The ostensible goal of the controversial Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid on Richmond (February 28-March 3, 1864) was to free some 13,000 Union prisoners of war held in the Confederate capital. But orders found on the dead body of the raid's subordinate commander, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, point instead to a plot to capture or kill Confederate president Jefferson Davis and set Richmond ablaze. Kill Jeff Davis offers a fresh look at the failed raid and mines newly discovered documents and little-known sources to provide definitive answers.

The story of the Dahlgren raid of 1864, in which Union General Kilpatrick attempts to force his way into Richmond and capture or kill Jefferson Davis.

New York Times bestselling author Walter Stahr tells the story of Edwin Stanton, who served as Secretary of War in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet. “This exhaustively researched, well-paced book should take its place as the new, standard biography of the ill-tempered man who helped to save the Union. It is fair, judicious, authoritative, and comprehensive” (The Wall Street Journal). Of the crucial men close to President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (1814–1869) was the most powerful and controversial. Stanton raised, armed, and supervised the army of a million men who won the Civil War. He directed military movements. He arrested and imprisoned thousands for “war crimes,” such as resisting the draft or calling for an armistice. Stanton was so controversial that some accused him at that time of complicity in Lincoln’s assassination. He was a stubborn genius who was both reviled and revered in his time. Stanton was a Democrat before the war and a prominent trial lawyer. He opposed slavery, but only in private. He served briefly as President Buchanan’s Attorney General and then as Lincoln’s aggressive Secretary of War. On the night of April 14, 1865, Stanton rushed to Lincoln’s deathbed and took over the government since Secretary of State William Seward had been critically wounded the same evening. He informed the nation of the President’s death, summoned General Grant to protect the Capitol, and started collecting the evidence from those who had been with the Lincolns at the theater in order to prepare a murder trial. Now Walter Stahr’s “highly recommended” (Library Journal, starred review) essential book is the first major account of Stanton in fifty years, restoring this underexplored figure to his proper place in American history. “A lively, lucid, and opinionated history” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

Covers raids from J. E. B. Stuart's 1862 ride around McClellan's army to James Wilson's crashing raids in Alabama and Georgia in 1865.

The Great Virginia Raid is the story of John Brown’s attempt to seize the United States arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, and free the slaves living in the vicinity. Ten of Brown’s men were killed, Brown himself was arrested, put on trial, found guilty, and was executed. The events occupied a pivotal point in the history of the United States when slavery was readily acceptable by the South. Slavery was about to be overthrown, and the study of John Brown’s actions was classic. In this new book about John Brown, much emphasis was placed upon contemporary newspaper accounts and material obtained from various historical societies and museums.