Books in CIVIL WAR series

Before her wider fame as the author of Little Women, Louisa May Alcott achieved recognition for her accounts of her work as a volunteer nurse in an army hospital. Written during the winter of 1862–63, her lively dispatches appeared in the newspaper Commonwealth, where they were eagerly read by soldiers' friends and families. Then, as now, these chronicles revealed the desperate realities of battlefield medicine as well as the tentative first steps of women in military service.Writing under a pseudonym, Alcott recounted the vicissitudes of her two-day journey from her home in Concord, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C. A fiery baptism in the practice of nursing awaited her at Washington Hospital, were she arrived immediately after the slaughter of the Army of the Potomac at the battle of Fredericksburg. Alcott's rapidly paced prose graphically depicts the facts of hospital life, deftly balancing pathos with gentle humor. A vivid and truthful portrait of an often overlooked aspect of the Civil War, this book remains among the most illuminating reports of the era's medical practices as well as a moving testimonial to the war's human cost.

Winner, The Grateful American Book PrizeLeander and Polly are two teenage Union soldiers who carry deep, dangerous secrets. Leander is underage when he enlists and Polly follows her father into war disguised as his son. The war proves life changing for both as they survive incredible odds. Leander struggles to be accepted as a man and loses his arm as a consequence. Polly mourns the death of her father, endures Andersonville Prison, and narrowly escapes the Sultana steamboat disaster. As the lives of these young, brave soldiers intersect, each finds a wealth of courage and learns about the importance of loyalty, family, and love. Like a River is a lyrical atmospheric first novel told in two voices. Readers will be transported to the homes,waterways, camps, hospitals, and prisons of the Civil–War era. They will also see themselves in the universal themes of dealing with parents, friendships, bullying, failure, and young love.

Whose side are you on? The war has begun, sides have been chosen, and the die has been cast! With the repercussions of recent events in Civil War spreading across the Marvel Universe, see how every action can have enormous consequences - even in Peter Parker's life. Now, one of Spider-Man's oldest and most insidious foes - the Chameleon - decides to make his move against the wallcrawler! His first step: gathering a new super-team of Spider-Man's deadliest foes and striking him where he is most vulnerable!COLLECTING: SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN 28-34

Operating in the vast and varied trans-Appalachian west, the Army of Tennessee was crucially important to the military fate of the Confederacy. But under the principal leadership of generals such as Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, and John Bell Hood, it won few major battles, and many regard its inability to halt steady Union advances into the Confederate heartland as a matter of failed leadership. Here, esteemed military historian Larry J. Daniel offers a far richer interpretation. Surpassing previous work that has focused on questions of command structure and the force's fate on the fields of battle, Daniel provides the clearest view to date of the army's inner workings, from top-level command and unit cohesion to the varied experiences of common soldiers and their connections to the home front. Drawing from his mastery of the relevant sources, Daniel's book is a thought-provoking reassessment of an army's fate, with important implications for Civil War history and military history writ large.

Grinding, bloody, and ultimately decisive, the Petersburg Campaign was the Civil War's longest and among its most complex. Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee squared off for more than nine months in their struggle for Petersburg, the key to the Confederate capital at Richmond. Featuring some of the war's most notorious battles, the campaign played out against a backdrop of political drama and crucial fighting elsewhere, with massive costs for soldiers and civilians alike. After failing to bull his way into Petersburg, Grant concentrated on isolating the city from its communications with the rest of the surviving Confederacy, stretching Lee's defenses to the breaking point. When Lee's desperate breakout attempt failed in March 1865, Grant launched his final offensives that forced the Confederates to abandon the city on April 2, 1865. A week later, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House.Here A. Wilson Greene opens his sweeping new three-volume history of the Petersburg Campaign, taking readers from Grant's crossing of the James in mid-June 1864 to the fateful Battle of the Crater on July 30. Full of fresh insights drawn from military, political, and social history, A Campaign of Giants is destined to be the definitive account of the campaign. With new perspectives on operational and tactical choices by commanders, the experiences of common soldiers and civilians, and the significant role of the United States Colored Troops in the fighting, this book offers essential reading for all those interested in the history of the Civil War.

In the spring of 1861, Richmond, Virginia, suddenly became the capital city, military headquarters, and industrial engine of a new nation fighting for its existence. A remarkable drama unfolded in the months that followed. The city's population exploded, its economy was deranged, and its government and citizenry clashed desperately over resources to meet daily needs while a mighty enemy army laid siege. Journalists, officials, and everyday residents recorded these events in great detail, and the Confederacy's foes and friends watched closely from across the continent and around the world. In Rebel Richmond, Stephen V. Ash vividly evokes life in Richmond as war consumed the Confederate capital. He guides readers from the city's alleys, homes, and shops to its churches, factories, and halls of power, uncovering the intimate daily drama of a city transformed and ultimately destroyed by war. Drawing on the stories and experiences of civilians and soldiers, slaves and masters, refugees and prisoners, merchants and laborers, preachers and prostitutes, the sick and the wounded, Ash delivers a captivating new narrative of the Civil War's impact on a city and its people.

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1917, James Ford Rhodes's History of the Civil War, 1861–1865 stands among the essential works in American history. Remarkable for its scholarly research, objectivity and engrossing narrative style, this volume is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding studies — and the first unbiased history — of the Civil War.The book presents a neutral approach to the bloody struggle, neither distorting nor coloring the facts. Rhodes worked methodically, collecting the evidence, considering the opinions of others, and then precisely and lucidly presenting his own conclusions. Distilling material from official military records, diaries, reminiscences, letters, memoirs, newspapers, manuscripts, books, and interviews, the author produced an essential, carefully weighed, and complete account. The critics agreed: "a clear outline of the Civil War . . . it is well worthy of the welcome it has already received." — American Historical Review. " . . . the author's notable faculty of summarizing without leaving out the spirit, the life, and the color of events . . . infuses his narrative with unusual power to re-create the time of which he writes." — The New York Times.While the narrative is neutral, choosing neither villains nor heroes, the ideological direction of Rhodes's work is surprisingly current. In accord with such present-day interpreters of the Civil War period as James McPherson and Ken Burns, Rhodes saw the Civil War as essentially a fight for freedom, and focused upon Abraham Lincoln as the deciding factor in the granting of freedom and the winning of the war.This Dover edition contains a cogent new introduction by John Herbert Roper, Richardson Professor of American History, Emory and Henry College, Emory, Virginia.

Born a slave in Virginia, Elizabeth Keckley (c. 1824–1907) went on to become a talented dressmaker and designer, with some twenty employees of her own. Catering to the wives, daughters, and sisters of Washington's political elite, she included among her clientele Mary Todd Lincoln, who became her close friend and confidante.Keckley's behind-the-scenes view of wartime Washington not only provides fascinating glimpses of nineteenth-century America, but also offers candid observations on interracial relationships and the free black middle class. Here also are absorbing details of life in the Lincoln White House, as well as an insider's perspective on the men who made Civil War politics and the women who influenced them. A touching and revelatory work, filled with incisive social commentary, this inspiring narrative by an admirable woman will be an important addition to the libraries of anyone interested in African-American and Civil War history.

Edwin M. Stanton (1814-1869), one of the nineteenth century's most impressive legal and political minds, wielded enormous influence and power as Lincoln's secretary of war during most of the Civil War and under Johnson during the early years of Reconstruction. In the first full biography of Stanton in more than fifty years, William Marvel offers a detailed reexamination of Stanton's life, career, and legacy. Marvel argues that while Stanton was a formidable advocate and politician, his character was hardly benign. Climbing from a difficult youth to the pinnacle of power, Stanton used his authority--and the public coffers--to pursue political vendettas, and he exercised sweeping wartime powers with a cavalier disregard for civil liberties. Though Lincoln's ability to harness a cabinet with sharp divisions and strong personalities is widely celebrated, Marvel suggests that Stanton's tenure raises important questions about Lincoln's actual control over the executive branch. This insightful biography also reveals why men like Ulysses S. Grant considered Stanton a coward and a bully, who was unashamed to use political power for partisan enforcement and personal preservation.

On September 17, 1862, the forces of Major General George B. McClellan and his Union Army of the Potomac confronted Robert E. Lee's entire Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Antietam in Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Union forces mounted a powerful assault on Lee's left flank in the idyllic Miller Cornfield. It was the single bloodiest day in the history of the Civil War. The elite combat units of the Union's Iron Brigade and the Confederate Texas Brigade held a dramatic showdown and suffered immense losses through vicious attacks and counterattacks sweeping through the cornstalks. Author Phillip Thomas Tucker reveals the triumph and tragedy of the greatest sacrifice of life of any battleground in America.

In 1854, after serving in the U.S. Army for 11 years, Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822-1885) resigned his commission and found himself out of a job and out of money. Over the next seven years he tried his hand at several occupations but succeeded in none. Only the outbreak of the Civil War and Grant’s eventual command of the Union Army provided the opportunity to display the military brilliance for which he would best be remembered.Following the war and two scandal-ridden terms as President of the United States, Grant again fell on hard times after involvement in some disastrous business dealings. Suffering from terminal cancer, he hoped to secure his family’s financial future — at least in part — by publishing his memoirs. That remarkable work — considered by many authorities among the finest military memoirs ever written — is reprinted here, complete and unabridged.Concentrating primarily on Civil War military campaigns, Grant’s firsthand accounts of those campaigns offer students and historians an incomparable vantage point on the conflict. There are also excellent observations of the Mexican War and glimpses of Grant’s personal life — boyhood, the years at West Point, his marriage to Julia Dent, and more. Throughout, Grant displays a calm detachment, generosity, integrity, and intelligence that are deeply moving.The present volume reproduces the unabridged text, lengthy Appendix and all illustrations from the original two-volume edition published in 1885-86. The work is further enhanced by the addition of historic photographs by famed Civil War photographer Mathew Brady and others.In this affordably priced unabridged edition, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant will be eagerly welcomed by students of American history and the legions of military enthusiasts and Civil War buffs.