enlisted in 1862 and served for the balance of the war, to the men who were captured and endured life as a Northern prisoner of war, their story is one whose voices call to us from the past. Supplemented with vintage photographs and drawings, In the Saddle offers rich and rewarding reading.

Download or read book Homegrown Yankees written by James Alex Baggett and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 970 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the states in the Confederacy, Tennessee was the most sectionally divided. East Tennesseans opposed secession at the ballot box in 1861, petitioned unsuccessfully for separate statehood, resisted the Confederate government, enlisted in Union militias, elected U.S. congressmen, and fled as refugees into Kentucky. These refugees formed Tennessee's first Union cavalry regiments during early 1862, followed shortly thereafter by others organized in Union-occupied Middle and West Tennessee. In Homegrown Yankees, the first book-length study of Union cavalry from a Confederate state, James Alex Baggett tells the remarkable story of Tennessee's loyal mounted regiments. Fourteen mounted regiments that fought primarily within the boundaries of the state and eight local units made up Tennessee's Union cavalry. Young, nonslaveholding farmers who opposed secession, the Confederacy, and the war -- from isolated villages east of Knoxville, the Cumberland Mountains, or the Tennessee River counties in the west -- filled the ranks. Most Tennesseans denounced these local bluecoats as renegades, turncoats, and Tories; accused them of betraying their people, their section, and their race; and held them in greater contempt than soldiers from the North. Though these homegrown Yankees participated in many battles -- including those in the Stones River, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, East Tennessee, Nashville, and Atlanta campaigns -- their story provides rare insights into what occurred between the battles. For them, military action primarily meant almost endless skirmishing with partisans, guerrillas, and bushwackers, as well as with the Rebel raiders of John Hunt Morgan, Joseph Wheeler, and Nathan Bedford Forrest, who frequently recruited and supplied themselves from behind enemy lines. Tennessee's Union cavalry scouted and foraged the countryside, guarded outposts and railroads, acted as couriers, supported the flanks of infantry, and raided the enemy. On occasion, especially during the Nashville campaign, they provided rapid pursuit of Confederate forces. They also helped protect fellow unionists from an aggressive pro-Confederate insurgency after 1862. Baggett vividly describes the deprivation, sickness, and loneliness of cavalrymen living on the war's periphery and traces how circumstances beyond their control -- such as terrain, transport, equipage, weaponry, public sentiment, and military policy -- affected their lives. He also explores their well-earned reputation for plundering -- misdeeds motivated by revenge, resentment, a lack of discipline, and the hard-war policy of the Union army. In the never-before-told story of these cavalrymen, Homegrown Yankees offers new insights into an unexplored facet of southern Unionism and provides an exciting new perspective on the Civil War in Tennessee.

Download or read book Confederate General William Extra Billy Smith written by Scott L. Mingus and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2013-04-19 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning biography of one of the Confederacy’s most colorful and controversial generals. Winner of the 2013 Nathan Bedford Forrest History Book Award for Southern History Nominated for the 2014 Virginia Book Award for Nonfiction Despite a life full of drama, politics, and adventure, little has been written about William “Extra Billy” Smith—aside from a rather biased account by his brother-in-law back in the nineteenth century. As the oldest and one of the most controversial Confederate generals on the field at Gettysburg, Smith was also one of the most charismatic characters of the Civil War and the antebellum Old South. Known nationally as “Extra Billy” because of his prewar penchant for finding loopholes in government postal contracts to gain extra money for his stagecoach lines, Smith served as Virginia’s governor during both the war with Mexico and the Civil War; served five terms in the US Congress; and was one of Virginia’s leading spokesmen for slavery and states’ rights. Extra Billy’s extra-long speeches and wry sense of humor were legendary among his peers. A lawyer during the heady Gold Rush days, he made a fortune in California—and, as with his income earned from stagecoaches, quickly lost it. Despite his advanced age, Smith took to the field and fought well at First Manassas, was wounded at Seven Pines and again at Sharpsburg, and marched with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. There, on the first day at Gettysburg, Smith’s frantic messages about a possible Union flanking attack remain a matter of controversy to this day. Did his aging eyes see distant fence-lines that he interpreted as approaching enemy soldiers—mere phantoms of his imagination? Or did his prompt action stave off a looming Confederate disaster? This biography draws upon a wide array of newspapers, diaries, letters, and other firsthand accounts to paint a portrait of one of the South’s most interesting leaders, complete with original maps and photos.

Download or read book History of Morgan s Cavalry written by Basil Wilson Duke and published by . This book was released on 1867 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Quantrill at Lawrence written by Paul R. Petersen and published by Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-04-26 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Lawrence raid of August 21, 1863, was considered one of the bloodiest events of the Civil War. The actions that brought on the raid are researched and explored in depth here for the very first time. What is discovered is a collusion in a "legacy of lies" that surrounded the stories of the raid.

Download or read book Armor cavalry Army National Guard written by Mary Lee Stubbs and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sherman s Horsemen written by David Evans and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approaching Atlanta in July of 1864, William Tecumseh Sherman knew he was facing the most important campaign of his career. Lacking the troops and the desire to mount a long siege of the city, Sherman was eager for a quick, decisive victory. A change of tactics was in order. He decided to call on the cavalry. Over the next seven weeks, Sherman's horsemen -- under the command of Generals Rousseau, Garrard, Stoneman, McCook, and Kilpatrick -- destroyed supplies and tore up miles of railroad track in an attempt to isolate the city. This book tells the story of those raids. After initial successes, the cavalrymen found themselves caught up in a series of daring and deadly engagements, including a failed attempt to push south to liberate the prisoners at the infamous prison camp at Andersonville. Through exhaustive research, David Evans has been able to recreate a vivid, captivating, and meticulously detailed image of the day-by-day life of the Union horse soldier. Based largely upon previously unpublished materials, Sherman's Horsemen provides the definitive account of this hitherto neglected aspect of the American Civil War.

Download or read book Confederate Retaliation written by Fritz Haselberger and published by White Mane Publishing Company. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A purely military history which traces the 1864 campaign of Brig. Gen. John McCausland's division of Confederate cavalry that resulted in the retaliatory raid on Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Also treated are the two weeks following the burning of Chambersburg. The author argues that the raid resulted in Lincoln's instructions to General Grant to cease the destruction of civilian property by the Union army.

Download or read book Failure in the Saddle written by David A. Powell and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tales of daring exploits create lingering romance about the cavalry of the Lost Cause. But sometimes romance obscures history. This is the first in-depth attempt to determine what role the Confederate cavalry played in both the loss of Chattanooga and the staggering number of miscues that followed up to, and beyond Chickamauga.

Download or read book Grierson s Raid written by Dee Alexander Brown and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early in the morning of April 17, 1863, volunteer brigade of union cavalrymen under the command of Col. Benjamin Grierson rode south from their headquarters just above the Mississippi border. 16 days, 600 miles, and a number of skirmishes later, the sixth and seventh Illinois cavalry regiments entered Baton Rouge in triumph having marched the entire length of the state of Mississippi. Such a bold cavalry thrust deep into Confederate territory had never been attempted before. Col. Grierson was on his own: he was simply told to harass the Confederates - thus diverting their attention from Grant, who was poised for attack on Vicksburg - and to sever the Vicksburg railroad. How he accomplish these objectives is skillfully told here in a day-by-day account of the raid: the long and grueling marches; the consternation of the Confederate commanders, whose intelligence reports were thrown off time and again by Grierson's bluffs and the tricks of his advanced scouts, the "Butternut Guerrillas"; the daring attack on the Vicksburg railroad; the tatterdemalion parade into Baton Rouge, with 300 fleeing slaves happily bringing up the rear. GRIERSON'S RAID does more than follow the fascinating twists and turns of the union force whose maneuvers so flabbergasted the Confederates, often with amusing results. The author has fashioned a smooth flowing narrative that also includes short biographies of the key men - notably, of course, Col. Grierson, a music teacher turned cavalrymen who heartily distrust of horses. [When he was a boy a horse kicked him in the face, leaving him blind for two weeks; he bore the scars for the rest of his life.] But Grierson's attitudes towards horses did not hinder his generalship. One reads this book with keen admiration for the brilliance of a tactician whose brazen raid anticipated the free wheeling thrusts of a Guderian or a Patton in World War II. Mr. Brown has been able to draw from unusually full sources in writing this book. In addition to official records and newspaper accounts, he has made use of a privately published record of services and a manuscript autobiography by Grierson, and the letters and journals of two other members of the brigade. -- Publisher.