Civil War Military History

The costliest battle in the history of the North American continent had begun. July 1, 1863 remains the most overlooked phase of the battle of Gettysburg, yet it set the stage for all the fateful events that followed. Bringing decades of familiarity to the discussion, historians Chris Mackowski, Kristopher D. White, and Daniel T. Davis, in their engaging style, recount the action of that first day of battle and explore the profound implications in Fight Like the Devil.

The stakes for George Gordon Meade could not have been higher. After his stunning victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863, the Union commander spent the following months trying to bring the Army of Northern Virginia to battle once more and finish the job. The Great Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign, November 26-December 2 1863 recounts the final chapter of the forgotten fall of 1863 - when George Gordon Meade made one final attempt to save the Union and, in doing so, save himself.

The battle of Fredericksburg is usually remembered as the most lopsided Union defeat of the Civil War. It is sometimes called “Burnside’s folly”, after Union Commander Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside who led the Army of the Potomac to ruin along the banks of the Rappahannock River. But the battle remains one of the most misunderstood and misremembered engagements of the war. Burnside started with a well-conceived plan and had every reason to expect victory. How did it go so terribly wrong?

Shiloh was a confusing battle, partly because it was a battle of amateurs and partly because it was fought in rugged terrain. Because of this, the author carefully takes you through the fighting hour by hour to help you understand what this tremendous battle was really like, both for the generals and for the young soldiers who did the fighting.

Surrounded by a ring of fire, the scorpion stings itself to death. The image, widespread among antislavery leaders before the Civil War, captures their long-standing strategy for peaceful abolition: They would surround the slave states with a cordon of freedom. They planned to use federal power wherever they could to establish freedom. For their part the southern states fully understood this antislavery strategy. They cited it repeatedly as they adopted secession ordinances in response to Lincoln's election.

The causes of the American Civil War, which lasted from April 1861 to May 1865, were many and complex. At the heart of the disagreement, however, was slavery. The Southern states of the newly formed but illegal Confederacy were prepared to fight the US federal government to the death to retain their right to keep slaves for their plantations. The election of President Abraham Lincoln in late 1860, whose open intention was to abolish slavery, created a military upheaval south of Washington, DC, and civil war ensued.

The history of the United States is to a large extent a history of armed conflict. The nation was first forged in war, a tough fight for independence against one of the world’s largest empires, and that fight would resume less than a generation later with the War of 1812. Then there were constant low-level conflicts with Native Americans as the nation expanded westwards, and occasionally the country engaged in full-scale war against the Sioux, Comanche, and Apache. The country also fought the Mexican-American War, starting in 1846, and the bloody Civil War starting in 1861.

Explore some of the most important events and people in black history! Two captivating manuscripts in one book: African American History: A Captivating Guide to the People and Events That Shaped the History of the United States; and Haitian Revolution: A Captivating Guide to the Abolition of Slavery.

Invalid teenager Leroy Wiley Gresham left a seven-volume diary spanning the years of secession and the Civil War. He was just 12 when he began, and he died at 17, just weeks after the war ended. LeRoy’s diary offers an inside look at a fateful journey that robbed an energetic and likeable young man of his youth and life. I Am Perhaps Dying adds considerably to the medical literature by increasing our understanding of how tuberculosis attacked a young body over time, how it was treated in the middle 19th century, and the effectiveness of those treatments.

The Civil War, the most dramatic moment in this nation's history, also produced some of our greatest literature. From tragic charges to prison escapes to the desolation wrought on those who stayed behind, Blood is an extraordinary collection of reminiscences, fiction, and excerpts from diaries and letters by an array of soldiers, writers, and observers.

Rob Finn is joined by William Cody and Lonnie Walters as they begin their journey into the gold country of the west in 1862. Rob meets desperate and unscrupulous men such as Henry Plummer, as well as gentle and generous natives who heal and help the strangers in their land. We learn that the treasures of the earth are sought by greedy men on both sides of the Civil War, while lasting friendships are the goal of and reward for precious few hearty souls.

A thrilling dive into the little-known, darker side of a revered president’s history, Lincoln’s Lie untangles the threads behind a mysterious 1864 newspaper article to reveal how Lincoln manipulated the media during the Civil War, shining new light onto today’s issues of fake news and presidential conflict with the press.

Jefferson Davis - was he a rebel for a bad cause, or just a greatly misunderstood man? Davis was certainly lambasted as the ultimate evil during the American Civil War since he was the leading statesman of the Southern Confederacy. But what do we really know about Jefferson Davis? What motivated him and what made him tick? What inspired him to lead a cause that very nearly ripped the United States asunder? Davis was a statesman and politician for sure, but he was also a soldier, a husband, and a father.

Robert E. Lee was a hero to some and a villain to others. For one side, he embodied the rebellion of the slave-holding South which had seceded from the Union; for the other side, he was a champion of the little guy, willing to marshal the forces of liberty to stand up against the federal government. How in the world do we get such divergent views on one single man?

When North and South met in 1865 at Appomattox Court House to end the Civil War, the official terms of surrender weren’t written in the hand of Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, or any white soldier. Instead, this momentous event was recorded by General Ely S. Parker, a member of the Seneca (Iroquois) tribe. At that time, Parker was not only the highest-ranking Native American in the Union Army but also the Grand Sachem, or chief representative, of the Haudenosaunee—the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.

Rebel Bulldog tells the story of Preston Davidson, a Northerner who fought for the Confederacy, and his family who lived in Indiana and Virginia. It is a story that examines antebellum religion, education, reform, and politics, and how they affected the identity of not just one young man, but of a nation caught up in a civil war. Furthermore, it discusses how a native-born Hoosier reached the decision to fight for the South, and the postwar life of a proud Rebel who tried to remake his life in a very different state and nation than the ones he had left in 1860.

More than 60,000 books have been published on the Civil War. Most Americans, though, get their ideas about the war why it was fought, what was won, what was lost not from books but from movies, television, and other popular media. In an engaging and accessible survey, Gallagher guides listeners through the stories told in recent film and art, showing how they have both reflected and influenced the political, social, and racial currents of their times.

Did you know that the second-largest battle of the Civil War in terms of casualties took place near a small creek in Georgia whose native name means “River of Death”? The Battle of Chickamauga claimed more casualties (dead, wounded, captured, and missing) than any other Civil War battle except Gettysburg, yet it is not well known. Chickamauga did not change the tide of the war. Though it was a Union defeat, it did not really slow down Union plans for the collapse of the Confederacy in the Deep South.

In late September 1863, the Confederates began laying siege to the Union Army of the Cumberland around Chattanooga in what would be their last gasp for supremacy in the West. Following the devastating Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, the army and its shaken commander, General William S. Rosecrans, began digging in around the city and waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

The Separately Together series is a three-volume work looking into the relationships of its characters during the American Civil War. Written by Charles Heaton Allen, a historian, this series is exciting and challenging. It has been described as "the most uniquely plotted and warmly character-driven of the many Civil War novels I've ever read, which includes many of them" by Col. William C. Moore. It is worthy of the attention of anyone captivated by the Civil War era.