Books in Vintage Civil War Library series

More than 600,000 soldiers lost their lives in the American Civil War. An equivalent proportion of today's population would be six million. In This Republic of Suffering, Drew Gilpin Faust reveals the ways that death on such a scale changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation, describing how the survivors managed on a practical level and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the unprecedented carnage with its belief in a benevolent God. Throughout, the voices of soldiers and their families, of statesmen, generals, preachers, poets, surgeons, nurses, northerners and southerners come together to give us a vivid understanding of the Civil War's most fundamental and widely shared reality.

This final volume of Shelby Foote’s masterful narrative history of the Civil War brings to life the military endgame, the surrender at Appomattox, and the tragic dénouement of the war—the assassination of President Lincoln. Features maps throughout. "An unparalleled achievement, an American Iliad, a unique work uniting the scholarship of the historian and the high readability of the first-class novelist." —Walker Percy “To read this chronicle is an awesome and moving experience. History and literature are rarely so thoroughly combined as here; one finishes this volume convinced that no one need undertake this particular enterprise again.” —Newsweek “In objectivity, in range, in mastery of detail, in beauty of language and feeling for the people involved, this work surpasses anything else on the subject. . . . Written in the tradition of the great historian-artists—Gibbon, Prescott, Napier, Freeman—it stands alongside the work of the best of them.” —The New Republic “The most written-about war in history has, with this completion of Shelby Foote’s trilogy, been given the epic treatment it deserves.” —Providence Journal

In these moving stories if Angelina Grimké Weld, wife of abolitionist Theodore Weld, Varina Howell Davis, wife of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, and Julia Dent grant, wife of Ulysses S. Grant, Carol Berkin reveals how women understood the cataclysmic events of their day. Their stories, taken together, help reconstruct the era of the Civil War with a greater depth and complexity by adding women's experiences and voices to their male counterparts.

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1905. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXXIV Longstreet's Return--Farewell To Lee Return of Longstreet--Am promoted brigadier-general--Parting with the First Corps--Report to A. P. Hill and Mahone--Sketches--Assume command of brigade of Georgians--its staff--Drill and exercises--Laying out a camp--General Lee's encouragement--Want of field officers--Captain H. H. Perry--Mahone's bread ovens-- Christmas, 1864--Sherman's march in Georgia--Grant's Virginia strategy--Our division moves out in bitter cold-- Demonstration on our extreme right against the railroad--Brigade forms line--No close firing--Enemy rejoins his main command--Received a slight wound--The return to camp--Its bad condition in our absence--Valuable boots burnt in bivouac--In February again ordered out to right-- Serious collision with enemy in force at Hatcher's Run-- General Pegram killed--Am shot in lung and borne from the field--Moved to Richmond and thence to Colonel Watts's, in southwest Virginia for convalescence--My recovery--Marriage of Doctor Sorrel--At Lynchburg-- Hear of Lee's surrender--Take to the mountains--Again at Colonel Watts's--Hunter and Crook--Homeward bound--Lady Godiva--Farewell to Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. It was in October, our corps (two divisions) being on the north side, that we had the happiness of welcoming our chief back to his command. His right arm was quite paralyzed and useless. He had taught himself to write legibly and easily with his left. Following the advice of his doctor, he was forever pulling at the disabled arm to bring back its life and action. He succeeded, for, though never strong, its use was partially restored in later years and his pen went back to it. I was with him but a few days. My commission as brigadier-general came unexpectedly, a note from my friend Burton Ha...