Confederate Night Before Christmas
Confederate Night Before Christmas

Author: Mark Vogl

Publisher: Pelican Publishing

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781455620753

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While there have been many adaptations of Clement Moore's memorable poem, author Mark Vogl has brought a new interpretation to the field. Originally published as a short Christmas greeting to readers of his Rebel Mountain Reader, his poem stands alone as a testament to the best of human nature during a trying time for all in the Civil War. While Congress did not declare Christmas a holiday until 1870, and the traditions of Santa Claus and presents were still foreign to many families in America, those who had little still felt the need to share with widows and orphans of their fallen brothers on the most holy of Christian celebrations. In this retelling reminiscent of events documented during the war, illustrator Stephanie Ford relies on historic evidence and her own considerable knowledge of Civil War camp life to visually embellish Vogl's poem. Filled with lifelike images of generals like Beauregard and Jackson, kepis (military caps), gray coats, and horses, the tale follows the soldiers' collection of food for the widows and orphans of nearby Richmond at the behest of their beloved General Lee. From the snow-filled camp to the bundle of packages, prancing horses, and loaded wagons, this collaboration is sure to become a Southern Christmas classic.

God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers
God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers

Author: James McIvor

Publisher: Viking Adult

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13:

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Documents an inspiring event just after Christmas in 1862 when closely camped Union and Confederate armies, having endeavored to out-sing one another with contrasting patriotic songs, joined together in a shared round of "Home Sweet Home."

When Sherman Marched North from the Sea
When Sherman Marched North from the Sea

Author: Jacqueline Glass Campbell

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2006-05-26

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 0807876798

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Home front and battle front merged in 1865 when General William T. Sherman occupied Savannah and then marched his armies north through the Carolinas. Although much has been written about the military aspects of Sherman's March, Jacqueline Campbell reveals a more complex story. Integrating evidence from Northern soldiers and from Southern civilians, black and white, male and female, Campbell demonstrates the importance of culture for determining the limits of war and how it is fought. Sherman's March was an invasion of both geographical and psychological space. The Union army viewed the Southern landscape as military terrain. But when they brought war into Southern households, Northern soldiers were frequently astounded by the fierceness with which many white Southern women defended their homes. Campbell argues that in the household-centered South, Confederate women saw both ideological and material reasons to resist. While some Northern soldiers lauded this bravery, others regarded such behavior as inappropriate and unwomanly. Campbell also investigates the complexities behind African Americans' decisions either to stay on the plantation or to flee with Union troops. Black Southerners' delight at the coming of the army of "emancipation" often turned to terror as Yankees plundered their homes and assaulted black women. Ultimately, When Sherman Marched North from the Sea calls into question postwar rhetoric that represented the heroic defense of the South as a male prerogative and praised Confederate women for their "feminine" qualities of sentimentality, patience, and endurance. Campbell suggests that political considerations underlie this interpretation--that Yankee depredations seemed more outrageous when portrayed as an attack on defenseless women and children. Campbell convincingly restores these women to their role as vital players in the fight for a Confederate nation, as models of self-assertion rather than passive self-sacrifice.

God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers
God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers

Author: James McIvor

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2006-10-31

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1440627312

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In the tradition of the bestselling Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, the true story of a Civil War Christmas miracle In the waning days of 1862, Union and Confederate troops set up camp within earshot of one another in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Christmas had just passed, and for many of these battle-wearied young soldiers the holiday season was a melancholy reminder of the families and loved ones they’d left behind. Bands from both camps played patriotic songs in an attempt to raise spirits, a musical duel that presaged the bloody battle to come. Then, something extraordinary occurred. One of the bands began playing a popular sentimental tune called “Home Sweet Home.” Soon, bands from both sides picked up the tune, and before long thousands of Northern and Southern soldiers had joined together in song. God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers: A True Civil War Christmas Story tells the tale of this yuletide interlude, which came at a time when the early optimism of the Civil War had given way to the bitter realities of seemingly endless bloodshed. Told through soldiers’ letters and period songs, God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers is the hopeful and touching story of human compassion in the midst of unspeakable violence.

Searching for George Gordon Meade
Searching for George Gordon Meade

Author: Tom Huntington

Publisher: Stackpole Books

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0811708136

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A historian's investigation of the life and times of Gen. George Gordon Meade to discover why the hero of Gettysburg has failed to achieve the status accorded to other generals of the conflict.

The H. L. Hunley
The H. L. Hunley

Author: Tom Chaffin

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2010-02-16

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 142999035X

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A major reconsideration of the role of the American West in the causes, military conduct, and consequences of the Civil War. On the evening of February 17, 1864, the Confederacy's H. L. Hunley sank the Union's formidable sloop of war the USS Housatonic and became the first submarine in world history to sink an enemy ship. But after accomplishing such a feat, the Hunley and her crew of eight also vanished beneath the cold Atlantic waters off Charleston, South Carolina. For generations, the legend of the Hunley grew as searchers prowled the harbor, looking for remains. Even after the submarine was definitively located in 1995 and recovered five years later, those legends have continued to flourish. In a tour de force of document-sleuthing and insights gleaned from the excavation of this remarkable vessel, the distinguished Civil War–era historian Tom Chaffin presents the most thorough telling of the Hunley's story possible. Of panoramic breadth, this saga begins long before the submarine was even assembled and follows the tale into the boat's final hours and through its recovery in 2000. Engaging and groundbreaking, The H. L. Hunley provides the definitive account of a fabled craft.

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

General James Longstreet
General James Longstreet

Author: Jeffry D. Wert

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2015-05-26

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 1439127786

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General James Longstreet fought in nearly every campaign of the Civil War, from Manassas (the first battle of Bull Run) to Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, and was present at the surrender at Appomattox. Yet, he was largely held to blame for the Confederacy's defeat at Gettysburg. General James Longstreet sheds new light on the controversial commander and the man Robert E. Lee called “my old war horse.”