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A senior military historian presents an unflinching account of the human costs of the Civil War. Many Americans, argues Michael C. C. Adams, tend to think of the Civil War as more glorious, less awful, than the reality. Millions of tourists flock to battlefields each year as vacation destinations, their perceptions of the war often shaped by reenactors who work hard for verisimilitude but who cannot ultimately simulate mutilation, madness, chronic disease, advanced physical decay. In Living Hell, Adams tries a different tack, clustering the voices of myriad actual participants on the firing line or in the hospital ward to create a virtual historical reenactment. Perhaps because the United St...
"Born to a well to do, connected family in 1816, Montgomery C. Meigs graduated from West Point as an engineer. He helped build America's forts and served under Lt. Robert E. Lee to make navigation improvements on the Mississippi River. As a young man, he designed the Washington aqueducts in a city where people were dying from contaminated water. He built the spectacular wings and the massive dome of the brand new US Capitol. Introduced to President Lincoln by Secretary of State William Seward, Meigs became Lincoln's Quartermaster. It was during the Civil War that Meigs became a national hero. He commanded Ulysses S. Grant's base of supplies that made Union victories, including Gettysburg, possible. He sustained Sherman's army in Georgia, and the March to the Sea. After the war, Meigs built Arlington Cemetery (on land that had been Robert E. Lee's home). [The author] brings Meigs alive in [this book]. We get to know this major military figure that Lincoln and his Cabinet and Generals called the key to victory and learn how he fed, clothed, and armed the Union Army using his ingenuity and devotion"--Amazon.com.
The history of Robeson County reaches farther back than its creation in 1787 and reflects the impressive story of North Carolina. Carved out of the fertile farmlands on the border between North and South Carolina, Robeson is the Tarheel State's largest county at 948 square miles. It has been called "The State of Robeson" not only because of its size but also because of the fierce independence and self-reliance of its people. The county is unique in its almost equally balanced tri-racial population. The residents-Native American, African American, and white-have worked together over the centuries to create a culturally diverse community. Agriculture and textiles abound in the county's past, as well as transportation innovations, like the largest wartime glider air base ever built. Indeed, Robeson County's citizens have served in every American conflict from the Revolutionary War on, including its own internal war-the Lowery War-which lasted 10 years.
Despite the advances of the civil rights movement, many white southerners cling to the faded glory of a romanticized Confederate past. In The Making of a Confederate, William L. Barney focuses on the life of one man, Walter Lenoir of North Carolina, to examine the origins of southern white identity alongside its myriad ambiguities and complexities. Born into a wealthy slaveholding family, Lenoir abhorred the institution, opposed secession, and planned to leave his family to move to Minnesota, in the free North. But when the war erupted in 1860, Lenoir found another escape route--he joined the Confederate army, an experience that would radically transform his ideals. After the war, Lenoir, li...
This “informative” look at the causes of high mortality rates among black Civil War soldiers “gives readers some insight into current health disparities” (JAMA). Black soldiers in the American Civil War were far more likely to die of disease than were white soldiers. In Intensely Human, historian Margaret Humphreys explores why this uneven mortality occurred and how it was interpreted at the time. In doing so, she uncovers the perspectives of mid-nineteenth-century physicians and others who were eager to implicate the so-called innate inferiority of the black body. In the archival collections of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, Humphreys found evidence that the high death rate among bla...
SOUTHERN CULTURE CONTAINED ELEMENTS THAT PROVED DYSFUNCTIONAL TO WINNING A PRE-MODERN WAR FOR SECESSION. SOUTHERN CAVALIERS WERE OFTEN MORE CONCERNED WITH THEIR OWN AMBITIONS AND SEARCH FOR HONOR AND POPULARITY. ROBERT E. LEE LOST THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG BECAUSE JEB STUART WAS MORE CONCERNED WITH HIS HONOR THAN WITH FOLLOWING ORDERS. OTHER GENERALS REFUSED TO COOPERATE AND REFUSED TO PREVENT THE UNION CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS AND VICKSBURG.
A fascinating firsthand account of life during the U.S. Civil War as told by a husband and wife through the letters they shared with one another.
An unusual collection of Civil War essays as seen through the lens of noted environmental scholars, this book's provocative historical commentary explores how nature--disease, climate, flora and fauna, etc.--affected the war and how the war shaped Americans' perceptions, understanding, and use of nature.
"Examines the evolving position of non-elite whites in 19th Alabama society--from the state's creation through the end of the Civil War--through the lens of gender and family"--
A frank and engaging exploration of the burgeoning academic field of environmental history Inspired by the pioneering work of preeminent environmental historian Donald Worster, the contributors to A Field on Fire: The Future of Environmental History reflect on the past and future of this discipline. Featuring wide-ranging essays by leading environmental historians from the United States, Europe, and China, the collection challenges scholars to rethink some of their orthodoxies, inviting them to approach familiar stories from new angles, to integrate new methodologies, and to think creatively about the questions this field is well positioned to answer. Worster’s groundbreaking research serv...