True Tales of the South at War

True Tales of the South at War PDF Author: Clarence Hamilton Poe
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 9780486284514
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Treasury of reminiscences includes battlefield correspondence, diary entries, journals kept on the homefront, stories told to children and grandchildren, more. Intimate, compelling record.

Lincoln and the War's End

Lincoln and the War's End PDF Author: John C. Waugh
Publisher: SIU Press
ISBN: 080933352X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
On the night of his reelection on November 8, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln called on the nation to “re-unite in a common effort, to save our common country.” By April 9 of the following year, the Union had achieved this goal with the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. In this lively volume, John C. Waugh chronicles in detail Lincoln’s role in the final five months of the war, revealing how Lincoln and Grant worked together to bring the war to an end. Beginning with Lincoln’s reelection, Waugh highlights the key military and political events of those tumultuous months. He recounts the dramatic final military campaigns and battles of the war, including William T. Sherman’s march through Georgia to the sea; the Confederate army’s attempt to take Nashville and its loss at the battle of Franklin; and the Union victory at Fort Fisher that closed off the Confederacy’s last open port. Other events also receive attention, including Sherman’s march through the Carolinas and the burning of Columbia; Grant’s defeat of the Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Five Forks, and Lincoln’s presence at the seat of war during that campaign; the Confederate retreat from Petersburg and Richmond; and Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Weaving the stories together chronologically, Waugh also presents the key political events of the time, particularly Lincoln’s final annual message to Congress, passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, the Second Inaugural, Lincoln’s visit to Richmond the day after it fell, and Lincoln’s final days and speeches in Washington after the Confederate surrender. An epilogue recounts the farewell march of all the Union armies through Washington, D.C., in May 1865. Throughout, Waugh enlivens his narrative with illuminating quotes from a wide variety of Civil War participants and personalities, including New Yorker George Templeton Strong, southerner Mary Boykin Chesnut, Lincoln’s secretary John Hay, writer Noah Brooks, and many others.

On Shattered Ground

On Shattered Ground PDF Author: Various
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101617438
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
A WIDE-RANGING COLLECTION OF CIVIL WAR DOCUMENTS This comprehensive anthology of original documents traces the American Civil War from its beginnings with the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln to the surrender and assassination with which it ended. With historical sources ranging from public documents, newspaper articles and personal reminiscences to fiction, songs, and poems written by participants and observers, these primary documents and images capture the wide spectrum of individuals who all experienced the profound effects of the American Civil War on both the Union and Confederacy sides as well as on the nation as a whole. Statesmen, citizens, generals, soldiers, abolitionists, slaves, journalists, and artists all give voice to the day-to-day reality of a devastating conflict that reached into the homes and lives of the average American in a way no American war had before…or has since.

Naval Letters from Captain Percival Drayton, 1861-1865

Naval Letters from Captain Percival Drayton, 1861-1865 PDF Author: Percival Drayton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description


Personal Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee

Personal Reminiscences of General Robert E. Lee PDF Author: J. William Jones
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780765306043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
When Robert E. Lee passed on without setting pen to paper on his memoirs, both North and South alike were deprived of a classic personal history of the War Between the States worthy to sit on the shelf next to Ulysses S.Grant's Personal Memoirs. The Reverend J. William Jones, Lee's chaplain, compiled this collection of reminiscences in its place as a memorial volume commemorating his death. Filled with correspondence with President Andrew Johnson, General Grant, and C.S.A. Generals Scott, Beauregard, and Longstreet, and personal anecdotes from Lee's wartime contemporaries such as Jubal Early, Jeb Magruder, Jefferson Davis, and Winfield Scott. What comes to light is a personal portrait of Lee as family man, gentleman, scholar, and soldier, as well as an eyewitness account of the war that threatened to tear the United States asunder, as witnessed by the South's greatest military leader. The Reverend J. William Jones, D.D., was the chaplain of the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of General Robert E. Lee and after the Civil War served as chaplain for Washington College in Virginia under Lee's presidency. It was my proud privilege to have known General Lee intimately. I saw him on that day in April, 1861, on which he came to offer his stainless sword to the land that gave him birth. I followed his standard from Harper's Ferry, in 1861, to Appomattox Court-house, in 1865, coming into somewhat frequent contact with him, rejoicing with him at his long series of brilliant victories, and weeping with him when "compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. . . . " This first attempt at authorship is sent forth with a sincere desire that it may prove acceptable to the countless admirer of the great Confederate chieftain, that it may serve to give to all a higher appreciation of his noble character, and that it may prove a blessing to the young men of the country (more especially to those who "wore the gray"), by inducing them to study, in order that they may imitate, his shining virtues.

Cedar Mountain to Antietam

Cedar Mountain to Antietam PDF Author: M. Chris Bryan
Publisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 1611215781
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
This history of the Union XII Corps “skillfully weaves firsthand accounts into a compelling story about the triumphs and defeats of this venerable unit” (Bradley M. Gottfried, author of The Maps of Antietam). The diminutive Union XII Corps found significant success on the field at Antietam. Its soldiers swept through the East Woods and the Miller Cornfield—permanently clearing both of Confederates—repelled multiple Southern assaults against the Dunker Church plateau, and eventually secured a foothold in the West Woods. This important piece of high ground had been the Union objective all morning, and its occupation threatened the center and rear of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s embattled Army of Northern Virginia. Yet federal leadership largely ignored this signal achievement and the opportunity it presented. The achievement of the XII Corps is especially notable given its string of disappointments and hardships in the months leading up to Antietam. M. Chris Bryan’s Cedar Mountain to Antietam begins with the formation of this often-luckless command as the II Corps in Maj. Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia on June 26, 1862. Bryan explains in meticulous detail how the corps endured a bloody and demoralizing loss after coming within a whisker of defeating Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson at Cedar Mountain on August 9; suffered through the hardships of Pope’s campaign before and after the Battle of Second Manassas; and triumphed after entering Maryland and joining the reorganized Army of the Potomac. The men of this small corps earned a solid reputation in the Army of the Potomac at Antietam that would only grow during the battles of 1863. This unique study, which blends unit history with sound leadership and character assessments, puts the XII Corps’ actions in proper context by providing significant and substantive treatment to its Confederate opponents. Bryan’s extensive archival research, newspapers, and other important resources, together with detailed maps and images, offers a compelling story of a little-studied yet consequential command that fills a longstanding historiographical gap.

Searching for Jim

Searching for Jim PDF Author: Terrell Dempsey
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826264395
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Searching for Jim is the untold story of Sam Clemens and the world of slavery that produced him. Despite Clemens’s remarks to the contrary in his autobiography, slavery was very much a part of his life. Dempsey has uncovered a wealth of newspaper accounts and archival material revealing that Clemens’s life, from the ages of twelve to seventeen, was intertwined with the lives of the slaves around him. During Sam’s earliest years, his father, John Marshall Clemens, had significant interaction with slaves. Newly discovered court records show the senior Clemens in his role as justice of the peace in Hannibal enforcing the slave ordinances. With the death of his father, young Sam was apprenticed to learn the printing and newspaper trade. It was in the newspaper that slaves were bought and sold, masters sought runaways, and life insurance was sold on slaves. Stories the young apprentice typeset helped Clemens learn to write in black dialect, a skill he would use throughout his writing, most notably in Huckleberry Finn. Missourians at that time feared abolitionists across the border in Illinois and Iowa. Slave owners suspected every traveling salesman, itinerant preacher, or immigrant of being an abolition agent sent to steal slaves. This was the world in which Sam Clemens grew up. Dempsey also discusses the stories of Hannibal’s slaves: their treatment, condition, and escapes. He uncovers new information about the Underground Railroad, particularly about the role free blacks played in northeast Missouri. Carefully reconstructed from letters, newspaper articles, sermons, speeches, books, and court records, Searching for Jim offers a new perspective on Clemens’s writings, especially regarding his use of race in the portrayal of individual characters, their attitudes, and worldviews. This fascinating volume will be valuable to anyone trying to measure the extent to which Clemens transcended the slave culture he lived in during his formative years and the struggles he later faced in dealing with race and guilt. It will forever alter the way we view Sam Clemens, Hannibal, and Mark Twain.

Sherman's March Through the Carolinas

Sherman's March Through the Carolinas PDF Author: John G. Barrett
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469611120
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
In retrospect, General William Tecumseh Sherman considered his march through the Carolinas the greatest of his military feats, greater even than the Georgia campaign. When he set out northward from Savannah with 60,000 veteran soldiers in January 1865, he was more convinced than ever that the bold application of his ideas of total war could speedily end the conflict. John Barrett's story of what happened in the three months that followed is based on printed memoirs and documentary records of those who fought and of the civilians who lived in the path of Sherman's onslaught. The burning of Columbia, the battle of Bentonville, and Joseph E. Johnston's surrender nine days after Appomattox are at the center of the story, but Barrett also focuses on other aspects of the campaign, such as the undisciplined pillaging of the 'bummers,' and on its effects on local populations.

The Last Hurrah

The Last Hurrah PDF Author: Kyle Sinisi
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0742545369
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
In the late summer of 1864, Confederate General Sterling Price led a last ditch attempt to liberate Missouri from Union occupation and brutal guerrilla warfare. Price’s invading army was like few others seen during the Civil War. It was an army of cavalry that lacked men, horses, weapons, and discipline. Its success depended entirely upon a native uprising of pro-Confederate Missourians. When that uprising never occurred, Price’s rag-tag army marched through the state seeking revenge, supplies and conscripts. It was a march that took too long and ultimately allowed Union forces to converge on Price and badly defeat him in a series of battles that ran from Kansas City to the Arkansas border. Three months and 1,400 miles after it had started, the longest sustained cavalry operation of the war had ended in disaster. The Last Hurrah is the story of Price’s invasion from its politically charged planning to its starving retreat. The Last Hurrah is also the story of what happened after the shooting stopped. Even as hundreds of Missourians followed Price out of the state and tried desperately to join his army, elements of the Union army visited retribution upon Confederate sympathizers while still others showed little regard for the lives of the prisoners they had captured. Many more would have to suffer and die long after Sterling Price had fled Missouri.

Gray Ghost

Gray Ghost PDF Author: James A. Ramage
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813138493
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
Confederate John Singleton Mosby forged his reputation on the most exhilarating of military activities: the overnight raid. Mosby possessed a genius for guerrilla and psychological warfare, taking control of the dark to make himself the "Gray Ghost" of Union nightmares. Gray Ghost, the first full biography of Confederate raider John Mosby, reveals new information on every aspect of Mosby's life, providing the first analysis of his impact on the Civil War from the Union viewpoint.