Download or read book Manet and the American Civil War written by Juliet Wilson-Bareau and published by Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book was released on 2003 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "On June 19, 1864, the United States warship Kearsarge sank the Confederate raider Alabama off the coast of Cherbourg, France, in one of the most celebrated naval engagements of the American Civil War. When Kearsarge later anchored off the French resort town of Boulogne-sur-Mer it was thronged by curious visitors, one of whom was the artist Edouard Manet. Although he did not witness the historic battle, Manet made a painting of it partly as an attempt to regain the respect of his colleagues after having been ridiculed for his works in the 1864 Salon. Manet's picture of the naval engagement and his portrait of the victorious Kearsarge belong to a group of his seascapes of Boulogne whose unorthodox perspective and composition would profoundly influence the course of French painting." "Manet's paintings and watercolors related to the battle are considered in depth alongside numerous prints, photographs, letters, and archival newspaper illustrations that illuminate the history of the episode and in some cases dispel lingering misconceptions. Manet's other Boulogne seascapes are also discussed in terms of their complex chronology and evolution. A final chapter touches on some of the sources for the seascapes - from Old Master paintings to Japanese woodblock prints - and traces the influence of the seascapes on such artists as Gustave Courbet, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and Claude Monet."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Alabama and the Kearsarge written by William Marvel and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On June 19, 1864, the Confederate cruiser Alabama and the USS Kearsarge faced off in the English Channel outside the French port of Cherbourg. About an hour after the Alabama fired the first shot, it began to sink, and its crew was forced to wave the white flag of surrender. Working with personal papers and diaries and contemporary reports, historian William Marvel interweaves the stories of these two celebrated Civil War warships, from their construction to their climactic encounter off Cherbourg. Just as importantly, he illuminates the day-to-day experiences of their crews. From cabin boys to officers, sailors have been one of the most ignored groups of the Civil War. The sailors' lot was one of constant discomfort and monotony, interspersed with riotous frolics ashore and, occasionally, a few minutes of intense excitement and danger. Housed in damp, crowded quarters, their wartime mortality rate did not reach that of their army counterparts, but service-connected diseases shortened their postwar lives disproportionately. Most of the crewmen ended their lives in nameless obscurity, and their story has remained unwritten until now.

Download or read book The Alabama the Kearsarge written by William Marvel and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On June 19, 1864, the Confederate cruiser Alabama and the USS Kearsarge faced off in the English Channel outside the French port of Cherbourg. The Kearsarge had seen little action, and its men greeted the battle with enthusiasm. The Alabama, on the other hand, had limped into the harbor with a near-mutinous crew after spending months sinking Union ships all over the globe. Commander Raphael Semmes intended to put the ship into drydock for a few months - but then the Kearsarge steamed onto the scene, setting the stage for battle. About an hour after the Alabama fired the first shot, it began to sink, and its crew was forced to wave the white flag of surrender. Marvel consulted the original muster rolls and logbooks for both ships, the virtually unknown letters of Confederate paymaster Clarence Yonge, and census and pension information. The letters and diaries of officers and crewmen describe the tensions aboard the ships, as do excerpts from the little-used original logs of Alabama commander Raphael Semmes. French sources also help to illuminate the details of the battle between the two ships. Marvel challenges the accuracy of key memoirs on which most previous histories of the Alabama have been based and in so doing corrects a number of long-standing misinterpretations, including the myth that the English builders of the Alabama did not know what Confederate officials intended to do with the vessel. Marvel's greatest contribution is his compelling description of the everyday life of the men on board the ships, from the Liverpool urchins who served as cabin boys on the Alabama to the senior officers on both of the warships.

Download or read book The Alabama Kearsarge Battle written by William Morrison Robinson and published by . This book was released on 1924 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Wolf of the Deep written by Stephen Fox and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-03-25 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The electrifying story of Raphael Semmes and the CSS Alabama, the Confederate raider that destroyed Union ocean shipping and took more prizes than any other raider in naval history. In July, 1862, Semmes received orders to take command of a secret new British-built steam warship, the Alabama. At its helm, he would become the most hated and feared man in ports up and down the Union coast—and a Confederate legend. Now, with unparalleled authority and depth, and with a vivid sense of the excitement and danger of the time, Stephen Fox tells the story of Captain Semmes's remarkable wartime exploits. From vicious naval battles off the coast of France, to plundering the cargo of Union ships in the Caribbean, this is a thrilling tale of an often overlooked chapter of the Civil War.

Download or read book Confederate Raider written by John M. Taylor and published by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. This book was released on 1994 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confederate Raider is the enthralling story of the Civil War as fought on the high seas by Raphael Semmes, the Confederacy's most famous and revered naval officer. Yet many of his Northern contemporaries considered the Yankee-hating Semmes nothing more than a pirate. In either guise, Semmes commanded the most successful sea raider of all time - the C.S.S. Alabama. During a two-year cruise, she took nearly a hundred Federal merchant vessels out of the war and became a household word on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line. Her final battle, off the coast of France against the U.S.S. Kearsarge, was an epic clash befitting the last one-on-one duel of wooden ships. A commander who carried out his mission without being able to bring his ship into a Southern port and whose crew had no allegiance to the Confederacy, Semmes is a brilliant and compelling figure in American military history.

Download or read book War on the Waters written by James M. McPherson and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-09-17 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although previously undervalued for their strategic impact because they represented only a small percentage of total forces, the Union and Confederate navies were crucial to the outcome of the Civil War. In War on the Waters, James M. McPherson has crafted an enlightening, at times harrowing, and ultimately thrilling account of the war's naval campaigns and their military leaders. McPherson recounts how the Union navy's blockade of the Confederate coast, leaky as a sieve in the war's early months, became increasingly effective as it choked off vital imports and exports. Meanwhile, the Confederate navy, dwarfed by its giant adversary, demonstrated daring and military innovation. Commerce raiders sank Union ships and drove the American merchant marine from the high seas. Southern ironclads sent several Union warships to the bottom, naval mines sank many more, and the Confederates deployed the world's first submarine to sink an enemy vessel. But in the end, it was the Union navy that won some of the war's most important strategic victories--as an essential partner to the army on the ground at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Mobile Bay, and Fort Fisher, and all by itself at Port Royal, Fort Henry, New Orleans, and Memphis.

Download or read book To the Uttermost Ends of the Earth written by Phil Keith and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2022-04-12 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enthralling story of the greatest Civil War battle at sea by the award-winning and bestselling historians Phil Keith and Tom Clavin. On June 19, 1864, just off the coast of France, one of the most dramatic naval battles in history took place. On a clear day with windswept skies, the dreaded Confederate raider Alabama faced the Union warship Kearsarge in an all-or-nothing fight to the finish, the outcome of which would effectively end the threat of the Confederacy on the high seas. Authors Phil Keith and Tom Clavin introduce some of the crucial but historically overlooked players, including John Winslow, captain of the USS Kearsarge, as well as Raphael Semmes, captain of the CSS Alabama. Readers will sail aboard the Kearsarge as Winslow embarks for Europe with a set of simple orders from the secretary of the navy: "Travel to the uttermost ends of the earth, if necessary, to find and destroy the Alabama." Winslow pursued Semmes in a spectacular fourteen-month chase over international waters, culminating in what would become the climactic sea battle of the Civil War.

Download or read book Two Years on the Alabama written by Arthur Sinclair and published by . This book was released on 1895 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book CSS Alabama written by Andrew Bowcock and published by Bloomsbury Academic. This book was released on 2002 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Built secretly by Laird's on the Mersey, to the order of the Confederate States during the American Civil War, the Alabama embarked on a hugely destructive world-wide campaign against Federal shipping that made the ship a household name. Eventually tracked down by the Union sloop Kearsarge, the raider was sunk off Cherbourg in an epic ship-to-ship action. However, the almost legendary quality of the ship's career was further enhanced post-war by a bestselling autobiography by Alabama's captain, Raphael Semmes. Nor did the ship's impact on history finish with her sinking, as her depredations caused a diplomatic row between the USA and Britain that was not resolved until the latter agreed to substantial compensation in 1871.

Download or read book The Civil War at Sea written by Craig L. Symonds and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2012 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Continuing in the vein of the Lincoln-prize winning Lincoln and His Admirals, acclaimed naval historian Craig L. Symonds presents an operational history of the Civil War navies - both Union and Confederate - in this concise volume. Illuminating how various aspects of the naval engagement influenced the trajectory of the war as a whole, The Civil War at Sea adds to our understanding of America's great national conflict. Both the North and the South developed and deployed hundreds of warships between 1861 and 1865. Because the Civil War coincided with a revolution in naval techonology, the development and character of warfare at sea from 1861-1865 was dramatic and unprecedented. Rather than a simple chronology of the war at sea, Symonds addresses the story of the naval war topically, from the dramatic transformation wrought by changes in technology to the establishment, management, and impact of blockade. He also offers critical assessments of principal figures in the naval war, from the opposing secretaries of the navy to leading operational commanders such as David Glasgow Farragut and Raphael Semmes. Symonds brings his expertise and knowledge of military and technological history to bear in this essential exploration of American naval engagement throughout the Civil War.

Download or read book Master of War written by Benson Bobrick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-02-10 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this revelatory, dynamic biography, one of our finest historians, Benson Bobrick, profiles George H. Thomas, arguing that he was the greatest and most successful general of the Civil War. Because Thomas didn't live to write his memoirs, his reputation has been largely shaped by others, most notably Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, two generals with whom Thomas served and who, Bobrick says, diminished his successes in their favor in their own memoirs. Born in Virginia, Thomas survived Nat Turner's rebellion as a boy, then studied at West Point, where Sherman was a classmate. Thomas distinguished himself in the Mexican War and then returned to West Point as an instructor. When the Civil War broke out, Thomas remained loyal to the Union, unlike fellow Virginia-born officer Robert E. Lee (among others). He compiled an outstanding record as an officer in battles at Mill Springs, Perryville, and Stones River. At the Battle of Chickamauga, Thomas, at the time a corps commander, held the center of the Union line under a ferocious assault, then rallied the troops on Horseshoe Ridge to prevent a Confederate rout of the Union army. His extraordinary performance there earned him the nickname "The Rock of Chickamauga." Promoted to command of the Army of the Cumberland, he led his army in a stunning Union victory at the Battle of Chattanooga. Thomas supported Sherman on his march through Georgia in the spring of 1864, winning an important victory at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. As Sherman continued on his March to the Sea, Thomas returned to Tennessee and in the battle of Nashville destroyed the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood. It was one of the most decisive victories of the war, and Thomas won it even as Grant was on his way to remove Thomas from his command. (When Grant discovered the magnitude of Thomas's victory, he quickly changed his mind.) Thomas died of a stroke in 1870 while still on active duty. In the entire Civil War, he never lost a battle or a movement. Throughout his career, Thomas was methodical and careful, and always prepared. Unlike Grant at Shiloh, he was never surprised by an enemy. Unlike Sherman, he never panicked in battle but always remained calm and focused. He was derided by both men as "Slow Trot Thomas," but as Bobrick shows in this brilliant biography, he was quick to analyze every situation and always knew what to do and when to do it. He was not colorful like Grant and Sherman, but he was widely admired by his peers, and some, such as Grant's favorite cavalry commander, General James H. Wilson, thought Thomas the peer of any general in either army. He was the only Union commander to destroy two Confederate armies in the field. Although historians of the Civil War have always regarded Thomas highly, he has never captured the public imagination, perhaps because he has lacked an outstanding biographer -- until now. This informed, judicious, and lucid biography at last gives Thomas his due.

Download or read book All Blood Runs Red written by Phil Keith and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The incredible story of the first African American military pilot, who became a spy in the French Resistance and an American civil rights pioneer. Winner of the Gold Medal for Memoir/Biography from the Military Writers Society of America A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Eugene Bullard lived one of the most fascinating lives of the twentieth century. The son of a former slave and an indigenous Creek woman, Bullard fled home at the age of eleven to escape the racial hostility of his Georgia community. When his journey led him to Europe, he garnered worldwide fame as a boxer, and later as the first African American fighter pilot in history. After the war, Bullard returned to Paris a celebrated hero. But little did he know that the dramatic, globe-spanning arc of his life had just begun. All Blood Runs Red is the inspiring untold story of an American hero, a thought-provoking chronicle of the twentieth century and a portrait of a man who came from nothing and by his own courage, determination, gumption, intelligence and luck forged a legendary life. “A whale of a tale, told clearly and quickly. I read the entire book in almost one sitting.” —Thomas E. Ricks, The New York Times Book Review “All Blood Runs Red should be required reading for anyone who has ever dreamed big. A truly inspiring and uplifting story of courage and triumph, and an opus for an unsung hero.” —Nelson DeMille “Dazzling . . . This may be a biography, but it reads like a novel.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Download or read book My Adventures Afloat written by Raphael Semmes and published by . This book was released on 1869 with total page 864 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Place Called Appomattox written by William Marvel and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2016-02-11 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although Appomattox Court House is one of the most symbolically charged places in America, it was an ordinary tobacco-growing village both before and after an accident of fate brought the armies of Lee and Grant together there. It is that Appomattox--the typical small Confederate community--that William Marvel portrays in this deeply researched, compelling study. He tells the story of the Civil War from the perspective of those who inhabited one of the conflict's most famous sites. The village sprang into existence just as Texas became a state and reached its peak not long before Lee and Grant met there. The postwar decline of the village mirrored that of the rural South as a whole, and Appomattox served as the focal point for both Lost Cause myth-making and reconciliation reveries. Marvel draws on original documents, diaries, and letters composed as the war unfolded to produce a clear and credible portrait of everyday life in this town, as well as examining the galvanizing events of April 1865. He also scrutinizes Appomattox the national symbol, exposing and explaining some of the cherished myths surrounding the surrender there.

Download or read book The Civil War Abroad written by Charles Priestley and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2022-04-27 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The impact of the Civil War was felt far beyond American shores. Many sites associated with the war remain in Britain and France--the two countries most affected--and traces of it can still be found in such unlikely places as Sweden and Turkey. Both Union and Confederate agents sought support overseas, aided by local sympathizers. Some Victorian Britons, despite their disdain for slavery, saw the South as an incipient nation struggling for recognition, like the Italians or the Poles, but linked to Britain by ties of blood, language and history. The sinking of the CSS Alabama by the USS Kearsarge off Cherbourg brought the war to the European coastline. Ten years after Appomattox, veterans from both North and South found themselves on the same side in the Egyptian army. Drawing on a wide range of sources, this book examines the international side of the Civil War.

Download or read book The Battles of Savo Island 9 August 1942 and the Eastern Solomons 23 25 August 1942 written by Winston B. Lewis and published by . This book was released on 1943 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: