Download or read book Thunder on the River written by Daniel L Schafer and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2010-01-03 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Civil War finally came to North Florida, it did so with an intermittent fury that destroyed much of Jacksonville and scattered its residents. The city was taken four separate times by Federal forces but abandoned after each of the first three occupations. During the fourth occupation, it was used as a staging ground for the ill-fated Union invasion of the Florida interior, which ended in the bloody Battle of Olustee in February 1864. This late Confederate victory, along with the deadly use of underwater mines against the U.S. Navy along the St. Johns, nearly succeeded in ending the fourth Union occupation of Jacksonville. Writing in clear, engaging prose, Daniel Schafer sheds light on this oft-forgotten theatre of war and details the dynamic racial and cultural factors that led to Florida’s engagement on behalf of the South. He investigates how fears about the black population increased and held sway over whites, seeking out the true motives behind both the state and federal initiatives that drove freed blacks from the cities back to the plantations even before the war's end. From the Missouri Compromise to Reconstruction, Thunder on the River offers the history of a city and a region precariously situated as a major center of commerce on the brink of frontier Florida. Historians and Civil War aficionados alike will not want to miss this important addition to the literature.

Download or read book The Thunder of War written by Dietmar Arthur Wehr and published by Dietmar Arthur Wehr. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book in the Thunder in the Heavens series. Both books in the series have been published and an audiobook version containing both books is available under the title The Complete Thunder Series. The Tyrell are a race that loves to fight, and they’re very good at it. The harder they fight, the better they like it. Whenever they discover another intelligent race, they force them into combat whether they want it or not. When humans are warned of an inevitable confrontation with the Tyrell, they attempt to form a multi-species Alliance, but the challenges are great, and they know it’s only a matter of time before a Tyrell fleet of massive ships will arrive in Earth orbit. Cate Harrow and Gort Eagleton are two Aerospace Force officers with the kind of strategic and tactical skills that the Alliance needs to win this war, but before they can even begin to defeat the Tyrell, they must survive the incompetent leadership that threatens complete disaster. Defeating the Tyrell will be far more difficult than the Alliance initially believes unless they can discover their one weakness. This action-packed series has lots of space battles and political intrigues, as well as personal triumphs and tragedies. Excerpt: “Flight Ops to Skydiver. You and your squadron have the green light, Commander. Good luck.” “Thanks, Ops. Skydiver to Squadron. We have a green light. Sound off when you’ve undocked in sequence order. Here we go.” She turned and nodded to her co-pilot who would maneuver the corvette out the half kilometer wide maw of the carrier, Ranger, while she monitored the rest of the squadron. As Skydiver gently pulled away from the docking bay then past the baffles and moved towards the opening, Harrow switched one of her displays to the rear external view, using computer enhancement to compensate for the low level of light inside the main hangar space. Each corvette in the squadron was undocking and maneuvering in a specified sequence in order to avoid collisions. “Skydiver is clear of Ranger,” said the co-pilot. As the ship began to accelerate, Harrow watched the carrier start to recede into the distance. Just as she began to shift her gaze, she saw a streak of light hit Ranger from below, penetrate up through the interior of the huge hangar and come out the top of the ship. “FLIGHT OPS! WHAT THE HELL—“ shouted Harrow. “—BEEN HIT! RANGER’S BEEN HIT!” Harrow recognized the voice of the Flight Operations Duty Officer. “OH GOD! BISMARK REPORTS BEING HIT TOO!” Harrow thought fast. The Tyrell had obviously detected the four carriers and were firing their long range, faster-than-light kinetic energy projectiles from below. The mission was clearly compromised, and to her way of thinking, getting the carriers to a safe distance was now not only their top priority, it was their only priority. “SL to Flag!” said Harrow quickly. “We’re kinda busy right now, Commander!” Harrow didn’t know who was replying, but she did know it wasn’t Vice-Admiral LeClair, and that’s who she wanted to talk to. “You tell the Admiral that he needs to order his carriers to jump RIGHT NOW, Goddamit! We’re sitting ducks here!” Without waiting for a reply she turned to the co-pilot. “How many of our ships have cleared the Ranger?” “They’re all out! Do we try to dock again?” “God no! No time for that. We’ll have to catch up with her at the rally point if our carriers bug out in time!” She looked at the display that was still showing a now much smaller Ranger. “Come on, TFL! Give the order!” “Flight Ops to squadron! Ranger is heading for the rally point now! Meet us th—“ The voice cut off at the same instant as the distant carrier vanished from view. “Ranger’s jumped away!” yelled the co-pilot. “Bismark Sea is gone too!”

Download or read book A Thunder of War written by Steve McHugh and published by 47North. This book was released on 2018-11-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There's thunder on the horizon, and the lightning of war is about to strike. After years of struggle, Layla Cassidy has finally mastered the dark powers that threatened to control her and turned them to good. She's ready to fight, but the next battle will be her greatest test yet. The forces of Avalon are growing ever stronger, reinforcing their dominance with almighty displays of brutality. When Abaddon comes close to crushing Layla and her friends, it's clear that the thunder of war is about to give way to lightning--and that they have no chance of surviving it alone. The final battle against Abaddon is drawing closer. Now Layla and her friends must fight for themselves--and the future of the world. To win, they will need every power and ally they can muster. But even with all their strength, will it be enough to stand against the impending doom?

Download or read book Ride the Thunder written by Richard Botkin and published by Wnd Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells the story of the heroic efforts of American and Vietnamese Marines who fought against the communist invasion of South Vietnam known as the Easter Offensive of 1972.

Download or read book Thunder at the Gates written by Douglas R Egerton and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An intimate, authoritative history of the first black soldiers to fight in the Union Army during the Civil War Soon after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, abolitionists began to call for the creation of black regiments. At first, the South and most of the North responded with outrage-southerners promised to execute any black soldiers captured in battle, while many northerners claimed that blacks lacked the necessary courage. Meanwhile, Massachusetts, long the center of abolitionist fervor, launched one of the greatest experiments in American history. In Thunder at the Gates, Douglas Egerton chronicles the formation and battlefield triumphs of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry-regiments led by whites but composed of black men born free or into slavery. He argues that the most important battles of all were won on the field of public opinion, for in fighting with distinction the regiments realized the long-derided idea of full and equal citizenship for blacks. A stirring evocation of this transformative episode, Thunder at the Gates offers a riveting new perspective on the Civil War and its legacy.

Download or read book Valley Thunder written by Charles R. Knight and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2010-05-10 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “exciting and informative” account of the Civil War battle that opened the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, with illustrations included (Lone Star Book Review). Charles Knight’s Valley Thunder is the first full-length account in decades to examine the combat at New Market on May 15, 1864 that opened the pivotal Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who set in motion the wide-ranging operation to subjugate the South in 1864, intended to attack on multiple fronts so the Confederacy could no longer “take advantage of interior lines.” A key to success in the Eastern Theater was control of the Shenandoah Valley, an agriculturally abundant region that helped feed Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Grant tasked Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel, a German immigrant with a mixed fighting record, and a motley collection of units numbering some 10,000 men to clear the Valley and threaten Lee’s left flank. Opposing Sigel was Maj. Gen. (and former US Vice President) John C. Breckinridge, who assembled a scratch command to repulse the Federals. Included in his 4,500-man army were Virginia Military Institute cadets under the direction of Lt. Col. Scott Ship, who’d marched eighty miles in four days to fight Sigel. When the armies faced off at New Market, Breckinridge told the cadets, “Gentlemen, I trust I will not need your services today; but if I do, I know you will do your duty.” The sharp fighting seesawed back and forth during a drenching rainstorm, and wasn’t concluded until the cadets were inserted into the battle line to repulse a Federal attack and launch one of their own. The Union forces were driven from the Valley, but would return, reinforced and under new leadership, within a month. Before being repulsed, they would march over the field at New Market and capture Staunton, burn VMI in Lexington (partly in retaliation for the cadets’ participation at New Market), and very nearly capture Lynchburg. Operations in the Valley on a much larger scale that summer would permanently sweep the Confederates from the “Bread Basket of the Confederacy.” Valley Thunder is based on years of primary research and a firsthand appreciation of the battlefield terrain. Knight’s objective approach includes a detailed examination of the complex prelude leading up to the battle, and his entertaining prose introduces soldiers, civilians, and politicians who found themselves swept up in one of the war’s most gripping engagements.

Download or read book A Chain of Thunder written by Jeff Shaara and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Continuing the series that began with A Blaze of Glory, Jeff Shaara returns to chronicle another decisive chapter in America’s long and bloody Civil War. In A Chain of Thunder, the action shifts to the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. There, in the vaunted “Gibraltar of the Confederacy,” a siege for the ages will cement the reputation of one Union general—and all but seal the fate of the rebel cause. In May 1863, after months of hard and bitter combat, Union troops under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant at long last successfully cross the Mississippi River. They force the remnants of Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton’s army to retreat to Vicksburg, burning the bridges over the Big Black River in its path. But after sustaining heavy casualties in two failed assaults against the rebels, Union soldiers are losing confidence and morale is low. Grant reluctantly decides to lay siege to the city, trapping soldiers and civilians alike inside an iron ring of Federal entrenchments. Six weeks later, the starving and destitute Southerners finally surrender, yielding command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces on July 4—Independence Day—and marking a crucial turning point in the Civil War. Drawing on comprehensive research and his own intimate knowledge of the Vicksburg Campaign, Jeff Shaara once again weaves brilliant fiction out of the ragged cloth of historical fact. From the command tents where generals plot strategy to the ruined mansions where beleaguered citizens huddle for safety, this is a panoramic portrait of men and women whose lives are forever altered by the siege. On one side stand the emerging legend Grant, his irascible second William T. Sherman, and the youthful “grunt” Private Fritz Bauer; on the other, the Confederate commanders Pemberton and Joseph Johnston, as well as nineteen-year-old Lucy Spence, a civilian doing her best to survive in the besieged city. By giving voice to their experiences at Vicksburg, A Chain of Thunder vividly evokes a battle whose outcome still reverberates more than 150 years after the cannons fell silent. Praise for A Chain of Thunder “[Jeff] Shaara continues to draw powerful novels from the bloody history of the Civil War. . . . The dialogue intrigues. Shaara aptly reveals the main actors: Grant, stoic, driven, not given to micromanagement; Sherman, anxious, high-strung, engaged even when doubting Grant’s strategy. . . . Worth a Civil War buff’s attention.”—Kirkus Reviews “Searing . . . Shaara seamlessly interweaves multiple points of view, as the plot is driven by a stellar cast of real-life and fictional characters coping with the pivotal crisis. . . . [A] riveting fictional narrative.”—Booklist “Shaara’s historical accuracy is faultless, and he tells a good story. . . . The voices of these people come across to the reader as poignantly as they did 150 years ago.”—Historical Novels Review “The writing is picturesque and vibrant. . . . [an] engrossing tale.”—Bookreporter

Download or read book 10 000 Days of Thunder written by Philip Caputo and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was the war that lasted ten thousand days. The war that inspired scores of songs. The war that sparked dozens of riots. And in this stirring chronicle, Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist Philip Caputo writes about our country's most controversial war -- the Vietnam War -- for young readers. From the first stirrings of unrest in Vietnam under French colonial rule, to American intervention, to the battle at Hamburger Hill, to the Tet Offensive, to the fall of Saigon, 10,000 Days of Thunder explores the war that changed the lives of a generation of Americans and that still reverberates with us today. Included within 10,000 Days of Thunder are personal anecdotes from soldiers and civilians, as well as profiles and accounts of the actions of many historical luminaries, both American and Vietnamese, involved in the Vietnam War, such as Richard M. Nixon, General William C. Westmoreland, Ho Chi Minh, Joe Galloway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon B. Johnson, and General Vo Nguyen Giap. Caputo also explores the rise of Communism in Vietnam, the roles that women played on the battlefield, the antiwar movement at home, the participation of Vietnamese villagers in the war, as well as the far-reaching impact of the war's aftermath. Caputo's dynamic narrative is highlighted by stunning photographs and key campaign and battlefield maps, making 10,000 Days of Thunder THE consummate book on the Vietnam War for kids.

Download or read book Iron Thunder written by Avi and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2010-02-12 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When his father is killed fighting for the Union in the War Between the States, thirteen-year-old Tom Carroll must take a job to help support his family. He manages to find work at a bustling ironworks in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, where dozens of men are frantically pounding together the strangest ship Tom has ever seen. A ship made of iron. Tom becomes assistant to the ship's inventor, a gruff, boastful man named Captain John Ericsson. He soon learns that the Union army has very important plans for this iron ship called the Monitor. It is supposed to fight the Confederate "sea monster"--another ironclad--the Merrimac. But Ericsson is practically the only person who believes the Monitor will float. Everyone else calls it "Ericsson's Folly" or "the iron coffin." Meanwhile, Tom's position as Ericsson's assistant has made him a target of Confederate spies, who offer him money for information about the ship. Tom finds himself caught between two certain dangers: an encounter with murderous spies and a battle at sea in an iron coffin

Download or read book Thunder in the Mountains Chief Joseph Oliver Otis Howard and the Nez Perce War written by Daniel J. Sharfstein and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Beautifully wrought and impossible to put down, Daniel Sharfstein’s Thunder in the Mountains chronicles with compassion and grace that resonant past we should never forget.”—Brenda Wineapple, author of Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848–1877 After the Civil War and Reconstruction, a new struggle raged in the Northern Rockies. In the summer of 1877, General Oliver Otis Howard, a champion of African American civil rights, ruthlessly pursued hundreds of Nez Perce families who resisted moving onto a reservation. Standing in his way was Chief Joseph, a young leader who never stopped advocating for Native American sovereignty and equal rights. Thunder in the Mountains is the spellbinding story of two legendary figures and their epic clash of ideas about the meaning of freedom and the role of government in American life.

Download or read book A Voice of Thunder written by George Stephens and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stephens was a black reporter for the black newspaper Weekly Anglo-African when the Civil War broke out. He joined the 54th Massachusetts, the first black Union regiment. Promoted to sergeant, he stormed Battery Wagner with his regiment. Surviving the Union defeat, Stephens served with the 54th through the end of the war.

Download or read book Above the Thunder written by Raymond C. Kerns and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Illustrations -- A Note on the Language -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Heroic Liaison Pilots of World War II and the Amazing Piper Cub L-4 -- Prologue -- 1 The Pineapple Soldier -- 2 Ninety-Day Wonders and Fair-Haired Boys -- 3 Kauai to Fortification Point -- 4 Tornado Task Force -- 5 Luzon: Lingayen to the Hills -- 6 Over the Hills to Baguio -- 7 Sashaying Around Up North -- Epilogue -- Appendix: History and Specifications of the J-3 Piper Cub -- Notes -- Further Reading -- Index.

Download or read book Thunder In the Mountains written by Lon Savage and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 1985-06-15 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The West Virginia mine war of 1920-21, a major civil insurrection of unusual brutality on both sides, even by the standards of the coal fields, involved thousands of union and nonunion miners, state and private police, militia, and federal troops. Before it was over, three West Virginia counties were in open rebellion, much of the state was under military rule, and bombers of the U.S. Army Air Corps had been dispatched against striking miners.The origins of this civil war were in the Draconian rule of the coal companies over the fiercely proud miners of Appalachia. It began in the small railroad town of Matewan when Mayor C. C. Testerman and Police Chief Sid Hatfield sided with striking miners against agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, who attempted to evict the miners from company-owned housing. During a street battle, Mayor Testerman, seven Baldwin-Felts agents, and two miners were shot to death.Hatfield became a folk hero to Appalachia. But he, like Testerman, was to be a martyr. The next summer, Baldwin-Felts agents assassinated him and his best friend, Ed Chambers, as their wives watched, on the steps of the courthouse in Welch, accelerating the miners' rebellion into open warfare.Much neglected in historical accounts, Thunder in the Mountains is the only available book-length account of the crisis in American industrial relations and governance that occured during the West Virginia mine war of 1920-21.

Download or read book Son of Thunder written by James Jakins and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-18 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the country of Sohlgain, all young men are expected to chain a dragon and claim its charge. For Berun Toirnach, the eldest son of the nation's ruler, this means venturing onto a dragon reserve and hunting a wild dragon. A tradition his family has upheld for generations. The aftermath of this hunt will shape Berun's life. He is given a position as a Thunder Priest and gifted the power to control lightning, Berun must decide what to do with this new power. Will he use it selfishly, or will he use it for the benefit of his country? Years later, in an attempt to escape responsibility for a short time, Berun and his friends take a trip to the idyllic beachside city of Hurthow, where an ancient festival is celebrated by locals and foreigners alike. But the safety and warmth of the sun and sand is an illusion. Dangerous enemies wait, hiding behind smiles and cold eyes. Soon the lives of Berun's friends and family are put in danger, and the young prince must rely on his power and his allies, old and new, to save them. His father's most trusted bodyguard, a disgraced assassin known for his skill and ruthless precision. A young God Mage and her companions. And a coward with a power he's afraid to use. All of them will be needed to save those threatened. But time is against them and their enemies have secrets of their own.

Download or read book Thunder in the East written by Evan Mawdsley and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-19 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thunder in the East, originally published in 2005, is widely regarded as the best short history of the entire Nazi-Soviet military conflict. It tells the story from the pre-war expectations of Hitler and Stalin, through the pivotal battles deep in Russia in 1942-43, and on to the huge Soviet offensives across Eastern Europe in 1944-45. This final 'march of liberation' destroyed the Third Reich and set Europe's history for the next 45 years. The book provides penetrating answers to vital questions: Why did the war in the East develop as it did? Why did Hitler's Wehrmacht lose? Why did the Red Army win, and why did the people of Soviet Russia pay such a high price for victory? The first edition took advantage of the flood of new sources that followed the end of the Soviet era. This second edition takes account of what has been written over the last decade; the Nazi-Soviet war, in all its aspects, has continued to be the subject of extensive and innovative research and heated controversy.

Download or read book Sea of Thunder written by Evan Thomas and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-06 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on oral histories, diaries, correspondence, postwar testimony from both American and Japanese participants, and interviews with survivors, Thomas provides this riveting account of the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, the culminating battle of the war in the Pacific. Photos.

Download or read book Thunder Below written by Eugene B. Fluckey and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thunderous roar of exploding depth charges was a familiar and comforting sound to the crew members of the USS Barb, who frequently found themselves somewhere between enemy fire and Davy Jones's locker. Under the leadership of her fearless skipper, Captain Gene Fluckey, the Barb sank the greatest tonnage of any American sub in World War II. At the same time, the Barb did far more than merely sink ships-she changed forever the way submarines stalk and kill their prey. This is a gripping adventure chock-full of "you-are-there" moments. Fluckey has drawn on logs, reports, letters, interviews, and a recently discovered illegal diary kept by one of his torpedomen. And in a fascinating twist, he uses archival documents from the Japanese Navy to give its version of events. The unique story of the Barb begins with its men, who had the confidence to become unbeatable. Each team helped develop innovative ideas, new tactics, and new strategies. All strove for personal excellence, and success became contagious. Instead of lying in wait under the waves, the USS Barb pursued enemy ships on the surface, attacking in the swift and precise style of torpedo boats. She was the first sub to use rocket missiles and to creep up on enemy convoys at night, joining the flank escort line from astern, darting in and out as she sank ships up the column. Surface-cruising, diving only to escape, "Luckey Fluckey" relentlessly patrolled the Pacific, driving his boat and crew to their limits. There can be no greater contrast to modern warfare's long-distance, videogame style of battle than the exploits of the captain and crew of the USS Barb, where they sub, out of ammunition, actually rammed an enemy ship until it sank. Thunder Below! is a first-rate, true-life, inspirational story of the courage and heroism of ordinary men under fire. A Main Selection of the Military Book Club. Winner of the Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature given by the Naval Order of the United States, New York Commandery.