From its beginning as a Tidewater town in the 1600s, Hampton, Virginia, has weathered many storms, including the disastrous effects of the Civil War and the difficulties of Reconstruction. The city's picturesque harbors have witnessed the rise of a thriving seafood industry, the growth of educational opportunity and the plight of Hampton's African American community. Author Alice Erickson uses her own family, the Hickman family, as a vehicle to unite compelling vignettes of Hampton's most storied era. Discover the intricacies of the Virginia secession, the turmoil of Federal occupation and the revitalization of Hampton out of the ashes of conflict. Follow along Erickson's tragic and adventurous story, whose ending has yet to be written.

"Explore the history of the home front in Hampton, Virginia, during the Civil War"--

Fort Monroe: The Key to the South is a powerful pictorial portraying the exciting history of the only fort in the Upper South to remain under Union control throughout the Civil War. Strategically located on Old Point Comfort guarding the entrance to Hampton Roads and dominating the lower Chesapeake Bay, Fort Monroe quickly became a Federal bastion within the Confederacy and influenced many of the Civil War's greatest events. Known as "Freedom's Fortress" following Ben Butler's May 1861 decision to consider slaves escaping into Union lines as "contraband of war," Fort Monroe quickly became a symbol of freedom and helped to define the wartime objective to end slavery. Soldiers on Fort Monroe's ramparts witnessed first-hand several new technologies, including the first balloon launching to observe enemy operations and the first battle between ironclad warships. Fort Monroe also played a critical role in the eventual Union victory, serving as a base for amphibious operations against Southern ports as well as staging campaigns against the nearby Confederate capital in Richmond. The drama played along the parapets of Fort Monroe during the Civil War has been brought to life by this comprehensive visual history. Fort Monroe: The Key to the South features over 175 images documenting this massive fort and its role in pivotal events like the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, Monitor-Virginia (Merrimack) engagement, and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. Whether views of famous men like Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson Davis or scenes of the many soldiers and civilians serving on Old Point Comfort, this pictorial vividly chronicles Fort Monroe's tremendous Civil War heritage.

Tidewater lies east of the fall line of the Virginia rivers that flow into the Chesapeake--a definition that dates back to colonial times. Much of what we know of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Tidewater comes from the writings of Captain John Smith, William Byrd II and Thomas Jefferson. The Virginia of Smith, Byrd and Jefferson remains, in part, our Virginia. Geography and place names are largely the same. Their accounts of what they saw, where they traveled, what's in bloom and what's ready for harvest will sound very familiar. Read their words, paired with photographer and author Bryan Hatchett's stunning photographs of Tidewater landscapes and landmarks, and experience the continuity as well as the change that time has brought to this very special place.

From its beginnings as a trickle of icy water in Virginia's northwest corner to its miles-wide mouth at Hampton Roads, the James River has witnessed more recorded history than any other feature of the American landscape -- as home to the continent's first successful English settlement, highway for Native Americans and early colonists, battleground in the Revolution and the Civil War, and birthplace of America's twentieth-century navy. In 1998, restless in his job as a reporter for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Earl Swift landed an assignment traveling the entire length of the James. He hadn't been in a canoe since his days as a Boy Scout, and he knew that the river boasts whitewater, not to mention man-made obstacles, to challenge even experienced paddlers. But reinforced by Pilot photographer Ian Martin and a lot of freeze-dried food and beer, Swift set out to immerse himself -- he hoped not literally -- in the river and its history. What Swift survived to bring us is this engrossing chronicle of three weeks in a fourteen-foot plastic canoe and four hundred years in the life of Virginia. Fueled by humor and a dauntless curiosity about the land, buildings, and people on the banks, and anchored by his sidekick Martin -- whose photographs accompany the text -- Swift points his bow through the ghosts of a frontier past, past Confederate forts and POW camps, antebellum mills, ruined canals, vanished towns, and effluent-spewing industry. Along the banks, lonely meadowlands alternate with suburbs and power plants, marinas and the gleaming skyscrapers of Richmond's New South downtown. Enduring dunkings, wolf spiders, near-arrest, channel fever, and twenty-knot winds, Swift makes it to the Chesapeake Bay. Readers who accompany him through his Journey on the James will come away with the accumulated pleasure, if not the bruises and mud, of four hundred miles of adventure and history in the life of one of America's great watersheds.

"The best regiment of either army, North or South"--this was the description of Cobb's Legion offered by Confederate General Wade Hampton during the Civil War. This large and experienced unit played a crucial role for the South throughout the war. Their actions in more than 130 battles and other engagements over the course of the war are the subject of this book. Additionally, biographies of the officers and the nearly 1500 men of the regiment are included, as well as records of those who died, deserted, or were prisoners of war.

With thirty-two original maps, numerous photos, diagrams, tables, and appendices, a glossary, and many explanatory footnotes, this book will long be hailed as one of the finest regimental histories ever penned.