The Civil War was the first conflict in which railroads played a major role. Although much has been written about their role in general, little has been written about specific lines. The Cumberland Valley Railroad, for example, played an important s…
When it opened in October 1864, Camp Lawton was called "the world's largest prison." Operational only six weeks, this stockade near Millen, Georgia, was evacuated in the face of advancing Federal troops under General Sherman. In that brief span of t…
In June 1866-a year after the American Civil War-an 800-man contingent of the Irish Fenian Brotherhood invaded Canada from Buffalo, New York, to free Ireland from British rule. The force was led by Irish-born John Charles O'Neill, a veteran of the 5…
The author has used a score of first-rate novels, several dozen good yarns, and several hundred samples from the nation's sub-literature to demonstrate the uses of the historical novel and to reveal the changing meaning of the Civil War to the Ameri…
For sixty years the journal Civil War History has presented the best original scholarship in the study of America's greatest struggle. The Kent State University Press is pleased to present this third volume in its multivolume series, reintroducing t…
Like many other soldiers who fought in the Civil War, New Orleans newspaper editor William J. Seymour left behind an account of his wartime experiences. It is the only memoir by any field or staff officer of the famous 1st Louisiana Brigade (Hays' B…
Dr. Richard Sommers' Challenges of Command in the Civil War distills six decades of studying the Civil War into two succinct, thought-provoking volumes. This first installment focuses on "Civil War Generals and Generalship." The subsequent volume wi…
In Dalzell's story, a handful of Confederate cruisers killed the American carrying trade by so harrying Federal merchant shipping that world commerce took flight from ships flying the United States flag. The scene shifts often: from the high seas to…
Daniel M. Holt, a successful country doctor in the upstate village of Newport, New York, accepted the position of assistant surgeon in the 121st New York Volunteer Army in August 1862. At age 42 when he was commissioned, he was the oldest member of…
Georgians, like all Americans, experienced the Civil War in a variety of ways. Through selected articles drawn from the New Georgia Encyclopedia (www.georgiaencyclopedia.org), this collection chronicles the diversity of Georgia's Civil War experienc…
The Emancipation Proclamation, widely remembered as the heroic act that ended slavery, in fact freed slaves only in states in the rebellious South. True emancipation was accomplished over a longer period and by several means. Essays by eight disting…
In his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln declared that as president he would "have no lawful right" to interfere with the institution of slavery. Yet less than two years later, he issued a proclamation intended to free all slaves throughout t…
In 1862, looking for an opportunity to attack Union general John Pope, Confederate general Robert E. Lee ordered Maj. Gen. James Longstreet to conduct a reconnaissance and possible assault on the Chinn Ridge front in Northern Virginia. At the time L…
Early in the afternoon of May 22, 1856, ardent pro-slavery Congressman Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina strode into the United States Senate Chamber in Washington D.C. and began beating renowned anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusett…
Guerrilla warfare, border fights, and unorganized skirmishes are all too often the only battles associated with Missouri during the Civil War. Combined with the state's distance from both sides' capitals, this misguided impression paints Missouri as…
Johnston ably demonstrates the major contribution of captured Virginia railroads to the ever-increasing prowess of the northern armies in the state and also describes the new techniques of warfare introduced by the Confederates, beginning with their…
Following the suggestion of the historian Peter Parish, these essays probe "the edges" of slavery and the sectional conflict. The authors seek to recover forgotten stories, exceptional cases and contested identities to reveal the forces that shaped…
As many as 9,500 men of Hispanic heritage fought in the United States' Civil War. In Texas, the bitter conflict deeply divided the Tejanos-Texans of Mexican heritage. An estimated 2,500 fought in the ranks of the Confederacy while 950, including som…
A War of Words analyzes Jefferson Davis's public discourse, arguing that throughout his time as president of the Confederacy, Davis settled for short-term rhetorical successes at the expense of creating more substantive and meaningful messages for h…
Earthen Walls, Iron Men tells the story of Fort DeRussy, Louisiana, a major Confederate fortification that defended the lower Red River in 1863-64 during the last stages of the Civil War. Long regarded as little more than a footnote by historians, t…
The rehearsal for the March to the Sea. With the fall of Vicksburg to Union forces in mid-1863, the Federals began work to extend and consolidate their hold on the lower Mississippi Valley. As a part of this plan, Major General William Tecumseh Sher…
Unlike most books about the Civil War, which deal with individual battles or the war at the national level, States at War: A Reference Guide for Michigan in the Civil War chronicles the actions of an individual state government and its citizenry cop…
When the Civil War began, Northern soldiers and civilians alike sought a framework to help make sense of the chaos that confronted them. Many turned first to the classic European military texts from the Napoleonic era, especially Antoine Henri Jomin…
Before the heroic stand of the 20th Maine at Little Round Top, the 2nd and 20th Georgia infantries, led by Brig. Gen. Robert Toombs, held off a veritable Yankee juggernaut and triumphed at Burnside's Bridge on Antietam Creek in 1862. This detailed a…
Mary Lincoln is a lightning rod for controversy. Stories reveal widely different interpretations, and it is impossible to write a definitive version of her life that will suit everyone. The thirteen engaging essays in this collection introduce Mary…
With the collapse of the Confederate defences at Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, the entire Tennessee Valley was open to Union invasion and control. These Northern victories set up the 1864 Atlanta Campaign that cut…
A study of Grant's and Lee's battles in the weeks before the 1864 election In the fall of 1864, the Civil War's outcome rested largely on Abraham Lincoln's success in the upcoming presidential election. As the contest approached, cautious optimism b…
The Western theater of the Civil War, rich in agricultural resources and manpower and home to a large number of slaves, stretched 600 miles north to south and 450 miles east to west from the Appalachians to the Mississippi. If the South lost the Wes…
