Download or read book Hell Itself written by Chris Mackowski and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2016-05-01 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Civil War historian recounts the first battle between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee—a bloody and horrifying conflict in the Wilderness of Virginia. Known simply as the Wilderness, soldiers called the seventy square miles of dense Virginian forest one of the “waste places of nature” and “a region of gloom.” Yet here, in the spring of 1864, the Civil War escalated to a new level of horror. Ulysses S. Grant, commanding all Federal armies, opened the Overland Campaign with a vow to never turn back. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, moved into the Wilderness to block Grant’s advance. Thick underbrush made for difficult movement and low visibility. And these challenges were terrifyingly compounded by the outbreak of fires that burned casualties and left both sided blinded in a sea of smoke. Driven by desperation, duty, confusion, and fire, soldiers on both sides marveled that anyone might make it out alive. “This, viewed as a battleground, was simply infernal,” a Union soldier later said. Another called it “Hell itself.”
Download or read book The Wilderness Campaign written by Gary W. Gallagher and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring of 1864, in the vast Virginia scrub forest known as the Wilderness, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee first met in battle. The Wilderness campaign of May 5-6 initiated an epic confrontation between these two Civil War commanders--one that would finally end, eleven months later, with Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The eight essays here assembled explore aspects of the background, conduct, and repercussions of the fighting in the Wilderness. Through an often-revisionist lens, contributors to this volume focus on topics such as civilian expectations for the campaign, morale in the two armies, and the generalship of Lee, Grant, Philip H. Sheridan, Richard S. Ewell, A. P. Hill, James Longstreet, and Lewis A. Grant. Taken together, these essays revise and enhance existing work on the battle, highlighting ways in which the military and nonmilitary spheres of war intersected in the Wilderness. The contributors: --Peter S. Carmichael, 'Escaping the Shadow of Gettysburg: Richard S. Ewell and Ambrose Powell Hill at the Wilderness' --Gary W. Gallagher, 'Our Hearts Are Full of Hope: The Army of Northern Virginia in the Spring of 1864' --John J. Hennessy, 'I Dread the Spring: The Army of the Potomac Prepares for the Overland Campaign' --Robert E. L. Krick, 'Like a Duck on a June Bug: James Longstreet's Flank Attack, May 6, 1864' --Robert K. Krick, ''Lee to the Rear,' the Texans Cried' --Carol Reardon, 'The Other Grant: Lewis A. Grant and the Vermont Brigade in the Battle of the Wilderness' --Gordon C. Rhea, 'Union Cavalry in the Wilderness: The Education of Philip H. Sheridan and James H. Wilson' --Brooks D. Simpson, 'Great Expectations: Ulysses S. Grant, the Northern Press, and the Opening of the Wilderness Campaign'
Download or read book The Battle of the Wilderness May 5 6 1864 written by Gordon C. Rhea and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2004-09-01 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fought in a tangled forest fringing the south bank of the Rapidan River, the Battle of the Wilderness marked the initial engagement in the climactic months of the Civil War in Virginia, and the first encounter between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. In an exciting narrative, Gordon C. Rhea provides the consummate recounting of that conflict of May 5 and 6, 1864, which ended with high casualties on both sides but no clear victor. With its balanced analysis of events and people, command structures and strategies, The Battle of the Wilderness is operational history as it should be written.
Download or read book The Battle of the Wilderness May 5 6 1864 written by Gordon C. Rhea and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2004-09 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fought in a tangled forest fringing the south bank of the Rapidan River, the Battle of the Wilderness marked the initial engagement in the climactic months of the Civil War in Virginia, and the first encounter between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. In an exciting narrative, Gordon C. Rhea provides the consummate recounting of that conflict of May 5 and 6, 1864, which ended with high casualties on both sides but no clear victor. With its balanced analysis of events and people, command structures and strategies, The Battle of the Wilderness is operational history as it should be written.
Download or read book The Battle of the Wilderness written by Dan Abnett and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2006-07-15 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In graphic novel format, describes the events that occured leading up to and during the Battle of the Wilderness, a battle which nearly shattered Union forces.
Download or read book Battle in the Wilderness written by Grady McWhiney and published by Civil War Campaigns and Comman. This book was released on 1995 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia during the Civil War.
Download or read book The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern May 7 12 1864 written by Gordon C. Rhea and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume in Gordon C. Rhea's peerless five-book series on the Civil War's 1864 Overland Campaign abounds with Rhea's signature detail, innovative analysis, and riveting prose. Here Rhea examines the maneuvers and battles from May 7, 1864, when Grant left the Wilderness, through May 12, when his attempt to break Lee's line by frontal assault reached a chilling climax at what is now called the Bloody Angle. Drawing exhaustively upon previously untapped materials, Rhea challenges conventional wisdom about this violent clash of titans to construct the ultimate account of Grant and Lee at Spotsylvania.
Download or read book A Season of Slaughter written by Chris Mackowski and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2013-05-05 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping narrative of one of the Civil War’s most consequential engagements. In the spring of 1864, the newly installed Union commander Ulysses S. Grant did something none of his predecessors had done before: He threw his army against the wily, audacious Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia over and over again. At Spotsylvania Court House, the two armies shifted from stalemate in the Wilderness to slugfest in the mud. Most commonly known for the horrific twenty-two-hour hand-to-hand combat in the pouring rain at the Bloody Angle, the battle of Spotsylvania Court House actually stretched from May 8 to 21, 1864—fourteen long days of battle and maneuver. Grant, the irresistible force, hammering with his overwhelming numbers and unprecedented power, versus Lee, the immovable object, hunkered down behind the most formidable defensive works yet seen on the continent. Spotsylvania Court House represents a chess match of immeasurable stakes between two master opponents. This clash is detailed in A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May –21, 1864. A Season of Slaughter is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series offering compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with hundreds of photos, illustrations, and maps. “[A] wonderful book for anyone interested in learning about the fighting around Spotsylvania Court House or who would like to tour the area. It is well written, easy to read, and well worth the price.” —Civil War News
Download or read book Lee s Miserables written by J. Tracy Power and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2015-01-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Never did so large a proportion of the American population leave home for an extended period and produce such a detailed record of its experiences in the form of correspondence, diaries, and other papers as during the Civil War. Based on research in more than 1,200 wartime letters and diaries by more than 400 Confederate officers and enlisted men, this book offers a compelling social history of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during its final year, from May 1864 to April 1865. Organized in a chronological framework, the book uses the words of the soldiers themselves to provide a view of the army's experiences in camp, on the march, in combat, and under siege--from the battles in the Wilderness to the final retreat to Appomattox. It sheds new light on such questions as the state of morale in the army, the causes of desertion, ties between the army and the home front, the debate over arming black men in the Confederacy, and the causes of Confederate defeat. Remarkably rich and detailed, Lee's Miserables offers a fresh look at one of the most-studied Civil War armies.
Download or read book The Battle of the Wilderness written by Morris Schaff and published by . This book was released on 1910 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Battle of the Wilderness written by Dan Abnett and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2006-08-15 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This May 1864 confrontation in the dense thickets of The Wilderness in Virginia became one of the wars most gruesome battlegrounds. Opposing armies found themselves fighting in the heavy growth of trees and shrubs as the area became a fiery inferno. With movement limited by the dense growth, soldiers were trapped in the blazing fire, thousands perishing in the intense blaze.
Download or read book If it Takes All Summer written by William D. Matter and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 1988 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzes the Battle of Spotsylvania, in which Grant attempted to prevent Lee from reaching the Confederate capital of Richmond
Download or read book No Turning Back written by Robert M. Dunkerly and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2014-03-19 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[T]here will be no turning back,” said Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. It was May, 1864. The Civil War had dragged into its fourth spring. It was time to end things, Grant resolved, once and for all. With the Union Army of the Potomac as his sledge, Grant crossed the Rapidan River, intending to draw the Army of Northern Virginia into one final battle. Short of that, he planned “to hammer continuously against the armed forces of the enemy and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him . . . .” Almost immediately, though, Robert E. Lee’s Confederates brought Grant to bay in the thick tangle of the Wilderness. Rather than retreat, as other army commanders had done in the past, Grant outmaneuvered Lee, swinging left and south. There was, after all, no turning back. “I intend to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer,” Grant vowed. And he did: from the dark, close woods of the Wilderness to the Muleshoe of Spotsylvania, to the steep banks of the North Anna River, to the desperate charges of Cold Harbor. The 1864 Overland Campaign would be a nonstop grind of fighting, maneuvering, and marching, much of it in rain and mud, with casualty lists longer than anything yet seen in the war. In No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign, from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May 4 - June 13, 1864, historians Robert M. Dunkerly, Donald C. Pfanz, and David R. Ruth allow readers to follow in the footsteps of the armies as they grapple across the Virginia landscape. Pfanz spent his career as a National Park Service historian on the battlefields where the campaign began; Dunkerly and Ruth work on the battlefields where it concluded. Few people know the ground, or the campaign, better.
Download or read book Bloody Promenade written by Stephen Cushman and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1999-10-29 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 5 and 6 May 1864, the Union and Confederate armies met near an unfinished railroad in central Virginia, with Lee outmanned and outgunned, hoping to force Grant to fight in the woods. The name of the battle--Wilderness--suggests the horror of combat at close quarters and an inability to see the whole field of engagement, even from a distance. Indeed, the battle is remembered for its brutality and ultimate futility for Lee: even with 26,000 casualties on both sides, the Wilderness only briefly stemmed Grant's advance. Stephen Cushman lives fifty miles south of this battlefield. A poet and professor of American literature, he wrote Bloody Promenade to confront the fractured legacy of a battle that haunts him through its very proximity to his everyday life. Cushman's personal narrative is not another history of the battle. "If this book is a history of anything," he writes, "it's the history of verbal and visual images of a single, particularly awful moment in the American Civil War." Reflecting on that moment can begin in the present, with the latest film or reenactment, but it leads Cushman back to materials from the past. Writing in an informal, first-person style, he traces his own fascination with the conflict to a single book, a pictorial history he read as a boy. His abiding interest and poetic sensibility yield a fresh perspective on the war's continuing grip on Americans--how it pervades our lives through films and songs; novels such as The Red Badge of Courage, The Killer Angels, and Cold Mountain; Whitman's poetry and Winslow Homer's painting; or the pull of the abstract idea of the triumph of freedom. With maps and a brief discussion of the Battle of the Wilderness for those not familiar with the landscape and actors, Bloody Promenade provides a personal tour of one of the most savage engagements of the Civil War, then offers a lively discussion of its aftermath.
Download or read book The Overland Campaign 4 May 15 June 1864 written by David W. Hogan and published by Department of the Army. This book was released on 2014 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the spring of 1864, the Civil War s two legendary military leaders, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, confronted each other on the battlefield for the first time. Part of the U.S. Army s commemorative series of the Civil War, The Overland Campaign, 4 May 15 June 1864, by David W. Hogan, Jr. tells the story of the clash of these two titans through the burning scrub brush of the Wilderness, the bitter struggle for the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania Court House, the cavalry encounter at Yellow Tavern, the maneuvering along the North Anna River, and the tragedy of Cold Harbor. It also provides analysis in light of the latest scholarship. This brochure includes eight maps and twenty-two illustrations. High school students and teachers that are learning and preparing research papers about the American Civil War may be interested in this illustrated resource. Additionally, military personnel, especially military historians, military science students, and American citizens may be interested in this book."
Download or read book The Wilderness War written by Allan W. Eckert and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wilderness War is the eagerly awaited fourth volume in Allan W. Eckert's acclaimed series of narratives, The Winning of America. the violent and monumental description of the wrestling of the North American continent from the Indians. Two hundred fifty years had elapsed since the Five Nations, the greatest of the Indian tribes, ceased their continual warfare among themselves and banded together for mutual defense. Their union had created the feared and formidable Iroquois League; their empire stretched from Lake Champlain, across New York to Niagara Falls. Theirs was a remarkable form of representative government that presaged our own, and their wealth lay in the vast, beautiful lands abundant with crops. As warriors they were unsurpassed - even the depredations of the recent French and Indian War could not diminish their prowess. But by 1770, the white men living in their land were fighting among themselves again, and war came once more to the Iroquois land.
Download or read book Dignity of Duty written by Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath and published by Pritzker Military Museum and Library. This book was released on 2015-06-19 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published 117 years after his death, the journals of the American soldier Erasmus Corwin Gilbreath provide a compelling vantage point by which to view contemporary American history. They tell, first and foremost, a tale of war in which there is no gloryonly carnage and death. Through Gilbreaths firsthand accounts we get a sense of what life was like during the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and the War with Spain from an accomplished field officer, rather than from high command. Gilbreath illuminates the true horrors of war in the 19th Century for soldiersboredom, fatigue, death, and crude medical care for the woundedand their families, as Gilbreaths wife and children followed him wherever his orders would lead, enduring the primitive conditions they found along the way. From his instrumental role in raising a company that would become part of the 20th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, to his death while serving with the 11th U.S. Infantry in Puerto Rico at the tail end of the SpanishAmerican War, Gilbreaths life exemplifies the dignity of his service and the importance he placed on duty to his nation. In his journals, Gilbreath paints a vivid picture of the turmoil and change that was 19th Century America. Passages such as the lyric firsthand account of the Battle of the Ironclads or his reconnecting with a fellow Gettysburg veteran in Chicago 21 years after the battle are beautifully written, and carry a personal and emotional gravity that are found in the best literary works. Gilbreath is one of Americas sons, a proud citizen soldier who helped to forge the United States, and we are truly fortunate that his legacy lives on in these pages.
