Search Results: History -- American Civil War from I Cannot Live Without Books

Bloody Spring: Forty Days that Sealed the Confederacy's Fate by Joesph Wheelan
In the spring of 1864, Virginia remained unbroken, its armies having repelled Northern armies for more than two years. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had defeated the campaigns of four Union generals, and Lee's veterans were confident they could crush the Union offensive this spring, too. But their adversary in 1864 was a different kind of Union commander -- Ulysses S. Grant. The new Union general-in-chief had never lost a major battle while leading armies in the West. A quiet, rumpled man of simple tastes and a bulldog's determination, Grant would lead the Army of the Potomac in its quest to destroy Lee's army.During six weeks in May and June 1864, Grant's army campaigned as no Union army ever had. During nearly continual combat operations, the Army of the Potomac battered its way through Virginia, skirting Richmond and crossing the Majes River on one of the longest pontoon bridges ever built. No campaign in… Read More

Gentleman and Soldier: The Extraordinary Life of General Wade Hampton by Edward G. Longacre
Gentleman and Soldier is the first biography in more than 50 years of Wade Hampton III, a Confederate general whose remarkable life provides a unique sweeping insight into the entire history of the Civil War in the South. Hampton was a leading citizen of South Carolina before the War, the highest ranking cavalry leader during the War, fought in a remarkable number of battles from Antietam to Gettysburg to Bentonville, and was South Carolina's governor and U.S. Senator after the War.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Hampton was one of the richest planters in the South. He managed a half dozen plantations in two states. When South Carolina became the first state to declare its independence and inspite of his doubts that the Confederacy would be victorious, Hampton bankrolled the creation of t6he Hampton Legion. In 1862 he became second in command to J.E.B. Stuart. He fought at Antietam, Chancellorsville,… Read More

The Long Road to Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution by Richard Slotkin
THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.
In the summer of 1862, after a year of protracted and bloody fighting, the Civil War had reached a stalemate. To break the impasse, Abraham Lincoln decided on a radical change of strategy -- one that abandoned hope for a compromise peace and committed the nation to all-out war. The centerpiece of that new strategy was the Emancipation Proclamation: an unprecedented use of federal power that would revolutionize Southern society, redefine citizenship, and change the character of American government.
The renowned social historian Richard Slotkin, drawing on his skills as a prize-winning novelist, creates a revelatory work that recalls the sweep and epic drama of many of the most enduring Civil War classics, while carving out a deeply original and powerful revisionist interpretation of the Battle of Antietam and the long, brutal summer of 1862. Unlike… Read More

Thunder at the Gates: The Black Civil War Regiments that Redeemed America by Douglas R. Egerton
Almost immediately after Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, abolitionists began to call for the raising of black regiments. The South and most of the North responded with outrage -- southerners vowed to enslave black soldiers captured in battle, while many northerners claimed that blacks lacked the courage to fight. Yet Boston's Brahmins, always eager for a moral crusade, launched one of the greatest experiments in American history.
In Thunder at the Gates, Douglas R. Egerton chronicles the formation and exploits of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantry and the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry -- regiments led by whites but composed of black men born free or into slavery. He tracks an astonishing cast of characters, including the runaway slave William Carney, who became the first black soldier to receive the Medal of Honor; Charles and Lewis Douglass, the talented offspring… Read More

Vicksburg's Long Shadow: The Civil War Legacy of Race and Remembrance by Christopher Waldrep
During the hottest days of the summer of 1863, while the nation's attention was focused on a small town in Pennsylvania known as Gettysburg, another momentous battle was being fought along the banks of the Mississippi. In the longest single campaign of the war, the siege of Vicksburg left 19,000 dead and wounded on both sides, gave the Union Army control of the Mississippi, and left the Confederacy cut in half.
In this fascinating new work, Christopher Waldrep takes a fresh look at how the Vicksburg campaign was fought and remembered. He begins with a gripping account of the battle, deftly recounting the experiences of African American troops fighting for the Union. Waldrep shows how as the scars of battle fadedd, the memory of the war was shaped both by the Northerners who controlled the battlefield and by the legacies of race and slavery that played out over the decades that followed.
Rowman & Littlefield,… Read More

When It Was Grand: The Radical Republican History of the Civil War by LeeAnna Keith
THERE IS A BLACK "CLOSEOUT/REMAINDER" MARK ON THE BOTTOM PAGE EDGES.
In 1862, the ardent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison summarized the events that were tearing the United States apart: "There is a war because there was a Republican Party. There was a Republican Party because there was an Abolition Party. There was an Abolition Party because there was Slavery."
Garrison's stark words convey the essential truths at the heart of LeeAnna Keith's When It Was Grand. Here is the full story, dramatically told, of the Radical Republicans -- the champions of abolition who helped found a new political party and turn it toward the extirpation of slavery. Keith introduces us to the idealistic Massachusetts preachers and philanthropists, African American activists, and rugged Midwestern politicians who collaborated to protect escaped slaves from their former captors, create and defend black military regiments, and win the… Read More