Confederate Waterloo
Confederate Waterloo

Author: Michael Joseph McCarthy

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781611213096

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Confederate Waterloo is the first fully researched and unbiased book-length account of the Battle of Five Forks and the aftermath fought in the courts and at the bar of public opinion.

Five Forks
Five Forks

Author: Robert Alexander

Publisher: MSU Press

Published: 2003-04-30

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 162895227X

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The Battle of Five Forks was one of the the last battles of the American Civil War. A week later, Lee surrendered. Two weeks later, Lincoln was dead. In this meditation on that battle, Alexander juxtaposes the story of the battle, which he tells through narrative, letters, and journal entries, with his own impressions, viewing the South through Northern eyes. In addition, he views contemporary American society through the story of the Civil War and specifically through the story of Five Forks. If it is true that we meet our past coming to us out of the future, then, Alexander posits, America is still grappling with issues unresolved by the Civil War. Those issues are not just the obvious ones of race and class, or of North vs. South, but also the more ephemeral issues surrounding the mythos Americans live by. Alexander is not a historian, and this is much more a literary work than a battle story. However, the immediacy with which Alexander tells his tale leads the reader to experience Five Forks—the land, the smells, the cries—as if present there in 1865. Thus, he does not just describe a battle; he captures the spirit of all battles, all wars.

Confederate Waterloo
Confederate Waterloo

Author: Michael J. McCarthy

Publisher: Grub Street Publishers

Published: 2016-12-15

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 161121310X

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“Engrossing . . . A lengthy review of the events of the final days of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and the road to Appomattox” (Mark Silo, author of The 115th New York in the Civil War). The Battle of Five Forks broke the long siege of Petersburg, Virginia, triggered the evacuation of Richmond, precipitated the Appomattox Campaign, and destroyed the careers and reputations of two generals. Michael J. McCarthy’s Confederate Waterloo is the first fully researched and unbiased book-length account of this decisive Union victory and the aftermath fought in the courts and at the bar of public opinion. When Gen. Phil Sheridan’s forces struck at Five Forks on April 1, the attack surprised and collapsed Gen. George Pickett’s Confederate command and turned General Lee’s right flank. An attack along the entire front the following morning broke the siege and forced the Virginia army out of its defenses and, a week later, into Wilmer McLean’s parlor to surrender at Appomattox. Despite this decisive Union success, Five Forks spawned one of the most bitter and divisive controversies in the postwar army when Sheridan relieved Fifth Corps commander Gouverneur K. Warren for perceived failures connected to the battle. McCarthy’s Confederate Waterloo is grounded upon extensive research and a foundation of primary sources, including the meticulous records of a man driven to restore his honor in the eyes of his colleagues, his family, and the American public. The result is a fresh and dispassionate analysis that may cause students of the Civil War to reassess their views about some of the Union’s leading generals. “A detailed, scholarly analysis of one of the final battles of the American Civil War . . . A studious, unbiased account of the entire affair.” —Midwest Book Review

The Five Forks Campaign and the Fall of Petersburg
The Five Forks Campaign and the Fall of Petersburg

Author: Edwin C. Bearss

Publisher: Savas Beatie

Published: 2014-03-12

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 1611212189

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The wide-ranging and largely ignored operations around Petersburg, Virginia, were the longest and most extensive of the entire Civil War. The fighting began in June of 1864, when advance elements from the Union Army of the Potomac crossed the James River and botched a series of attacks against a thinly defended city. The fighting ended nine long months later in the first days of April of 1865. The Five Forks Campaign and the Fall of Petersburg, March 29 – April 2, 1865, includes the final major operation that turned Lee’s right flank, cut his final railroad lifeline, and resulted in the loss of Petersburg and Richmond. In addition to original maps and photos, this book includes a complete chapter on the April 1 VI Corps “Breakthrough” and a special postscript by historian Chris Calkins on the retreat to Appomattox.