This is the best biography of one of the most exciting, colorful, and controversial figures of the Civil War. A renowned cavalryman, Nathan Bedford Forrest perfected a ruthless hit-and-run guerrilla warfare that terrified Union soldiers and garnered the respect of warriors like William Sherman, who described his adversary as "that Devil, Forrest . . . the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side." Historian Bruce Catton rated Forrest "one of the authentic military geniuses of the whole war," but Brian Steel Wills covers much more than the cavalryman's incredible feats on the field of battle. He also provides the most thoughtful and complete analysis of Forrest's hardscrabble childhood in backwater Mississippi; his rise to wealth in the Memphis slave trade; his role in the infamous Fort Pillow massacre of black Union soldiers; his role as early leader and Grand Wizard of the first Ku Klux Klan; and his declining health and premature death in a reconstructing America.
A balanced perspective that contains previously unknown information. Includes unsavory aspects, such as the Fort Pillow Massacre of Black federal troops, & his post war founding of the KKK.
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.”
Another Confederate cavalry raid impends. You hear the snort of an impatient horse, the leathery squeaking of saddles, the low-voiced commands of officers, the muffled cluck of guns cocked in preparation—then the sudden rush of motion, the din of another attack. This classic story seeks to illuminate a little-known theater of the Civil War—the cavalry battles of the Trans-Mississippi West, a region that included Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, the Indian Territory, and part of Louisiana. Stephen B. Oates traces the successes and defeats of the cavalry; its brief reinvigoration under John S. "Rip" Ford, who fought and won the last battle of the war at Palmetto Ranch; and finally, the disintegration of this once-proud fighting force.
During the American Civil War, the mounted soldiers fighting on both sides of the conflict carried a wide array of weapons, from sabers and lances to carbines, revolvers, and other firearms. Though some sections of the cavalry placed their trust in the sabre, the advent of viable breechloading carbines -- especially repeaters such as the Spencer -- was to transform warfare within little more than a decade of General Lee's final surrender at Appomattox. However, output struggled to keep up with unprecedented demands on manufacturing technology and distribution in areas where communication was difficult and in states whose primary aim was to equip their own men rather than contribute to the arming of Federal or Confederate regiments. In addition, the almost unparalleled losses of men and equipment ensured that almost any firearm, effectual or not, was pressed into service. Consequently, the sheer variety of weaponry carried reflected the mounted soldiers' various roles in different theatres of operation, but also the availability -- or otherwise -- of weapons, notably on the Confederate side. Fully illustrated, this study assesses the effectiveness of the many different weapons arming the Civil War cavalryman and analyses the strengths and weaknesses of the decisions made after 1865 concerning the armament of the US cavalry.
A witness who brings remarkable life and color to the Civil War in the East Robert Hubard was an enlisted man and officer of the 3rd Virginia Cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia (CSA) from 1861 through 1865. He wrote his memoir during an extended convalescence spent at his father’s Virginia plantation after being wounded at the battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865. Hubard served under such Confederate luminaries as Jeb Stuart, Fitz Lee, Wade Hampton, and Thomas L. Rosser. He and his unit fought at the battles of Antietam, on the Chambersburg Raid, in the Shenandoah Valley, at Fredericksburg, Kelly’s Ford, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, and down into Virginia from the Wilderness to nearly the end of the war at Five Forks. Hubard was like many of his class and station a son of privilege and may have felt that his service was an act of noblesse oblige. Unlike many of his contemporaries, however, he was a keen observer and a writer of unusual grace, clarity, humor, and intelligence. The editor has fleshed out his memoir by judicious use of Hubard’s own wartime letters, which not only fill in gaps but permit the reader to see developments in the writer’s thinking after the passage of time. Because he was a participant in events of high drama and endured the quotidian life of a soldier, Hubard’s memoir should be of value to both scholars and avocational readers.
The Lost Colony of the Confederacy is the story of a grim, quixotic journey of twenty thousand Confederates to Brazil at the end of the American Civil War. Although it is not known how many Confederates migrated to South America-estimates range from eight thousand to forty thousand-their departure was fueled by bitterness over a lost cause and a distaste for an oppressive victor. Encouraged by Emperor Dom Pedro, most of these exiles settled in Brazil. Although at the time of the Civil War the exodus was widely known and discussed as an indicator of the resentment against the Northern invaders and strict governmental measures, The Lost Colony of the Confederacy is the first book to focus on this mass migration. Eugene Harter vividly describes the lives of these last Confederates who founded their own city and were called Os Confederados. They retained much of their Southernness and lent an American flavor to Brazilian culture. First published in 1985, this work details the background of the exodus and describes the life of the twentiethcentury descendants, who have a strong link both to Southern history and to modern Brazil. The fires have cooled, but it is useful to understand the intense feelings that sparked the migration to Brazil. Southern ways have melded into Brazilian, and both are linked by the unbreakable bonds of history, as shown in this revealing account. The late EUGENE C. HARTER retired from the U.S. Senior Foreign Service and lived in Chestertown, Maryland, until his death in 2010. He was the grandson and greatgrandson of Confederates who left Texas and Mississippi as a part of the great Confederate migration in the late 1860s. Harter is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
General Nathan Bedford Forrest was a brave and ingenious Confederate officer who won all but one of the battles he led; a philanthropist who gave generously to family, friends, and charities; and a humanitarian who not only spared the lives of numerous Yankees on the battlefield, but who freed his slaves years before Lincoln reluctantly issued his fake and illegal Emancipation Proclamation. And unlike our liberal sixteenth president, who purposefully delayed abolition, hindered black social and political advancement, and campaigned throughout his life to have all blacks deported out of the U.S., after the War conservative Forrest crusaded to bring new African immigrants into the South-with full civil rights. No one would know any of this by reading the typical works on Forrest, however, nearly all which are written and published by enemies of the South. In fact, according to most Northern and New South authors Forrest was a violent redneck, an unregenerate racist, a barbaric slave trader, a philandering husband, an illiterate hillbilly, the founder and grand wizard of the KKK, and "the butcher of Fort Pillow." None of this is true, but it continues to be presented in our history books as fact. In "A Rebel Born: A Defense of Nathan Bedford Forrest"-winner of the prestigious Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal-unreconstructed Southern historian, Tennessee author, and Forrest scholar Lochlainn Seabrook reveals the truth about one of history's most fascinating, charismatic, complex, romantic, and unique individuals. In this refreshingly positive appraisal of Forrest, widely acclaimed as Seabrook's "masterpiece," the author corrects the many falsehoods about him, and, using well researched documentation, shows that the modern negative image of the General derives solely from slanderous myths created 150 years ago by Lincoln's anti-South propaganda machine. The longest book ever written on Forrest, this newly revised Civil War Sesquicentennial hardcover edition includes his life story, over 2,000 footnotes, hundreds of photos and illustrations (many never before seen by the public), a list of Forrest's military engagements, a Forrest life calendar, Forrest and Montgomery family trees, an 800-book bibliography, a detailed index, and more. Learn the facts about Forrest, facts that have been wantonly suppressed by anti-South proponents. The Foreword is by Dr. Clyde N. Wilson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, University of South Carolina, and author of "Defending Dixie: Essays in Southern History and Culture." Civil War scholar Lochlainn Seabrook, a cousin of General Forrest, is the most prolific and popular pro-South writer in the world today. Known as the "new Shelby Foote," he is an award-winning author of over 45 books. A seventh-generation Kentuckian of Appalachian heritage, Mr. Seabrook has a forty-year background in American and Southern history, and is the author of the runaway bestseller "Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!" He is the author of eight books on Forrest, more than any other writer, and his screenplay of his book "A Rebel Born" is being turned into a major motion picture.
