Emerging Civil War
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This Great Contest Afloat
The Civil War on the Seas, Coastline, Rivers, and Oceans
by Neil P. Chatelain
Part 1 of the Emerging Civil War series
"History offers no example where so much was accomplished in so short a time, or where so many events were crowded into the space of four years, in which the Navy was employed subduing a coast over four thousand miles in length, and recapturing a river-coast of more than five thousand miles," wrote Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter in his 1886 The Naval History of the Civil War.
Porter's words demonstrate the true scale of the war's naval activity. Thousands of ships took part, fighting battles alongside the armies and patrolling the globe. The actions of more than 100,000 sailors on both sides impacted military, naval, economic, and diplomatic aspects, all while providing the tools to realize the Anaconda Plan of isolating and splitting the Confederacy.
Unlike the army dividing its efforts into the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi theaters, the Civil War's naval forces fought in four distinct theaters of conflict. The offshore blockade was an economic and logistical campaign waged to determine whether Southern armies would remain properly supplied. Sailors enacting that blockade worked in tandem with armies to assault cities and coastal areas to deny the Confederacy its ports and coastal infrastructure, while Confederate sailors fought to both break the blockade and keep control of its ports. Meanwhile, fleets on both sides battled for control over the Mississippi River Valley in an effort to cleave off the Trans-Mississippi Theater from the rest of the Confederacy. Finally, an economic and diplomatic war was waged across the oceans, where Southern privateers and commerce raiders prowled for Federal merchant ships.
In This Great Contest Afloat: The Civil War on the Seas, Coastline, Rivers, and Oceans, award-winning historian and professor Neil P. Chatelain unpacks each of these naval theaters. Using prolific firsthand accounts merged with keen macro analysis, Chatelain invites readers to board blockade-runners, tread the beaches during coastal assaults, ride on riverine ironclads, and sail on targeted merchant vessels, all the while demonstrating the extent and impact of Civil War naval activity.
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The Summer of '63 Gettysburg
Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War
by Various Authors
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The largest land battle on the North American continent has maintained an unshakable grip on the American imagination. Building on momentum from a string of victories that stretched back into the summer of 1862, Robert E. Lee launched his Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on an invasion of the North meant to shake Union resolve and fundamentally shift the dynamic of the war. His counterpart with the Federal Army of the Potomac, George Meade, elevated to command just days before the fighting, found himself defending his home state in a high-stakes battle that could have put Confederates at the very gates of the nation's capital.
The public historians writing for the popular Emerging Civil War blog, speaking on its podcast, or delivering talks at the annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge in Virginia always present their work in ways that engage and animate audiences. Their efforts entertain, challenge, and sometimes provoke readers with fresh perspectives and insights born from years of working on battlefields, guiding tours, presenting talks, and writing for the wider Civil War community. The Summer of '63: Gettysburg is a compilation of some of their favorites, anthologized, revised, and updated, together with several original pieces. Each entry includes original and helpful illustrations. Along with its companion volume The Summer of '63: Vicksburg and Tullahoma, this important study contextualizes the major 1863 campaigns in what was arguably the Civil War's turning-point summer.
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Traces of the Bloody Struggle
The Civil War at Stevenson Ridge, Spotsylvania Court House
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
As the 1864 Overland Campaign shifted from the Wilderness toward Spotsylvania Court House, Confederate commander Robert E. Lee successfully bottlenecked the Federal army just outside the village. Undeterred, Union commander Ulysses S. Grant sent part of his forces on a wide flanking maneuver to attack Confederates from the east. Lee scrambled to block them.
Thus the Civil War came to the property now known as Stevenson Ridge.
Traces of the Bloody Struggle: The Civil War at Stevenson Ridge, Spotsylvania Court House tells the story of Spotsylvania's forgotten front: the fighting along the Fredericksburg Road. During the two-week battle, three-fourths of the Union army occupied and crossed over Stevenson Ridge as Grant looked for ways to break Lee's defenses.
Today, Stevenson Ridge is one of the most historic properties in Spotsylvania County. Extensive earthworks crisscross the landscape. Stories abound. Traces of the struggle remain everywhere.
Located on the Spotsylvania battlefield in central Virginia, Stevenson Ridge is an 87-acre historical property that offers a premier special events facility as well as lodging in restored antique structures dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Only a short drive from historic Downtown Fredericksburg, Lake Anna, and all of the major Civil War battlefields in the area-Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and Spotsylvania-Stevenson Ridge also boasts some of the best-preserved Civil War trenches in private hands.
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The Aftermath of Battle
The Burial of the Civil War Dead
by Meg Groeling
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The stories of what happened after the shooting stopped and the process of burying bodies in the wake of Civil War carnage and chaos.
The clash of armies in the American Civil War left hundreds of thousands of men dead, wounded, or permanently damaged. Skirmishes and battles could result in casualty numbers as low as one or two and as high as tens of thousands. The carnage of the battlefield left a lasting impression on those who experienced or viewed it, but in most cases the armies quickly moved on to meet again at another time and place. When the dust settled and the living armies moved on, what happened to the dead left behind? Unlike battle narratives, The Aftermath of Battle picks up the story as the battle ends.
The burial of the dead was an overwhelming experience for the armies or communities forced to clean up after the destruction of battle. In the short-term action, bodies were hastily buried to avoid the stench and the horrific health concerns of massive death; in the long-term, families struggled to reclaim loved ones and properly reinter them in established cemeteries.
Visitors to a battlefield often wonder what happened to the dead once the battle was over. This compelling, easy-to-read overview, enhanced with extensive photos and illustrations, provides a look at the aftermath of battle and the process of burying the Civil War dead.
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Embattled Capital
A Guide to Richmond During the Civil War
by Robert M. Dunkerly
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
A guide to the former Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, with "a good deal of historical information, much of it neglected in histories of the war" (The NYMAS Review).
"On To Richmond!" cried editors for the New York Tribune in the spring of 1861. Thereafter, that call became the rallying cry for the North's eastern armies as they marched, maneuvered, and fought their way toward the capital of the Confederacy.
Just 100 miles from Washington, DC, Richmond served as a symbol of the rebellion itself. It was home to the Confederate Congress, cabinet, president, and military leadership. And it housed not only the Confederate government but also some of the Confederacy's most important industry and infrastructure. The city was filled with prisons, hospitals, factories, training camps, and government offices.
Through four years of war, armies battled at its doorsteps-and even penetrated its defenses. Civilians felt the impact of war in many ways: food shortages, rising inflation, a bread riot, industrial accidents, and eventually, military occupation. To this day, the war's legacy remains deeply written into the city and its history.
This book tells the story of the Confederate capital before, during, and after the Civil War, and serves as a guidebook including a comprehensive list of places to visit: the battlefields around the city, museums, historic sites, monuments, cemeteries, historical preservation groups, and more.
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Passing Through the Fire
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War
by Brian F. Swartz
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
As the brigade he commanded attacked a Confederate battery on a hill outside Petersburg in July 1864, a bursting shell blew Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain from the saddle and wounded his horse. After the enemy battery skedaddled, the brigade took the hill and dug in, and up came supporting Union guns. Chamberlain figured the day's fighting ended. Then an unidentified senior officer ordered his brigade to charge and capture the heavily defended main Confederate line. Chamberlain protested the order, then complied, taking his men forward, until a bullet slammed through his groin and left him mortally wounded. Miraculously surviving a nighttime battlefield surgery, he returned home to convalesce as a brigadier general following an impromptu deathbed promotion. Struggling with pain and multiple surgeries, Chamberlain debated leaving the army or returning to the fight. His decision affected upcoming battles, his family, and the rest of his life. Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War chronicles Chamberlain's swift transition from college professor and family man to regimental and brigade commander. A natural leader, he honed his fighting skills at Shepherdstown and Fredericksburg. Praised by his Gettysburg peers for leading the 20th Maine Infantry's successful defense of Little Round Top-an action that would eventually earn him Civil War immortality, Chamberlain experienced his most intense combat after arriving at Petersburg. Drawing on Chamberlain's extensive memoirs and writings and multiple period sources, historian Brian F. Swartz follows Chamberlain across Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia while examining the determined warrior who let nothing prevent him from helping save the United States.
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The Most Desperate Acts of Gallantry
George A. Custer in the Civil War
by Daniel T. Davis
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Through the passage of time, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's last fight, the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, has come to overshadow the rest of his military career, which had its brilliant beginning in the American Civil War.
Plucked from obscurity by Maj. Gen. George McClellan, Custer served as a staff officer through the early stages of the war. His star began to rise in late June, 1863, when he catapulted several grades to brigadier general and was given brigade command. Shortly thereafter, at Gettysburg and Buckland Mills, he led his men-the Wolverines-in some of the heaviest cavalry fighting of the Eastern Theater.
At Yellow Tavern, Custer's assault broke the enemy line, and one of his troopers mortally wounded the legendary Confederate cavalryman, J.E.B. Stuart. At Trevilian Station, his brigade was nearly destroyed. At Third Winchester, he participated in an epic cavalry charge. Elevated to lead the Third Cavalry Division, Custer played a major role at Tom's Brook and, later, at Appomattox, which ultimately led to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Historian Daniel T. Davis, a long-time student of George Custer, has spent countless hours walking and studying the battlefields where Custer fought in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. In The Most Desperate Acts of Gallantry, he chronicles the Civil War experiences of one of the most recognized individuals to emerge from that tragic chapter in American history.
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Simply Murder
The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
This Civil War history and guide offers a vivid chronicle of this dramatic yet misunderstood battle, plus invaluable information for battlefield visitors.
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. Confederates, fortified behind a stone wall along a sunken road, poured a hail of lead into them as they charged. One eyewitness summed it up saying, "it is only murder now."
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?
Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have worked for years along Fredericksburg's Sunken Road and Stone Wall, and they've escorted thousands of visitors across the battlefield. “Simply Murder” not only recounts Fredericksburg's tragic story of slaughter but includes vital information about the battlefield itself and the insights they've learned from years of walking the ground.
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Attack at Daylight and Whip Them
The Battle of Shiloh, April 6–7, 1862
by Gregory A. Mertz
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
This Civil War history and guide presents an engaging chronicle of the Battle of Shiloh with information and insights about the Tennessee battlefield.
The Union Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, had gathered on the banks of its namesake river at a spot called Pittsburg Landing, ready to strike deep into the heart of Tennessee Confederates, commanded by General Albert Sidney Johnston. Johnston's troops were reeling from setbacks earlier in the year and had decided to reverse their fortunes by taking the fight to the Federals.
Johnston planned to attack them at daylight and drive them into the river. As a brutal fight ensued, Grant gathered reinforcements and planned a counteroffensive. On the morning of April 7, he initiated his own bloody daybreak attack. The horrors of this two-day battle exceeded anything America had ever known in its history.
Historian Greg Mertz grew up on the Shiloh battlefield, hiking its trails and exploring its fields. “Attack at Daylight and Whip Them” taps into five decades of intimate familiarity with a battle that rewrote America's notions of war.
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All Hell Can't Stop Them
The Battles for Chattanooga-Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, November 24-27, 1863
by David Powell
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
To many of the Federal soldiers watching the Stars and Stripes unfurl atop Lookout Mountain on the morning of November 25, 1863, it seemed that the battle to relieve Chattanooga was complete. The Union Army of the Cumberland was no longer trapped in the city, subsisting on short rations and awaiting rescue; instead, they were again on the attack.
Ulysses S. Grant did not share their certainty. For Grant, the job he had been sent to accomplish was only half-finished. Braxton Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee still held Missionary Ridge, with other Rebels under James Longstreet threatening more Federals in Knoxville, Tennessee. Grant's greatest fear was that the Rebels would slip away before he could deliver the final blows necessary to crush Bragg completely.
That blow landed on the afternoon of November 25. Each of Grant's assembled forces-troops led by Union Generals William T. Sherman, George H. Thomas, and Joseph Hooker-all moved to the attack. Stubbornly, Bragg refused to retreat, and instead accepted battle. That decision would cost him dearly.
But everything did not go Grant's way. Despite what Grant's many admirers would later insist was his most successful, most carefully planned battle, Grant's strategy failed him-as did his most trusted commander, Sherman. Victory instead charged straight up the seemingly impregnable slopes of Missionary Ridge's western face, as the men of the much-maligned Army of the Cumberland swarmed up and over Bragg's defenses in an irresistible blue tide.
Caught flat-footed by this impetuous charge, Grant could only watch nervously as the men started up . . .
All Hell Can't Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga-Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, November 24-27, 1863-sequel to Battle Above the Clouds-details the dramatic final actions of the battles for Chattanooga: Missionary Ridge and the final Confederate rearguard action at Ringgold, where Patrick Cleburne held Grant's Federals at bay and saved the Army of Tennessee from further disaster.
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Grant's Last Battle
The Story Behind the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The remarkable story of how one of America's greatest military heroes became a literary legend. The former general in chief of the Union armies during the Civil War . . . the two-term president of the United States . . . the beloved ambassador of American goodwill around the globe . . . the respected New York financier-Ulysses S. Grant-was dying. The hardscrabble man who regularly smoked twenty cigars a day had developed terminal throat cancer. Thus began Grant's final battle-a race against his own failing health to complete his personal memoirs in an attempt to secure his family's financial security. But the project evolved into something far more: an effort to secure the very meaning of the Civil War itself and how it would be remembered. In this maelstrom of woe, Grant refused to surrender. Putting pen to paper, the hero of Appomattox embarked on his final campaign: an effort to write his memoirs before he died. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant would cement his place as not only one of America's greatest heroes but also as one of its most sublime literary voices. Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have recounted Grant's battlefield exploits as historians at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, and Mackowski, as an academic, has studied Grant's literary career. Their familiarity with the former president as a general and as a writer bring Grant's Last Battle to life with new insight, told with the engaging prose that has become the hallmark of the Emerging Civil War Series.
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A Want of Vigilance
The Bristoe Station Campaign, October 9–19, 1863
by Bill Backus
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Part of the Emerging Civil War Series, this history covers a crucial clash between the Blue and the Gray that impacted future Union tactics and victories. The months after the Battle of Gettysburg were anything but quiet-filled with skirmishes and cavalry clashes. Nonetheless, Union commander Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade had yet to encounter his Confederate counterpart, Gen. Robert E. Lee, in combat. Lee's army, severely bloodied at Gettysburg, did not have the offensive capability it once possessed. Yet Lee's aggressive nature could not be quelled, and he looked for the chance to strike out at Meade. In mid-October 1863, both men shifted their armies into motion, each surprising the other. Quickly, Meade found himself racing northward for safety along the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, with Lee charging up the rail line behind him. Last stop: Bristoe Station, Virginia. In A Want of Vigilance, authors Bill Backus and Robert Orrison trace the battle from the armies' camps around Orange and Culpeper through the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the vital railroad-to Centreville and back-in one of the war's most little known confrontations, pitting the "goggle-eyed snapping turtle" against "the old gray fox."
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Bloody Autumn
The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864
by Daniel T. Davis
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
In the late summer of 1864, Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant set one absolutely unconditional goal: to sweep Virginia's Shenandoah Valley "clean and clear." His man for the job: Maj. Gen. "Little Phil" Sheridan-a temperamental Irishman who'd proven himself just the kind of scrapper Grant loved.
The valley had already played a major part in the war for the Confederacy as both the location of major early victories against Union attacks, and as the route used by the Army of Northern Virginia for its invasion of the North, culminating in the battle of Gettysburg.
But when Sheridan returned to the Valley in 1864, the stakes heightened dramatically. For the North, the fragile momentum its war effort had gained by the capture of Atlanta would quickly evaporate. For Abraham Lincoln, defeat in the Valley could mean defeat in the upcoming election. And for the South, its very sovereignty lay on the line.
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The Great Battle Never Fought
The Mine Run Campaign, November 26 – December 2, 1863
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
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 Confederate army, robbed of much of its offensive strength, nevertheless parried Meade's moves time after time. Although the armies remained in constant contact during those long months of cavalry clashes, quick maneuvers, and sudden skirmishes, Lee continued to frustrate Meade's efforts.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Meade's political enemies launched an all-out assault against his reputation and generalship. Even the very credibility of his victory at Gettysburg came under assault. Pressure mounted for the army commander to score a decisive victory and prove himself once more.
Smaller victories, like those at Bristoe Station and Rappahannock Station, did little to quell the growing clamor-particularly because out west, in Chattanooga, another Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, was once again reversing Federal misfortunes. Meade needed a comparable victory in the east.
And so, on Thanksgiving Day, 1863, the Army of the Potomac rumbled into motion once more, intent on trying again to bring about the great battle that would end the war. 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.
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The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson
The Mortal Wounding of the Confederacy's Greatest Icon
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
An exhaustive look at the final hours of the Confederacy's most audacious general. May 1863. The Civil War was in its third spring, and Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas Jonathan Jackson stood at the peak of his fame. He had risen from obscurity to become "Old Stonewall," adored across the South, feared, and respected throughout the North. On the night of May 2, however, just hours after Jackson executed the most audacious maneuver of his career and delivered a crushing blow against an unsuspecting Union army at Chancellorsville, disaster struck. The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson recounts the events of that fateful night-considered one of the most pivotal moments of the war-and the tense vigil that ensued as Jackson struggled with a foe even he could not defeat. From Guinea Station, where Jackson crosses the river to rest under the shade of the trees, the story follows Jackson's funeral and burial, the strange story of his amputated arm, and the creation and restoration of the building where he died (now known as the Stonewall Jackson Shrine). This newly revised and expanded second edition features more than 50 pages of fresh material, including almost 200 illustrations, maps, and eye-catching photos. New appendices allow readers to walk in Jackson's prewar footsteps through his adopted hometown of Lexington, Virginia; consider the ways Jackson's memory has been preserved through monuments, memorials, and myths; and explore the misconceptions behind the Civil War's great What-If: "What if Stonewall had survived his wounds?" With the engaging prose of master storytellers, Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White make The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson a must-read for Civil War novices and buffs alike.
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All the Fighting They Want
The Atlanta Campaign from Peachtree Creek to the City's Surrender, July 18–September 2, 1864
by Stephen Davis
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
John Bell Hood brought a hang-dog look and a hard-fighting spirit to the Army of Tennessee. Once one of the ablest division commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia, he found himself, by the spring of 1864, in the wars Western Theater. Recently recovered from grievous wounds sustained at Chickamauga, he suddenly found himself thrust into command of the Confederacy's ill-starred army even as Federals pounded on the door of the Deep Souths greatest untouched city, Atlanta. His predecessor, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, had failed to stop the advance of armies under Federal commander William T. Sherman, who had pushed and maneuvered his way from Chattanooga, Tennessee, right to Atlanta's very doorstep. Johnston had been able to do little to stop him. The crisis could not have been more acute. Hood, an aggressive risk-taker, threw his men into the fray with unprecedented vigor. Sherman welcomed it. Well give them all the fighting they want, Sherman said. He proved a man of his word. In All the Fighting They Want, Georgia native Steve Davis, the world's foremost authority on the Atlanta campaign, tells the tale of the last great struggle for the city. His Southern sensibility and his knowledge of the battle, accumulated over a lifetime of living on the ground, make this an indispensable addition to the acclaimed Emerging Civil War Series.
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A Season of Slaughter
The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8–21, 1864
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
A gripping narrative of one of the Civil War's most consequential engagements.
In the spring of 1864, the newly installed Union commander Ulysses S. Grant did something none of his predecessors had done before: He threw his army against the wily, audacious Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia over and over again.
At Spotsylvania Court House, the two armies shifted from stalemate in the Wilderness to slugfest in the mud. Most commonly known for the horrific twenty-two-hour hand-to-hand combat in the pouring rain at the Bloody Angle, the battle of Spotsylvania Court House actually stretched from May 8 to 21, 1864-fourteen long days of battle and maneuver. Grant, the irresistible force, hammering with his overwhelming numbers and unprecedented power, versus Lee, the immovable object, hunkered down behind the most formidable defensive works yet seen on the continent. Spotsylvania Court House represents a chess match of immeasurable stakes between two master opponents. This clash is detailed in A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May –21, 1864.
A Season of Slaughter is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series offering compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War's most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with hundreds of photos, illustrations, and maps.
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Fallen Leaders
Favorite Stories And Fresh Perspectives From The Historians At Emerging Civil War
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Fallen Leaders: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War recounts the fall of some of the most famous, infamous, and underappreciated commanders from both the North and South.
The Civil War took as many as 720,000 lives and maimed hundreds of thousands more. The fallen included outstanding leaders on both sides, from a U.S. president all the way down the ranks to beloved regimental commanders. Abraham Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson, and John Reynolds remain well-known and even legendary. Others, like Confederate cavalry commander Earl Van Dorn, remain locked in infamy. The deaths of army commanders Albert Sidney Johnston and James McPherson and regimental leader Col. Elmer Ellsworth (the first Union officer killed) left more questions than answers about unfulfilled potential and lost opportunities. Thousands more have faded into historical obscurity. Others "fell" not from death or wounds but because of their own missteps or misdeeds, their reputations ruined forever. Theirs are falls from grace.
This collection of essays by a host of writers brings together the best scholarship from Emerging Civil War's blog, symposia, and podcast, all of which have been revised, updated, and footnoted. The collection also contains several original pieces written exclusively for Emerging Civil War's 10th Anniversary Series. Expect new angles on familiar stories about high-profile figures. Meet leaders whose stories you might not know but whose losses were felt as deeply personal tragedies by those around them.
This collection sheds new light and insight on some of the most significant casualties of the conflict: the fallen leaders whose deaths, injuries, and disgraces changed the Civil War.
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The Civil War and Pop Culture
Favorite Stories And Fresh Perspectives From The Historians Of Emerging Civil War
by Various Authors
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Explore the enduring fascination of the Civil War through thought-provoking essays from the esteemed "Emerging Civil War" series to gain better understanding of the complex relationship between history and art in shaping our understanding of the war.
The American Civil War left indelible marks on America's imagination, collectively and as individuals.
In the century and a half since the war, musicians have written songs, writers have crafted histories and literature, and filmmakers recreated scenes from the battlefield. Beyond popular media, the battle rages on during sporting events where Civil War-inspired mascots carry on old traditions. The war erupts on tabletops and computer screens as gamers fight the old fights. Elsewhere, men and women dress in uniforms and home-spun clothes to don the mantel of people long gone.
Central to "history" is the idea of "story." Civil War history remains full of stories. They inspire us, they inform us, they educate us, they entertain us. We all have our favorite books, movies, and songs. We all marvel at the spectacle of a reenactment-and flinch with startled delight when the cannons fire.
But those stories can fool us, too. Entertainments can seduce us into forgetting the actual history in favor of a more romanticized version or whitewashed memory.
The Civil War and Pop Culture: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War explores some of the ways people have imagined and re-imaged the war, at the tension between history and art, and how those visions have left lasting marks on American culture. This collection of essays brings together the best scholarship from Emerging Civil War's blog, symposia, and podcast-all of it revised and updated-coupled with original piece, designed to shed new light and insight on some of the most entertaining, nostalgic, and evocative connections we have to the war.
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Man of Fire
William Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War
by Derek D. Maxfield
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
He has been accused of "studied and ingenious cruelty." By turns, he has been called a savior and a barbarian, a hero and a villain, a genius and a madman. But whatever you call William Tecumseh Sherman, you must admit he is utterly fascinating. Sherman spent a lifetime in search of who he was, striving to find a place and a calling. Informally adopted by the Ewing family of Lancaster, Ohio, when his own father died when he was just nine, the young redhead lived in a spacious mansion just up the hill from his mother. Later, as a young man, he would marry his adopted sister, Ellen. After attending West Point, the intrepid Ohioan found that being a soldier suited him. Yet he always seemed to miss his opportunity. The second Seminole War was in its closing days before he saw action. When the Mexican-American War broke out, he anticipated the opportunity to earn military glory only to be posted to Pittsburgh on recruiting duty. Transferred to California, he arrived too late after surviving two shipwrecks, then ended up on administrative duties. Hounded by his family to leave the military, Sherman tried banking and practicing law. Finally, he became superintendent of a new military academy in Louisiana and thought he had found his place-until civil war intervened. After leading his troops at the battle of Bull Run, the anxious brigadier general was sent West to Kentucky. Apprehensive over the situation in the Blue Grass State, suffering from stress, insomnia, and anxiety, Sherman begged to be relieved. Sent home to recover, the newspapers announced he was insane. Colleagues concluded he was "gone in the head." Instead, like a phoenix, he rose from the ashes to become a hero of the republic. Forging an identity in the fire of war, the unconventional general kindled a friendship with Ulysses S. Grant and proved to everyone at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Georgia, and in the Carolinas that while he was unorthodox, he was also brilliant and creative. More than that, he was eminently successful and played an important role in the Union's victory. Man of Fire: William Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War tells the story of a man who found himself in war-and that, in turn, secured him a place in history. Condemned for his barbarousness or hailed for his heroics, the life of this peculiar general is nonetheless compelling-and thoroughly American.
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Battle above the Clouds
Lifting the Siege of Chattanooga and the Battle of Lookout Mountain, October 16 - November 24, 1863
by David Powell
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
In October 1863, the Union Army of the Cumberland was besieged in Chattanooga, all but surrounded by familiar opponents: The Confederate Army of Tennessee. The Federals were surviving by the narrowest of margins, thanks only to a trickle of supplies painstakingly hauled over the sketchiest of mountain roads. Soon even those quarter-rations would not suffice. Disaster was in the offing.
Yet those Confederates, once jubilant at having routed the Federals at Chickamauga and driven them back into the apparent trap of Chattanooga's trenches, found their own circumstances increasingly difficult to bear. In the immediate aftermath of their victory, the South rejoiced; the Confederacy's own disasters of the previous summer-Vicksburg and Gettysburg-were seemingly reversed. Then came stalemate in front of those same trenches. The Confederates held the high ground, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, but they could not completely seal off Chattanooga from the north.
The Union responded. Reinforcements were on the way. A new man arrived to take command: Ulysses S. Grant. Confederate General Braxton Bragg, unwilling to launch a frontal attack on Chattanooga's defenses, sought victory elsewhere, diverting troops to East Tennessee.
Battle above the Clouds by David Powell recounts the first half of the campaign to lift the siege of Chattanooga, including the opening of the "cracker line," the unusual night battle of Wauhatchie, and one of the most dramatic battles of the entire war: Lookout Mountain.
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Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale
The Battle of Chickamauga, September 18-20, 1863
by William Lee White
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The battle of Chickamauga brought an early fall to the Georgia countryside in 1863, where men fell like autumn leaves in some of the heaviest fighting of the war. The battlefield consisted of a nearly impenetrable, vine-choked forest around Chickamauga Creek. Unable to see beyond their immediate surroundings, officers found it impossible to exercise effective command, and the engagement deteriorated into what many participants later called "a soldier's battle." It was, explained Union General John Turchin, "Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale."
The stakes were high: control of Chattanooga, "the Gateway City" to the Deep South. The two-day battle of Chickamauga was the only major victory of the war for the ill-starred Confederate Army of Tennessee, which managed to break through on the second day and drive the Union army off the field in a wild rout. The victory, however, left a legacy of dashed hopes for Braxton Bragg and his Confederate army. Ironically, Bragg won the costly victory but lost the city, while Union commander William Rosecrans lost the battle but somehow managed to hold the city which President Lincoln considered as important as the Confederate capital of Richmond. Despite its importance, however, Chickamauga has been largely overlooked and is rife with myths and misunderstandings.
Author William Lee White has spent most of his life on the Chickamauga battlefield, taking thousands of visitors through the wooded landscape and telling the story of the bloodiest engagement in the Western Theater. Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale describes the tragic events of Chickamauga, but also includes many insights about often-neglected aspects of the fighting that White has gained from his many years studying the battle and exploring its scenic landscape.
Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale can be enjoyed in the comfort of one's favorite armchair or as a battlefield guide. It is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series, which offers compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War's most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with more than one hundred photos, illustrations, and maps.
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The Civil War On the Water
Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War
by Various Authors
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The Civil War was primarily a land conflict, but it was not only that. "Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten," wrote Abraham Lincoln. "At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their tracks." From the Arctic Circle to the Caribbean, swift Rebel raiders decimated Union commerce pursued by the U. S. Navy. Offshore, storm-tossed blockaders in hundreds of vessels patrolled from Hatteras to Galveston while occasionally lobbing a few shots at a speeding Rebel runner. Around the continental periphery, it was ships vs. powerful fortifications as titanic clashes erupted: Port Royal, New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile. Massive army-navy amphibious operations presaged twentieth-century conflicts: The Peninsula, North Carolina Sounds, Fort Fisher. In the heartland, the two services invented riverine warfare: Forts Henry and Donelson, Island No. 10, Memphis, Vicksburg. And through it all, emerging technology of the machine age played a critical role: iron armor, torpedoes, steam propulsion, heavy naval artillery. However, nothing in the history and traditions of the United States Navy had prepared it for civil war. The sea service would expand tenfold from a third-rate force to (temporarily) one of the most powerful and advanced navies. Meanwhile, former shipmates in the Confederacy struggled to construct a fleet from nothing, applying innovative technologies and underdog strategies to achieve more than anyone thought possible. Both sides faced unprecedented strategic, tactical, and technological challenges that made their navies indispensable-even as the navies themselves faced those same sorts of challenges. The Civil War on the Water: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War compiles favorite navy tales and obscure narratives by distinguished public historians of the Emerging Civil War in celebration of the organization's tenth anniversary. This eclectic collection presents new stories and familiar battles from a unique perspective-from the water-sea, surf, and stream.
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The Summer of '63: Vicksburg & Tullahoma
Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The fall of Vicksburg in July 1863 fundamentally changed the strategic picture of the American Civil War, though its outcome had been anything but certain. Union general Ulysses S. Grant tried for months to capture the Confederate Mississippi River bastion, to no avail. A bold running of the river batteries, followed by a daring river crossing and audacious overland campaign, finally allowed Grant to pen the Southern army inside the entrenched city. The long and gritty siege that followed led to the fall of the city, the opening of the Mississippi to Union traffic, and a severance of Confederacy in two. In middle Tennessee, meanwhile, the Union Army of the Cumberland brilliantly recaptured thousands of square miles of territory while sustaining fewer than 600 casualties. Commander William S. Rosecrans worried the North would "overlook so great an event because it is not written in letters of blood"-and history proved him right. The Tullahoma Campaign has stood nearly forgotten compared to events along the Mississippi and in south-central Pennsylvania, yet all three major Union armies scored significant victories that helped bring the war closer to an end. The public historians writing for the popular Emerging Civil War blog, speaking on its podcast, or delivering talks at its annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge in Virginia always present their work in ways that engage and animate audiences. Their efforts entertain, challenge, and sometimes provoke readers with fresh perspectives and insights born from years of working at battlefields, guiding tours, presenting talks, and writing for the wider Civil War community. “The Summer of '63: Vicksburg and Tullahoma: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War” is a compilation of some of their favorites, anthologized, revised, and updated, together with several original pieces.
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Strike Them a Blow
Battle along the North Anna River, May 21-25, 1864
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The Civil War historian and author of “A Season of Slaughter” continues his engaging account of the Overland Campaign in this vivid chronicle.
By May of 1864, Federal commander Ulysses S. Grant had resolved to destroy his Confederate adversaries through attrition if by no other means. Meanwhile, his Confederate counterpart, Robert E. Lee, looked for an opportunity to regain the offensive initiative. "We must strike them a blow," he told his lieutenants.
But Grant's war of attrition began to take its toll in a more insidious way. Both army commanders-exhausted and fighting off illness-began to feel the continuous, merciless grind of combat in very personal ways. Punch-drunk tired, they began to second-guess themselves, missing opportunities and making mistakes. As a result, along the banks of the North Anna River, commanders on both sides brought their armies to the brink of destruction without even knowing it.
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The Hall of Mirrors
War and Warfare in the Twentieth Century
by Jim Storr
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The 20th Century was hugely violent. It was possibly the most violent century in history. It is a clearly defined period in the past. A huge amount has been written about war, and warfare, in that period. So, what can we learn from war, and warfare, in the 20th century? War is hugely important. War shapes continents, and can do so dramatically quickly. After just 52 months of the First World War, four empires had ceased to exist. Eight new countries were born in Europe. As a result of the six years of the Second World War, Japan and Germany renounced militarism and ceased to be major players on the world stage for decades. The border of Russia moved 800km west, to the Oder. War is hugely important. It is not futile, although it appears so to some of those involved. But how effective, for example, was the allied Combined Bomber Offensive in the defeat of Germany in the Second World War? There is, in practice, no real consensus. Similarly there is very little discussion, and apparently no agreement, as to how the western allies defeated Germany in north west Europe in 1944-5. Was it just superior numbers? (No: there were more German than Allied divisions until January 1945.) Yet both of those campaigns took place over 70 years ago. Why are those questions unanswered? 'The Hall of Mirrors is not a narrative history. It takes a deep look at war, and warfare, in the 20th Century. It looks at the strategy, the operational art, and the tactics. It looks at how technology developed, was developed, and affected military events. It looks at the human beings, the human organizations, and how they affected events. It makes judgments and comes to conclusions. By 1919 the First World War was already over. Those millions had died; those empires had crumbled; those new nations had been born. Nothing similar has happened, thus far, in this century. All the more reason to look back and consider what did happen, and what we might learn from war and warfare in the 20th century.
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The Carnage Was Fearful
The Battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862
by Michael Block
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
In early August 1862, Confederate Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson took to the field with his Army of the Valley for one last fight-one that would also turn out to be his last independent command. Near the base of Cedar Mountain, in the midst of a blistering heat wave, outnumbered Federal infantry under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks attacked Jackson's army as it marched toward Culpeper Court House. A violent three-hour battle erupted, yielding more than 3,600 casualties. "The carnage was fearful," one observer wrote. The unexpected Federal aggressiveness nearly won the day. Jackson, attempting to rally his men, drew his sword-only to find it so rusted, it would not come unsheathed. "Jackson is with you!" he cried, brandishing the sword still in its scabbard. The tide of battle turned-and the resulting victory added to Stonewall's mystique. Civil War history typically breezes by the battle of Cedar Mountain, moving quickly from the Seven Days' Battles into the Second Bull Run Campaign, but the stand-alone battle at Cedar Mountain had major implications. It saw the emergence of the Federal cavalry as an effective intelligence collector and screening force. It also provided Confederate Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill's first opportunity to save the day-and his first opportunity to raise Jackson's ire. Within the Federal Army, the aftermath of the battle escalated the in-fighting among generals and led to recriminations and finger-pointing over why the battle was even fought. Some called it outright murder. Most importantly, the Federal defeat at Cedar Mountain halted an advance into central Virginia and provided the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Gen. Robert E. Lee, an opportunity to take the fight away from Richmond and toward Washington. For years, Michael Block has been deeply involved in developing interpretation for the Cedar Mountain battlefield. The Carnage was Fearful presents the battle with the full boots-on-the-ground insight Block has earned while walking the ground and bringing its story to life.
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Glorious Courage
by Sarah Kay Bierle
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
A look at Confederate hero John Pelham, separating the real man from Lost Cause mythmaking.
"It is glorious to see such courage in one so young!"
So declared Confederate General Robert E. Lee on December 13, 1862, during the battle of Fredericksburg as he watched Major John Pelham fight at least five Union batteries with just one lone gun. The dashing and handsome 24-year-old Alabama officer earned the compliments and admiration of his men, the war gods of Virginia (Lee, Jackson, and Stuart), and Southern society-all while helping transform the concept of horse artillery on Civil War battlefields across Virginia and Maryland.
After Pelham's death in battle in 1863, his place as a beloved Southern hero soared, and admirers firmly elevated him into the upper ranks of the Confederate pantheon. His status as a Lost Cause martyr exacted a price, though: Admirers transformed Pelham's memory into "the beau ideal of Confederate arms," sometimes altering and clouding the realities of his life. His memory has been trapped there ever since-until now.
In Glorious Courage, historian Sarah Kay Bierle reconsiders Pelham's extraordinary, if short, life by drawing on primary and secondary sources and her extensive knowledge of the battlefields. Pelham's zest for living carried him from Alabama to the military academy at West Point, while his zeal in command of the Stuart Horse Artillery earned him well-deserved plaudits. But like every other man who served the Confederate cause, the remarkable young officer was a human being with flaws. He deserves his place in history as he lived it, not varnished with the perspectives shoved upon him by later generations.
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Stay and Fight It Out
The Second Day At Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, Culp's Hill And The North End Of The Battlefield
by Kristopher D. White
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Recounts the often-overlooked fight that secured the Union position and set the stage for the Gettysburg battle's fateful final day.
July 1, 1863, was a disaster for the Union army's XI Corps. Shattered in battle north of the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, the battered and embarrassed unit ended the day hunkered at the crest of a cemetery-topped hill south of the village. Reinforcements fortified the position, which extended eastward to include another key piece of high ground: Culp's Hill. The Federal line also extended southward down Cemetery Ridge, forming what eventually came to resemble a long fishhook.
July 2 saw a massive Confederate attack against the southernmost part of the line. As the Southern juggernaut rolled inexorably northward, Federal troops shifted away from Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill to meet the threat. Just then, part of the Army of Northern Virginia's vaunted Second Corps launched itself at the weakened Federal right. The very men who had broken the Union army the day before resolved to break it once again.
The ensuing struggle-every bit as desperate and with stakes every bit as high as the more famous fight at Little Round Top on the far end of the line-imperiled the entire Union position. "Stay and fight it out," one Union general counseled his peers. The Confederates were all too willing to oblige.
Authors Kristopher D. White and Chris Mackowski started their Gettysburg account in Fight Like the Devil: The First Day at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, and continued it in Don't Give an Inch: The Second Day at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863-From Little Round Top to Cemetery Ridge. Picking up on the heels of its companion volume, Stay and Fight It Out: The Second Day at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863-Culp's Hill and the Northern End of the Battlefield recounts the often-overlooked fight that secured the Union position and set the stage for the battle's fateful final day.
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Never Such a Campaign
The Battle Of Second Manassas, August 28–august 30, 1862
by Dan Welch
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Historians Robert Orrison and Dan Welch follow Lee and Pope as they converge on ground once-bloodied just thirteen months earlier.
In late June 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia drove back Maj. Gen. George McClellan's Army of the Potomac from the gates of the Confederate capital. Richmond was safe-at least for the moment.
Another threat soon emerged when the Army of Virginia, a new command under Maj. Gen. John Pope, moved toward Fredericksburg, threatening Confederate communications, supply points, and Richmond. Pope, who had a reputation as something of a braggart, had scored victories along the Mississippi River at New Madrid and Island No. 10. President Lincoln was hopeful he would replicate that success in Virginia. Pope brought with him a harder philosophy of war, one that would put pressure not just on Lee's army but on the population of Virginia. Alarmed and offended by "such a miscreant as Pope," Lee began moving part of his army north to counter and "suppress" the threat.
In Never Such a Campaign: The Battle of Second Manassas, August 28–30, 1862, historians Dan Welch and Kevin R. Pawlak follow Lee and Pope as they converge on ground bloodied just thirteen months earlier at First Bull Run (Manassas). Since then, the armies had grown in both size and efficiency, and any pitched combat between them promised to dwarf the earlier battle. For the second summer in a row, Union and Confederate forces clashed on the plains of Manassas. This time, the results would be far more terrible.
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They Came Only to Die
The Battle of Nashville, December 15–16, 1864
by Sean Michael Chick
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The November 1864 battle of Franklin left the Army of Tennessee stunned. In only a few hours, the army lost 6,000 men and a score of generals. Rather than pause, John Bell Hood marched his army north to Nashville. He had risked everything on a successful campaign and saw his offensive as the Confederacy's last hope. There was no time to mourn. There was no question of attacking Nashville. Too many Federals occupied too many strong positions. But Hood knew he could force them to attack him and, in doing so, he could win a defensive victory that might rescue the Confederacy from the chasm of collapse. Unfortunately for Hood, he faced George Thomas. He was one of the Union's best commanders, and he had planned and prepared his forces. But with battle imminent, the ground iced over, Thomas had to wait. An impatient Ulysses S. Grant nearly sacked him, but on December 15-16, Thomas struck and routed Hood's army. He then chased him out of Tennessee and into Mississippi in a grueling winter campaign. After Nashville, the Army of Tennessee was never again a major fighting force. Combined with William Tecumseh Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas and Grant's capture of Petersburg and Richmond, Nashville was the first peal in the long death knell of the Confederate States of America. In They Came Only to Die: The Battle of Nashville, historian Sean Michael Chick offers a fast-paced, well analyzed narrative of John Bell Hood's final campaign, complete with the most accurate maps yet made of this crucial battle.
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Force of a Cyclone
The Battle Of Stones River, December 31, 1862–january 2, 1863
by Caroline Ann Davis
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Authors Caroline Davis and Bert Dunkerly explore a significant turning point of the Civil War-a battle that had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides.
All of Middle Tennessee held its breath when the new year dawned in 1863.
One day earlier on December 31, Braxton Bragg's Confederate Army of Tennessee faced off against William Rosecrans's Federal Army of the Cumberland just outside Murfreesboro along Stones River. The commanders, who led armies nearly equal in size, had prepared identical attack plans, but Bragg struck first. His morning attack bent the Federal line back upon itself.
The desperate fighting seesawed throughout the day amid rocky outcroppings and cedar groves. The Federals managed to avoid a crushing defeat and hold on until dark as the last hours of the old year slipped away. The cold and exhausted soldiers rang in the New Year surrounded by the pitiful cries of the wounded punctuated by cracks of skirmish fire while the opposing generals contemplated their next moves.
With the fate of Middle Tennessee yet to be determined, President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. The president had signed the proclamation back in September of 1862, but he needed battlefield victories to bolster its authority. The stakes being gambled outside Murfreesboro were enormous. Determined to win the battle outright, Bragg launched another large-scale assault on January 2. The fate of the Army of the Cumberland and the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation hung in the balance.
In Force of a Cyclone: The Battle of Stones River, December 31, 1862–January 2, 1863, authors Caroline Davis and Bert Dunkerly explore a significant turning point of the Civil War, and one that had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides of any Civil War battle. Lincoln himself would often look back on that fragile New Year's Day and ponder all that was at stake. "I can never forget whilst I remember anything," he told Federal commander Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, "that about the end of last year and the beginning of this, you gave us a hard-earned victory, which, had there been a defeat instead the nation could scarcely have lived over."
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Call out the Cadets
The Battle of New Market, May 15, 1864
by Sarah Kay Bierle
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
"May God forgive me for the order," Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge remarked as he ordered young cadets from Virginia Military Institute into the battle lines at New Market, just days after calling them from their academic studies to assist in a crucial defense. Virginia's Shenandoah Valley had seen years of fighting. In the spring of 1864, Union Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel prepared to lead a new invasion force into the Valley, operating on the far right flank of Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign. Breckinridge scrambled to organize the Confederate defense. When the opposing divisions clashed near the small crossroads town of New Market on May 15, 1864, new legends of courage were born. Local civilians witnessed the combat unfold in their streets, churchyards, and fields and aided the fallen. The young cadets rushed into the battle when ordered-an opportunity for an hour of glory and tragedy. A Union soldier saved the national colors and a comrade, later receiving a Medal of Honor. The battle of New Market, though a smaller conflict in the grand scheme of that blood-soaked summer, came at a crucial moment in the Union's offensive movements that spring and also became the last major Confederate victory in the Shenandoah Valley. The results in the muddy fields reverberated across the North and South, altering campaign plans-as well as the lives of those who witnessed or fought. Some never left the fields alive; others retreated with excuses or shame. Some survived, haunted or glorified by their deeds. In Call Out the Cadets, Sarah Kay Bierle traces the history of this important, yet smaller battle. While covering the military aspects of the battle, the book also follows the history of individuals whose lives or military careers were changed because of the fight. New Market shined for its accounts of youth in battle, immigrant generals, and a desperate, muddy fight. Youth and veterans, generals and privates, farmers and teachers-all were called into the conflict or its aftermath of the battle, an event that changed a community, a military institute, and the very fate of the Shenandoah Valley.
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A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy
The Fall of New Orleans, 1862
by Mark F. Bielski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Abraham Lincoln knew if the Union could cut off shipping to and from New Orleans, the largest exporting port in the world, and control the Mississippi River, it would be a mortal blow to the Confederate economy. Union military leaders devised a secret plan to attack the city from the Gulf of Mexico with a formidable naval flotilla under one commander, David G. Farragut, a native New Orleanian. Jefferson Davis also understood the city's importance-but he and his military leaders remained steadfastly undecided about where the threat to the city lay, sending troops to Tennessee rather than addressing the Union forces amassing in the Gulf. In the city, Confederate General Mansfield Lovell, a new commander, was thrust into the middle and poised to become a scapegoat. He was hamstrung by conflicting orders from Richmond and lacked both proper seagoing reconnaissance and the unity of command. In the spring of 1862, when a furious naval battle began downriver from the city at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the joyous celebrations of Mardi Gras turned into the Easter season of dread as the sound of the distant bombardment reached New Orleans, portending an ominous outcome. History has not devoted a great deal of attention to the fall of New Orleans, a Civil War drama that was an early harbinger of the dark days to come for the Confederacy. In A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy: The Fall of New Orleans, 1862, historian Mark F. Bielski tells of the leaders and men who fought for control of New Orleans, the largest city in the South, the key to the Mississippi, and the commercial gateway for the Confederacy.
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Hellmira
The Union's Most Infamous Civil War Prison Camp-Elmira, NY
by Derek Maxfield
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Long called by some the "Andersonville of the North," the prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York, is remembered as the most notorious of all Union-run POW camps. It existed for only a year-from the summer of 1864 to July 1865-but in that time, and for long after, it became darkly emblematic of man's inhumanity to man. Confederate prisoners called it "Hellmira." Hastily constructed, poorly planned, and overcrowded, prisoner of war camps North and South were dumping grounds for the refuse of war. An unfortunate necessity, both sides regarded the camps as temporary inconveniences-and distractions from the important task of winning the war. There was no need, they believed, to construct expensive shelters or provide better rations. They needed only to sustain life long enough for the war to be won. Victory would deliver prisoners from their conditions. As a result, conditions in the prisoner of war camps amounted to a great humanitarian crisis, the extent of which could hardly be understood even after the blood stopped flowing on the battlefields. In the years after the war, as Reconstruction became increasingly bitter, the North pointed to Camp Sumter-better known as the Andersonville POW camp in Americus, Georgia-as evidence of the cruelty and barbarity of the Confederacy. The South, in turn, cited the camp in Elmira as a place where Union authorities withheld adequate food and shelter and purposefully caused thousands to suffer in the bitter cold. This finger-pointing by both sides would go on for over a century. And as it did, the legend of Hellmira grew. In Hellmira: The Union's Most Infamous POW Camp of the Civil War, Derek Maxfield contextualizes the rise of prison camps during the Civil War, explores the failed exchange of prisoners, and tells the tale of the creation and evolution of the prison camp in Elmira. In the end, Maxfield suggests that it is time to move on from the blame game and see prisoner of war camps-North and South-as a great humanitarian failure.
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Dawn of Victory
Breakthrough at Petersburg, March 25 - April 2, 1865
by Edward S. Alexander
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
After the unprecedented violence of the 1864 Overland Campaign, Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant turned his gaze south of Richmond to Petersburg, and the key railroad junction that supplied the Confederate capital and its defenders. Nine grueling months of constant maneuver and combat around the "Cockade City" followed. As massive fortifications soon dominated the landscape, both armies frequently pushed each other to the brink of disaster.
As March 1865 drew to a close, Grant planned one more charge against Confederate lines. Despite recent successes, many viewed this latest task as an impossibility-and their trepidation had merit. "These lines might well have been looked upon by the enemy as impregnable," admitted Union Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, "and nothing but the most resolute bravery could have overcome them."
Grant ordered the attack for April 2, 1865, setting the stage for a dramatic early morning bayonet charge by his VI Corps across half a mile of open ground into the "strongest line of works ever constructed in America."
Dawn of Victory: Breakthrough at Petersburg by Edward S. Alexander tells the story of the men who fought and died in the decisive battle of the Petersburg campaign. Readers can follow the footsteps of the resolute Union attackers and stand in the shoes of the obstinate Confederate defenders as their actions decided the fate of the nation.
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Richmond Shall Not Be Given Up
The Seven Days' Battles, June 25-July 1, 1862
by Doug Crenshaw
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
In the spring of 1862, the largest army ever assembled on the North American continent landed in Virginia, on the peninsula between the James and York Rivers, and proceeded to march toward Richmond. Between that army and the capital of the Confederate States of America, an outnumbered Confederate force did all in its feeble power to resist-but all it could do was slow, not stop, the juggernaut.
To Southerners, the war, not yet a year old, looked lost. The Confederate government prepared to evacuate the city. The citizenry prepared for the worst.
And then the war turned.
During battle at a place called Seven Pines, an artillery shell wounded Confederate commander Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. His replacement, Gen. Robert E. Lee, stabilized the army, fended off the Federals, and then fortified the capital. "Richmond must not be given up!" he vowed, tears in his eyes. "It shall not be given up!"
Federal commander Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, confident of success, found himself unexpectedly hammered by a newly aggressive, newly emboldened foe. For seven days, Lee planned ambitious attacks and launched them, one after another, hoping not just to drive Federals from the gates of Richmond but to obliterate them entirely.
In Richmond Shall Not Be Given Up, historian Doug Crenshaw follows a battle so desperate that, ever-after, soldiers would remember that week simply as The Seven Days.
McClellan reeled. The tide of war turned. The Army of Northern Virginia was born.
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That Furious Struggle
Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy, May 1-4, 1863
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have worked for years to compile this remarkable story of one of the war's greatest battles. escribes the series of controversial events that define this crucial battle, including General Robert E. Lee's radical decision to divide his small army--a violation of basic military rules--sending Stonewall Jackson on his famous march around the Union army flank. Jackson's death--accidentally shot by one of his own soldiers--is one of the many fascinating stories included in this definitive account of the battle of Chancellorsville.
"That Furious Fire: Chancellorsville" can be enjoyed in the comfort of one's living room or as a guide on the battlefield itself. It is also the tenth release in the bestselling "Emerging Civil War Series," which offers compelling and easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War's most important battles and issues, supported by the popular blog of the same name.
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Determined to Stand and Fight
The Battle of Monocacy, July 9, 1864
by Ryan Quint
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
In early July 1864, a quickly patched together force of outnumbered Union soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace prepared for a last-ditch defense along the banks of the Monocacy River. Behind them, barely fifty miles away, lay the capital of the United States, open to attack.
Facing Wallace's men were Lt. Gen. Jubal Early's Confederates. In just under a month, they had cleared the Shenandoah Valley of Union soldiers and crossed the Potomac River, invading the north for the third time in the war. The veterans in Early's force could almost imagine their flags flying above the White House. A Confederate victory near Washington could be all the pro-peace platforms in the north needed to defeat Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming election.
Then came Monocacy. Over the course of the day, Union and Confederate soldiers attacked and counter-attacked, filling the fields just south of Frederick, Maryland, with the dead and wounded. By the end of the day, Wallace's men fell into retreat, but they had done their job: they had slowed Jubal Early. The fighting at Monocacy soon became known as the "Battle that Saved Washington."
Determined to Stand and Fight by Ryan T. Quint tells the story of that pivotal day and an even more pivotal campaign that went right to the gates of Washington, D.C. Readers can enjoy the narrative and then easily follow along on a nine-stop driving tour around the battlefield and into the streets of historic Frederick. Another fascinating title from the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series.
About the Author: Ryan Quint graduated from the University of Mary Washington, and is a seasonal park historian at the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
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Calamity in Carolina
The Battles of Averasboro and Bentonville, March 1865
by Daniel Davis
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Robert E. Lee gave Joseph E. Johnston an impossible task.
Federal armies under Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had rampaged through Georgia on their "March to the Sea" and now were cutting a swath of destruction as they marched north from Savannah through the Carolinas. Locked in a desperate defense of Richmond and Petersburg, there was little Lee could do to stem Sherman's tide-so he turned to Johnston.
The one-time hero of Manassas had squabbled for years with Confederate President Jefferson Davis, eventually leading to his removal during the Atlanta Campaign. The disgraced Johnston had fallen far.
Yet Lee saw his old friend and professional rival as the only man who could stop Sherman-the only man who could achieve the impossible. "J.E. Johnston is the only officer whom I know who has the confidence of the army," Lee told Davis.
Back in command, Johnston would have to assemble a makeshift force-including the shattered remnants of the once-vaunted Army of Tennessee-then somehow stop the Federal juggernaut. He would thus set out to achieve something that had ever eluded Lee: deal a devastating blow to an isolated Union force. Success could potentially prolong the most tragic chapter in American history, adding thousands more to a list of casualties that was already unbearable to read.
Historians Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt, co-authors of Bloody Autumn: The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864 and Hurricane from the Heavens: The Battle of Cold Harbor, now turn their considered gaze toward the long-forgotten battles of Averasboro and Bentonville. Written in the accessible style that has become the hallmark of the Emerging Civil War Series, Calamity in Carolina: The Battles of Averasboro and Bentonville includes more than a hundred illustrations, new maps, and thought-provoking analysis to tell the story of the last great battles of the war in the West.
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John Brown's Raid
Harpers Ferry and the Coming of the Civil War, October 16-18, 1859
by Jon-Erik M. Gilot
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The first shot of the American Civil War was not fired on April 12, 1861, in Charleston, South Carolina, but instead came on October 16, 1859, in Harpers Ferry, Virginia-or so claimed former slave turned abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The shot came like a meteor in the dark. John Brown, the infamous fighter on the Kansas plains and detester of slavery, led a band of nineteen men on a desperate nighttime raid that targeted the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. There, they planned to begin a war to end slavery in the United States. But after 36 tumultuous hours, John Brown's Raid failed, and Brown himself became a prisoner of the state of Virginia. Brown's subsequent trial further divided north and south on the issue of slavery as Brown justified his violent actions to a national audience forced to choose sides. Ultimately, Southerners cheered Brown's death at the gallows while Northerners observed it with reverence. The nation's dividing line had been drawn. Herman Melville and Walt Whitman extolled Brown as a "meteor" of the war. Roughly one year after Brown and his men attacked slavery in Virginia, the nation split apart, fueled by Brown's fiery actions. John Brown's Raid tells the story of the first shots that led to disunion. Richly filled with maps and images, it includes a driving and walking tour of sites related to Brown's Raid so visitors today can follow the path of America's meteor.
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To Hell or Richmond
The 1862 Peninsula Campaign
by Doug Crenshaw
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
In the spring of 1862, George McClellan and his massive army were slowly making their way up the Virginia Peninsula. Their goal: Capture the Confederate capital and end the rebellion. "To Hell or Richmond," one Federal artillery unit vowed, sewing the words onto their flag. The outnumbered and outgunned Confederates under generals "Prince John" Magruder and Joseph E. Johnston kept pulling back, drawing McClellan away from his base at Fort Monroe and further up the peninsula-exactly the direction McClellan wanted to go. But if they could draw him just far enough, and out of position, they hoped to attack and defeat him. As McClellan approached the very gates of Richmond, a great battle brewed. Could the Confederates save their capital and, with it, their young nation? Could the Federals win the war with a single fatal blow? In To Hell or Richmond: The 1862 Peninsula Campaign, Doug Crenshaw and Drew Gruber follow the armies on their trek up the peninsula. The stakes grew enormous, surprises awaited, and the soldiers themselves had only two possible destinations in mind.
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Grant's Left Hook
The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, May 5–June 7, 1864
by Sean Michael Chick
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Robert E. Lee feared the day the Union army would return up the James River and invest the Confederate capital of Richmond. In the spring of 1864, Ulysses Grant, looking for a way to weaken Lee, was about to exploit the Confederate commander's greatest fear and weakness. After two years of futile offensives in Virginia, the Union commander set the stage for a campaign that could decide the war. Grant sent the 38,000-man Army of The James to Bermuda Hundred, to threaten and possibly take Richmond, or at least pin down troops that could reinforce Lee. Jefferson Davis, in desperate need of a capable commander, turned to the Confederacy's first hero: Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. Butler's 1862 occupation of New Orleans had infuriated the South, but no one more than Beauregard, a New Orleans native. This campaign would be personal. In the hot weeks of May 1864, Butler and Beauregard fought a series of skirmishes and battles to decide the fate of Richmond and Lee's army. Historian Sean Michael Chick analyzes and explains the plans, events, and repercussions of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign in Grant's Left Hook: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, May 5-June 7, 1864. The book contains hundreds of photographs, new maps, and a fresh consideration of Grant's Virginia strategy and the generalship of Butler and Beauregard. The book is also filled with anecdotes and impressions from the rank and file who wore blue and gray.
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Don't Give an Inch
The Second Day at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863-From Little Round Top to Cemetery Ridge
by Daniel T. Davis
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
This vividly detailed Civil War history reveals many of the incredible true stories behind the legendary sites of the Gettysburg battlefield.
Having unexpectedly been thrust into command of the Army of the Potomac only three days earlier, General George Gordon Meade was caught by a much harsher surprise when the Confederate Army of North Virginia launched a bold invasion northward. Outside the small college town of Gettysburg, the lead elements of Meade's army were suddenly under attack. By nightfall, they were forced to take a lodgment on high ground south of town. There, they fortified-and waited. "Don't give an inch, boys!" one Federal commander told his men.
The next day, July 2, 1863, would be one of the Civil War's bloodiest. With names that have become legendary-Little Round Top, Devil's Den, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Culp's Hill-the second day at Gettysburg encompasses some of the best-known engagements of the Civil War. Yet those same stories have also become shrouded in mythology and misunderstanding. In “Don't Give an Inch”, Emerging Civil War historians Chris Mackowski and Daniel T. Davis peel back the layers to share the real and often-overlooked stories of that fateful summer day.
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Fight Like the Devil
The First Day at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Do not bring on a general engagement, Confederate General Robert E. Lee warned his commanders. The Army of Northern Virginia, slicing its way through south-central Pennsylvania, was too spread out, too vulnerable, for a full-scale engagement with its old nemesis, the Army of the Potomac. Too much was riding on this latest Confederate invasion of the North. Too much was at stake.
As Confederate forces groped their way through the mountain passes, a chance encounter with Federal cavalry on the outskirts of a small Pennsylvania crossroads town triggered a series of events that quickly escalated beyond Lee's-or anyone's-control. Waves of soldiers materialized on both sides in a constantly shifting jigsaw of combat. "You will have to fight like the devil... " one Union cavalryman predicted.
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 always-engaging style, recount the action of that first day of battle and explore the profound implications in Fight Like the Devil.
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Let Us Die Like Men
The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864
by William Lee White
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
The Army of Tennessee's grueling and costly victory against a fortified Union encampment is expertly recounted in this engaging Civil War history.
In the fall of 1864, as William T. Sherman led Federal forces on his March to the Sea, Confederate General John Bell Hood chose to strike northward into Tennessee. There, he hoped to cripple the Federal supply infrastructure and strike the Army of the Cumberland under George Thomas. By defeating Thomas's army in detail, Hood hoped to force Sherman to come northward to the rescue.
On November 30, in a small country town called Franklin, Hood caught part of Thomas's army outside of its stronghold of Nashville. But what began as a promising opportunity soon turned grim. When subordinates voiced their concerns, Hood's response was unflinching. "If we are to die," said the Confederate officer, "let us die like men."
As wave after murderous wave crashed against the Federal fortifications, Hood's Army of Tennessee shattered itself. It eventually found victory-but at a cost so bloody and so chilling, the name "Franklin" would ever after be synonymous with disaster.
Historian William Lee White, whose devotion to the Army of Tennessee has taken him from the dense forests of northwest Georgia to the gates of Atlanta and back into Tennessee, now pens the penultimate chapter in the army's storied history in “Let Us Die Like Men”.
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Hell Itself
The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864
by Chris Mackowski
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
A Civil War historian recounts the first battle between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee-a bloody and horrifying conflict in the Wilderness of Virginia.
Known simply as the Wilderness, soldiers called the seventy square miles of dense Virginian forest one of the "waste places of nature" and "a region of gloom." Yet here, in the spring of 1864, the Civil War escalated to a new level of horror.
Ulysses S. Grant, commanding all Federal armies, opened the Overland Campaign with a vow to never turn back. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, moved into the Wilderness to block Grant's advance. Thick underbrush made for difficult movement and low visibility. And these challenges were terrifyingly compounded by the outbreak of fires that burned casualties and left both sided blinded in a sea of smoke.
Driven by desperation, duty, confusion, and fire, soldiers on both sides marveled that anyone might make it out alive. "This, viewed as a battleground, was simply infernal," a Union soldier later said. Another called it "Hell itself."
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To Hazard All
A Guide to the Maryland Campaign, 1862
by Robert Orrison
Part of the Emerging Civil War series
Experience the history of the Maryland Campaign with this Civil War chronicle and guide featuring battlefield information and day-trip itineraries.
In the summer of 1862, the world watched anxiously as Confederate armies advanced across a thousand-mile front. Reacting to the Army of Northern Virginia's trek across the Potomac River, George B. McClellan gathered the broken and scattered remnants of several Federal armies within Washington, D. C., to repel the invasion and expel the Confederates from Maryland. "Everything seems to indicate that they intend to hazard all upon the issue of the coming battle," he said of the invading force.
Historians Robert Orrison and Kevin Pawlak trace the routes both armies traveled during the Maryland Campaign, ultimately coming to a climactic blow on the banks of Antietam Creek. That clash on September 17, 1862, remains the bloodiest single day in American history. To Hazard All offers several day trip tours and visits many out-of-the-way sites related to the Maryland Campaign.