The Point Lookout Civil War Prisoner of War Camp for Confederates was the largest facility in the North. This small book takes a fresh look at all aspects of the prison from its formation to its closing and lasting legacy. Loaded with first-person accounts of both Confederate prisoners and Union personnel, the book helps the reader get a vivid picture of what it was like to be incarcerated in the camp.

An in-depth history of the inhumane Union Civil War prison camp that became known as “the Andersonville of the North.” Long called by some the “Andersonville of the North,” the prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York, is remembered as the most notorious of all Union-run POW camps. It existed only from the summer of 1864 to July 1865, but in that time, and for long after, it became darkly emblematic of man’s inhumanity to man. Confederate prisoners called it “Hellmira.” Hastily constructed, poorly planned, and overcrowded, prisoner of war camps North and South were dumping grounds for the refuse of war. An unfortunate necessity, both sides regarded the camps as temporary inconveniences—and distractions from the important task of winning the war. There was no need, they believed, to construct expensive shelters or provide better rations. They needed only to sustain life long enough for the war to be won. Victory would deliver prisoners from their conditions. As a result, conditions in the prisoner of war camps amounted to a great humanitarian crisis, the extent of which could hardly be understood even after the blood stopped flowing on the battlefields. In the years after the war, as Reconstruction became increasingly bitter, the North pointed to Camp Sumter—better known as the Andersonville POW camp in Americus, Georgia—as evidence of the cruelty and barbarity of the Confederacy. The South, in turn, cited the camp in Elmira as a place where Union authorities withheld adequate food and shelter and purposefully caused thousands to suffer in the bitter cold. This finger-pointing by both sides would go on for over a century. And as it did, the legend of Hellmira grew. In this book, Derek Maxfield contextualizes the rise of prison camps during the Civil War, explores the failed exchange of prisoners, and tells the tale of the creation and evolution of the prison camp in Elmira. In the end, Maxfield suggests that it is time to move on from the blame game and see prisoner of war camps—North and South—as a great humanitarian failure. Praise for Hellmira “A unique and informative contribution to the growing library of Civil War histories...Important and unreservedly recommended.” —Midwest Book Review “A good book, and the author should be congratulated.” —Civil War News

Point Lookout Prison Camp and Hospital tells the tragic story of the North's largest Civil War prison. Author Richard H. Triebe has gathered over 50 Confederate prisoner accounts and has woven their stories into the narrative of his book. The stories breathe life into the words and give the reader a glimpse of what it was like to be inside Point Lookout Civil War prison. It has been 42 years since the last in-depth study of Point Lookout prison camp has been written. New information has been discovered and Triebe shares these facts in his latest book, Point Lookout Prison Camp and Hospital. His book also contains the most detailed roster to date of the Confederate soldiers who died there including hundreds of fellow prisoners whose names do not appear on the Confederate Memorial. Those forgotten men can now take their rightful place alongside their comrades who gave their lives for their country.

Even before the guns fell silent at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee was preparing for the arduous task of getting his defeated Confederate army back safely into northern Virginia. It was an enormous, complex, and exceedingly dangerous undertaking—all in a pouring rainstorm and all under the shadow of a possible attack from the Federal Army of the Potomac. Lee first needed to assemble two wagon trains, one to transport the wounded and the other to deliver the tons of supplies acquired by the army as it roamed across Pennsylvania and Maryland on the way to Gettysburg. Once the wagon trains were set, he mapped routes for his infantry and artillery on different roads to speed the journey and protect his command. The victor of Gettysburg, George Meade, remained unsure of Lee’s next move and dispatched Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick’s VI Corps on a reconnaissance-in-force. The thrust found the Confederate army in full retreat: Lee was heading back to Virginia. Meade launched a pursuit along different routes hoping to catch his beaten enemy without unduly exposing his own battle-exhausted troops to a devastating counterattack or ambush. Union cavalry moved out after the vulnerable Confederate wagon trains. The encounters that followed—including several engagements with Jeb Stuart’s horsemen—resulted in the loss of hundreds of vehicles, the capture of large numbers of wounded, and the seizure of tons of valuable supplies. The majority of Lee’s wagons reached Williamsport, Maryland, only to find the pontoon bridge had been cut loose by Union troops. Lee’s army, meanwhile, reached Hagerstown, Maryland, largely unscathed and erected a strong defensive line while racing to build a pontoon bridge across the swollen Potomac at Falling Waters. Even as Meade hurriedly pursued Lee, he sought opportunities to launch an attack that might crush Lee’s army—and even end the war—once and for all. Bradley M. Gottfried and Linda I. Gottfried share the high-stakes story of Gettysburg’s aftermath in Race to the Potomac: Lee and Meade After Gettysburg, July 4–14, 1863.

New York Times–Bestselling Author:The story of the battle’s aftermath—the burial of the dead, and Lincoln’s appearance to make “a few appropriate remarks.” Almost 8,000 dead dotted the fields of Gettysburg after the guns went silent. The Confederate dead were hastily buried, but what of the Union dead? Several men hatched the idea of a new cemetery to bury and honor the Union soldiers just south of town. Their task was difficult to say the least. After the State of Pennsylvania purchased seventeen acres, a renowned landscape architect designed the cemetery’s layout. All was now ready for the bodies to be taken from their uneasy resting places around the battlefield, placed in coffins, marked with their names and units, and transported to the new cemetery to be permanently reinterred. More than 3,500 men were moved to the Soldiers’ National Cemetery. As these tasks gained momentum, so too did planning for the cemetery’s consecration or dedication. A committee of agents from each state that had lost men in battle worked out the logistics. Most of the program was easily decided—it would be composed of odes, singing, prayers, and remarks by the nation’s most renowned orator, Edward Everett. The committee argued over whether President Abraham Lincoln should be invited to the ceremony and, if so, his role in the program. Divided by politics, it decided on a middle ground, inviting the president to provide “a few appropriate remarks.” To the surprise of many, he accepted the invitation, for the most part crafted his remarks in the Executive Mansion, and headed to Gettysburg, arriving on the evening of November 18, 1863. The town was filled with thousands expecting to witness the “event of the century.” The next day, Lincoln mounted a horse to join the procession heading for the cemetery. The program was unremarkable, except for Lincoln’s remarks—whose reception was split along party lines. Lincoln Comes to Gettysburg: The Creation of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address recounts the events in vivid historical detail. Includes photographs Praise for Bradley M. Gottfried’s previous books: “Engrossing . . . Civil War buffs will delight in this gripping addition to the literature of Gettysburg.” —Publishers Weekly “An intimate picture of life with the brigade.” —The New York Times

“[A] stirring narrative of the common soldier’s experiences on the southern end of the battlefield on the second day of fighting at Gettysburg.” —Civil War News “Stand to It and Give Them Hell” chronicles the Gettysburg fighting from Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top on July 2, 1863, through the letters, memoirs, diaries, and postwar recollections of the men from both armies who struggled to control that “hallowed ground.” John Michael Priest, dubbed the “Ernie Pyle” of the Civil War soldier by legendary historian Edwin C. Bearss, wrote this book to help readers understand and experience, as closely as possible through the written word, the stress and terror of that fateful day in Pennsylvania. Nearly sixty detailed maps, mostly on the regimental level, illustrate the tremendous troop congestion in the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and Devil’s Den. They accurately establish, by regiment or company, the extent of the Federal skirmish line from Ziegler’s Grove to the Slyder farm and portray the final Confederate push against the Codori farm and the center of Cemetery Ridge, which three Confederate divisions—in what is popularly known as Pickett’s Charge—would unsuccessfully attack on the final day of fighting. “‘Stand to It and Give Them Hell’ puts a human face on the second day of the nation’s epic Civil War battle . . . Mike Priest has taken a familiar story and somehow made it fresh and new. It is simply first-rate.” —Lance J. Herdegen, award-winning author of Union Soldiers in the American Civil War “Remarkable . . . Priest’s distinctive style is rife with anecdotes, many drawn from obscure diaries and letters, artfully stitched together in an original manner.” —David G. Martin, author of The Shiloh Campaign

From the author of the celebrated classic Louder Than Hell comes an oral history of the badass Heavy Metal lifestyle—the debauchery, demolition, and headbanging dedication—featuring metalhead musicians from Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to Twisted Sister and Quiet Riot to Disturbed, Megadeth, Throwdown and more. In his song “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll” Ozzy Osbourne sings, “Rock and roll is my religion and my law.” This is the mantra of the metal legends who populate Raising Hell—artists from Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Slipknot, Slayer, and Lamb of God to Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Disturbed, Megadeth, and many more! It’s also the guiding principle for underground voices like Misery Index, Gorgoroth, Municipal Waste, and Throwdown. Through the decades, the metal scene has been populated by colorful individuals who have thwarted convention and lived by their own rules. For many, vice has been virtue, and the opportunity to record albums and tour has been an invitation to push boundaries and blow the lid off a Pandora’s box of riotous experiences: thievery, vandalism, hedonism, the occult, stage mishaps, mosh pit atrocities, and general insanity. To the figures in this book, metal is a means of banding together to stick a big middle finger to a society that had already decided they didn’t belong. Whether they were oddballs who didn’t fit in or angry kids from troubled backgrounds, metal gave them a sense of identity. Drawing from 150-plus first-hand interviews with vocalists, guitarists, bassists, keyboardists, and drummers, music journalist Jon Wiederhorn offers this collection of wild shenanigans from metal’s heaviest and most iconic acts—the parties, the tours, the mosh pits, the rage, the joy, the sex, the drugs . . . the heavy metal life! Horns up!