Perhaps no army in history, prior to the American Civil War, left such a remarkable and voluminous collection of letters to home during the years 1861 to 1865. This collection is one of the best. Men from all walks of life and all ranks in the service are represented here over the span of the entire war. The famous and anonymous are included—personal stories of great battles and humorous stories of army life. You'll find pathos, sorrow, fear, and great courage detailed in these letters. Most soldiers were very humble and modest about their own accomplishments but spoke of their comrades with love and admiration. Common soldiers often made remarkable observations. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers, tablets, and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

From his enlistment in 1861 to mustering out at the end of the American Civil War, Martin Haynes kept up a voluminous correspondence with the girl he'd left behind him: Cornelia Lane. Throughout the bloody fighting at Gettysburg, Malvern Hill, and other famous battles, it is remarkable how little it seems Haynes withheld from the woman who became his wife. A very popular song title during the Civil War, every soldier knew "The Girl I Left Behind Me" and had someone about who they could sing it. In excruciating detail, Haynes relates the freezing cold, the killing heat, the torn bodies, deaths of friends, and the victories won by his New Hampshire regiment boys. After the war, Haynes was editor and publisher of the "Lake Village Times" and a United States Representative for the state of New Hampshire. By the time he wrote this book in 1916, he had been married to Cornelia for more than fifty years. Front-line letters and diaries of the Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

One of the most remarkable collections of letters to come out of the American Civil War is this compilation by the Woolsey family. Educated, aware, and closely affectionate, the family exchanged and kept letters throughout the war. Included in the set are those from family members serving in hospitals, taking collections for soldiers at home, and a soldier serving on the front lines with Grant, Sheridan, and Meade. What was life like for those who watched their country rent by war? The desperate anxiety and despair of the early war and the hopeful expressions later on give a vivid and very human face to an event that, though long past, is still apart of who we are as Americans today. There is also humor and gossip, and an incredible awareness of what was going on in battles far from home. That the collection includes letters from various family members provides a view into Civil War life as no other. For less than you'd spend on gas going to the library, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

This book provides historians and genealogists with a one-stop guide to every Civil War–related manuscript collection stored in Georgia’s many repositories. With this guide in hand, researchers will no longer spend countless hours pouring through online catalogs, emailing archivists, and wondering if they have exhausted every lead in their pursuit of firsthand information about the war and the experiences of those who lived through and were impacted by it. In assembling the first state-specific bibliography to be compiled since the Indiana and Illinois bibliographies were assembled for the Civil War Centennial in the 1960s, David Slay has expanded the scope of this survey to include works relating to women, African Americans, and social history, as well as the letters and diaries of soldiers who fought in the war, reflecting society’s evolving understanding and interest in this defining period of American life. In addition, this compilation is not confined to material produced from 1861 to 1865, but also includes collections spanning the lives of prominent Civil War figures, making it an invaluable source for biographers. Organized by institution, Georgia Civil War Manuscript Collections has many time-saving features, all designed to increase efficiency of research. Each collection description contains the title and catalog number used in the holding institution. Where possible, collection descriptions have been improved upon, providing the researcher with information beyond what is listed in the holding institution’s card catalog and finding aid. It also cross-references duplicate collections that are held in two or more institutions as microfilm or photocopies. Simply put, Georgia Civil War Manuscript Collections takes the mystery out of Civil War research in Georgia.

Wartime letters include correspondence of Union and Confederate sympathizers and soldiers of all ranks. Authentic illustrations accompany insightful missives by Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Whitman, Davis, and many of their contemporaries.

Seven days before Lees surrender, Lieutenant Otho McManus was killed leading a battle charge in Alabama. During the previous thirty months, the young Midwestern schoolteacher wrote more than a hundred letters. His polished writing reflects his hopes, ambitions, fears, war experience and domestic concerns. The letters describe his capture while rescuing a wounded cousin, a deadly case of friendly fire, opinions of officers and war prospects, and strong feelings about anti-war dissent. McManus served in the 123rd Illinois Mounted Infantry. This regiment was an integral component of the elite Wilders Lightning Brigade. Wilders Brigade played pivotal roles in battles and campaigns in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. McManus letters include extended accounts of the battles of Chickamauga, Hoovers Gap and Perryville and the Atlanta Campaign, among other campaigns, battles and skirmishes. The editors have supplemented the letters with a detailed chronology of the regiments movements, with an account of explosive political developments in McManus home country, and with post-war sketches of people mentioned in the letters. The editors have also included statistical analyses of the regiments demographics, mortality and desertion rates. The commentary is based on hundreds of commanders reports from the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, from dozens of pension and compiles service records, from more than a dozen court-martial transcripts, and from other soldiers diaries and letters.