Civil wars Books
History Press Murfreesboro in the Civil War
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press (SC) Perryville Under Fire The Aftermath of Kentuckys
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press (SC) Hidden History of Civil War Charleston
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press Fort Harrison and the Battle of Chaffins Farm
Book Synopsis
£18.69
Arcadia Publishing (SC) New Hampshire and the Civil War Voices from the
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press Brooklyn and the Civil War
Book Synopsis
£16.99
History Press (SC) Yorktowns Civil War Siege Drums Along the Warwick
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press Guerrilla Hunters in Civil War Missouri
Book Synopsis
£18.69
Arcadia Publishing Inc. Rhode Island and the Civil War Voices from the
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press A Guide to Civil War Washington DC The Capital of
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press Prince Georges County and the Civil War
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press (SC) The Confederate Approach on Harrisburg The
Book Synopsis
£21.24
History Press Watauga County North Carolina in the Civil War
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press St Augustine and the Civil War
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press (SC) The Civil War on Hatteras
Book Synopsis
£21.24
History Press (SC) Connecticut Yankees at Antietam
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press A History Guide to the Monuments of Chickamauga
Book Synopsis
£16.99
History Press The Battle of West Point
Book Synopsis
£18.69
History Press The Immortal 600
Book Synopsis
£18.69
University of South Carolina Press Savannah in the New South: From the Civil War to
Book SynopsisSavannah in the New South: From the Civil War to the Twenty-First Century, by Walter J. Fraser, Jr., traces the city’s evolution from the pivotal period immediately after the Civil War to the present. When the war ended, Savannah was nearly bankrupt; today it is a thriving port city and tourist center. This work continues the tale of Savannah that Fraser began in his previous book, Savannah in the Old South, by examining the city’s complicated, sometimes turbulent development.The chronology begins by describing the racial and economic tensions the city experienced following the Civil War. A pattern of oppression of freed people by Savannah’s white civic-commercial elite was soon established. However, as the book demonstrates, slavery and discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and voter suppression galvanized the African American community, which in turn used protests, boycotts, demonstrations, the ballot box, the pulpit—and sometimes violence—to gain rights long denied.As this fresh, detailed history of Savannah shows, economic instability, political discord, racial tension, weather events, wealth disparity, gang violence, and a reluctance to help the police continue to challenge and shape the city. Nonetheless Savannah appears to be on course for a period of prosperity, bolstered by a thriving port, a strong, growing African American community, robust tourism, and the economic and historical contributions of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Fraser’s Savannah in the New South presents a sophisticated consideration of an important, vibrant southern metropolis.
£35.06
Savas Beatie The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of the Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign, Including the Battle of South Mountain, September 2–20, 1862
Book SynopsisThe Maps of Antietam breaks down the entire operation into 21 map sets or “action-sections” enriched with 124 full-colour original full-page maps. These spectacular cartographic creations bore down to the regimental and battery level and include the march into Maryland, the Harpers Ferry Operation, the Battle of South Mountain, the battle at Antietam, the retreat, and the fighting at Shepherdstown, as well as important marches and events. Each “action-section” is accompanied by as many as ten maps, and opposite each map is a full facing page of detailed, footnoted text describing the units, personalities, movements, and combat, including quotes from eyewitnesses, making the story of Lee’s raid into Maryland come alive.This original presentation masterfully leads readers on a journey through the campaign that many historians believe marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy. Gottfried begins with the position of the opposing armies after the Second Bull Run Campaign before detailing their joint movements into Maryland. Readers will stand with D. H. Hill atop South Mountain as General McClellan tries to force his way through the mountain passes; surround, lay siege to, and capture Harpers Ferry (and ride with Col. Benjamin Davis’s cavalry on its breakout); fight blow-by-blow outside the small town of Sharpsburg (53 maps) through the bloodiest day in American history; retreat from the battlefield; and revisit the final bloodshed spilled at Shepherdstown.Perfect for the easy chair or for walking hallowed ground, The Maps of Antietam is a seminal work that, like Gottfried’s earlier Gettysburg and First Bull Run studies, belongs on the bookshelf of every serious and casual student of the Civil War.
£28.95
Savas Beatie Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s
Book SynopsisJune 1863, and the Gettysburg Campaign is in its opening hours. Harnesses jingled and hooves pounded as Confederate cavalryman James Ewell Brown Stuart leads his three brigades of troopers on a ride that triggers one of the Civil War’s most bitter controversies. Instead of finding glory and victory, Stuart reaped stinging criticism and substantial blame for one of the Confederacy’s most stunning and unexpected battlefield defeats. Stuart left Virginia acting on Gen. Robert E. Lee’s discretionary orders to advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania, where he was to screen Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell’s marching infantry corps and report on enemy activity. The mission jumped off its tracks from virtually the moment it began when one unexpected event after another unfolded across Stuart’s path. For days, neither Lee nor Stuart had any idea where the other was, and the enemy blocked the horseman’s direct route back to the Confederate army, which was advancing nearly blind north into Pennsylvania. By the time Stuart reached Lee on July 2, the armies had unexpectedly collided at Gettysburg and one of the campaign’s greatest controversies was born. Did the plumed cavalier disobey Lee’s orders by stripping the army of its“eyes and ears?” Was Stuart to blame for the unexpected combat that broke out at Gettysburg on July 1? Authors Wittenberg and Petruzzi, widely recognised for their study and expertise of Civil War cavalry operations, have drawn upon a massive array of primary sources, many heretofore untapped, to fully explore Stuart’s ride, its consequences, and the intense debate among participants shortly after the battle, early post-war commentators, and modern scholars.
£20.04
Savas Beatie Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg,
Book SynopsisThey melted like snow on the ground, one officer said—wave after wave of Federal soldiers charging uphill across an open, muddy plain. Confederates, fortified behind a stone wall along a sunken road, poured a solid hail of lead into them as they charged . . . and faltered . . . and died. “I had never before seen fighting like that, nothing approaching it in terrible uproar and destruction,”the officer said as he watched the slaughter. “It is only murder now.” As a result of the carnage, the battle of Fredericksburg is usually remembered as the most lopsided Union defeat of the war.“Burnside’s folly,” it’s been called—named after the Union commander Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside who led the Army of Potomac to ruin along the banks of the Rappahannock River. But the battle of Fredericksburg remains one of the most misunderstood and misremembered engagements of the war. Burnside started with a well-conceived plan and had every reason to expect victory. How did it go so terribly wrong? Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have worked for years along Fredericksburg’s Sunken Road and Stone Wall, and they’ve taken thousands of visitors across the battlefield. In Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, they not only recount Fredericksburg’s tragic story of slaughter, they also share information about the battlefield itself and the insights they’ve learned from years of walking the ground. Simply Murder can be enjoyed in the comfort of one’s living room or used as a guide on the battlefield itself. It is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series which offers compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important stories. Each volume features masterful storytelling richly enhanced with hundreds of photos, illustrations, and maps.
£13.61
Savas Beatie A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania
Book Synopsis“I intend to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer,” Union commander Ulysses S. Grant wrote to Washington after he’d opened his Overland Campaign in the Spring of 1864. His resolve entirely changed the face of warfare. Promoted to command of all the Federal armies, the new lieutenant general chose to ride shotgun with the Army of the Potomac as it once again threw itself against the wily, audacious Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. But Grant did something no one else had done before: he threw his army at Lee, over and over again. At Spotsylvania Court House, the second phase of the campaign, the two armies shifted from stalemate in the Wilderness to slugfest in the mud. Most commonly known for the horrific twenty-two-hour hand-to-hand combat in the pouring rain at the Bloody Angle, the battle of Spotsylvania Court House actually stretched from May 8-21, 1864, fourteen long days of battle and maneuver. Grant, the irresistible force, hammering with his overwhelming numbers and unprecedented power, versus Lee, the immovable object, hunkered down behind the most formidable defensive works yet seen on the continent—Spotsylvania Court House represents a chess match of immeasurable stakes between two master opponents. This clash is detailed in A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21,1864. As former battlefield guides at Spotsylvania Court House, authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White know the ground as intimately as anyone today. With the knowledge and insight that comes from that familiarity, coupled with their command of the fact, Mackowski and White weave together a gripping narrative of one of the war’s most consequential engagements. A Season of Slaughter is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series offering compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with hundreds of photos, illustrations, and maps.
£13.73
Savas Beatie The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil
Book SynopsisThe clash of armies in the American Civil War left hundreds of thousands of men dead, wounded, or permanently damaged. Skirmishes and battles could result in casualty numbers as low as one or two and as high as tens of thousands. The carnage of the battlefield left a lasting impression on those who experienced or viewed it, but in most cases the armies quickly moved on to meet again at another time and place. When the dust settled and the living armies moved on, what happened to the dead left behind?Unlike battle narratives, The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead picks up the story as the battle ends. The burial of the dead was an overwhelming experience for the armies or communities forced to clean up after the destruction of battle. In the short-term action, bodies were hastily buried to avoid the stench and the horrific health concerns of massive death; in the long-term, families struggled to reclaim loved ones and properly reinter them in established cemeteries.Visitors to a battlefield often wonder what happened to the dead once the battle was over. In this easy-to-read overview that will complement any Civil War library, author Kathleen Thompson provides a look at the aftermath of battle and the process of burying the Civil War dead.The Aftermath of Battle is part of the Emerging Civil War Series offering compelling, easy-to-read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with hundreds of photos and illustrations.
£13.81
Savas Beatie No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland
Book Synopsis“[T]here will be no turning back,” said Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. It was May, 1864. The Civil War had dragged into its fourth spring. It was time to end things, Grant resolved, once and for all. With the Union Army of the Potomac as his sledge, Grant crossed the Rapidan River, intending to draw the Army of Northern Virginia into one final battle. Short of that, he planned“to hammer continuously against the armed forces of the enemy and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him . . . .” Almost immediately, though, Robert E. Lee’s Confederates brought Grant to bay in the thick tangle of the Wilderness. Rather than retreat, as other army commanders had done in the past, Grant outmaneuvered Lee, swinging left and south. There was, after all, no turning back. “I intend to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer,”Grant vowed. And he did: from the dark, close woods of the Wilderness to the Muleshoe of Spotsylvania, to the steep banks of the North Anna River, to the desperate charges of Cold Harbor. The 1864 Overland Campaign would be a nonstop grind of fighting, maneuvering, and marching, much of it in rain and mud, with casualty lists longer than anything yet seen in the war. In No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign, from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May 4 - June 13, 1864, historians Robert M. Dunkerly, Donald C. Pfanz, and David R. Ruth allow readers to follow in the footsteps of the armies as they grapple across the Virginia landscape. Pfanz spent his career as a National Park Service historian on the battlefields where the campaign began; Dunkerly and Ruth work on the battlefields where it concluded. Few people know the ground, or the campaign, better. About the Authors: Robert M. Dunkerly is a historian, award-winning author, and speaker who is actively involved in historic preservation and research. He holds a degree in History from St. Vincent College and a Masters in Historic Preservation from Middle Tennessee State University. He has taught courses at Central Virginia Community College, the University of Richmond, and the Virginia Historical Society; he has worked at nine historic sites and written ten books; and he has written more than twenty articles. He is currently a Park Ranger at Richmond National Battlefield Park. Donald C. Pfanz worked for 32 years as a National Park Service historian, most of it at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County National Military Park. Born in Gettysburg, PA, he is a founding member of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites (now the Civil War Trust) and has written four books about the Civil War, including Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier’s Life and War So Terrible: A Popular History of the Battle of Fredericksburg. David R. Ruth has served as the superintendent of Richmond National Battlefield Park since 2008. His career with the National Park Service spans more than 40 years, including service at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania, Independence, Manassas, and Fort Sumter. He holds a degree in history from Virginia Tech. Ruth and his wife reside in Hanover County, VA.
£13.81
Savas Beatie The First Battle for Petersburg: The Attack and
Book SynopsisThe nearly ten-month struggle for Petersburg, Virginia, is well known to students of the Civil War. Surprisingly few readers, however, are aware that Petersburg’s citizens felt war’s hard hand nearly a week before the armies of Grant and Lee arrived on their doorstep in the middle of June 1864. Distinguished historian William Glenn Robertson rectifies this oversight with the publication of The First Battle for Petersburg in a special revised Sesquicentennial edition.During his ill-fated Bermuda Hundred Campaign, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler in late May took note of the “Cockade City’s” position astride Richmond’s railroad lifeline and its minuscule garrison. When two attempts to seize the city and destroy the bridges over the Appomattox River failed, Butler mounted an expedition to Petersburg on June 9. Led by Maj. Gen. Quincy Gillmore and Brig. Gen. August Kautz, the Federal force of 3,300 infantry and 1,300 cavalry appeared large enough to overwhelm Brig. Gen. Henry Wise’s paltry 1,200 Confederate defenders, one-quarter of which were reserves that included several companies of elderly men and teenagers. The attack on the critical logistical center, and how the Confederates managed to hold the city, is the subject of Robertson’s ground-breaking study. Ironically, Butler’s effort resulted in Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard’s decision to slightly enlarge Petersburg’s garrison—troops that may have provided the razor-thin margin of difference when the head of the Army of the Potomac appeared in strength six days later.The First Battle for Petersburg describes the strategy, tactics, and generalship of the Battle of June 9 in full detail, as well as the impact on the city’s citizens, both in and out of the ranks. Robertson’s study is grounded in extensive primary sources supported by original maps and photos and illustrations. It remains the most comprehensive analysis of the June 9 engagement of Petersburg’s “old men and young boys.”Petersburg itself has never forgotten the sacrifices of its citizens on that summer day 150 years ago, and continues to honor their service with an annual commemoration. Once you read Dr. Robertson’s The First Battle for Petersburg: The Attack and Defense of the Cockade City, June 9, 1864, you will understand why.
£21.15
Savas Beatie The Siege of Petersburg: The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864
Book Synopsis“A superior piece of Civil War scholarship.” – Edwin C. Bearss, former Chief Historian of the United States National Park Service and award-winning author. The nine-month siege of Petersburg was the longest continuous operation of the American Civil War. A series of large-scale Union“offensives,” grand maneuvers that triggered some of the fiercest battles of the war, broke the monotony of static trench warfare. Grant’s Fourth Offensive, August 14-25, the longest and bloodiest operation of the campaign, is the subject of John Horn’s revised and updated Sesquicentennial edition of The Siege of Petersburg: The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864. Frustrated by his inability to break through the Southern front, General Grant devised a two-punch combination strategy in an effort to sever the crucial Weldon Railroad and stretch General Lee’s lines. The plan called for Winfield Hancock’s II Corps (with X Corps) to move against Deep Bottom north of the James River to occupy Confederate attention while Warren’s V Corps, supported by elements of IX Corps, marched south and west below Petersburg toward Globe Tavern on the Weldon Railroad. The move triggered the battles of Second Deep Bottom, Globe Tavern, and Second Reams Station, bitter fighting that witnessed fierce Confederate counterattacks and additional Union operations against the railroad before Grant’s troops dug in and secured their hold on Globe Tavern. The end result was nearly 15,000 killed, wounded, and missing, the severing of the railroad, and the jump-off point for what would be Grant’s Fifth Offensive in late September. Revised and updated for this special edition, Horn’s outstanding tactical battle study emphasizes the context and consequences of every action and is supported by numerous maps and grounded in hundreds of primary sources. Unlike many battle accounts, Horn puts Grant’s Fourth Offensive into its proper perspective not only in the context of the Petersburg Campaign and the war, but in the context of the history of warfare.
£21.38
Savas Beatie That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the
Book SynopsisIt has been called Robert E. Lee’s supreme moment: riding into the Chancellorsville clearing...the mansion itself aflame in the background...his gunpowder-smeared soldiers crowding around him, hats off, cheering wildly. After one of the most audacious gambits of the war, Lee and his men had defeated a foe more than two and a half times their size. The Federal commander,“Fighting Joe” Hooker, had boasted days earlier that his plans were perfect—yet his army had crumbled, and Hooker himself had literally been knocked senseless. History would remember the battle of Chancellorsville as“Lee’s Greatest Victory.” But Confederate fortunes had reached their high tide. Never again would fortune favor Lee the way it did at Chancellorsville—even though the war continued another two years. That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy recounts the story of the Army of Northern Virginia’s last offensive battlefield victory—a tale of triumph and tragedy that includes the second-bloodiest day of the Civil War; the mortal wounding of one of the Confederacy’s greatest icons, Stonewall Jackson; and the bold leadership of the man known as“audacity itself.” Told in the highly readable style that has become the hallmark of the Emerging Civil War Series, That Furious Struggle contains more than a hundred and fifty modern and historical photos, outstanding maps, and an insider’s perspective of the battlefield as told by historians who intimately know the ground and the battle.
£13.95
Savas Beatie The Washingtons: a Family History: Volume Seven, Part One: Generation Eleven of the Presidential Branch
Book SynopsisThis ground-breaking series is a comprehensive history that traces the “Presidential line” of the Washingtons. Volume one begins with the immigrant John Washington who settled in Westmoreland Co., Va., in 1657, married Anne Pope, and was the great-grandfather of President George Washington. It continues the record of their descendants for a total of seven generations. Volume two is a collection of notable descendants of the next eight generations of John and Anne Washington’s descendants, including Gen. George S. Patton, author Shelby Foote, and actor Lee Marvin. Future volumes trace generations eight through fifteen, making a total of more than 63,000 descendants. Although structured in a genealogical format for the sake of clarity, this is no barebones genealogy but a true family history with more than 1,200 detailed biographical narratives. These, in turn, strive to convey the greatness of the family that produced not only The Father of His Country but many others, great and humble, who struggled to build that country. The Washingtons includes a special volume on the time-honored John Wright line, which in recent years has been challenged largely on the basis of DNA evidence, and another on the royal descents of the presidential line. A cumulative index completes the series.
£51.29
Savas Beatie The Last Road North: A Guide to the Gettysburg
Book Synopsis“I thought my men were invincible,” admitted Robert E. Lee. A string of battlefield victories through 1862 had culminated in the spring of 1863 with Lee’s greatest victory yet: the battle of Chancellorsville. Propelled by the momentum of that supreme moment, confident in the abilities of his men, Lee decided to once more take the fight to the Yankees and launched this army on another invasion of the North. An appointment with destiny awaited in the little Pennsylvania college town of Gettysburg. Historian Dan Welch follows in the footsteps of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac as the two foes cat-and-mouse their way northward, ultimately clashing in the costliest battle in North American history. Based on the Gettysburg Civil War Trails, and packed with dozens of lesser-known sites related to the Gettysburg Campaign, The Last Road North: A Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign offers the ultimate Civil War road trip.Trade ReviewThis book would be extremely useful to anyone planning a visit to the Gettysburg battlefield, and an ideal companion on such a journey. * Miniature Wargames - Arthur Harman *…shows a deep knowledge of the subject and the style of writing is clear and easy to follow…buy this book! * Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy *Important and fascinating addition to the literature of the American Civil War… * Books Monthly *
£13.81
Savas Beatie Triumph and Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign,
Book SynopsisThe study of the Civil War in the Western Theater is more popular now than ever before, and the center of that interest is the months-long Vicksburg Campaign, which is the subject of National Park Historian Terrence J. Winschel’s book Triumph & Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign, Vol 2, now in paperback. Following up on the popular success of his earlier book of the same name, Winschel offers ten new chapters of insights into what has been declared by many to have been the most decisive campaign of the Civil War. Designed to appeal to both general readers and serious students, Winschel’s essays cover a wide range of topics. Winschel’s chapters include detailed coverage of military operations, naval engagements, leading personalities, and even an essay about a specific family (the Lords) caught up in the nightmarish 47-day siege that nearly cost them their lives. Smoothly written and deeply researched, these fresh chapters offer balanced and comprehensive analysis written with the authority that only someone who has served as Vicksburg’s Chief Historian since 1978 can produce. Bolstered by photographs, illustrations, and numerous outstanding original maps, this second volume in the Triumph& Defeat series will stand as a lasting contribution to the study of the Civil War. Author Terry Winschel, chief historian at Vicksburg National Military Park, weaves a professional lifetime of personal experience and scholarship into this remarkable study. His chapters cover every major aspect of what many consider to have been the decisive military achievement of the war--the capture of“The Gibraltar of the Confederacy.”
£15.30
Savas Beatie The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads and the Civil War's Final Campaign
Book SynopsisThe Battle of Monroe's Crossroads, March 10, 1865, was one of most important but least known engagements of William T. Sherman's Carolinas Campaign. Now in paperback, here is the only book-length account of this combat. As Sherman's infantry crossed into North Carolina, Maj. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's veteran Federal cavalry division fanned out in front, screening the advance. When Kilpatrick learned that Confederate cavalry under Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton was hot on his trail, he decided to set a trap for the Southern horsemen near a place called Monroe's Crossroads. Hampton, however, learned of the plan and decided to do something Kilpatrick was not expecting: attack. On March 10, Southern troopers under Hampton and Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler launched a savage surprise attack on Kilpatrick's sleeping camp. After three hours of some of the toughest cavalry fighting of the entire Civil War, Hampton broke off and withdrew. His attack, however, stopped Kilpatrick's advance and bought another precious day for Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee to evacuate his command from Fayetteville. This, in turn, permitted Hardee to join the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and set the stage for the climactic Battle of Bentonville nine days later. Noted Civil War author Eric J. Wittenberg has written the first detailed tactical narrative of this important but long-forgotten battle, and places it in its proper context within the entire Carolinas Campaign. His study features 28 original maps and dozens of illustrations. Finally, an author of wide experience and renown has brought to vivid life this overlooked portion of the Carolinas Campaign.
£17.55
Savas Beatie To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and
Book SynopsisAcross the Confederacy, determination remained high through the winter of 1864 into the new year. Yet ominous signs were everywhere. The peace conference had failed. Large areas were overrun, the armies could not stop Union advances, the economy was in shambles, and industry and infrastructure were crumbling—the Confederacy could not make, move, or maintain anything. No one knew what the future held, but uncertainty.Civilians and soldiers, generals and governors, resolved to fight to the bitter end.Myths and misconceptions abound about those last days of the Confederacy. There would be no single surrender or treaty that brought the war to an end. Rather, the Confederacy collapsed, its government on the run, its cities occupied, its armies surrendering piecemeal.Offering a fresh look at the various surrenders that ended the war, To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and the Surrenders of the Confederacy by Robert M. Dunkerly brings to light little-known facts and covers often-overlooked events. Each surrender—starting at Appomattox and continuing through Greensboro, Citronelle, and the Trans Mississippi—unfolded on its own course. Many involved confusing and chaotic twists and turns.Misunderstandings plagued many of the negotiations. Communications were problematic. Discipline often broke down. Tempers flared. It was anything but a nice, neat ending to the war.How did the war finally end? What was the status of former Confederate soldiers? Of slaves? How would everyone get home? Was there even a home to go to? As the surrenders unfolded, daunting questions remained.Appomattox was just the beginning.
£13.90
Savas Beatie Strike Them a Blow: Battle Along the North Anna
Book SynopsisFor sixteen days the armies had grappled—a grueling horror-show of nonstop battle, march, and maneuver that stretched through May of 1864. Federal commander Ulysses S. Grant had resolved to destroy his Confederate adversaries through attrition if by no other means. He would just keep at them until he used them up.Meanwhile, Grant’s Confederate counterpart, Robert E. Lee, looked for an opportunity to regain the offensive initiative. “We must strike them a blow,” he told his lieutenants.The toll on both armies was staggering.But Grant’s war of attrition began to take its toll in a more insidious way. Both army commanders—operating on the dark edge of exhaustion, fighting off illness, pressure-cooked by stress—began to feel the effects of that continuous, merciless grind in very personal ways. Punch-drunk tired, they began to second-guess themselves, began missing opportunities, began making mistakes.As a result, along the banks of the North Anna River, commanders on both sides brought their armies to the brink of destruction without even knowing it.Picking up the story started in the Emerging Civil War Series book A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, historian Chris Mackowski follows the road south to the North Anna River. Strike Them a Blow: Battle Along the North Anna River offers a concise, engaging account of the mistakes and missed opportunities of the third—and least understood—phase of the Overland Campaign.Trade Review'I found it compulsive and addictive and jam-packed with new information. I unreservedly recommend this book.' * Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy *A fascinating account of just one battle during the American Civil War. * Books Monthly 17/02/2016 *
£13.81
Savas Beatie Out Flew the Sabers: The Battle of Brandy
Book SynopsisOne day. Fourteen hours. Twelve thousand Union cavalrymen against 9,000 of their Confederate counterparts—with three thousand Union infantry thrown in for good measure. Amidst the thunder of hooves and the clashing of sabers, they slugged it out across the hills and dales of Culpepper County, Virginia. And it escalated into the largest cavalry battle ever fought on the North American continent. Fleetwood Hill at Brandy Station was the site of four major cavalry battles during the course of the Civil War, but none was more important than the one fought on June 9, 1863. That clash turned out to be the opening engagement of the Gettysburg Campaign—and the one-day delay it engendered may very well have impacted the outcome of the entire campaign. The tale includes a veritable who’s-who of cavalry all-stars in the East: Jeb Stuart, Wade Hampton, John Buford, and George Armstrong Custer. Robert E. Lee, the great Confederate commander, saw his son, William H. F. Lee, being carried off the battlefield, severely wounded. Both sides suffered heavy losses. But for the Federal cavalry, the battle was also a watershed event. After Brandy Station, never again would they hear the mocking cry,“Whoever saw a dead cavalryman?” In Out Flew the Sabers: The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863—The Opening Engagement of the Gettysburg Campaign, award-winning Civil War historian Eric J. Wittenberg has written the latest entry in Savas Beatie’s critically acclaimed Emerging Civil War Series.
£13.61
Savas Beatie Let Us Die Like Men: The Battle of Franklin,
Book SynopsisJohn Bell Hood had done his job too well. In the fall of 1864, the commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee had harassed Federal forces in north Georgia so badly that the Union commander, William T. Sherman, decided to abandon his position. During his subsequent “March to the Sea,” Sherman’s men lived off the land and made Georgia howl. Rather than confront the larger Federal force directly, Hood chose instead to strike northward into Tennessee. There, he hoped to cripple the Federal supply infrastructure and the Federal forces that still remained there—the Army of the Cumberland under George Thomas. Hood hoped to defeat Thomas’s army in detail and force Sherman to come northward to the rescue. On November 30, in a small country town called Franklin, Hood caught part of Thomas’s army outside of its stronghold of Nashville. But what began as a promising opportunity for the outnumbered Confederate army soon turned grim. “I do not like the looks of this fight,” one of Hood’s subordinates said; “the enemy has an excellent position and is well fortified.” Hood was determined to root the Federals out. “Well,” said a Confederate officer, “if we are to die, let us die like men.” And thousands of them did. As wave after murderous wave crashed against the Federal fortifications, the Army of Tennessee shattered itself. It eventually found victory—but at a cost so bloody and so chilling, the name “Franklin” would ever after be synonymous with disaster. Historian William Lee White, whose devotion to the Army of Tennessee has taken him from the dense forests of northwest Georgia to the gates of Atlanta and back into Tennessee, now pens the penultimate chapter in the army’s storied history in Let Us Die Like Men: The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.Trade Reviewit is a very good introduction to a little-known campaign and is recommended. * Miniature Wargames - John Drewienkiewicz *
£13.72
Savas Beatie A Want of Vigilance: The Bristoe Station Campaign, October 9–19, 1863
Book SynopsisThe months after Gettysburg had hardly been quiet—filled with skirmishes, cavalry clashes, and plenty of marching. Nonetheless, Union commander Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade had yet to come to serious blows with his Confederate counterpart, Gen. Robert E. Lee.“Lee is undoubtedly bullying you,” one of Meade’s superiors goaded.Lee’s army—severely bloodied at Gettysburg—did not have quite the offensive capability it once possessed, yet Lee’s aggressive nature could not be quelled. He looked for the chance to strike out at Meade.In midOctober, 1863, both men shifted their armies into motion. Each surprised the other. Quickly, Meade found himself racing northward for safety along the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, with Lee charging up the rail line behind him.Last stop: Bristoe Station.Authors Robert Orrison and Bill Backus have worked at the Bristoe Station battlefield, which is now surrounded by one of the fastestgrowing parts of Virginia. In A Want of Vigilance, they trace the campaign from the armies’ camps around Orange and Culpeper northwest through the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and along the vital railroad—to Centreville and back—in a backandforth game of cat and mouse: the “goggleeyed snapping turtle” versus “the old gray fox” pitted against each other in one of the most overlooked periods of the war.Trade Review…an excellent short summary of a complex but often overlooked period of the Civil War. The tactical stalemates of Bristoe and later Mine Run led to the reorganization of the Union war effort in the East and the subsequent Overland Campaign of the Spring and Summer of 1964. * Civil War News *
£13.90
Savas Beatie Decision at Tom’s Brook: George Custer, Tom Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight
Book SynopsisThe Battle of Tom’s Brook, recalled one Confederate soldier, was “the greatest disaster that ever befell our cavalry during the whole war.” The fight took place during the last autumn of the Civil War, when the Union General Phil Sheridan vowed to turn the croprich Shenandoah Valley into “a desert.” Farms and homes were burned, livestock slaughtered, and Southern families suffered.The story of the Tom’s Brook cavalry affair centers on two young men who had risen to prominence as soldiers: George A. Custer and Thomas L. Rosser. They had been fast friends since their teenage days at West Point, but the war sent them down separate paths—Custer to the Union army and Rosser to the Confederacy. Each was a born warrior who took obvious joy in the exhilaration of battle. Each possessed almost all of the traits of the ideal cavalryman—courage, intelligence, physical strength, innerfire. Only their judgment was questionable.Their separate paths converged in the Shenandoah Valley in the summer of 1864, when Custer was ordered to destroy, and Rosser was ordered to stop him. For three days, Rosser’s gray troopers pursued and attacked the Federals. On the fourth day, October 9, the tables turned in the open fields above Tom’s Brook, where each ambitious friend sought his own advancement at the expense of the other. One capitalized upon every advantage fate threw before him, while the other, sure of his abilities in battle and eager to fight, attempted to impose his will on unfavorable circumstances and tempted fate by inviting catastrophe. This longoverlooked cavalry action had a lasting effect on mounted operations and influenced the balance of the campaign in the Valley.Based upon extensive research in primary documents and gracefully written, awardwinning author William J. Miller’s Decision at Tom’s Brook presents significant new material on Thomas Rosser, and argues that his character was his destiny. Rosser’s decisionmaking that day changed his life and the lives of hundreds of other men. Miller’s new study is Civil War history and high personal drama at its finest.
£19.50
Savas Beatie Hell Itself: The Battle of the Wilderness, May
Book SynopsisSoldiers called it one of the “waste places of nature” and “a region of gloom”—the Wilderness of Virginia, seventy square miles of dense, secondgrowth forest known as “the dark, close wood.”“A more unpromising theatre of war was never seen,” said another.Yet here, in the spring of 1864, the Civil War escalated to a new level of horror.Ulysses S. Grant, commanding all Federal armies, opened the campaign with a vow to never turn back. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, moved into the Wilderness to block Grant’s advance. Immovable object intercepted irresistible force—and the Wilderness burst into flame.With the forest itself burning around them, men died by the thousands. The armies bloodied each other without mercy and, at times, without any semblance of order. The brush grew so dense, and the smoke hung so thick, men could not see who stood next to them—or in front of them. “This, viewed as a battleground, was simply infernal,” a Union soldier later said.It was, said another, “hell itself.”Driven by desperation, duty, confusion, and fire, soldiers on both sides marveled that anyone might make it out alive.For more than a decade, Chris Mackowski has guided visitors across the battlefields of the Overland Campaign. Now in Hell Itself he invites readers of the Emerging Civil War Series to join him in the Wilderness—one of the most storied battlefields of the entire Civil War.
£13.95
Savas Beatie A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from
Book SynopsisSpring of 1864 brought a whole new war to the Western Theater, with new commanders and what would become a new style of warfare. Federal armies, perched in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after their stunning victories there the previous fall, poised on the edge of Georgia for the first time in the war. Atlanta sat in the far distance. Major General William T. Sherman, newly elevated to command the Union’s western armies, eyed it covetously—the South’s last great untouched prize. “Get into the interior of the enemy’s country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage you can against their War resources,” his superior, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, ordered. But if Atlanta sat some 100 miles away as the crow flies, it lay more than 140 miles away for the marching Federal armies, which had to navigate snaking roads and treacherous mountain passes. Blocking the way, too, was the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by one of the Confederacy’s most defensiveminded generals, Joseph E. Johnston. All Johnston had to do, as Sherman moved through hostile territory, was slow the Federal advance long enough to find the perfect opportunity to strike. And so began the last great campaign in the West: Sherman’s long and bloody task. The acknowledged expert on all things related to the battle of Atlanta, historian Steve Davis has lived in the area his entire life, and in A Long and Bloody Task, he tells the tale of the Atlanta campaign as only a native can. He brings his Southern sensibility to the Emerging Civil War Series, known for its engaging storytelling and accessible approach to history.
£13.73
Savas Beatie All the Fighting They Want: The Atlanta Campaign from Peach Tree Creek to the Surrender, July 18september 2, 1864
Book SynopsisJohn Bell Hood brought a hangdog look and a hardfighting spirit to the Army of Tennessee. Once one of the ablest division commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia, he found himself, by the spring of 1864, in the war’s Western Theater. Recently recovered from grievous wounds sustained at Chickamauga, he suddenly found himself thrust into command of the Confederacy’s illstarred army even as Federals pounded on the door of the Deep South’s greatest untouched city, Atlanta.His predecessor, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, had failed to stop the advance of armies under Federal commander William T. Sherman, who had pushed and maneuvered his way from Chattanooga, Tennessee, right to Atlanta’s very doorstep. Johnston had been able to do little to stop him.The crisis could not have been more acute.Hood, an aggressive risktaker, threw his men into the fray with unprecedented vigor. Sherman welcomed it.“We’ll give them all the fighting they want,” Sherman said.He proved a man of his word.In All the Fighting They Want, Georgia native Steve Davis, the world’s foremost authority on the Atlanta campaign, tells the tale of the last great struggle for the city. His Southern sensibility and his knowledge of the battle, accumulated over a lifetime of living on the ground, make this an indispensible addition to the acclaimed Emerging Civil War Series.
£12.68
Savas Beatie John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General
Book SynopsisJohn Bell Hood was one of the Confederacy’s most enigmatic generals. He died at 48 after a brief illness in August of 1879, leaving behind the first draft of his memoirs Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies. Published posthumously the following year, the memoirs immediately became as controversial as their author. A careful and balanced examination of these “controversies,” however, coupled with the recent discovery of Hood’s personal papers (which were long considered lost) finally sets the record straight in John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General. Outlived by most of his critics, Hood’s published version of many of the major events and controversies of his Confederate military career were met with scorn and skepticism. Some described his memoirs as nothing more than a polemic against his arch-rival Joseph E. Johnston. These unflattering opinions persisted throughout the decades and reached their nadir in 1992, when an influential author described Hood’s memoirs as “merely a bitter, misleading, and highly distorted treatise” replete with “distortions, misrepresentations, and outright falsifications.” Without any personal papers to contradict them, many historians and writers portrayed Hood as an inept and dishonest opium addict and a conniving, vindictive cripple of a man. One writer went so far as to brand him “a fool with a license to kill his own men.” What most readers don’t know is that nearly all of these authors misused sources, ignored contrary evidence, and/or suppressed facts sympathetic to Hood. Stephen M. “Sam” Hood, a distant relative of the general, embarked on a meticulous forensic study of the common perceptions and controversies of his famous kinsman. His careful examination of the original sources utilized to create the broadly accepted “facts” about John Bell Hood uncovered startlingly poor scholarship by some of the most well-known and influential historians of the 20th and 21st centuries. These discoveries, coupled with his access to a large cache of recently discovered Hood papers—many penned by generals and other officers who served with Hood—confirm Hood’s account that originally appeared in his memoirs and resolve, for the first time, some of the most controversial aspects of Hood’s long career. “Blindly accepting historical ‘truths’ without vigorous challenge,” cautions one historian, “is a perilous path to understanding real history.” The shocking revelations in John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General will forever change our perceptions of Hood as both a man and a general, and those who set out to shape his legacy.
£17.64
Savas Beatie Stay and Fight it out: The Second Day at
Book SynopsisJuly 1, 1863, had gone poorly for the Union army’s XI Corps. Shattered in battle north of the Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, the battered and embarrassed unit ended the day hunkered at the crest of a cemetery-topped hill south of the village. Reinforcements fortified the position, which extended eastward to include another key piece of high ground, Culp’s Hill. The Federal line also extended southward down Cemetery Ridge, forming what eventually became a long fishhook.July 2 saw a massive Confederate attack against the southernmost part of the line. As the Southern juggernaut rolled inexorably northward, Federal troops shifted away from Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill to meet the threat. Just then, the Army of Northern Virginia’s vaunted Second Corps launched itself at the weakened Federal right. The very men who, just the day before, broke the Union army resolved to break it once again.The ensuing struggle—every bit as desperate and with stakes every bit as high as the more-famous fight at Little Round Top on the far end of the line—left the entire Union position in the balance. “Stay and fight it out,” one Union general counseled.The Confederates were all too willing to oblige.Authors Chris Mackowski, Kristopher D. White, and Daniel T. Davis started their Gettysburg account in Don’t Give an Inch: The Second Day at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863—from Little Round Top to Cemetery Ridge. Picking up on the heels of its companion volume, Stay and Fight It Out: The Second Day at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863—Culp’s Hill and the Northern End of the Battlefield they recount the often-overlooked fight that secured the Union position and set the stage for the battle’s fateful final day.
£13.41
Savas Beatie Caught in the Maelstrom: The Indian Nations in the Civil War, 1861-1865
Book SynopsisThe sad plight of the Five Civilized Tribes—the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Seminole—during America’s Civil War is both fascinating and often overlooked in the literature. From 1861-1865, the Indians fought their own bloody civil war on lands surrounded by the Kansas Territory, Arkansas, and Texas. Clint Crowe’s magisterial Caught in the Maelstrom: The Indian Nations in the Civil War reveals the complexity and the importance of this war within a war, and explains how it affected the surrounding states in the Trans-Mississippi West and the course of the broader war engulfing the country. The onset of the Civil War exacerbated the divergent politics of the five tribes and resulted in the Choctaw and Chickasaw contributing men for the Confederacy and the Seminoles contributing men for the Union. The Creeks were divided between the Union and the Confederacy, while the internal war split apart the Cherokee nation mostly between those who followed Stand Watie, a brigadier general in the Confederate Army, and John Ross, who threw his majority support behind the Union cause. Throughout, Union and Confederate authorities played on divisions within the tribes to further their own strategic goals by enlisting men, signing treaties, encouraging bloodshed, and even using the hard hand of war to turn a profit. Crowe’s well-written study is grounded upon a plethora of archival resources, newspapers, diaries, letter collections, and other accounts. Caught in the Maelstrom examines every facet of this complex and fascinating story in a manner sure to please the most demanding reader.
£23.75
Savas Beatie Confederate Soldiers in the American Civil War:
Book SynopsisMany thousands of books have been written about the Civil War, but only a handful cover the story of the Southern soldiers and sailors who wore the gray uniform and fought for the Confederacy. Confederate Soldiers in the American Civil War offers a complete guide for Civil War enthusiasts of all ages. Using a format similar to his highly successful The New Civil War Handbook, author Mark Hughes employs more than 200 photographs coupled with clear and concise prose broken down into short, easy to understand chapters to better understand these men. Coverage includes life in camp, weapons, battles, technology, hospitals, prisons, the naval war, artillery, uniforms, and much more. Hughes also discusses African and Native American participation in the war, and the war’s effect on civilians in general and women in particular. Also included is a timeline of the war, dozens of quotations from Confederate soldiers, a complete glossary, and an extensive list of Civil War sites around the country, including contact and website information. Hughes includes a helpful chapter detailing the Civil War on the Internet, listing some of the most comprehensive and popular blogs and websites. He completes his work with a gallery of photographs and the stories of more than 80 Confederate Soldiers and a guide to researching your Confederate ancestor. Experienced Civil War buffs will find Confederate Soldiers in the American Civil War an invaluable quick reference guide, and one that makes an excellent gift for introducing the Civil War to anyone of any age.
£12.00
Savas Beatie Determined to Stand and Fight: The Battle of
Book SynopsisIn early July 1864, a quickly patched together force of outnumbered Union soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace prepared for a last-ditch defense along the banks of the Monocacy River. Behind them, barely fifty miles away, lay the capital of the United States, open to attack.Facing Wallace’s men were Lt. Gen. Jubal Early’s Confederates. In just over a month, they had cleared the Shenandoah Valley of Union soldiers and crossed the Potomac River, invading the north for the third time in the war. The veterans in Early’s force could almost imagine their flags flying above the White House. A Confederate victory near Washington could be all the pro-peace platforms in the north needed to defeat Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming election.Then came Monocacy. Over the course of the day, Union and Confederate soldiers attacked and counter-attacked, filling the fields just south of Frederick, Maryland, with the dead and wounded. By the end of the day, Wallace’s men fell into retreat, but they had done their job: they had slowed Jubal Early. The fighting at Monocacy soon became known as the “Battle that Saved Washington.”Determined to Stand and Fight by Ryan T. Quint tells the story of that pivotal day and an even more pivotal campaign that went right to the gates of Washington, D.C. Readers can enjoy the narrative and then easily follow along on a nine-stop driving tour around the battlefield and into the streets of historic Frederick. Another fascinating title from the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series.
£14.40
Savas Beatie Gabriel Rains and the Confederate Torpedo Bureau
Book Synopsis“Ironclads are said to master the world, but torpedoes master the ironclads.” Gabriel J. Rains was a Confederate Brigadier General who was more than a military officer—he was a scientist. His Civil War appointment gave him an opportunity to develop explosives. He invented three mines: the “subterra shell” (land mine), the keg torpedo, and the submarine mortar battery (both naval mines). After the Battle of Seven Pines in 1862, he served the Confederacy in two ways, Superintendent of Conscription and Commander of the Torpedo Bureau. He and his men mined the roads around Jackson and the harbors of Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston. His naval mines sank many ships and were more effective than heavy guns. In 1864, at the request of President Jefferson Davis, he mined the principal roads leading into Richmond as well as the lines around Fort Harrison. When it came time to evacuate the city, Rains and his family joined the president and cabinet as they traveled by train to Greensboro. After the war, he earned a patent, prepared a notebook for West Point, and wrote an article on mine warfare. Rains had a significant military career as he introduced a new form of weaponry. To some, he is regarded as the “father of modern mine warfare.” Gabriel Rains and the Confederate Torpedo Bureau by W. Davis Waters and Joseph I. Brown tells his remarkable story.
£14.40
