Download or read book First Blood written by W. A. Swanberg and published by Plume. This book was released on 1992-06-01 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Luce and His Empire examines in detail the events that exploded into the Civil War, under the eyes of festive picknickers who lined Charleston's shore to cheer the rebel gunners shelling the hated fort and its Federal defenders. First Blood is historical writing at its finest.

Download or read book Allegiance written by David Detzer and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2002 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the events leading up to the firing of the first shot of the Civil War on April 12, 1861.

Download or read book The Battle of Fort Sumter written by Wesley Moody and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contextualizing the events before and after the battle, The Battle of Fort Sumter provides the ideal supplement to any course on the American Civil War, American history, or American military history.

Download or read book A Diary from Dixie written by Mary Boykin Chesnut and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1980 with total page 612 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her diary, Mary Boykin Chesnut, the wife of a Confederate general and aid to president Jefferson Davis, James Chestnut, Jr., presents an eyewitness account of the Civil War.

Download or read book The Genesis of the Civil War written by Samuel Wylie Crawford and published by . This book was released on 1887 with total page 554 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book 1861 written by Adam Goodheart and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping and original account of how the Civil War began and a second American revolution unfolded, setting Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom. An epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields, 1861 introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes—among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer’s wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. Their stories take us from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the waters of the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island, vividly evoking the Union at its moment of ultimate crisis and decision. Hailed as “exhilarating….Inspiring…Irresistible…” by The New York Times Book Review, Adam Goodheart’s bestseller 1861 is an important addition to the Civil War canon. Includes black-and-white photos and illustrations.

Download or read book Jack the Cat that Went to War written by Russell Horres and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Jack was indeed a most unusual cat. His story will lead young readers back to a time when America was at war with itself. It was a time when all people were not treated as equal, and the question of whether the United States would stand as one nation had not been decided ... Beautiful color illustrations bring the story of life with historical accuracy, and children of all ages will delight in learning history through the eyes of Jack."--book jacket flyleaf.

Download or read book Dissonance written by David Detzer and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2007 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic account of the two-week period in 1861 during which newly inaugurated president Lincoln attempted to prepare Union states for a possible Confederate attack draws on the period's headlines, intelligence reports, diaries, and letters to offer insight into the experiences of everyday citizens. Reprint.

Download or read book The History of the Fall of Fort Sumpter written by Samuel Wylie Crawford and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lincoln s First Crisis written by William Bruce Johnson and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-07-21 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lincoln’s First Crisis concerns five of the most consequential months in American history: December 1860 through April 1861. When Abraham Lincoln swore his oath as president, the United States was disintegrating. Seven states had seceded, and as many as eight seemed poised to join them, depending upon how the new president handled the secession crisis and its flashpoint: Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the heart of the rebellion. The fate of the republic hung in the balance. The Sumter crisis has been hotly debated and deeply researched for more than 150 years. In this thoughtful reassessment, William Bruce Johnson combines thorough research and the latest historiography with a litigator’s methodical analysis and a storyteller’s eye for meaningful detail. Shortly after taking office, Lincoln decided upon a plan to avoid war with the seceded states while keeping his inaugural promise to maintain a Union military presence in the South. Because he chose not to reveal his plan to anyone, rumors soon spread that he was simply afraid to act. One source of such rumors was Lincoln’s secretary of state, William Henry Seward. Resentful that Lincoln had deprived him of the Republican nomination and convinced that Lincoln lacked the political sophistication necessary to deal with the secession crisis, Seward decided to negotiate with the Confederacy on his own and in secret. General Winfield Scott, meanwhile, the Union’s most senior military officer, had for a decade depended upon Seward for political advice, and now considered himself under orders from Seward, not the president. Johnson traces how Seward and Scott sabotaged Lincoln’s plan. From this account, from his examination of various personalities (such as that of Fort Sumter’s commander, Major Robert Anderson), and from his granular research into aspects of the Order of Battle in Charleston, Johnson has here constructed a new narrative of this crucial period, culminating in a new theory of how and why the Civil War began as it did, and how and why, if the new president’s orders had been properly carried out by Seward and Scott, it might have been averted.

Download or read book Days of Defiance written by Maury Klein and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Illuminating and well-written. . . . Deserves a place in the highest ranks of Civil War scholarship.” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer In November 1860, telegraph lines carried the news that Abraham Lincoln had been elected president. Over the next five months the United States drifted, stumbled, and finally plunged into the most destructive war this country has ever faced. With a masterful eye for the telling detail, Maury Klein provides fascinating new insights into the period from the election of Abraham Lincoln to the shelling of Fort Sumter. Klein brings the key players in the tragedy unforgettably to life: from the vacillating lame-duck President Buchanan to the taciturn, elusive, and relatively unknown Abraham Lincoln; from Secretary of State Seward carrying on his own private negotiations with the South to Major Robert Anderson sitting in his island fortress awaiting reinforcements. Never has this immensely significant moment in our national story been so intelligently of so spellbindingly related.

Download or read book A History of Fort Sumter written by Michael Patrick Hendrix and published by Landmarks. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1829, construction began on a fort atop a rock formation in the mouth of Charleston Harbor. Decades later, Fort Sumter was near completion on December 26, 1860, when Major Robert Anderson occupied it in response to the growing hostilities between the North and South. As a symbol of sedition for the North and holy ground for the South, possession of Fort Sumter was deemed essential to both sides when the Civil War began. By 1864, the fort, heavily bombarded by Union artillery, was a shapeless mass of ruins, mostly bermed rubble and sand with a garrison of Confederate soldiers holding its ground. Join author M. Patrick Hendrix as he follows the tumultuous lives of the men who fought to control what later became one of the most revered monuments to the war.

Download or read book Berry Benson s Civil War Book written by Berry Benson and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confederate scout and sharpshooter Berry Greenwood Benson witnessed the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, retreated with Lee's Army to its surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, and missed little of the action in between. This memoir of his service is a remarkable narrative, filled with the minutiae of the soldier's life and paced by a continual succession of battlefield anecdotes. Three main stories emerge from Benson's account: his reconnaissance exploits, his experiences in battle, and his escape from prison. Though not yet eighteen years old when he left his home in Augusta, Georgia, to join the army, Benson was soon singled out for the abilities that would serve him well as a scout. Not only was he a crack shot, a natural leader, and a fierce Southern partisan, but he had a kind of restless energy and curiosity, loved to take risks, and was an instant and infallible judge of human nature. His recollections of scouting take readers within arm's reach of Union trenches and encampments. Benson recalls that while eavesdropping he never failed to be shocked by the Yankees' foul language; he had never heard that kind of talk in a Confederate camp! Benson's descriptions of the many battles in which he fought--including Cold Harbor, The Seven Days, Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg--convey the desperation of a full frontal charge and the blind panic of a disorganized retreat. Yet in these accounts, Benson's own demeanor under fire is manifest in the coolly measured tone he employs. A natural writer, Benson captures the dark absurdities of war in such descriptions as those of hardened veterans delighting in the new shoes and other equipment they found on corpse-littered battlefields. His clothing often torn by bullets, Benson was also badly bruised a number of times by spent rounds. At one point, in May 1863, he was wounded seriously enough in the leg to be hospitalized, but he returned to the field before full recuperation. Benson was captured behind enemy lines in May 1864 while on a scouting mission for General Lee. Confined to Point Lookout Prison in Maryland, he escaped after only two days and swam the Potomac to get back into Virginia. Recaptured near Washington, D.C., he was briefly held in Old Capitol Prison, then sent to Elmira Prison in New York. There he joined a group of ten men who made the only successful tunnel escape in Elmira's history. After nearly six months in captivity or on the run, he rejoined his unit in Virginia. Even at Appomattox, Benson refused to surrender but stole off with his brother to North Carolina, where they planned to join General Johnston. Finding the roads choked with Union forces and surrendered Confederates, the brothers ultimately bore their unsurrendered rifles home to Augusta. Berry Benson first wrote his memoirs for his family and friends. Completed in 1878, they drew on his--and partially on his brother's--wartime diaries, as well as on letters that both brothers had written to family members during the war. The memoirs were first published in book form in 1962 but have long been unavailable. This edition, with a new foreword by the noted Civil War historian Herman Hattaway, will introduce this compelling story to a new generation of readers.

Download or read book Gate of Hell written by Stephen R. Wise and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relates the details of the Battle of Morris Island during the Civil War.

Download or read book Lincoln s Spies written by Douglas Waller and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major addition to the history of the Civil War is a “fast-paced, fact-rich account” (The Wall Street Journal) offering a detailed look at President Abraham Lincoln’s use of clandestine services and the secret battles waged by Union spies and agents to save the nation—filled with espionage, sabotage, and intrigue. Veteran CIA correspondent Douglas Waller delivers a riveting account of the heroes and misfits who carried out a shadow war of espionage and covert operations behind the Confederate battlefields. Lincoln’s Spies follows four agents from the North—three men and one woman—who informed Lincoln’s generals on the enemy positions for crucial battles and busted up clandestine Rebel networks. Famed detective Allan Pinkerton mounted a successful covert operation to slip Lincoln through Baltimore before his inauguration after he learns of an assassination attempt from his agents working undercover as Confederate soldiers. But he proved less than competent as General George McClellan’s spymaster, delivering faulty intelligence reports that overestimated Confederate strength. George Sharpe, an erudite New York lawyer, succeeded Pinkerton as spymaster for the Union’s Army of the Potomac. Sharpe deployed secret agents throughout the South, planted misinformation with Robert E. Lee’s army, and outpaced anything the enemy could field. Elizabeth Van Lew, a Virginia heiress who hated slavery and disapproved of secession, was one of Sharpe’s most successful agents. She ran a Union spy ring in Richmond out of her mansion with dozens of agents feeding her military and political secrets that she funneled to General Ulysses S. Grant as his army closed in on the Confederate capital. Van Lew became one of the unsung heroes of history. Lafayette Baker was a handsome Union officer with a controversial past, whose agents clashed with Pinkerton’s operatives. He assembled a retinue of disreputable spies, thieves, and prostitutes to root out traitors in Washington, DC. But he failed at his most important mission: uncovering the threat to Lincoln from John Wilkes Booth and his gang. Behind these operatives was Abraham Lincoln, one of our greatest presidents, who was an avid consumer of intelligence and a ruthless aficionado of clandestine warfare, willing to take whatever chances necessary to win the war. Lincoln’s Spies is a “meticulous chronicle of all facets of Lincoln’s war effort” (Kirkus Reviews) and an excellent choice for those wanting “a cracking good tale” (Publishers Weekly) of espionage in the Civil War.

Download or read book Sumter written by Robert Hendrickson and published by . This book was released on 2004-01-28 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book encapsulates the battle of Sumter.

Download or read book Sumter is Avenged written by Herbert M. Schiller and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The assault on and capture of Fort Pulaski is the story of the elimination of Savannah, Georgia as a Confederate seaport. Of equal importance was the North's successful use of rifled artillery against that masonry fort, a technological turning point equal in significance to the much better known development of ironclad ships. The rifled cannon were developed in the mid-1800s and were first used in siege warfare during the attack against Fort Pulaski. In April 1862, three of those formidable new weapons breached Fort Pulaski's walls within thirty-six hours, forcing the garrison to surrender and closing Savannah's port. This is the first modern account of great Federal labors, under terrible conditions in difficult terrain, to erect the batteries which sealed the Savannah River, isolated Fort Pulaski, and finally forced its surrender amidst the Union army's infighting over who should receive credit for the operation.