Civil wars Books

Book SynopsisIn this history of Spain since 1975, with the collapse of dictatorship and transition to democracy, Aitana Guia demonstrates that a key factor left out of studies on the period -- namely immigration and specifically Muslim immigration -- has helped reinvigorate and strengthen the democratic process. Despite broad diversity and conflicting agendas, Muslim immigrants --often linking up with native converts to Islam -- have mobilized as an effective force. They have challenged the long tradition of Maurophobia exemplified in such mainstream festivities as the Festivals of Moors and Christians; they have taken to task residents and officials who have stood in the way of efforts to construct mosques; and they have defied the members of their own community who have refused to accommodate the rights of women. Beginning in Melilla, in Spanish-held North Africa, and expanding across Spain, the effect of this civil rights movement has been to fill gaps in legislation on immigration and religious pluralism and to set in motion a revision of prevailing interpretations of Spanish history and identity, ultimately forcing Spanish society to open up a space for all immigrants.Trade Review"Guias archival work and oral history make for a valuable contribution to a broader understanding of the Transition, and to migration studies in Spain. Of particular note is her shrewd engagement with questions of gender. By highlighting the importance of female activism in Melilla and Barcelona, and exploring various responses to the issue of the veil, she challenges accusations that Islamic culture is inherently discriminatory in this respect...there is much to gain from this innovative approach to Spains relationship with Islam today." Stuart Green, University of Leeds, Journal of Contemporary History,volume 22, issue 4, 2014

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Book Synopsis"It was bright moonlight -- good bombing light -- and once we had to stop and put out our lights as a Fascist aeroplane flew over. They usually come swooping down with guns firing at cars, especially ambulances. Finally we arrived at a town among the hills about 12.30pm. Here there is a hospital of about 100 beds in a former convent. They expect an attack tonight". In these words New Zealand nurse Dorothy Morris described her journey to a Republican medical unit of the Spanish civil war in early 1937. This book is based on the vivid, detailed and evocative letters she sent from Spain and other European countries. They have been supplemented by wide-ranging research to record a life of outstanding professional dedication, resourcefulness and courage. Dorothy Aroha Morris (1904-1988) volunteered to serve with Sir George Young's University Ambulance Unit, and worked at an International Brigades base hospital and as head nurse to a renowned Catalan surgeon. She then headed a Quaker-funded children's hospital in Murcia, southern Spain. As Franco's forces advanced, she fled to France and directed Quaker relief services for tens of thousands of Spanish refugees. Nurse Morris spent the Second World War in London munitions factories, as welfare supervisor to their all-female workforces. She then joined the newly formed UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, working in the Middle East and Germany with those who had been displaced and made homeless and destitute as a result of the war. Dorothy Morris's remarkable and pioneering work in the fields of military medicine for civilian casualties, and large-scale humanitarian relief projects is told in this book for the first time. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies.Trade Review"This is an intriguing book which seeks to interpret the world-changing events of the Spanish Civil War and World War Two through the eyes of a nurse from Christchurch, New Zealand..." Murray Rowlands, former director of Morley College, London, New Zealand Studies Network UK & Ireland, August 2015

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Book SynopsisWar is sometimes mistakenly construed as the chief impetus for medical innovation. Nevertheless, military conflict obliges the implementation of discoveries still at an experimental stage. Such was the case with the practice of blood transfusion during the Spanish Civil War, when massive demand for blood provoked immediate recourse to breakthroughs in transfusion medicine not yet integrated into standard medical practice. The Spanish Civil War marked a new era in blood transfusion medicine. Frederic Durán-Jordà and Carlos Elósegui Sarasoles, directors, respectively, of the blood transfusion services of the Republican Army and of the insurgent forces, were innovators in the field of indirect blood transfusion with preserved blood. Not only had they to create transfusion services, almost from scratch, capable of supplying campaigning armies with blood in wartime conditions, they also had to struggle against the medical establishment and to convince their medical peers of the value (not to mention the scientific significance) of what they were doing. The Blood Transfusion Service of the Republic was a truly international effort, with medical volunteers from all over the world carrying out transfusion work in primitive and often dangerous conditions. All took their lead from one man the young Catalan haematologist, Frederic Durán-Jordà, the indisputable pioneer of civil war blood transfusion medicine. From humble beginnings at the outbreak of war, blood transfusion services were created in Spain that would later become crucial in the treatment of casualties during the Second World War and would shape the future evolution of blood transfusion medicine throughout the developed world.

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Book SynopsisThis book proposes an interpretation of Francoism as the Spanish variant of fascism. Unlike Italian fascism and Nazism, the Franco regime survived the Second World War and continued its existence until the death of dictator Francisco Franco. Francoism was, therefore, the Last Survivor of the fascisms of the interwar period. And indeed this designation applies equally to Franco. The work begins with an analysis of the historical identity of Spanish fascism, constituted in the process of fascistization of the Spanish right during the crisis of the Second Republic, and consolidated in the formation of the fascist single-party and the New State during the civil war. Subsequent chapter contributions focus on various cultural and social projects (the university, political-cultural journals, the Labor University Service, local policies and social insurance) that sought to socialize Spaniards in the political principles of the Franco regime and thereby to strengthen social cohesion around it. Francoism faced varying degrees of non-compliance and outright hostility, expressed as different forms of cultural opposition to the Franco regime, especially in the years of its maturity (decades of the fifties and sixties), from Spaniards both inside Spain and in exile. Such opposition is explored in the context of how the regime reacted via the social, cultural and economic inducements at its disposal. The editors and contributors are widely published in the field of Spain of the Second Republic, the civil war and the Franco dictatorship. Research material is drawn from primary archival sources, and provides new information and new interpretations on Spanish politics, culture and society during the dictatorship.

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Book SynopsisOn 26 April 1937, a weekly market day, nearly sixty bombers and fighters attacked Gernika. They dropped between 31 and 46 tons of explosive and incendiary bombs on the city center. The desolation was absolute: 85 percent of the buildings in the town were totally destroyed; over 2,000 people died in an urban area of less than one square kilometer. Lying is inherent to crime. The bombing of Gernika is associated to one of the most outstanding lies of twentieth-century history. Just hours after the destruction of the Basque town, General Franco ordered to attribute authorship of the atrocity to the Reds and that remained the official truth until his death in 1975. Today no one denies that Gernika was bombed. However, the initial regime denial gave way to reductionism, namely, the attempt to minimize the scope of what took place, calling into question that it was an episode of terror bombing, questioning Francos and his generals responsibility, diminishing the magnitude of the means employed to destroy Gernika and lessening the death toll. Even today, in the view of several authors the tragedy of Gernika is little less than an overstated myth broadcasted by Picasso. This vision of the facts feeds on the dense network of falsehoods woven for forty years of dictatorship and the one only truth of El Caudillo. Xabier Irujo exposes this labyrinth of falsehoods and leads us through a genealogy of lies to their origin, metamorphosis and current expressions. Gernika was a key event of contemporary European history; its alternative facts historiography an exemplar for commentators and historians faced with disentangling contested viewpoints on current military and political conflicts, and too often war crimes and genocide that result. Published in association with the Canada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies

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Book SynopsisJust under 200,000 Irishmen took part in the American Civil War, making it one of the most significant conflicts in Irish history. Hundreds of thousands more were affected away from the battlefield, both in the US and in Ireland itself. The Irish contribution, however, is often only viewed through the lens of famous units such as the Irish Brigade, but the real story is much more complex and fascinating. From the Tipperary man who was the first man to die in the war, to the Corkman who was the last General mortally wounded in action; from the flag bearer who saved his regimental colours at the cost of his arms, to the Roscommon man who led the hunt for Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, what emerges in this book is a catalogue of gallantry, sacrifice and bravery.

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Book SynopsisA Union Army at war against the ConfederacyThe Army of the Cumberland was one of the principal armies of the Union Army. It was first commanded by Rosecrans who commanded it through its first significant engagement at Stones River and then subsequently during the Tullahoma campaign and at Chickamauga where it received a savaging which was instrumental in causing it to become besieged in Chattanooga. Grant, uncertain of its morale, gave the Cumberland, now under Thomas, a minor role at Missionary Ridge but his concerns were unfounded because, after achieving its primary objective, four divisions stormed the main enemy positions helping to complete the victory. Thomas commanded to the end of the war, but not before the Army of the Cumberland fought in the Atlanta Campaign, at Peachtree Creek, Franklin and finally at the decisive Battle of Nashville where with it crushed Confederate forces under Hood. This is a well rounded unit history. Essential reading for every student of the period. Available in soft cover and cloth bound hard back with dust jacket, head and tail bands and gold foil lettering to the spine.

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Book SynopsisA fresh analysis of the post-colonial war in Mozambique that contributes to debates about conflict, peacebuilding, development and nationalism and offers insights into the nature of contemporary politics and the current conflict. The 1976-1992 civil war which opposed the Government of Frelimo and the Renamo guerrillas (among other actors) is a central event in the history of Mozambique. Aiming to open up a new era of studies of the war, this book re-evaluates this period from a number of different local perspectives in an attempt to better understand the history, complexity and multiple dynamics of the armed conflict. Focusing at local level on either a province or a single village, the authors analyse the conflict as a "total social phenomena" involving all elements of society and impacting on every aspect of life across the country. The chapters examine Frelimo and Renamo as well as private, popular and state militias, the Catholic Church, NGOs and traders. Drawing on previously unexamined sources such as local and provincial state archives, religious archives, the guerrilla's own documentation and interviews, the authors uncoveralternative dimensions of the civil war. The book thus enables a deeper understanding of the conflict and its actors as well as offering an explanatory framework for understanding peacemaking, the nature of contemporary politics,and the current conflict in the country. Eric Morier-Genoud is a Lecturer in African history at Queen's University Belfast; Domingos Manuel do Rosário is Lecturer in electoral sociology and electoral governance at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique; Michel Cahen is a Senior Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at Bordeaux Political Studies Institute and at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid.Trade ReviewThe book provides a much-needed overview of the existing literature and new case studies drawing on longterm work and original materials. The analysis of Renamo documents, accounts of surviving villagers, interviews with militiamen, and religious archives, shines light on the spatial and temporal variations of the conflict, restores the agency of actors that had often been ignored or depicted as passive victims, and rehabilitates non-military dimensions of the war. This turns The War Within into the most complete yet synthetic account of the civil war and a necessary read. * AFRICAN STUDIES QUARTERLY *The War Within is a very well-researched, thought-provoking, well-written, and extremely engaging addition to the body of scholarship on Mozambique's civil war. * THE ROUND TABLE *The editors have done an excellent job of making the text open to general readers, while also engaging with the primary intended audience: scholars working on Mozambique. * JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN STUDIES *[...] outstanding contribution. * AFRICAN AFFAIRS *[...] this volume offers a welcome call for a new way of writing the history of Mozambique's civil war. * Canadian Journal of African Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Civil War in Mozambique - A history still to be written - Eric Morier-Genoud and Domingos Manuel do Rosário and Michel Cahen PART 1: IN THE NORTHERN HEART OF THE CIVIL WAR The Anti-Frelimo Movements and the War in Zambezia - Sérgio Inácio Chichava War to enforce a political project? Renamo in Nampula Province, 1983-1992 - Domingos Manuel do Rosário Spiritual power and the dynamics of war in the Provinces of Nampula and Zambézia - Corinna Jentzsch The War as seen by Renamo: Guerrilla politics and the "move to the North" at the time of the Nkomati Accord (1983-1985) - Michel Cahen PART II: IN THE SOUTH - ANOTHER KIND OF WAR? War in Inhambane: Re-shaping State, Society and Economy - Eric Morier-Genoud War Accounts from Ilha Josina Machel, Maputo Province - Lily Bunker Part III: INSIDE OUT: NEW PERSPECTIVES AND THE WORLD-SYSTEM Mozambique in the 1980s: Periphery goes Postmodern - Georgi Derluguian Conclusion: New perspectives on the civil war in Mozambique - Eric Morier-Genoud and Michel Cahen and Domingos Manuel do Rosário Towards a bibliography of the Mozambican Civil War - Eric Morier-Genoud and Michel Cahen and Domingos Manuel do Rosário

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Book SynopsisCrown, Covenant and Cromwell is a groundbreaking military history of the Great Civil War or rather the last Anglo-Scottish War as it was fought in Scotland and by Scottish armies in England between 1639 and 1651. While the politics of the time are necessarily touched upon, it is above all the story of those armies and the men who marched in them under generals such as Alexander Leslie, the illiterate soldier of fortune who became Earl of Leven, James Graham, Marquis of Montrose and of course Oliver Cromwell, the fenland farmer and Lord Protector of England.Historians sometimes seem to regard battles as rather too exciting to be a respectable field of study, but determining just how that battle was won or lost is often just as important as unravelling the underlying reasons why it came to be fought in the first place or the consequences that followed. Here, Stuart Reid, one of Scotland's leading military historians, brings the campaigns and battles of those far off unhappy times to life in a fast-paced and authoritative narrative as never before.This book sheds welcome new light on what to many are very obscure corners of the Civil Wars and will be essential reading for students of the period.

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Book SynopsisBorn in 1828 near Kelso in the Scottish Borders, Wyllie went to sea as an apprentice seaman in 1852 and quickly rose through the ranks. By 1862 he had gained his masters certificate in Liverpool, and there he took command of his first vessel, the Bonita. He sailed for Nassau, then a booming port involved in running contraband through the Union blockade of the Confederate States, at that time fighting in the American Civil War. Sailors from Britain rushed to man these vessels as great fortunes could be made if a successful run was made into a Confederate port. On the return journey, two agents of the State of North Carolina, Thomas Crossan and John White, were travelling to Britain on the orders of Governor Zebulon Vance to purchase ships to run the blockade. This set Wyllie's career as a blockade runner on course. White and Crossan arranged the purchase of the Clyde-built paddle steamer Lord Clyde and, just five months after docking in Liverpool as commander of the Bonita, Wyllie took command of the Lord Clyde, renamed the Ad-Vance. He was aboard from the start of the vessel's new career until her capture in September 1864. Two more commands of blockade runners followed; he was captured again and then evaded the American authorities through an ingenious, and at sometimes unbelievable, escape to Scotland. After the war Wyllie continued at sea for another two years before returning to Scotland to settle as a farmer. Unlike some of those who ran the blockade, Wyllie appears not to have come back a wealthy man. For over 30 years he gave numerous popular lectures of his time at sea in aid of local charities and was known locally as 'Captain Wyllie'. The role that Wyllie played during the Civil War is explored in depth and reveals that he was a constant face, and force, in the crew of the steamer with his actions and abilities being greatly appreciated by both crew and owners alike. The most comprehensive history of the Ad-Vance is provided, from the day she left Glasgow until her capture off the Carolina coast. Many fascinating contemporary passenger diaries, personal recollections from crew, letters and telegrams between Wyllie and Governor Vance, official records of the war and newspaper reports are included. In association with Glasgow Museums.

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Book SynopsisThe three civil wars that wracked England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, between 1642-1651 saw a greater percentage of the population killed than in the First World War. Hartlebury Castle, the home of the bishop of Worcester, saw involvement in all three wars. If you look for it in books on the civil war you will rarely find it mentioned and yet it was one of the two main fortresses guarding the north of the county and also a vital communication route for the Royalist troops from Wales and Ireland. Its troops were involved in skirmishes and battles and yet, when it was besieged in 1646, the governor of the Castle, William Sandys, is said to have surrendered without a shot being fired. A contemporary chronicler described this as done 'most poorly and cowardly'. Was this a justified accusation or did Sandys have no choice?

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Book SynopsisFrom Furness to Liverpool, and from the Wyre estuary to Manchester and Warrington - civil war actions, battles, sieges and skirmishes took place in virtually every corner of Lancashire. Presenting the history of the Lancashire civil wars, this work explains the events which our ancestors witnessed in the cause either of king or parliament.

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Book SynopsisLord Derby, Lancashire's highest-ranked nobleman and its principal royalist, once offered the opinion that the English civil wars had been a 'general plague of madness'. Complex and bedevilling, the earl defied anyone to tell the complete story of 'so foolish, so wicked, so lasting a war'. Yet attempting to chronicle and to explain the events is both fascinating and hugely important. Nationally and at the county level the impact and significance of the wars can hardly be over-stated: the conflict involved our ancestors fighting one another, on and off, for a period of nine years; almost every part of Lancashire witnessed warfare of some kind at one time or another, and several towns in particular saw bloody sieges and at least one episode characterised as a massacre.Nationally the wars resulted in the execution of the king; in 1651 the Earl of Derby himself was executed in Bolton in large measure because he had taken a leading part in the so-called massacre in that town in 1644. In the early months of the civil wars many could barely distinguish what it was that divided people in 'this war without an enemy', as the royalist William Waller famously wrote; yet by the end of it parliament had abolished monarchy itself and created the only republic in over a millennium of England's history. Over the ensuing centuries this period has been described variously as a rebellion, as a series of civil wars, even as a revolution.Lancashire's role in these momentous events was quite distinctive, and relative to the size of its population particularly important. Lancashire lay right at the centre of the wars, for the conflict did not just encompass England but Ireland and Scotland too, and Lancashire's position on the coast facing Catholic, Royalist Ireland was seen as critical from the very first months. And being on the main route south from Scotland meant that the county witnessed a good deal of marching and marauding armies from the north. In this, the first full history of the Lancashire civil wars for almost a century, Stephen Bull makes extensive use of new discoveries to narrate and explain the exciting, terrible events which our ancestors witnessed in the cause either of king or parliament. From Furness to Liverpool, and from the Wyre estuary to Manchester and Warrington...civil war actions, battles, sieges and skirmishes took place in virtually every corner of Lancashire.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1Measurements and spellings 5 1 Lancashire in the seventeenth century: people, county, military 7The hundreds of old Lancashire 7Religion and society 17The county as 'Armye' 25 2 'The fittest subject for a King's quarrel': the causes of civil war 35God's war?: Catholic and Protestant 42'A horid, cursed, and barbarous Rebellion': the Irish question 55Gentlemen and townsmen 59The willing and the unwilling 64 3 To arms, and the siege of Manchester, 1642 68Militias and magazines 69The parliamentarian stand at Manchester 71The siege of Manchester, September 1642 77 4 'All barbarous crueltie': the struggle for Lancashire, 1642-43 87Campaigns in east Lancashire, October 1642 88Chowbent, November 1642 93Sir Gilbert Hoghton and Blackburn 95War in the balance, spring 1643 100Preston falls to parliament, February 1643 101Tragedy at Hoghton Tower 103A 'verrey hot skirmish' as Bolton holds out 104Lancaster and the Fylde 107The Santa Anna 108The burning and capture of Lancaster, March 1643 113Preston and Lancaster change hands 115A second royalist attack on Bolton, March 1643 120Parliamentarians attack Wigan, March 1643 122Warrington and the battle of Stockton Heath, April 1643 124 5 The war turns for Parliament 127The battle of Read Bridge, Whalley, April 1643 127South Lancashire and the Fylde, April-May 1643 132Royalist retreat and Warrington attacked, May 1643 135The battle of Adwalton Moor, June 1643 137Hornby, Thurland and the battle of Lindale Close 138Autumn and winter 1643: parliamentarian adventures outside the county 144 6 Lady Derby and the first siege of Lathom House, 1644 149The location and layout of Lathom House 153Desultory siege and negotiations, spring 1644 157Problems facing the besiegers 164Lady Derby takes the initiative 168 7 'Prince Robber' in Lancashire, 1644 173Through Stockport and into Lancashire 175The sack and 'massacre of Bolton, May 1644 176The storming of Liverpool, June 1644 182Rupert aims to relieve the siege of York, June 1644 189 8 'A fatal blow': the aftermath of Marston Moor 191The royalists in Lancashire, summer 1644 195The battle for control of Lancashire, late summer, 1644 197The battle of Ormskirk, August 1644 203 9 The end of the first civil war, 1645 209Liverpool falls to parliament 209Greenhalgh castle 216The end at Lathom and Lancashire troops at Chester 217Final royalist defeat in Lancashire, December 1645 226Reform of the Lancashire committee 229 10 War without conclusion and the 'Province' of Lancashire 238Presbyterianism in Lancashire 244 11 The second civil war, 1648 250An 'Engagement' between king and Scottish royalists 252The Engager army prepares to invade, summer 1648 259'Bloody Preston', 17 August, 1648 267The royalists retreat southwards 278The battle of Winwick, 19 August 1648 281The long road to Uttoxeter 283Preston's legacy: regicide 286 12 The search for peace and the third civil war, 1649-1651 288An accommodation with Lord Derby? 291Political, military and religious reform 293Charles Stuart and the third civil war 298A Scottish royalist army in Lancashire again 301A skirmish at Warrington bridge 303Lord Derby campaigning again in Lancashire 306The battle of Wigan Lane, August 1651 311The earl of Derby captured and tried for treason 316 13 Aftermath 322The true cost of civil war 323The Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1651-1660 331The civil wars in perspective 341Notes and references 354Appendices 368Further reading 388Index 400

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Book SynopsisSterling Price began his career as commander of the Missouri State Guard, then served as a major general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. Because of his early conditional unionism - he was for the Union, but not to the extent of suppressing the rights of individual states - Price was not completely trusted in Missouri by either Governor Claiborne Jackson or Lieutenant Governor Thomas C. Reynolds. Nor was he trusted by Jefferson Davis, president of the new Confederate States of America. Price led by example, sharing hardships with his men and inspiring them with his fearlessness. They fought for him in the battles of Wilson's Creek, Lexington, and Pea Ridge. Price's 'last hurrah' was the autumn 1864 raid into Missouri. However, Reynolds, who traveled with the men, was furious that the raid failed to bring Missouri into the Confederacy. In 1867, Reynolds began writing his version of events. The manuscript was never completed, possibly because of the death of Sterling Price in St. Louis. In 1898, the Reynolds text was discovered and donated to the Missouri Historical Society. For historians, the Reynolds manuscript has proved to be a proverbial gold mine of information. This is especially true because Price's personal papers were lost in a fire in the 1880s. Now for the first time, the entire, although unfinished, manuscript is available. It is important not only for its appraisal of Sterling Price but also for Reynolds' views of the inner workings of the Confederate government and in particular the challenges that faced the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy.

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Book Synopsis The role of the Missouri Confederate in the Civil War is too often typified as that of the Bushwhacker, guerrilla, or partisan ranger. Although these soldiers are certainly part of Missouri’s Confederate history, Missouri soldiers also fought for the South at Shiloh and Corinth, from Vicksburg to Atlanta, in the assault at Franklin, and in defense of Fort Blakely in Mobile Bay. Printed primary accounts about these Confederate regiments from Missouri are few. In this new book, author and editor William C. Winter presents the story of the 1st Missouri Infantry, one of the best of these regiments, through the words of Captain Joseph Boyce of Company D, the St. Louis Greys.Less than two decades after the war, Boyce began presenting his history of the regiment to the Southern Historical and Benevolent Society of St. Louis. His text appeared in the Missouri Republican after each lecture, resulting in a serialized account spread over several years. Boyce’s narrative addresses his service from his involvement as a member of the Missouri Volunteer Militia in the Camp Jackson massacre on May 10, 1861, until the regiment’s surrender at Fort Blakely near Mobile, Alabama, in April 1865. Boyce’s history is offered here in full and as a continuous story for the first time.Winter has written the necessary introduction to each chapter, adding background to Boyce’s narrative that to Boyce was unneeded because many in his initial audience had shared the experience of war. Through extensive footnotes and the incorporation of other writings by Boyce, Winter has significantly expanded Boyce’s history but has maintained the focus on the regiment’s service in the war’s western theater.

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Book SynopsisContemporary Civil War scholarship has brought to light the important roles certain ethnic groups played during that tumultuous time in our nation's history. Two new books, focusing on the participation of Irish immigrants in both the Union and Confederate armies, add to this growing area of knowledge. While the famed fighting prowess of the Irish Brigade at Antietam and Gettysburg is well known, in ""God Help the Irish!"" historian Phillip T. Tucker emphasizes the lives and experiences of the individual Irish soldiers fighting in the ranks of the Brigade, supplying a better understanding of the Irish Brigade and why it became one of the elite combat units of the Civil War. The axiom that the winners of wars write the histories is especially valid in regard to the story of the Irish who fought for the Confederacy from 1861-1865. Throughout the course of the Civil War, Irish Confederates made invaluable contributions to all aspects of the war effort. Yet, the Irish have largely been the forgotten soldiers of the South. In ""Irish Confederates: The Civil War's Forgotten Soldiers"", Tucker illuminates these overlooked participants. Together, the two books provide a full picture of the roles Irish soldiers played in the Civil War.

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Book Synopsis'Discovering the Civil War' peels back 150 years of accumulated analysis, interpretation, and opinion to reveal a Civil War that is little-known. Featuring over 250 letters, diaries, photos, maps, petitions, receipts, patents, amendments and proclamations from the incomparable holdings of the National Archives, it takes a fresh look at the Civil War through little-known stories, seldom-seen documents, and unusual perspectives. Grouped into themes such as "Spies and Conspiracies," "Prisoners and Casualties," "Global War," and "Raising Armies," this new book looks beyond the battlefield to the experiences of ordinary people - be they the names of men listed in the "substitute book" who were paid to replace draftees, or firsthand accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg at the Gettysburg veterans 75th anniversary reunion in 1938. Famous documents, such as the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, are juxtaposed with innovative wartime patents, including a multipurpose device that could serve as a tent, knapsack, or blanket, and a message in Chinese script asking for Confederate ships to be barred from Chinese ports - proving that the Civil War became a truly international struggle.Table of ContentsMessage from the Archivist of the United States by David S. Ferriero Foreword by Ken Burns, Documentary Filmmaker Acknowledments Introduction Chapter 1: Breaking Apart Chapter 2: Raising Armies Chapter 3: Finding Leaders Chapter 4: We Were There Chapter 5: A Local Fight Chapter 6: A Global War Chapter 7: Spies and Conspiracies Chapter 8: Invention and Enterprise Chapter 9: Prisoners and Casualities Chapter 10: Emancipations Chapter 11: Endings and Beginnings Chapter 12: Remembering

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Book SynopsisPerhaps more than any other war in the twentieth century, the Spanish Civil War was seen as a 'writers' war' - names such as Hemingway and Orwell spring to mind. But the women who went to Spain and wrote about it have often been forgotten. This anthology is part of efforts to redress the balance. It includes writing by women from Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand - and from unsung nurses and relief workers as well as internationally celebrated writers. Bringing together extracts from memoirs, letters, diaries and poems, this collection provides a moving overview of the Spanish Civil War from the perspective of women participants. Contributors include Emma Goldman, Lillian Hellman, Jessica Mitford and Sylvia Townsend Warner.Trade Review'the power of human reciprocity and a profound spiritual rejection of fascism shine through'Sheila Rowbotham'I was absorbed by the book A... its publication is a tribute to the noble role of many women in the Spanish war' Jack Jones

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Book SynopsisMore than 2500 volunteers took the extraordinary decision to risk their lives in a foreign war, and more than 500 of them died. The book looks at their role in the key battles in Spain, including the heroic work of the medical volunteers. Drawing on contemporary photographs and images, Antifascistas documents the artistic and historical legacy of the International Brigades, and demonstrates the idealism, commitment and sacrifice of these exceptional men and women.

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Book SynopsisWith a foreword by Jon Snow. In July 1936 insurgent Spanish troops organized a military coup to oust the elected Republican government in Madrid. The rebel generals expected to force a quick, clean regime change but they failed. The botched uprising turned into a bloody civil war. Hundreds of thousands died in a bitter conflict which tore the country apart and rapidly turned into the prelude for an even greater conflict yet to com--the Second World War. The siege of Madrid was the key battle of the war. The world watched and waited for the city to surrender as General Franco's Nationalist army, backed by Hitler and Mussolini, closed in on the Spanish capital. But Madrid did not fall. Madrilenos fought tooth and nail to defend their city. Helped by volunteers from fifty other countries--the International Brigades--they held out against all the odds until the end of the conflict in 1939. Despite its central role in twentieth-century history, the siege of Madrid is an episode largely hidden from today's visitor. There is no guide to the war sites and few clues for the inquisitive traveller who wants to know more. Frontline Madrid fills that gap. This unique guide book explains what life was like in the city under siege and what happened in the battlefield dramas. The simple to follow maps and diagrams make it easy to visit the frontline sites. The vividly written descriptions bring events and people compellingly to life. The role of prominent individuals, British and American--Orwell, Hemingway, John Cornford - is explored. Off the beaten track, from the University district in the city centre to the mountains of Guadarrama less than an hour away, the remains of the war in Madrid can still be found--gun emplacements, bunkers, trenches and occasional debris. Frontline Madrid retraces the footsteps of those who lived through the conflict to take the reader on a tour in time. The usual tourist traps are left far behind to enter the gripping world of a war which shaped modern European history.

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Book SynopsisThe New Civil War Handbook: Facts and Photos from America’s Greatest Conflict is a complete up-to-date guide for American Civil War enthusiasts of all ages. Author Mark Hughes uses clear and concise writing, tables, charts, and more than 100 photographs to trace the history of the war from the beginning of the conflict through Reconstruction.Coverage includes battles and campaigns, the common soldier, technology, weapons, women and minorities at war, hospitals, prisons, generals, the naval war, artillery, and much more. In addition to these important areas, Hughes includes a fascinating section about the Civil War online, including popular blog sites and other Internet resources. Additional reference material in The New Civil War Handbook includes losses in battles, alternate names for battles, major causes of the deaths of Union soldiers (no data exists for Confederates), deaths in POW camps, and other rare information.Civil War buffs will find The New Civil War Handbook to be an invaluable quick reference guide, and one that makes an excellent addition for both the Civil War novice and the Civil War buff.About the Author: Mark Hughes is an electronics instructor widely recognized as the authority on Civil War cemeteries. He has written several books, including Bivouac of the Dead, The Unpublished Roll of Honor, and Confederate Cemeteries (2 vols.). An electronics instructor at Cleveland Community College, Mark, his wife Patty, and their daughter Anna Grace live on the family farm near Kings Mountain, NC.

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Book SynopsisThousands of books and articles have been written about Gettysburg, but the operation remains one of the most complex and difficult to understand. Bradley Gottfried’s groundbreaking The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 – July 13, 1863 is a unique and thorough study of this multifaceted campaign.The Maps of Gettysburg breaks down the entire operation into thirty map sets or “action-sections” enriched with 144 detailed, full-page colour maps comprising the entire campaign. These cartographic originals bore down to the regimental and battery level and include the march to and from the battlefield and virtually every significant event in between. At least two, and as many as twenty, maps accompany each map set. Keyed to each piece of cartography is a full facing page of detailed text describing the units, personalities, movements, and combat (including quotes from eyewitnesses) depicted on the accompanying map, all of which makes the Gettysburg story come alive.About the AuthorBradley M. Gottfried, Ph.D., is the President of the College of Southern Maryland. An avid Civil War historian, Dr. Gottfried is the author of five books.

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Book SynopsisConfederate President Jefferson Davis hoped one of his commanders could baffle the enemy in his designs on the Mississippi Valley. Confederate Major General Richard Taylor knew that the only long- term solution to protecting the twin river citadels at Vicksburg and Port Hudson was an active offensive. To that end he had already built a modest but well-supplied army while his powerful Rebel gunboat flotilla grew daily. Taylor just needed time. With the enemy army under General Nathaniel P. Banks fixated east of the Mississippi, Taylor believed he might just see his plans put into action With luck, the Confederate army might regain territory lost in Louisiana and its flag might once against float over New Orleans. The Union army would then have much larger issues to worry about.Taylor had cause to be optimistic. The Federal Army and navy had been trying the direct approach against Vicksburg and Port Hudson with mounting casualties, lost ships, and growing frustration. “There is no use longer deceiving the public, for the Banks expedition is a failure,” wrote a Massachusetts journalist. “Much as I admire Gen. Banks I am forced to admit that he is not the soldier I judged him to be nor the general this department needs.”As Rebel plans matured, time grew short for Union efforts. Banks needed to redeem himself, and his officers suggested an indirect approach west of the Mississippi, working from enclaves captured the previous fall, as the the key to victory. “The Teche county was to the war in Louisiana what the Shenandoah Valley was to the war in Virginia” Captain John William De Forest of the 12th Connecticut Infantry noted. “It was sort of a back alley, parallel to the main street wherein the heavy fighting must go on”. Instead of wasting his army against enemy entrenchments and prepared positions, Banks decided instead to roll up Bayou Teche, destroy Taylor’s small army, and isolate Port Hudson from its groceries. Capturing places like Franklin, New Iberia, Opelousas, and Alexandria, he might even open the possibility of cooperation with the army under General Ulysses S. Grant operating against Vicksburg.Taylor, caught by surprise and beaten to the punch, reacted with typical pugnacity “To retreat without fighting was . . . to abandon Louisiana”, he wrote. Unless his army held its ground, the way across the Pelican State lay open to Union invasion with potentially catastrophic results for the fight for the lower Mississippi River. If Union land and naval forces gained control of the Red River, they would shut off the steady supply of corn, hogs, and beef heading into the forts across the river.In the spring of 1863, the opening act of the final scene of the Mississippi Valley campaign would play out in southwestern Louisiana among the bayous and swamps of the massive Atchafalaya Basin.Donald S. Frazier, author of the award-winning Fire in the Cane Field, expands up his Louisiana Quadrille with the release of book two, Thunder Across the Swamp: The Fight for the Lower Mississippi, February-May 1863. The better known stories of the campaigns for Vicksburg and Port Hudson grow richer and more nuanced by taking a look at the fighting west of the river as part of a larger picture.

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Book SynopsisAward-winning author Donald S. Frazier returns to the field of Civil War history with keen turn of phrase and enthralling story-telling with the release of Fire in the Cane Field: The Invasion of Louisiana and Texas, January 1861–January 1863. Beginning with the spasms of secession in the Pelican State, Frazier weaves a stirring tale of bravado, reaction, and war as he describes the consequences of disunion for the hapless citizens of Louisiana. The army and navy campaigns he portrays weave a tale of the Federal Government's determination to suppress the newborn Confederacy - and nearly succeeding - by putting ever-increasing pressure on its adherents from New Orleans to Galveston. The surprising triumph of Texas troops on their home soil in early 1863 proved to be a decisive reverse to Union ambitions and doomed the region to even bloodier destruction to come. This bracing work, ten years in the making, ushered in a chronological string of books on the Civil War in Louisiana and Texas, as Frazier presents fresh sources on new topics in a series of captivating narratives.

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Book SynopsisTempest Over Texas: The Fall and Winter Campaigns, 1863-1864 is the fourth installment in Dr. Donald S. Frazier's award-winning Louisiana Quadrille series. Picking up the story of the Civil War in Louisiana and Texas after the fall of Port Hudson and Vicksburg, Tempest Over Texas describes Confederate confusion on how to carry on in the Trans-Mississippi given the new strategic realities. Likewise, Federal forces gathered from Memphis to New Orleans were in search of a new mission. International intrigues and disasters on distant battlefields would all conspire to confuse and perplex war-planners. One thing remained, however. The Stars and Stripes needed to fly once again in Texas, and as soon as possible.

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Book SynopsisOn a dark night in February of 1864, the H.L. Hunley, the first submarine to sink an enemy ship in combat, torpedoed the Union blockade ship USS Housatonic, a feat that would not be repeated for another 50 years. But fate was not kind to the Hunley that night as it sank with all of its crew on board before it could return to shore. Considered by many to be the Civil War's greatest mystery, the Hunley's demise and its resting place have been a topic of discussion for historians and Civil War buffs alike for more than a hundred years. Adding still more to the intrigue, the vessel was discovered in 1995 by a dive team led by famed novelist and shipwreck hunter Clive Cussler, sparking an underwater investigation that resulted in the raising of the Hunley on August 8, 2000. Since that time, the extensive research and restorative efforts underway have unraveled the incredible secrets that were locked within the submarine at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Join Civil War expert Brian Hicks as Sea of Darkness recounts the most historically accurate narrative of the sinking and eventual recovery ever written. Hicks has been given unprecedented access to all the main characters involved in the discovery, raising, and restoration of the Hunley. Complete with a foreword and additional commentary by Clive Cussler, Sea of Darkness offers new, never-before-published evidence on the cause of the Hunley's sinking, providing readers a tantalizing behind-the-scenes look inside the historic submarine.Trade Review"The comprehensive story of the Confederate submarine HL Hunley from the first rivet until today. This is a must-have book for anyone who loves submarines, appreciates American history, or wants to learn more about the HL Hunley. I could not put this book down, and neither will you once you start to read it!" --Wreck Diving Magazine "Brian Hicks's unique perspective provides the true story of the Confederate submarine remembered as the Hunleyfrom the beginning to the present. Through exacting research he reveals a fascinating phenomenon that provides an intellectual adventure. His every detail is visibly accountable as he preserves the time period with intimate research of the people and the undersea vessel that forever changed the history of naval warfare." --Clive Cussler, best-selling adventure novelist and founder of the National Underwater and Marine Agency "Never was an author better positioned or better prepared to write such an engaging and entertaining history. Hicks is an accomplished writer by trade, a Southern history buff by avocation and a close friend of many of the key movers and shakers who found, raised and are now restoring the submarine ... There will always be unanswered questions, but all of the answers we do have are artfully woven together in Brian Hicks' [Sea of Darkness]." --Frank L. Cloutier, The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) "Through skillful interweaving of the past and the present, Sea of Darkness illuminates the murky waters of the American Civil War. Hicks delivers an accurate, detailed account of military history that reads like an adventure novel, with a vibrant cast of characters and a storyline that will transport readers into the depths of naval warfare." --Colonel W. Hays Parks, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired "The Hunley project is about discovery. It's about learning what history can teach us. This project shows us what science, innovation, technology, and the human spirit can make possible. It is about courage." --Warren Lasch, Friends of the Hunley "... In Sea of Darkness, we go on a journey through time between the early 1860s, when men first dreamed up the idea of an iron submersible, to the modern preservation efforts to save the now 152-year-old ship, whose whereabouts lay shrouded in mystery for 131 years ... In sections the book reads like a historical adventure novel, with all the suggestive and pensive undercurrents of the doomed ship and crew. But Hicks' true story also pieces together facts about the ship, theories on why she sank and details regarding the ongoing effort to reveal all the secrets the Hunley held for so many years." --Paul Grimshaw, Grand Strand Magazine

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Book SynopsisIn early April 1861, the streets of West Chester, PA, echoed with the sound of a rattling snare drum. The orders it marked out could be heard for blocks around – about face, advance, retreat, company rest – but there were no troops in the city to hear it. The Civil War, though it loomed heavy on the minds of everyone in the nation, had not yet begun. Fort Sumter would remain in Union hands for another two weeks and the secession crisis in the south was yet still only a war of words. But on the one hundred block of Barnard Street, the children had already mustered. The children were already marching. And Charley King, a boy of only 11, was leading them. In a matter of days, the war would start in earnest. In just a few months, Charley would march with the 49th Pennsylvania Infantry into the heat of battle. And in just under a year and a half, he would become the youngest enlisted soldier to die in the American Civil War.Charley marched with Company F, tapping out the cadence and relaying orders as they fought in the ill-fated Peninsula Campaign, traveled in the long slog through Maryland during Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North, and faced down enemy artillery in the woods north of Sharpsburg at Antietam Creek. That battle remains the bloodiest day in American history. Charley and twenty-two thousand other Americans were killed or wounded that day. Charley’s final resting place is unknown, but he is memorialized in West Chester at Greenmount Cemetery where his mother and father are buried. Using a wide range of sources, this unique history reconstructs Charley’s short life and the tragedy of his claim as the youngest soldier to die in the American Civil War.Table of ContentsWest Chester Fort Sumter Bull Run Goodbyes Muster Drill and Train Marching Orders The Peninsula April 22nd Williamsburg The Lull Seven Days Battles Savage Station and White Oak Swamp Harrison's Landing Disease Coward Long Withdraw Crampton's Gap Sharpsburg His Last Full Measure Epilogue

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