"As the regiment's fife and drum major responsible for sounding the duty calls that regulated a soldier's day, Sperry was well situated to observe the inner workings of his unit. His perceptive narrative of army life on the march and in camp captures the courage, humor, and sufferings of the rank and file. Although he took pride in his regiment's accomplishments, he unflinchingly reveals the hard side of war with vivid depictions of looting, resistance to orders, and "extermination" of Confederate guerrillas." "Sperry's memoir is made more valuable by the new introduction and detailed notes from the editors. Their meticulous annotations include quotes from the diaries, letters, and reminiscences of other soldiers, adding depth and detail to the account."--Jacket.

The Confederacy had a great opportunity to turn the Civil War in its favor in 1864, but squandered this chance when it failed to finish off a Union army cornered in Louisiana because of concerns about another Union army coming south from Arkansas. The Confederates were so confused that they could not agree on a course of action to contend with both threats, thus the Union offensive advancing from Arkansas saved the one in Louisiana and became known to history as the Camden Expedition. The Camden Expedition is intriguing because of the "might-have-beens" had the key players made different decisions. The author contends that if Frederick Steele, commander of the Federal VII Army Corps, had not received a direct order from General Ulysses S. Grant to move south, disaster would have befallen not only the Army of the Gulf in Louisiana but the entire Union cause, and possibly would have prevented Abraham Lincoln from winning reelection.

Appointed by President Lincoln to command the Gulf Department in November 1862, Nathaniel Prentice Banks was given three assignments, one of which was to occupy some point in Texas. He was told that when he united his army with Grant's, he would assume command of both. Banks, then, had the opportunity to become the leading general in the West--perhaps the most important general in the war. But he squandered what successes he had, never rendezvoused with Grant's army, and ultimately orchestrated some of the greatest military blunders of the war. "Banks's faults as a general," writes author Stephen A. Dupree, "were legion." The originality of Planting the Union Flag in Texas lies not just in the author's description of the battles and campaigns Banks led, nor in his recognition of the character traits that underlay Banks's decisions. Rather, it lies in how Dupree synthesizes his studies of Banks's various actions during his tour of duty in and near Texas to help the reader understand them as a unified campaign. He skillfully weaves together Banks's various attempts to gain Union control of Texas with his other activities and shines the light of Banks's character on the resulting events to help explain both their potential and their shortcomings. In the end, readers will have a holistic understanding of Banks's "appalling" failure to win Texas and may even be led to ask how the post-Civil War era might have been different had he been successful. This fine study will appeal to Civil War buffs and fans of military and Texas history.

"A unique recounting of the Confederate use of landmines during the American Civil War. Hess uses multiple archival sources to tell a compelling narrative that stresses not only the tactical and technological challenges but also considers the moral stigma attached to this new weapon of war"--

Ten of the best articles in American history published in 2006 selected from over 300 learned and popular journals. Topics range from the general to the specific and cover all aspects of American history, from the early days of the republic through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These are the questions that today's historians are asking.