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Staff Officers in Gray: A Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia
A history of the Confederate troops under Robert E. Lee presents portraits of soldiers from all walks of life, offers insight into how the Confederacy conducted key operations, and reveals how closely the South came to winning the war.
In this companion to his celebrated earlier book, Gettysburg--The Second Day, Harry Pfanz provides the first definitive account of the fighting between the Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill--two of the most critical engagements fought at Gettysburg on 2 and 3 July 1863. Pfanz provides detailed tactical accounts of each stage of the contest and explores the interactions between--and decisions made by--generals on both sides. In particular, he illuminates Confederate lieutenant general Richard S. Ewell's controversial decision not to attack Cemetery Hill after the initial southern victory on 1 July. Pfanz also explores other salient features of the fighting, including the Confederate occupation of the town of Gettysburg, the skirmishing in the south end of town and in front of the hills, the use of breastworks on Culp's Hill, and the small but decisive fight between Union cavalry and the Stonewall Brigade.
The Maryland campaign of September 1862 ranks among the most important military operations of the American Civil War. Crucial political, diplomatic, and military issues were at stake as Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan maneuvered and fought in the western part of the state. The climactic clash came on September 17 at the battle of Antietam, where more than 23,000 men fell in the single bloodiest day of the war. Approaching topics related to Lee's and McClellan's operations from a variety of perspectives, contributors to this volume explore questions regarding military leadership, strategy, and tactics, the impact of the fighting on officers and soldiers in both armies, and the ways in w...
Though located in the heart of Unionist New England, Harvard produced 357 alumni who fought for the South during the Civil War--men not just from the South but from the North as well. This encyclopedic work gathers their stories together for the first time, providing unprecedented biographical coverage of the Crimson Confederates. Included are alumni of Harvard College, Law School, Medical School, and Lawrence Scientific School. The emphasis of the entries is on the alumnus's military career, whether as an infantry private or as a signal scout, as a surgeon or as a teacher in the Confederate Naval Academy, as an aide-de-camp or as an artillery captain. The range of participation took these m...
"Hess studies the use of fortifications by tracing the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia from April 1861 to April 1864. He considers the role of field fortifications in the defense of cities, river crossings, and railroads and in numerous battles. Blending technical aspects of construction with operational history, Hess demonstrates the crucial role these earthworks played in the success or failure of field armies." "Based on fieldwork at 300 battle sites and extensive research in official reports, letters, diaries, and archaeological studies, this book stands to become an indispensable reference for Civil War historians."--BOOK JACKET.
More than 1,000 men held the rank of brigadier general during the Civil War, but a surprising number remain unknown to all but the most ardent scholar. These lesser-known brigadiers, like General Abner M. Perrin (1830–1864), played much more than a casual role in the momentous conflict. Perrin, of the South Carolina 14th Regiment, took part in all of the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. At Gettysburg, he assumed command of a brigade whose general was wounded and defeated all opponents to lead the first troops to enter the town. He received a promotion to brigadier general for his actions and commanded his own brigade at Mine Run, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania, where he was mortally wounded. This welcome biography chronicles Perrin’s life and military career, removing this deserving Civil War personality from the shadows of history.
Contrary to popular belief the Minie ball was not used by either side during America’s Civil War. Instead infantry soldiers fired the Harpers Ferry bullet, a hollow based, cylindro-conical bullet designed by acting master armorer James Henry Burton. His reward was to be driven from his position by partisan politics and into the lap of Great Britain where he helped to establish the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield. Based heavily on Burton’s own papers, this book explains the problems and solutions to the armory production of small arms. A complete inventory of machine tools used to manufacture the Springfield rifled musket is listed in an appendix along with details and diagrams of three patents awarded to Burton.
Completed in the early 1900s, The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 is still the essential source for anyone seeking understanding of the bloodiest day in all of American history. As the U.S. War Department’s official expert on the Battle of Antietam, Ezra Carman corresponded with and interviewed hundreds of other veterans from both sides of the conflict to produce a comprehensive history of the campaign that dashed the Confederacy’s best hope for independence and ushered in the Emancipation Proclamation. Nearly a century after its completion, Carman's manuscript has finally made its way into print, in an attractively packaged one-volume edition painstakingly edited, annotated, and ind...
"A long-overdue study of the depiction of slavery in nineteenth-century American art and visual culture, Hidden in Plain Sight investigates the relationship between proslavery politics and the visual record. By examining a vast array of Civil War-era artworks that champion the institution of enslavement and connecting them with the abolitionist materials to which they respond, Rachel Stephens traces themes of concealment and silence through paintings, photographs, and ephemera and explores how the visual canon of high art was used to cover up, control, and reshape the discourse surrounding the United States' most odious institution"--