Originally published in 1963, Rebel Victory at Vicksburg by renowned American Civil War and World War II historian Edwin C. Bearss details the Confederate victory. Told with great power and imagery, this book will make an invaluable addition to any historian’s collection.
Few historians have ever captured the drama, excitement, and tragedy of the Civil War with the headlong elan of Edwin Bearss, who has won a huge, devoted following with his extraordinary battlefield tours and eloquent soliloquies about the heroes, scoundrels, and little-known moments of a conflict that still fascinates America. Antietam, Shiloh, Gettysburg: these hallowed battles and more than a dozen more come alive as never before, rich with human interest and colorful detail culled from a lifetime of study. Illustrated with detailed maps and archival images, this 448-page volume presents a unique narrative of the Civil War's most critical battles, translating Bearss' inimitable delivery into print. As he guides readers from the first shots at Fort Sumter to Gettysburg's bloody fields to the dignified surrender at Appomattox, his engagingly plainspoken but expert account demonstrates why he stands beside Shelby Foote, James McPherson, and Ken Burns in the front rank of modern chroniclers of the Civil War, as the Pulitzer Prize-winning McPherson himself points out in his admiring Introduction. A must for every one of America's countless Civil War buffs, this major work will stand as an important reference and enduring legacy of a great historian for generations to come.
A single day: July 4, 1863, brought to a conclusion two of the most infamous battles of the Civil War. This book tells the story of these two pivotal battles.
Recounting the complex strategies that led to one of the great battles of the American Revolution, this book chronicles what happened when opposing forces clashed on January 17, 1781, as Brigadier General Daniel Morgan carried the day with astute military tactics and bold leadership. This account also details the troop movements and strategies of a battle that would foreshadow the Patriot victory at Yorktown.
Accompanying these salient chapters are original maps by Civil War cartographer Steven Stanley, together with photos and illustrations. The result is a richer and deeper understanding of the major military episodes comprising the Petersburg Campaign.
Few students of the Civil War know that legendary historian Edwin C. Bearss produced a classic study on the little-known but significant Tupelo Campaign. The fighting in Mississippi was overshadowed by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s more spectacular victory at Brice’s Crossroads a month earlier. Bearss performed the research and writing for the Department of the Interior in 1969, and only a handful of softcover copies were circulated. It is published here for the first time, with the assistance of award-winning author David A. Powell, as Outwitting Forrest: The Tupelo Campaign in Mississippi, June 22–July 23, 1864. The engagement came about when Maj. Gen. A. J. Smith marched a Federal expeditionary force (his XVI Army Corps) into northern Mississippi in early July 1864. The thrust forced a response, the largest of which was delivered by the combined Confederate cavalry of Stephen D. Lee (who was in general command) and Forrest. The tactical result was a Union defensive success. The larger Confederate strategic play, however—one that might have impacted the course of the war in the Western Theater—would have been to unleash Forrest on a raid into Middle Tennessee to destroy the single line of railroad track feeding and supplying the Union armies of William T. Sherman in his ongoing operations around Atlanta. Instead, his troopers were contained within the Magnolia State, where his combat effectiveness was severely curtailed. Editor Powell has left Bearss’s prose and notes intact, while adding additional sources and commentary of his own. The result is an exceptional study that has finally been made available to the general reading public as part of the Savas Beatie Battles & Leaders Series.
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.
Jeb Stuart's bold and unauthorized ride around the enemy in June 1862 is still studied and celebrated as one of history's most daring intelligence raids. By late May 1862, Gen. George B. McClellan had moved his massive Army of the Potomac to the outskirts of the Confederate capital at Richmond. When Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston fell wounded at Seven Pines on May 31, Gen. Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia and turned the tide of war in the Eastern Theater. Lee ordered his dashing cavalry leader Jeb Stuart and 1,200 troopers to find the position of McClellan's right flank. The cavalryman easily discovered the Union flank but continued riding around the enemy in a daring display far exceeding Lee's intention. The gray-clad mounted troops harassed supply lines and captured enemy troops while covering some 100 miles pursued by Union cavalry led by Stuart's father-in-law, Gen. Philip St. George Cooke. Stuart's expedition ended when he returned toRichmond on June 15 with invaluable information that helped General Lee finalize plans for a major offensive operation that triggered the Seven Days' Battles and eventually defeated and drove McClellan and his army away from Richmond. Original photos, illustrations, and maps
On the morning of December 12, 1862, the Union gunboat Cairo, nosing her way up the Yazoo River north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, triggered two Confederate demijohn mines. Within minutes the 512-ton ironclad had sunk six fathoms to the muddy bottom with no loss of life -- the first armored war vessel ever downed by an electronically activated mine. A whole new era of naval warfare had begun.In Hardluck Ironclad Edwin Bearss tells how he and two other Civil War historians discovered the Cairo almost a century later -- still intact at the bottom of the Yazoo, her big guns loaded and ready to fire, much of the gear aboard just as it was that December morning when the crew abandoned her -- and how, almost miraculously, she was later salvaged and restored.
Incredible!... Anyone interested in the hardship, frustration, and courage of soldiers at war will be enthralled by this book." -- James G. Hollandsworth, author of The Louisiana Native Guards Until now, Union army colonel Nathan W. Daniels has been a forgotten man with a forgotten regiment. The white commanding officer of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guard Volunteers, a black regiment, he was removed with his men from mainland military activity and confined to obscure duty on Ship Island, ten miles off the coast of Mississippi. However, as Daniels' intriguing diary documents, despite an unrenowned existence that has earned them little attention from historians, the 2nd Native Guards represent a pioneering stage in the history of black troops at war. The story of the Louisiana Native Guards is essentially the story of the first black commissioned officers in the Civil War. Ordered by General Benjamin F. Butler, the promotion of seventy-six educated, free blacks was an experimental step taken during the early days of black enlistment. However, within one year, nearly all the officers, including their white colonels, were forced out or had resigned in frustration. Daniels lived the tale of these removals and confided his thoughts to his diary, a rare surviving narrative from someone of his rank and position. Woven through daily entries of routine life on the military post are his comments about his responsibilities and frustrations of being caught between the black and white military worlds of the day. He vividly recalls a fierce skirmish on the mainland at East Pascagoula, Mississippi, in which his black troops, having fought superbly, suffered most of their casualties from apparently intentional "friendly" fire from the Union gunboat Jackson, sent there to protect them. In May, 1863, Daniels was arrested in New Orleans on seemingly trifling charges related to his duty on Ship Island. He continued his diary in the Federally occupied city, giving fascinating details of life there and chronicling his slow torture in the machinery of the military bureaucracy. He eventually separated from the army under circumstances that remain curious. The diary also provides never-before-published pictures from wartime Ship Island, including photographs of members of Daniels' regiment, visiting ship captains, and Major Francis E. Dumas -- the highest-ranking black officer to see combat during the war. A superb resource in and of themselves, these photographs will fascinate Civil War enthusiasts. The first published personal narrative by a regimental commander of free black troops, Thank God My Regiment an African One offers a unique glimpse into the daily lives of white leaders of the earliest black soldiers. It is a significant contribution to the ongoing documentation of the experience of black troops in the Civil War.
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