Download or read book Rebel Private Front And Rear Memoirs Of A Confederate Soldier written by William A. Fletcher and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The recent rediscovery of Rebel Private: Front and Rear, effectively lost for decades, marks an authentic publishing event in the literature of the Civil War. A rare insight into the conflict from the point of view of a Confederate army enlisted man, this compelling memoir has been hailed by historians as a classic and indispensible key to understanding the Southern perspective. Margaret Mitchell even described it as her single most valuable source of research for Gone With the Wind. “This stunning document is the work of a common foot soldier blessed with extraordinary perception and articulateness. After joining the famed Texas Brigade under Stonewall Jackson. Private William A. Fletcher saw action at Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, and Chickamauga. He was wounded several times and escaped from a moving Union prison train before the South’s surrender. In 1907, he published this powerfully evocative account of his exploits, a volume of frank, detailed recollections that spares none of the horror, courage, or absurdity of war. But a fire destroyed all but a few copies before they could be distributed. One copy, however, did make its way to the Library of Congress, where it was eventually discovered. Today, this colorful work has become the voice of the Civil War front-line grunt, speaking to the modern reader with the intensity of personal experience and a vividness of detail that gives it a riveting you-are-there quality.”- Print ed. “Get this riveting book. Fletcher’s description of Gettysburg surpasses almost everything I’ve read anywhere about that battle, including—gasps!—Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels.”—Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram “Epitomizes unsung, unintentional greatness.... Readers find themselves in the trenches.... May become seminal reading for Civil War scholars and history buffs.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Download or read book Rebel Private Front and Rear written by William Andrew Fletcher and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Rebel Private Front and Rear Memoirs of a Confederate Soldier written by William Fletcher and published by . This book was released on 2016-05-23 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In April 1861 war was declared between the Union and the Confederacy. When the news came it made Fletcher nervous, as he was working but didn't want to miss his chance to enlist; reaching an agreement, he began his journey the following day. Two years later, on the third day at Gettysburg, Fletcher recalls how he became temporarily afflicted with a "bad case of cowardly horror" following the order to prepare to charge. But Fletcher could also be a restless man and was brave to a fault, frequently seeking permission for dangerous raids or patrols in the lulls between battles. Wounded on numerous occasions, Fletcher became incapacitated for further infantry service and was transferred to the cavalry, where he would serve for the rest of the war. It was during this time that he was taken prisoner by Union troops, and Fletcher's account of his capture, and the formation and execution of his escape plan is worthy of a classic thriller. With its combination of straightforward prose and unexpected philosophising, Rebel Private is an arresting account of one line soldier's experience. William Andrew Fletcher (1839-1915) was a lumberman, scout and soldier from Louisiana. In 1856 the family moved to Texas, and five years later he enlisted in the Confederate Army. Serving throughout the Civil War, he survived and returned to Texas, where he later married and raised a family. Praise for William A. Fletcher "A neat tale of suspense ... an admirable piece of Americana." - Atlantic Monthly "Gives the best account I know of.... This Confederate Soldier shows his devotion to the truth by limiting his narrative to what he saw with his own eyes." - Shelby Foote "He was the G.I. Joe of the confederate army.... He wrote so honestly, casually, and dramatically that no one who pretends to understand the Irresponsible Conflict can neglect reading this book." - Houston Post Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

Download or read book Rebel Private written by William Andrew Fletcher and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-03-27 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rebel Private: Front and Rear, are the memoirs of a front line Confederate soldier. William Andrew Fletcher served with Hood's Texas Brigade, and fought at Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Chickamauga. Fletcher's Rebel Private is considered to be one of the most vivid and well written of any Civil War memoir.

Download or read book Rebel Private Front and Rear written by W. A. Fletcher and published by . This book was released on 2018-04-22 with total page 700 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rebel Private Front and Rear is the memoirs of a Confederate soldier who fought in many famous battles.

Download or read book Rebel Private written by William Andrew Fletcher and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Civil War Memoir of Philip Daingerfield Stephenson D D written by Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr. and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 1998-04-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Truth in history is sacred and these things must be said.” So writes Philip Stephenson in this remarkable memoir about his four years of service in the Army of Tennessee. Written in 1865, when he was twenty, Stephenson’s diary relates his observations and reminiscences in painstaking detail. A private who became a veteran infantryman and artilleryman, Stephenson witnessed the death of Leonidas Polk and shared a blanket with a sleeping General Breckinridge. Ably edited by Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes, Jr., Stephenson’s vibrant memoirs indeed stand out, as he had hoped, “as though photographed in letters of fire.”

Download or read book Johnny Reb and Billy Yank written by Alexander Hunter and published by . This book was released on 1905 with total page 756 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book For Cause and Comrades written by James M. McPherson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-04-03 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: General John A. Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, "You couldn't get American soldiers today to make an attack like that." Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as war progresses -- not hold true in the Civil War? It is to this question--why did they fight--that James McPherson, America's preeminent Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout the conflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious faith, these men wrote frequently of their firm belief in the cause for which they fought: the principles of liberty, freedom, justice, and patriotism. Soldiers on both sides harkened back to the Founding Fathers, and the ideals of the American Revolution. They fought to defend their country, either the Union--"the best Government ever made"--or the Confederate states, where their very homes and families were under siege. And they fought to defend their honor and manhood. "I should not lik to go home with the name of a couhard," one Massachusetts private wrote, and another private from Ohio said, "My wife would sooner hear of my death than my disgrace." Even after three years of bloody battles, more than half of the Union soldiers reenlisted voluntarily. "While duty calls me here and my country demands my services I should be willing to make the sacrifice," one man wrote to his protesting parents. And another soldier said simply, "I still love my country." McPherson draws on more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate soldiers in history, and most of them wrote home frequently, as it was the only way for them to keep in touch with homes that many of them had left for the first time in their lives. Significantly, their letters were also uncensored by military authorities, and are uniquely frank in their criticism and detailed in their reports of marches and battles, relations between officers and men, political debates, and morale. For Cause and Comrades lets these soldiers tell their own stories in their own words to create an account that is both deeply moving and far truer than most books on war. Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." For Cause and Comrades deserves similar accolades, as McPherson's masterful prose and the soldiers' own words combine to create both an important book on an often-overlooked aspect of our bloody Civil War, and a powerfully moving account of the men who fought it.

Download or read book Marching Masters written by Colin Edward Woodward and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2014-03-05 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Confederate army went to war to defend a nation of slaveholding states, and although men rushed to recruiting stations for many reasons, they understood that the fundamental political issue at stake in the conflict was the future of slavery. Most Confederate soldiers were not slaveholders themselves, but they were products of the largest and most prosperous slaveholding civilization the world had ever seen, and they sought to maintain clear divisions between black and white, master and servant, free and slave. In Marching Masters Colin Woodward explores not only the importance of slavery in the minds of Confederate soldiers but also its effects on military policy and decision making. Beyond showing how essential the defense of slavery was in motivating Confederate troops to fight, Woodward examines the Rebels’ persistent belief in the need to defend slavery and deploy it militarily as the war raged on. Slavery proved essential to the Confederate war machine, and Rebels strove to protect it just as they did Southern cities, towns, and railroads. Slaves served by the tens of thousands in the Southern armies—never as soldiers, but as menial laborers who cooked meals, washed horses, and dug ditches. By following Rebel troops' continued adherence to notions of white supremacy into the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, the book carries the story beyond the Confederacy’s surrender. Drawing upon hundreds of soldiers’ letters, diaries, and memoirs, Marching Masters combines the latest social and military history in its compelling examination of the last bloody years of slavery in the United States.

Download or read book Shiloh 1862 written by Winston Groom and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this gripping telling of the first "great and terrible" battle of the Civil War, Groom describes the dramatic events of April 6 and 7, 1862, when a bold surprise attack on Ulysses S. Grant's encamped troops and the bloody battle that ensued would alter the timbre of the war.

Download or read book Barksdale s Charge written by Phillip Thomas Tucker and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2013-07-24 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is “never a dull moment” in this “excellent account” of an overlooked Confederate triumph during the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg (San Francisco Book Review). While many Civil War buffs celebrate Picket’s Charge as the climactic moment of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate Army’s true high point had come the afternoon before. When Longstreet’s corps triumphantly entered the battle, the Federals just barely held on. The foremost Rebel spearhead on that second day of the battle was Brig. Gen. William Barksdale’s Mississippi brigade, which launched what one Union observer called the “grandest charge that was ever seen by mortal man.” On the second day of Gettysburg, the Federal left was not as vulnerable as Lee had envisioned, but had cooperated with Rebel wishes by extending its Third Corps into a salient. When Longstreet finally gave Barksdale the go-ahead, the Mississippians utterly crushed the peach orchard salient and continued marauding up to Cemetery Ridge. Hancock, Meade, and other Union generals had to gather men from four different corps to try to stem the onslaught. Barksdale himself was killed at the apex of his advance. Darkness, as well as Confederate exhaustion, finally ended the day’s fight as the shaken, depleted Federal units took stock. They had barely held on against the full ferocity of the Rebels on a day that would decide the fate of the nation.

Download or read book Don t Hurry Me Down to Hades written by Susannah Ural and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-10-20 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filled with diverse letters and diary entries from the archives and rich resources across America, Don't Hurry Me Down to Hades sheds new light on the military events, politics, and personal sacrifices experienced during the War Between the States. For four years American families on both sides of the Mason–Dixon Line were forced to endure the violence and hardship of the Civil War. This is the story of these families, expertly crafted from their own words. Revealing the innermost thoughts of both famous citizens and men and women forgotten by history, esteemed Civil War historian Susannah J. Ural explores life on the battlefield and the home front, capturing the astonishing perseverance of the men and women caught up in this most brutal of conflicts.

Download or read book Living Hell written by Michael C. C. Adams and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A senior military historian presents an unflinching account of the human costs of the Civil War. Many Americans, argues Michael C. C. Adams, tend to think of the Civil War as more glorious, less awful, than the reality. Millions of tourists flock to battlefields each year as vacation destinations, their perceptions of the war often shaped by reenactors who work hard for verisimilitude but who cannot ultimately simulate mutilation, madness, chronic disease, advanced physical decay. In Living Hell, Adams tries a different tack, clustering the voices of myriad actual participants on the firing line or in the hospital ward to create a virtual historical reenactment. Perhaps because the United States has not seen conventional war on its own soil since 1865, the collective memory of its horror has faded, so that we have sanitized and romanticized even the experience of the Civil War. Neither film nor reenactment can fully capture the hard truth of the four-year conflict. Living Hell presents a stark portrait of the human costs of the Civil War and gives readers a more accurate appreciation of its profound and lasting consequences. Adams examines the sharp contrast between the expectations of recruits versus the realities of communal living, the enormous problems of dirt and exposure, poor diet, malnutrition, and disease. He describes the slaughter produced by close-order combat, the difficulties of cleaning up the battlefields—where tens of thousands of dead and wounded often lay in an area of only a few square miles—and the resulting psychological damage survivors experienced. Drawing extensively on letters and memoirs of individual soldiers, Adams assembles vivid accounts of the distress Confederate and Union soldiers faced daily: sickness, exhaustion, hunger, devastating injuries, and makeshift hospitals where saws were often the medical instrument of choice. Inverting Robert E. Lee’s famous line about war, Adams suggests that too many Americans become fond of war out of ignorance of its terrors. Providing a powerful counterpoint to Civil War glorification, Living Hell echoes William Tecumseh Sherman’s comment that war is cruelty and cannot be refined. Praise for Our Masters the Rebels: A Speculation on Union Military Failure in the East, 1861–1865 "This excellent and provocative work concludes with a chapter suggesting how the image of Southern military superiority endured in spite of defeat."—Civil War History "Adams's imaginative connections between culture and combat provide a forceful reminder that Civil War military history belongs not in an encapsulated realm, with its own categories and arcane language, but at the center of the study of the intellectual, social, and psychological currents that prevailed in the mid-nineteenth century."—Journal of American History Praise for The Best War Ever: America and World War II "Adams has a real gift for efficiently explaining complex historical problems."—Reviews in American History "Not only is this mythologizing bad history, says Adams, it is dangerous as well. Surrounding the war with an aura of nostalgia both fosters the delusion that war can cure our social ills and makes us strong again, and weakens confidence in our ability to act effectively in our own time."—Journal of Military History

Download or read book Journal of the Civil War Era written by William A. Blair and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The University of North Carolina Press and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University are pleased to Publish The Journal of the Civil War Era. William Blair, of the Pennsylvania State University, serves as founding editor. Table of Contents for this issue: Volume 1, Number 3: September 2011 Articles Jon Grinspan "Sorrowfully Amusing": The Popular Comedy of the Civil War Joan E. Cashin Trophies of War: Material Culture in the Civil War Era Anne E. Marshall The 1906 Uncle Tom's Cabin Law and the Politics of Race and Memory in Early-Twentieth-Century Kentucky Review Essay Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh Total War and the American Civil War Reconsidered: The End of an Outdated "Master Narrative" Book Reviews Books Received Professional Notes Barbara Franco Planned Commemorations: Unexpected Consequences Notes on Contributors The Journal of the Civil War Era takes advantage of the flowering of research on the many issues raised by the sectional crisis, war, Reconstruction, and memory of the conflict, while bringing fresh understanding to the struggles that defined the period, and by extension, the course of American history in the nineteenth century.

Download or read book To the Battles of Franklin and Nashville and Beyond written by Benjamin Franklin Cooling and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2011-07-20 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By 1864 neither the Union’s survival nor the South’s independence was any more apparent than at the beginning of the war. The grand strategies of both sides were still evolving, and Tennessee and Kentucky were often at the cusp of that work. The author examines the heartland conflict in all its aspects: the Confederate cavalry raids and Union counter-offensives; the harsh and punitive Reconstruction policies that were met with banditry and brutal guerrilla actions; the disparate political, economic, and socio-cultural upheavals; the ever-growing war weariness of the divided populations; and the climactic battles of Franklin and Nashville that ended the Confederacy’s hopes in the Western Theater.

Download or read book America s Bloody Hill of Destiny written by Phillip Thomas Tucker and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "No chapter in the annals of the most important battle of America's national epic has been more celebrated than the key struggle for possession of the rocky hill at the extreme southern flank of the battle line at Gettysburg, Little Round Top. And no contest during the battle of Gettysburg was deadlier or as dramatic as the high stakes showdown for Little Round Top on the afternoon of July 2, 1863. Gettysburg was the decisive turning point of America's history, and Little Round Top was the crucial turning point of that three-day struggle in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Little Round Top was indeed the bloody Hill of Destiny, when the fate of America hung in the balance and was ultimately determined on the most decisive day of the three days at Gettysburg, July 2. However, some of the most important aspects of the famous struggle for Little Round Top have been distorted by misconceptions, myths, and layers of romance. For the first time, this ground-breaking book, America's Bloody Hill of Destiny, A New Look at the Struggle for Little Round Top, July 2, 1863, has presented a fresh and new look at the key leaders and hard-fighting common soldiers on both sides, who played the most important roles during the climactic struggle that decided the fate of America during one of the most pivotal moments in American history."