Download or read book The Civil War Memoirs of Captain William J Seymour written by Terry L. Jones and published by Savas Publishing. This book was released on 2020-11-15 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Confederate captain from the 1st Louisiana Brigade uses his skill as a newspaper editor to recount his experiences during the U.S. Civil War. Like many other soldiers who fought in the Civil War, New Orleans newspaper editor William J. Seymour left behind an account of his wartime experiences. It is the only memoir by any field or staff officer of the famous 1st Louisiana Brigade (Hays’ Brigade) in the Army of Northern Virginia. Long out of print, The Civil War Memoirs of Captain William J. Seymour: Reminiscences of a Louisiana Tiger is available once more in this updated and completely revised edition by award-winning author Terry L. Jones. Seymour’s invaluable narrative begins with his service as a volunteer aide to Confederate Gen. Johnson K. Duncan during the 1862 New Orleans campaign. Utilizing his journalistic background and eye for detail, Seymour recalls the siege of Fort Jackson (the only Southern soldier’s account except for official reports), the bickering and confusion among Confederate officers, and the subsequent mutiny and surrender of the fort’s defenders. Jailed after the fall of New Orleans for violating Maj. Gen. Ben Butler’s censorship order, Seymour was eventually released and joined General Hays’ staff in Virginia. Seymour’s memoirs cover his experiences in the army of Northern Virginia, including the campaigns of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, and Shenandoah Valley, ending with the Battle of Cedar Creek in 1864. His pen recounts the activities of the Louisiana Brigade while offering a critical analysis of the tactics and strategies employed by the army. A perceptive and articulate officer, Seymour left behind an invaluable account of the Civil War’s drudgery and horror, pomp and glory. Terry L. Jones’ spare and judicious editing enhances Seymour’s memoirs to create an indispensable resource for Civil War historians and enthusiasts.
Download or read book The Civil War Memoirs of Captain William J Seymour reminiscences of a Louisiana Tiger written by Terry Jones and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Friendly Enemies written by Lauren K. Thompson and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-08 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fraternity and resistance -- Discourse -- Trade -- Information -- Ceasefires -- Memory -- Conclusion.
Download or read book The American Civil War written by Terry L. Jones and published by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. This book was released on 2009-02-20 with total page 754 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This rich and balanced narrative of the American Civil War combines a chronological organization with a thematic approach to provide a comprehensive introduction to this pivotal conflict in the nation's history. Chronologically organized chapters on military history allow readers to easily follow the ebb and flow of the battlefield, while other, more topical chapters interspersed throughout explore such subjects as Civil War medicine, politics, prisoners of war, diplomacy, and the role of African-Americans and women, providing strong social and political context for the war and a greater understanding of the lasting impact of the time period. Each chapter also includes high interest features that provide biographical sketches of important personalities, little known facts about the Civil War, the histories of famous fighting units, and eyewitness accounts of dramatic events.
Download or read book Chancellorsville s Forgotten Front written by Chris Mackowski and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book-length study of two overlooked engagements that helped turned the tide of a pivotal Civil War battle. By May of 1863, the stone wall at the base of Marye’s Heights above Fredericksburg, Virginia, loomed large over the Army of the Potomac, haunting its men with memories of slaughter from their crushing defeat there the previous December. They would assault it again with a very different result the following spring. This time the Union troops wrested the wall and high ground from the Confederates and drove west into the enemy’s rear. The inland drive stalled in heavy fighting at Salem Church. Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front is the first book to examine Second Fredericksburg and Salem Church and the central roles they played in the final Southern victory. Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have long appreciated the pivotal roles these engagements played in the Chancellorsville campaign, and just how close the Southern army came to grief—and the Union army to stunning success. Together they seamlessly weave their extensive newspaper, archival, and firsthand research into a compelling narrative to better understand these combats, which usually garner little more than a footnote to the larger story of Stonewall Jackson’s march and fatal wounding. Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front offers a thorough examination of the decision-making, movements, and fighting that led to the bloody stalemate at Salem Church, as Union soldiers faced the horror of an indomitable wall of stone—and an undersized Confederate division stood up to a Union juggernaut.
Download or read book The Civil War in Books written by David J. Eicher and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the assistance of several scholars, including James M. McPherson and Gary Gallagher, and a long-time specialist in Civil War books, Ralph Newman, David Eicher has selected for inclusion in The Civil War in Books the 1,100 most important books on the war. These are organized into categories as wide-ranging as "Battles and Campaigns," "Biographies, Memoirs, and Letters," "Unit Histories," and "General Works." The last of these includes volumes on black Americans and the war, battlefields, fiction, pictorial works, politics, prisons, railroads, and a host of other topics. Annotations are included for all entries in the work, which is presented in an oversized 8 1/2 x 11 inch volume in two-column format. Appendixes list "prolific" Civil War publishers and other Civil War bibliographies, and the works included in Eicher's mammoth undertaking are indexed by author or editor and by title. Gary Gallagher's foreword traces the development of Civil War bibliographies and declares that Eicher's annotation exceeds that of any previous comprehensive volume. The Civil War in Books, Gallagher believes, is "precisely the type of guide" that has been needed. The first full-scale, fully-annotated bibliography on the Civil War to appear in more than thirty years, Eicher's The Civil War in Books is a remarkable compendium of the best reading available about the worst conflict ever to strike the United States. The bibliography, the most valuable reference book on the subject since The Civil War Day by Day, will be essential for college and university libraries, dealers in rare and secondhand books, and Civil War buffs.
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 A Journal of the American Civil War V1 4 written by Theodore P. Savas and published by Savas Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-31 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Balanced and in-depth military coverage (all theaters, North and South) in a non-partisan format with detailed notes, offering meaty, in-depth articles, original maps, photos, columns, book reviews, and indexes. 126th NY Infantry at Harpers Ferry – First Confederate Regiment from Santa Rosa to Chickamauga – Long road to Bentonville – Book reviews – complete list of contents and index for Volume One
Download or read book While God is Marching on written by Steven E. Woodworth and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American Civil War not only pitted brother against brother but Christian against Christian. This is a study of soldiers' religious beliefs and how they influenced the course of that tragic conflict. It shows how Christian teaching and practice shaped the worldview of soldiers on both sides.
Download or read book Civil War Time written by Cheryl A. Wells and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In antebellum America, both North and South emerged as modernizing, capitalist societies. Work bells, clock towers, and personal timepieces increasingly instilled discipline on one’s day, which already was ordered by religious custom and nature’s rhythms. The Civil War changed that, argues Cheryl A. Wells. Overriding antebellum schedules, war played havoc with people’s perception and use of time. For those closest to the fighting, the war’s effect on time included disrupted patterns of sleep, extended hours of work, conflated hours of leisure, indefinite prison sentences, challenges to the gender order, and desecration of the Sabbath. Wells calls this phenomenon “battle time.” To create a modern war machine military officers tried to graft the antebellum authority of the clock onto the actual and mental terrain of the Civil War. However, as Wells’s coverage of the Manassas and Gettysburg battles shows, military engagements followed their own logic, often without regard for the discipline imposed by clocks. Wells also looks at how battle time’s effects spilled over into periods of inaction, and she covers not only the experiences of soldiers but also those of nurses, prisoners of war, slaves, and civilians. After the war, women returned, essentially, to an antebellum temporal world, says Wells. Elsewhere, however, postwar temporalities were complicated as freedmen and planters, and workers and industrialists renegotiated terms of labor within parameters set by the clock and nature. A crucial juncture on America’s path to an ordered relationship to time, the Civil War had an acute effect on the nation’s progress toward a modernity marked by multiple, interpenetrating times largely based on the clock.
Download or read book Robert E Lee written by Allen C. Guelzo and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the award-winning historian and best-selling author of Gettysburg comes the definitive biography of Robert E. Lee. An intimate look at the Confederate general in all his complexity—his hypocrisy and courage, his inner turmoil and outward calm, his disloyalty and his honor. "An important contribution to reconciling the myths with the facts." —New York Times Book Review Robert E. Lee is one of the most confounding figures in American history. Lee betrayed his nation in order to defend his home state and uphold the slave system he claimed to oppose. He was a traitor to the country he swore to serve as an Army officer, and yet he was admired even by his enemies for his composure and leadership. He considered slavery immoral, but benefited from inherited slaves and fought to defend the institution. And behind his genteel demeanor and perfectionism lurked the insecurities of a man haunted by the legacy of a father who stained the family name by declaring bankruptcy and who disappeared when Robert was just six years old. In Robert E. Lee, the award-winning historian Allen Guelzo has written the definitive biography of the general, following him from his refined upbringing in Virginia high society, to his long career in the U.S. Army, his agonized decision to side with Virginia when it seceded from the Union, and his leadership during the Civil War. Above all, Guelzo captures Robert E. Lee in all his complexity--his hypocrisy and courage, his outward calm and inner turmoil, his honor and his disloyalty.
Download or read book The Maps of the Wilderness written by Bradley Gottfried and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Maps of the Wilderness: An Atlas of the Wilderness Campaign, May 2-7, 1864 continues Bradley M. Gottfried’s efforts to study and illustrate the major campaigns of the Civil War’s Eastern Theater. This is his fifth book in the ongoing Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series. The previous four were The Maps of Gettysburg (2007), The Maps of First Bull Run (2009), The Maps of Antietam (2012), and The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns (2013). This latest magisterial work breaks down the entire campaign (and all related operational maneuvers) into 24 map sets or “action-sections” enriched with 120 original full-page color maps. These spectacular cartographic creations bore down to the regimental and battery level. The Maps of the Wilderness includes an assessment of the winter of 1863-1864, the planning for the campaign, the crossing of the Rapidan River, and two days of bloody combat and the day of watchful stalemate thereafter. At least one—and as many as eight—maps accompany each “action-section.” Opposite each map is a full facing page of detailed footnoted text describing the units, personalities, movements, and combat (including quotes from eyewitnesses) depicted on the accompanying map, all of which make the story of the first large-scale combat of 1864 come alive. Each cartographic snapshot also serves to unlock everything ever written on the subject. This detailed coverage also includes an order of battle, interview with the author, bibliography, and an index. This original presentation leads readers on a journey through the epic battle that would prove to be the opening salvo in a prolonged fight that would not end until the Confederates surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865. The Wilderness Campaign has two unique characteristics. First, although he did not command the Army of the Potomac, the battle was Ulysses S. Grant’s first against General Robert E. Lee. Second, the Wilderness fighting—prolonged, bloody, and inconclusive—is widely viewed as the most confusing action of the entire war. The dense thickets and deep smoke obscured much of what occurred during the two days of combat. Gottfried’s book cuts through the confusion to deliver a clear account of the horrendous struggle. Perfect for the easy chair or for walking hallowed ground, The Maps of the Wilderness is a seminal work that, like his earlier studies, belongs on the bookshelf of every serious and casual student of the Civil War, or in the hands of an avid enthusiast out walking the Hallowed Ground.
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 The Heart of Hell written by Jeffry D. Wert and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2022-04-04 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The struggle over the fortified Confederate position known as Spotsylvania's Mule Shoe was without parallel during the Civil War. A Union assault that began at 4:30 A.M. on May 12, 1864, sparked brutal combat that lasted nearly twenty-four hours. By the time Grant's forces withdrew, some 55,000 men from Union and Confederate armies had been drawn into the fury, battling in torrential rain along the fieldworks at distances often less than the length of a rifle barrel. One Union private recalled the fighting as a "seething, bubbling, soaring hell of hate and murder." By the time Lee's troops established a new fortified line in the predawn hours of May 13, some 17,500 &8239;officers and men from both sides had been killed, wounded, or captured when the fighting &8239;ceased.&8239;The site of the most intense clashes became forever known as the Bloody Angle.&8239; Here, renowned military historian Jeffry D. Wert draws on the personal narratives of Union and Confederate troops who survived the fight &8239;to offer a gripping story of Civil War combat at its most difficult. Wert's &8239;harrowing tale&8239;reminds us that the war's story, often told through its commanders and campaigns,&8239;truly belonged to the common soldier.
Download or read book From Antietam to Appomattox with Upton s Regulars written by Dewitt Clinton Beckwith and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-05-12 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty years after the Civil War, the 121st New York Volunteers (Upton's Regulars) finally published a history of their regiment. Its stated author was a man who had not served directly with the 121st but had based the book on a memoir written by a survivor who had enlisted at age 15. That boy, Dewitt Clinton Beckwith, published his memoir thirty years after the war in an obscure upstate New York newspaper, The Hekrimer Democrat. For years, the "origin story" lay hidden in plain sight, until editor Salvatore Cilella discovered it while researching for a regimental history. The original 53 weekly installments, edited and annotated here, richly detail the horrors and folly of war. They reveal the slow maturation of a boy thrust into almost four years of war. Beckwith was present at nearly all the historic Eastern Theater engagements from Antietam to Appomattox, including an abortive stint with the 91st New York in Florida in 1861. He describes his various Tom Sawyer-like adventures with the VI Corps of the Army of the Potomac, dealing with death, disease, loss and ultimate elation at Lee's surrender, tempered only by Abraham Lincoln's death.
Download or read book Beneath a Northern Sky written by Steven E. Woodworth and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2008-02-28 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the places and events in this nation's history, Gettysburg may well be the name best known to Americans. Millions flock each year to the little town in south-central Pennsylvania where more than 135 years ago the largest, bloodiest, and most dramatic battle of the Civil War raged across the now-peaceful hills and meadows. The subject of an epic movie and a best-selling work of fiction, the battle continues to fascinate Americans. Indeed, for most Americans, Gettysburg is the Civil War. In Beneath a Northern Sky, eminent Civil War historian Steven E. Woodworth offers a balanced and thorough overview of the entire battle, its drama, and its meaning. From Lee's decision to take his heretofore successful Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac and into Pennsylvania to the withdrawal of the battle-battered Confederate's back across the river into Virginia, Woodworth paints a vivid picture of this pivotal campaign. In this day-by-day account, he describes the fierce fighting that left 48,000 men dead or wounded at sites that have now become famous: Little Round Top, Cemetery Ridge, Devil's Den. This new book provides a realistic sequence of events surrounding the legendary Pickett's Charge, detailing the Confederate's magnificent display of courage and the Union's stalwart, rock-hard defense. Woodworth describes the strategic and tactical decision making and shows how infighting and disagreements among the leaders on both sides impacted the campaign. He details the mind set and morale of the soldiers, revealing how—surprisingly—Union leaders did not take advantage of their troops' high spirits after their victory to finish off the retreating Confederates. Instead of focusing on only one aspect of the Gettysburg Campaign as most other books do, Beneath a Northern Sky tells the tale of the entire battle in a richly detailed but swiftly moving narrative. This new approach to a defining battle is sure to fascinate Civil War buffs and all those interested in the rich history of the United States.
Download or read book The 96th Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War written by David A. Ward and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-05-27 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 96th Pennsylvania Volunteers infantry regiment was formed in 1861—its ranks filled by nearly 1,200 Irish and German immigrants from Schuylkill County responding to Lincoln’s call for troops. The men saw action for three years with the Army of the Potomac’s VI Corps, participating in engagements at Gaines’ Mill, Crampton’s Gap, Salem Church and Spotsylvania. Drawing on letters, diaries, memoirs and other accounts, this comprehensive history documents their combat service from the point of view of the rank-and-file soldier, along with their views on the war, slavery, emancipation and politics.
