Download or read book John Bankhead Magruder written by Thomas Settles and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2009-06 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the major figures of the Civil War era, Confederate general John Bankhead Magruder is perhaps the least understood. The third-ranking officer in Virginia's forces behind Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, Magruder left no diary, no completed memoirs, no will, not even a family Bible. There are no genealogical records and very few surviving personal papers. Unsurprisingly, then, much existing literature about Magruder contains incorrect information. In John Bankhead Magruder, an exhaustive biography that reflects more than thirty years of painstaking archival research, Thomas M. Settles remedies the many factual inaccuracies surrounding this enigmatic man and his military career. Settles traces Magruder's family back to its seventeenth-century British American origins, describes his educational endeavors at the University of Virginia and West Point, and details his early military career and his leading role as an artillerist in the war with Mexico. Tall, handsome, and flamboyant, Magruder earned the nickname "Prince John" from his army friends and was known for his impeccable manners and social brilliance. When Virginia seceded in April of 1861, Prince John resigned his commission in the U.S. Army and offered his services to the Confederacy. Magruder won the opening battle of the Civil War at Big Bethel. Later, in spite of severe shortages of weapons and supplies and a lack of support from Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, Samuel Cooper, and Joseph E. Johnston, Prince John, with just 13,600 men, held his position on the Peninsula for a month against George B. McClellan's 105,000-man Federal army. This successful stand, at a time when Richmond was exceedingly vulnerable, provided, according to Settles, John Magruder's greatest contribution to the Confederacy. Following the Seven Days' battles, however, his commanders harshly criticized Magruder for being too slow at Savage Station, then too rash at Malvern Hill and they transferred him to command the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. In Texas, he skillfully recaptured the port of Galveston in early 1863 and held it for the Confederacy until the end of the war. After the war, he joined the Confederate exodus to Mexico but eventually returned to the United States, living in New York City and New Orleans before settling in Houston, where he died on February 18, 1871. John Bankhead Magruder offers fresh insight into many aspects of the general's life and legacy, including his alleged excesses, his family relationships, and the period between Magruder's death and his memorialization into the canon of Lost Cause mythology. With engaging prose and impressive research, Settles brings this vibrant Civil War figure to life.

Download or read book Lone Star Blue and Gray written by Ralph Wooster and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bitter disputes over secession to the ways in which the conflict would be remembered, Texas and Texans were caught up in the momentous struggles of the American Civil War. Tens of thousands of Texans joined military units, and scarcely a household in the state was unaffected as mothers and wives assumed new roles in managing farms and plantations. Still others grappled with the massive social, political, and economic changes wrought by the bloodiest conflict in American history. The sixteen essays (eleven of them new) from some of the leading historians in the field in the second edition of Lone Star Blue and Gray illustrate the rich traditions and continuing vitality of Texas Civil War scholarship. Along with these articles, editors Ralph A. and Robert Wooster provide a succinct introduction to the war and Texas and recommended readings for those seeking further investigations of virtually every aspect of the war as experienced in the Lone Star State.

Download or read book The Yankee Invasion of Texas written by Stephen A. Townsend and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-27 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1863 the Union capture of Texas was viewed as crucial to the strategy to deny the Confederacy the territory west of the Mississippi and thus to break the back of Southern military force. Overland, Texas supplied Louisiana and points east with needed goods; by way of Mexico, Texas offered a detour around the blockade of Southern ports and thus an economic link to England and France. But Union forces had no good base from which to interdict either part of the Texas trade. Their efforts were characterized by short, unsuccessful forays, primarily in East and South Texas. One of these, which left New Orleans on October 26, 1863, and was known as the Rio Grande Expedition, forms the centerpiece of this book. Stephen A. Townsend carefully traces the actions—and inaction—of the Union forces from the capture of Brownsville by troops under Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks, through the advance up the coast with the help of Union Loyalists, until General Ulysses S. Grant ordered the abandonment of all of Texas except Brownsville in March 1864. Townsend analyzes the effects of the campaign on the local populace, the morale and good order of the two armies involved, U.S. diplomatic relations with France, the Texas cotton trade, and postwar politics in the state. He thoughtfully assesses the benefits and losses to the Northern war effort of this only sustained occupation of Texas. No understanding of the Civil War west of the Mississippi—or its place in the Union strategy for the Deep South—will be complete without this informative study.

Download or read book Texas the Dark Corner of the Confederacy written by B. P. Gallaway and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1994-01-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collection of forty documents dating from the eve of the Civil War to the collaspe of the Confederacy chronicling the Civil War in Texas.

Download or read book Professional Memoirs Corps of Engineers United States Army and Engineer Department at Large written by and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 954 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sabine Pass written by Edward T. Cotham and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “beautifully written . . . and meticulously researched” Civil War history vividly recounts one of the most decisive battles fought in Texas (Civil War News). Jefferson Davis once said the Battle of Sabine Pass was “more remarkable than the battle at Thermopylae.” But unlike the Spartans, who succumbed to overwhelming Persian forces at Thermopylae more than two thousand years before, the Confederate underdogs triumphed in a battle that over time has become steeped in hyperbole. Providing a meticulously researched, scholarly account of this remarkable victory, Sabine Pass at last separates the legends from the evidence. In arresting prose, Edward T. Cotham, Jr., recounts the momentous hours of September 8, 1863, during which a handful of Texans—almost all of Irish descent—under the leadership of Houston saloonkeeper Richard W. Dowling, prevented a Union military force of more than 5,000 men, twenty-two transport vessels, and four gunboats from occupying Sabine Pass, the starting place for a large invasion that would soon have given the Union control of Texas. Sabine Pass sheds new light on previously overlooked details, such as the design and construction of the fort that Dowling and his men defended, and includes the battle report prepared by Dowling himself. The result is a portrait of a mythic event that is even more provocative when stripped of embellishment.

Download or read book Echoes of Glory written by Thomas E. Alexander and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In their previous book, Faded Glory: A Century of Forgotten Texas Military Sites, Then and Now, historians Thomas E. Alexander and Dan K. Utley chose to go beyond the familiar military sites of Texas—the Alamo or the San Jacinto battlefield, for example—to feature lesser known locations. The book successfully recovered these “forgotten” arenas for tourists and preservationists alike. Alexander and Utley now return with Echoes of Glory, and the result is another impressive catalogue that highlights the hidden gems of Texas history. Echoes of Glory explores two dozen rarely discussed but equally significant military sites across Texas. From the establishment of a Spanish fortress at San Sabá during the mission era to a multimillion-dollar Cold War naval base, readers will find a range of sites and stories to enlighten and entertain. Rare illustrations contrast each site with how it appeared in its glory days to how it appears today. Echoes of Glory underscores the need to preserve or fully interpret such places before they are lost forever.

Download or read book Theater of a Separate War written by Thomas W. Cutrer and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2023-04-04 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though its most famous battles were waged in the East at Antietam, Gettysburg, and throughout Virginia, the Civil War was clearly a conflict that raged across a continent. From cotton-rich Texas and the fields of Kansas through Indian Territory and into the high desert of New Mexico, the Trans-Mississippi Theater was site of major clashes from the war's earliest days through the surrenders of Confederate generals Edmund Kirby Smith and Stand Waite in June 1865. In this comprehensive military history of the war west of the Mississippi River, Thomas W. Cutrer shows that the theater's distance from events in the East does not diminish its importance to the unfolding of the larger struggle.

Download or read book Battle on the Bay written by Edward T. Cotham and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Civil War history of Galveston is one of the last untold stories from America's bloodiest war, despite the fact that Galveston was a focal point of hostilities throughout the conflict. As other Southern ports fell to the Union, Galveston emerged as one of the Confederacy's only lifelines to the outside world. When the war ended in 1865, Galveston was the only major port still in Confederate hands. In this beautifully written narrative history, Ed Cotham draws upon years of archival and on-site research, as well as rare historical photographs, drawings, and maps, to chronicle the Civil War years in Galveston. His story encompasses all the military engagements that took place in the city and on Galveston Bay, including the dramatic Battle of Galveston, in which Confederate forces retook the city on New Year's Day, 1863. Cotham sets the events in Galveston within the overall conduct of the war, revealing how the city's loss was a great strategic impediment to the North. Through his pages pass major figures of the era, as well as ordinary soldiers, sailors, and citizens of Galveston, whose courage in the face of privation and danger adds an inspiring dimension to the story.

Download or read book Engineering in the Confederate Heartland written by Larry J. Daniel and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2022-09-14 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While engineers played a critical role in the performance of both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War, few historians have examined their experiences or impact. Larry J. Daniel’s Engineering in the Confederate Heartland fills a gap in that historiography by analyzing the accomplishments of these individuals working for the Confederacy in the vast region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, commonly referred to as the Western Theater. Though few in number, the members of the western engineer corps were vital in implementing Confederate strategy and tactics. Most Confederate engineers possessed little to no military training, transitioning from the civilian tasks of water drainage, railroad construction, and land surveys to overseeing highly technical war-related projects. Their goal was simple in mission but complex in implementation: utilize their specialized skills to defeat, or at least slow, the Union juggernaut. The geographical diversity of the Heartland further complicated their charge. The expansive area featured elevations reaching over six thousand feet, sandstone bluffs cut by running valleys on the Cumberland Plateau, the Nashville basin’s thick cedar glades and rolling farmland, and the wind-blown silt soil of the Loess Plains of the Mississippi Valley. Regardless of the topography, engineers encountered persistent flooding in all sectors. Daniel’s study challenges the long-held thesis that the area lacked adept professionals. Engineers’ expertise and labor, especially in the construction of small bridges and the laying of pontoons, often proved pivotal. Lacking sophisticated equipment and technical instruments, they nonetheless achieved numerous successes: the Union army never breached the defenses at Vicksburg or Atlanta, and by late 1864, the Army of Tennessee boasted a pontoon train sufficient to span the Tennessee River. Daniel uncovers these and other essential contributions to the war effort made by the Confederacy’s western engineers.

Download or read book Ten Texans in Gray written by William Curtis Nunn and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten biographical studies written by selected graduate students on Texas Confederate civil and military leaders.

Download or read book Civil War Special Forces written by Robert P. Broadwater and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-08-26 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely addition to Civil War history shares the stories of 25 unique military organizations, showing how past and future collided in the first modern war. The Civil War, of course, pitted North against South. It also pitted ancient ways of war against new, technology-inspired weaponry and tactics. In surveying the war's elite fighting units, this work covers both. The book showcases novel weapons and unorthodox strategies, including machine gunners, rocket battalions, chemical corps, the Union balloon corps, and the Confederate submarine service, all of which harnessed new technologies and were forerunners of the modern military. Chapters also cover archaic special forces, such as lancers and pikers, that had their last hurrah during this transformational conflict. Readers will also meet the fighting youth of the North Carolina Junior Reserves, the "Graybeards" of North Carolina, and the female combatants of the Nancy Harts Militia of Georgia. Going where few other studies have gone, the book fills a gap in existing Civil War literature and brings to life the stories of many of the most extraordinary units that ever served in an American army. The tales it tells will prove fascinating to Civil War and weapons buffs and to general readers alike.

Download or read book Fighting Irish in the American Civil War and the Invasion of Mexico written by Arthur H. Mitchell and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2017-04-10 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As mid-19th century America erupted in violence with the invasion of Mexico and the outbreak of the Civil War, Irish immigrants joined the fray in large numbers, on both sides. They sometimes were disruptive elements. In Mexico, a body of Irish artillerymen defected to the other side. During the Civil War, Patrick Cleburne stirred controversy in the Confederacy when he proposed enlisting slaves in exchange for their freedom. The New York draft riots, a violent insurrection by a predominantly Irish mob, raged for three days before Federal troops restored order. Despite turmoil and contention, the Irish soldiers who fought in the Union army contributed significantly to the preservation of the United States. This collection of essays examines the involvement of Irish men and women in America's conflicts from 1840 to 1865.

Download or read book Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski Jefferson Lonoke Faulkner Grant Saline Perry Garland and Hot Spring Counties Arkansas written by and published by . This book was released on 1889 with total page 822 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book REBEL YELL History of the Confederacy Memoirs and Biographies of the Confederate Leaders Official Documents written by John Esten Cooke and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2024-01-17 with total page 2628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: REBEL YELL: History of the Confederacy, Memoirs and Biographies of the Confederate Leaders & Official Documents encompasses a profound and eclectic mix of perspectives, shedding light on the Confederate States of America through a compendium of memoirs, biographies, and seminal documents. This anthology harmoniously blends varying literary styles, from the eloquent and reflective memoirs of generals to the meticulously curated official records, providing an unparalleled insight into the complexities and nuances of the Civil War era. With contributions that range from the strategic musings of Robert E. Lee to the impassioned narratives of John Esten Cooke, the collection offers a unique lens through which the history and ideology of the Confederacy are explored, marking it a significant compilation in Civil War literature. The authors and editors, each a notable figure of the Confederate cause or its chronicling, bring a rich tapestry of backgrounds to the collection. Their writings not only reflect their personal experiences and roles within the Confederacy but also situate the collection within broader historical, cultural, and literary movements. The diversity of the contributors, from high-ranking officials like Jefferson Davis to foreign observers such as Heros von Borcke, adds a broad spectrum of viewpoints, enriching the readers understanding of the Confederate ethos and the civil strife that marked this tumultuous period in American history. REBEL YELL is a must-read for scholars, history enthusiasts, and anyone interested in exploring the multi-faceted narratives of the Civil War from the Confederate perspective. The anthology offers a unique opportunity to delve into the minds and experiences of those who shaped and were shaped by the Confederacy, providing a comprehensive and illuminating exploration of a pivotal era. Its educational value, coupled with the breadth of insights and the dialogue it fosters between the different authors' works, makes it an invaluable resource for understanding the complexities of American history.

Download or read book Confederate Engineer written by George G. Kundahl and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "John Morris Wampler was a topographical engineer in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States and eventually became chief engineer of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Based on extensive use of Wampler's unpublished correspondence and journals, the biography follows his experiences before hostilities and then during the war in both major theaters. It also draws on the writings of his wife, Kate, to show how she struggled to hold their family together during the fighting. The combination of both the husband and wife's perspectives on the war makes this treatment unique."--Jacket.

Download or read book REBEL YELL History of the Confederacy Memoirs and Biographies of the Confederate Leaders Official Documents written by Jefferson Davis and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2017-09-03 with total page 2621 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This meticulously edited collection offers you the true accounts about the Confederate States of America, including documents that were most influential for the creation of the states and the life stories of its principal leaders and officers. "The History of the Confederate States of America" and "The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government" represent the best source for understanding the background, the creation, fight and the ultimate defeat, written by the President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis. The collection also includes memoirs and biographies of the Confederate Leaders: Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee & Heros von Borcke. Finally, this collection is enriched with the most pivotal documents of the Confederate States. Contents: History of the Confederate States of America The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government Memoirs & Biographies: Jefferson Davis by Frank H. Alfriend Robert E. Lee by John Esten Cooke Memoirs of Heros von Borcke Official Documents of the Confederate States: Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America Constitution of the Confederate States of America The Address of the People of South Carolina assembled in Convention, to the People of the Slaveholding States of the United States South Carolina Ordinance of Secession Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union Mississippi Ordinance of Secession Florida Ordinance of Secession Alabama Ordinance of Secession Georgia Ordinance of Secession Louisiana Ordinance of Secession Texas Ordinance of Secession Arizona Territory Ordinance of Secession Virginia Ordinance of Secession Arkansas Ordinance of Secession North Carolina Ordinance of Secession Tennessee Ordinance of Secession Missouri Ordinance of Secession Kentucky Ordinance of Secession Dix-Hill Cartel Robert E. Lee's Letter Announcing Surrender ...