Sumter After the First Shots
Title | Sumter After the First Shots PDF eBook |
Author | Derek Smith |
Publisher | Stackpole Books |
Pages | 386 |
Release | 2015-07-15 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0811763285 |
Everyone knows the story of how the Civil War began at Fort Sumter, but what happened to the fort after the first shots were fired there? The North wanted to restore Sumter to its rightful place in the Union and close the vital Confederate supply port of Charleston while the South needed to defend its birthplace and keep the supplies flowing--thus making Fort Sumter one of the most fervently attacked and most tenaciously defended pieces of real estate in the United or Confederate States of America throughout four years of war.
Allegiance
Title | Allegiance PDF eBook |
Author | David Detzer |
Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
Pages | 412 |
Release | 2002 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780156007412 |
Chronicles the events leading up to the firing of the first shot of the Civil War on April 12, 1861.
1861
Title | 1861 PDF eBook |
Author | Adam Goodheart |
Publisher | Vintage |
Pages | 498 |
Release | 2012-02-21 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1400032199 |
A gripping and original account of how the Civil War began and a second American revolution unfolded, setting Abraham Lincoln on the path to greatness and millions of slaves on the road to freedom. An epic of courage and heroism beyond the battlefields, 1861 introduces us to a heretofore little-known cast of Civil War heroes—among them an acrobatic militia colonel, an explorer’s wife, an idealistic band of German immigrants, a regiment of New York City firemen, a community of Virginia slaves, and a young college professor who would one day become president. Their stories take us from the corridors of the White House to the slums of Manhattan, from the waters of the Chesapeake to the deserts of Nevada, from Boston Common to Alcatraz Island, vividly evoking the Union at its moment of ultimate crisis and decision. Hailed as “exhilarating….Inspiring…Irresistible…” by The New York Times Book Review, Adam Goodheart’s bestseller 1861 is an important addition to the Civil War canon. Includes black-and-white photos and illustrations.
First Blood
Title | First Blood PDF eBook |
Author | W. A. Swanberg |
Publisher | Plume |
Pages | 384 |
Release | 1992-06-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780452010970 |
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Luce and His Empire examines in detail the events that exploded into the Civil War, under the eyes of festive picknickers who lined Charleston's shore to cheer the rebel gunners shelling the hated fort and its Federal defenders. First Blood is historical writing at its finest.
A Diary from Dixie
Title | A Diary from Dixie PDF eBook |
Author | Mary Boykin Chesnut |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 612 |
Release | 1980 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 9780674202917 |
In her diary, Mary Boykin Chesnut, the wife of a Confederate general and aid to president Jefferson Davis, James Chestnut, Jr., presents an eyewitness account of the Civil War.
The U.S. Civil War: A Very Short Introduction
Title | The U.S. Civil War: A Very Short Introduction PDF eBook |
Author | Louis P. Masur |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 176 |
Release | 2020-10-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0197513697 |
More than one hundred and fifty years after the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War still captures the American imagination, and its reverberations can still be felt throughout America's social and political landscape. Louis P. Masur's The U.S. Civil War: A Very Short Introduction offers a masterful and eminently readable overview of the war's multiple causes and catastrophic effects. Masur begins by examining the complex origins of the war, focusing on the pulsating tensions over states rights and slavery. The book then proceeds to cover, year by year, the major political, social, and military events, highlighting two important themes: how the war shifted from a limited conflict to restore the Union to an all-out war that would fundamentally transform Southern society, and the process by which the war ultimately became a battle to abolish slavery. Masur explains how the war turned what had been a loose collection of fiercely independent states into a nation, remaking its political, cultural, and social institutions. But he also focuses on the soldiers themselves, both Union and Confederate, whose stories constitute nothing less than America's Iliad. In the final chapter Masur considers the aftermath of the South's surrender at Appomattox and the clash over the policies of reconstruction that continued to divide President and Congress, conservatives and radicals, Southerners and Northerners for years to come. In 1873, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley wrote that the war had "wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations." This concise history of the entire Civil War era offers an invaluable introduction to the dramatic events whose effects are still felt today.
Berry Benson's Civil War Book
Title | Berry Benson's Civil War Book PDF eBook |
Author | Berry Benson |
Publisher | University of Georgia Press |
Pages | 289 |
Release | 2011-07-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0820342254 |
Confederate scout and sharpshooter Berry Greenwood Benson witnessed the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, retreated with Lee's Army to its surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, and missed little of the action in between. This memoir of his service is a remarkable narrative, filled with the minutiae of the soldier's life and paced by a continual succession of battlefield anecdotes. Three main stories emerge from Benson's account: his reconnaissance exploits, his experiences in battle, and his escape from prison. Though not yet eighteen years old when he left his home in Augusta, Georgia, to join the army, Benson was soon singled out for the abilities that would serve him well as a scout. Not only was he a crack shot, a natural leader, and a fierce Southern partisan, but he had a kind of restless energy and curiosity, loved to take risks, and was an instant and infallible judge of human nature. His recollections of scouting take readers within arm's reach of Union trenches and encampments. Benson recalls that while eavesdropping he never failed to be shocked by the Yankees' foul language; he had never heard that kind of talk in a Confederate camp! Benson's descriptions of the many battles in which he fought--including Cold Harbor, The Seven Days, Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg--convey the desperation of a full frontal charge and the blind panic of a disorganized retreat. Yet in these accounts, Benson's own demeanor under fire is manifest in the coolly measured tone he employs. A natural writer, Benson captures the dark absurdities of war in such descriptions as those of hardened veterans delighting in the new shoes and other equipment they found on corpse-littered battlefields. His clothing often torn by bullets, Benson was also badly bruised a number of times by spent rounds. At one point, in May 1863, he was wounded seriously enough in the leg to be hospitalized, but he returned to the field before full recuperation. Benson was captured behind enemy lines in May 1864 while on a scouting mission for General Lee. Confined to Point Lookout Prison in Maryland, he escaped after only two days and swam the Potomac to get back into Virginia. Recaptured near Washington, D.C., he was briefly held in Old Capitol Prison, then sent to Elmira Prison in New York. There he joined a group of ten men who made the only successful tunnel escape in Elmira's history. After nearly six months in captivity or on the run, he rejoined his unit in Virginia. Even at Appomattox, Benson refused to surrender but stole off with his brother to North Carolina, where they planned to join General Johnston. Finding the roads choked with Union forces and surrendered Confederates, the brothers ultimately bore their unsurrendered rifles home to Augusta. Berry Benson first wrote his memoirs for his family and friends. Completed in 1878, they drew on his--and partially on his brother's--wartime diaries, as well as on letters that both brothers had written to family members during the war. The memoirs were first published in book form in 1962 but have long been unavailable. This edition, with a new foreword by the noted Civil War historian Herman Hattaway, will introduce this compelling story to a new generation of readers.