The Plot to Perpetuate Slavery

The Plot to Perpetuate Slavery

Author: Phil Roycraft

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2024-08-09

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1476694958

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In the aftermath of the September 1862 Battle of Antietam, President Abraham Lincoln issued the most significant presidential decree in American history, the Emancipation Proclamation, which would forever free all slaves in territory not under Union control. Nevertheless, his chief military commander in the field, Major General George B. McClellan, was outraged. Within days, two former Union officers nefariously crossed the lines into rebeldom, an initiative resulting in an elaborate subterfuge to scam Lincoln into withdrawing the Proclamation in return for nebulous promises of peace. This book tells the story, obscured in a veil of secrecy for 150 years, of the cloak and dagger chess match between Union detectives and Southern operatives in the months before emancipation become effective. Despite an ominous warning by author Herman Melville five years before, the scheme to perpetuate slavery almost succeeded, for it was engineered by a man the National Police Gazette once declared the "King of the Confidence Men."


Little Phil

Little Phil

Author: Eric J. Wittenberg

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2002-12-31

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1612344399

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Provides insight into the real personality of the famous warrior


Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign

Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign

Author: Thomas J. Ryan

Publisher: Savas Beatie

Published: 2015-05-19

Total Pages: 505

ISBN-13: 1611211786

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As intelligence experts have long asserted, ÒInformation in regard to the enemy is the indispensable basis of all military plans.Ó Despite the thousands of books and articles written about Gettysburg, Tom RyanÕs groundbreaking Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign: How the Critical Role of Intelligence Impacted the Outcome of LeeÕs Invasion of the North, June - July 1863 is the first to offer a unique and incisive comparative study of intelligence operations during what many consider the warÕs decisive campaign. Based upon years of indefatigable research, the author evaluates how Gen. Robert E. Lee used intelligence resources, including cavalry, civilians, newspapers, and spies to gather information about Union activities during his invasion of the North in June and July 1863, and how this information guided LeeÕs decision-making. Simultaneously, Ryan explores the effectiveness of the Union Army of the PotomacÕs intelligence and counterintelligence operations. Both Maj. Gens. Joe Hooker and George G. Meade relied upon cavalry, the Signal Corps, and an intelligence staff known as the Bureau of Military Information that employed innovative concepts to gather, collate, and report vital information from a variety of sources. The result is an eye-opening, day-by-day analysis of how and why the respective army commanders implemented their strategy and tactics, with an evaluation of their respective performance as they engaged in a battle of wits to learn the enemyÕs location, strength, and intentions. Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign is grounded upon a broad foundation of archival research and a firm understanding of the theater of operations that specialists will especially value. Everyone will appreciate reading about a familiar historic event from a perspective that is both new and enjoyable. One thing is certain: no one will close this book and look at the Gettysburg Campaign in the same way again.


Horses and Mules in the Civil War

Horses and Mules in the Civil War

Author: Gene C. Armistead

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2013-08-28

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1476602379

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Horses and mules served during the Civil War in greater number and suffered more casualties than the men of the Union and Confederate armies combined. Using firsthand accounts, this history addresses the many uses of equines during the war, the methods by which they were obtained, their costs, their suffering on the battlefields and roads, their consumption by soldiers, and such topics as racing and mounted music. The book is supplemented by accounts of the "Lightning Mule Brigade," the "Charge of the Mule Brigade," five appendices and 37 illustrations. More than 700 Civil War equines are identified and described with incidental information and identification of their masters.


Avenging Lincoln’s Death

Avenging Lincoln’s Death

Author: Thomas J. Reed

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2015-11-12

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1611478286

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Avenging Lincoln’s Death: The Trial of John Wilkes Booth’s Accomplices is an examination of the 1865 military commission trial of eight alleged accomplices of John Wilkes Booth, the assassin who murdered President Abraham Lincoln. The book analyzes the trial transcript and other relevant evidence relating to the guilt of Booth’s alleged accomplices, as well as a careful application of basic constitutional law principles to the jurisdiction of the military commission and the fundamental fairness of the trial. The author found that the military commission trial was unconstitutional and unfair because Congress never authorized trial by military commission for these eight civilians. President Johnson exceeded the scope of his authority as commander in chief by ordering the accomplices to be tried by military commission. He failed to follow the Habeas Corpus Act of 1863 that required him to turn over the alleged accomplices to civilian authorities for prosecution. The accomplices were convicted on perjured testimony and the Government was allowed to drag in unrelated evidence of Confederate atrocities to poison the minds of the panel of officers.


Freedom Rising

Freedom Rising

Author: Ernest B. Furgurson

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 0307425959

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In this luminous portrait of wartime Washington, Ernest B. Furgurson–author of the widely acclaimed Chancellorsville 1863, Ashes of Glory, and Not War but Murder--brings to vivid life the personalities and events that animated the Capital during its most tumultuous time. Here among the sharpsters and prostitutes, slaves and statesmen are detective Allan Pinkerton, tracking down Southern sympathizers; poet Walt Whitman, nursing the wounded; and accused Confederate spy Antonia Ford, romancing her captor, Union Major Joseph Willard. Here are generals George McClellan and Ulysses S. Grant, railroad crew boss Andrew Carnegie, and architect Thomas Walter, striving to finish the Capitol dome. And here is Abraham Lincoln, wrangling with officers, pardoning deserters, and inspiring the nation. Freedom Rising is a gripping account of the era that transformed Washington into the world’s most influential city.


Lee's Bold Plan for Point Lookout

Lee's Bold Plan for Point Lookout

Author: Jack E. Schairer

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-11-29

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 0786489308

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In July 1864, while hemmed in by Grant at Richmond, General Robert E. Lee conceived a bold plan designed not only to relieve Lynchburg and protect the Confederate supply line but also to ultimately make a bold move on Washington itself. A major facet of this plan, with the addition of General Jubal Early's forces, became the rescue of the almost 15,000 Confederate prisoners at Point Lookout, a large Union prison camp at the confluence of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. With international recognition hanging in the balance for the Confederacy, the failure of Lee's plan saved the Union and ultimately changed the course of the war. This work focuses on the many factors that contributed to this eventual failure, including Early's somewhat inexplicable hesitancy, a significant loss of time for Confederate troops en route, and aggressive defensive action by Union General Lew Wallace. It also discusses various circumstances such as Washington's stripped defenses, the potential release of imprisoned Southern troops and a breakdown of Union military intelligence that made Lee's gamble a brilliant, well-founded strategy.


The Routledge Encyclopedia of Civil War Era Biographies

The Routledge Encyclopedia of Civil War Era Biographies

Author: John D. Wright

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 754

ISBN-13: 0415878039

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Behind the familiar names of the military and political leaders whose names we all know--Lincoln, Davis, Lee, Grant, Sherman, and Jackson, are the people whose lives and hard work defined the Civil War era: abolitionists, slaves, inventors, manufacturers, painters, lawyers, writers, spies, nurses, and preachers. These are the people who helped shape both the war and our ideas about it. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Civil War Era Biographies is a comprehensive collection of articles on roughly 900 individuals from the Civil War era, including people from both the years leading up to the war and the period of Reconstruction that came after. Also included are maps of key battles, a timeline that progresses from President Lincoln's election to the end of the war, and a list of innovations used or developed during the war.