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Union General is the first biography of Samuel Ryan Curtis, the most important and most successful general on either side in the Civil War west of the Mississippi River. Curtis was a West Point graduate, Mexican War veteran, and determined foe of secession who gave up his seat in Congress to fight for the Union. At Pea Ridge in 1862 and Westport in 1864, he marched hundreds of miles across hostile countryside, routed Confederate armies larger than his own, and reestablished Federal control over large swathes of rebel territory. In addition to his remarkable success as a largely independent field commander, Curtis was one of only a handful of abolitionist generals in the Union army. He dealt ...
Nor was the U.S. military prepared for a struggle against Mexican guerrilla forces and desperate bandits. Colonel Curtis was a diary keeper, and this record of his experiences in Mexico gives a clear picture of his efforts to restore and maintain order under nearly impossible conditions: of death and suffering in his regiment from disease, not fighting, and of the tedium of army camp life.
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In 1864, General Sterling Price with an army of 12,000 ragtag Confederates invaded Missouri in an effort to wrest it from the United States Army's Department of Missouri. Price hoped his campaign would sway the 1864 presidential election, convincing war-weary Northern voters to cast their ballots for a peace candidate rather than Abraham Lincoln. It was the South's last invasion of Northern territory. But it was simply too late in the war for the South to achieve such an outcome, and Price grossly mismanaged the campaign, guaranteeing the defeat of his force and of the Confederate States. This book chronicles the Confederacy's desperate, final, ill-fated attempt to win a decisive victory.
For three days in the fall of 1846, U.S. and Mexican soldiers fought fiercely in the picturesque city of Monterrey, turning the northern Mexican town, known for its towering mountains and luxurious gardens, into one of the nineteenth century's most gruesome battlefields. Led by Brigadier General Zachary Taylor, graduates of the U.S. Military Academy encountered a city almost perfectly protected by mountains, a river, and a vast plain. Monterrey's ideal defensive position inspired more than one U.S. soldier to call the city "a perfect Gibraltar." The first day of fighting was deadly for the Americans, especially the newly graduated West Point cadets. But they soon adjusted their tactics and b...
Ulysses S. Grant did more than any other single Union general to secure the North's victory in the Civil War, but he did not achieve that victory alone. Grant's ability to inspire and cultivate the talents of the officers serving under him was a key factor in his remarkable military success. Steven Woodworth and his fellow authors provide ample evidence for that in this first of a two-volume reassessment of Grant's officer corps from Cairo to Appomattox. Covering the war's western theater through July 1863, Woodworth et al. highlight the character and accomplishments of these men and show how their individual relationships with Grant helped pave the way to Union victory. They demonstrate how...
Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Secession and War: April to July 1861 -- 2. The Battle of Wilson's Creek and the First Spy Mission: August to September 1861 -- 3. Big River and Scouting the Southwest Corner: August to September 1861 -- 4. Federals in Retreat, Refugees in the Snow, and Vengeance in Buffalo: October 1861 to February 1862 -- 5. The March to Pea Ridge: February 1862 -- 6. Scouting, Recruiting, and the Cavalry: February to May 1862 -- 7. A Defeat and a Victory: May to July 1862 -- 8. The Battle of Forsyth, and a Raid on Thieves and Cut-Throats: July to August 1862 -- 9. A Plundering Expedition: September...
Two towering figures of American history collide in this riveting account of how the struggle between Lincoln and his defiant general John C. Frémont shaped the Civil War and emancipation. "... a masterwork of history. . .Bicknell deftly interweaves Frémont's story with the grander narrative of the war and Abraham Lincoln's presidency." -Jon D. Schaff, author of Abraham Lincoln's Statesmanship and the Limits of Liberal Democracy In 1856, John C. Frémont—the famed "Pathfinder" of the American West—became the Republican Party's first presidential nominee on an anti-slavery platform. Five years later, now a Union general under President Lincoln, he sparked a national crisis by unilateral...