Gordon C. Rhea's Books

Carrying the Flag

The Story Of Private Charles Whilden, The Confederacy's Most Unlikely Hero

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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Carrying the Flag

The Story Of Private Charles Whilden, The Confederacy's Most Unlikely Hero

By: Gordon C. Rhea

For forty years, Charles Whilden lived a life noteworthy for failure. Then, in a remarkable chain of events, this aging, epileptic desk clerk from Charleston found himself plunged into the brutal battlefields of the Wilderness (May 57, 1864) and Spotsylvania Court House (May 820, 1864). In an astonishing act of bravery, he wrapped the flag around his body and led a charge that won critical ground for the Confederates, changing the course of one of the war's most significant battles. Gordon C. Rhea combines his deep knowledge of Civil War history with original sources, such as a treasure trove of letters written by Charles Whilden, to tell the story of this unusual life. Growing up in a prominent family that had fallen on hard times, Charles received a good education, and his letters reveal flashes of intelligence. But he failed at the practice of law in his home state and in his endeavors elsewhere, including copper speculation, real estate ventures, and farming. After the attack on Fort Sumter, Charles returned to Charleston to enlist in Confederate service, only to be turned down until the rebellion was on its last legs. Even then he saw only a few weeks of combat. But in that time, he discovered a bravery within himself that nothing in his former existence suggested he had.

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292

Publisher

Basic Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786739525

ISBN 13

9780786739523

Cold Harbor

Grant and Lee, May 26–June 3, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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Cold Harbor

Grant and Lee, May 26–June 3, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

Gordon Rhea's gripping fourth volume on the spring 1864 campaign-which pitted Ulysses S. Grant against Robert E. Lee for the first time in the Civil War-vividly re-creates the battles and maneuvers from the stalemate on the North Anna River through the Cold Harbor offensive. Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26-June 3, 1864 showcases Rhea's tenacious research which elicits stunning new facts from the records of a phase oddly ignored or mythologized by historians. In clear and profuse tactical detail, Rhea tracks the remarkable events of those nine days, giving a surprising new interpretation of the famous battle that left seven thousand Union casualties and only fifteen hundred Confederate dead or wounded. Here, Grant is not a callous butcher, and Lee does not wage a perfect fight. Within the pages of Cold Harbor, Rhea separates fact from fiction in a charged, evocative narrative. He leaves readers under a moonless sky, with Grant pondering the eastward course of the James River fifteen miles south of the encamped armies.

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Page Count

550

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807144096

ISBN 13

9780807144091

On to Petersburg

Grant and Lee, June 4–15, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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On to Petersburg

Grant and Lee, June 4–15, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

With On to Petersburg, Gordon C. Rhea completes his much-lauded history of the Overland Campaign, a series of Civil War battles fought between Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in southeastern Virginia in the spring of 1864. Having previously covered the campaign in his magisterial volumes on The Battle of the Wilderness, The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, To the North Anna River, and Cold Harbor, Rhea ends this series with a comprehensive account of the last twelve days of the campaign, which concluded with the beginning of the siege of Petersburg. On to Petersburg follows the Union army’s movement to the James River, the military response from the Confederates, and the initial assault on Petersburg, which Rhea suggests marked the true end of the Overland Campaign. Beginning his account in the immediate aftermath of Grant’s three-day attack on Confederate troops at Cold Harbor, Rhea argues that the Union general’s primary goal was not—as often supposed—to take Richmond, but rather to destroy Lee’s army by closing off its retreat routes and disrupting its supply chains. While Grant struggled at times to communicate strategic objectives to his subordinates and to adapt his army to a faster-paced, more flexible style of warfare, Rhea suggests that the general successfully shifted the military landscape in the Union’s favor. On the rebel side, Lee and his staff predicted rightly that Grant would attempt to cross the James River and lay siege to the Army of Northern Virginia while simultaneously targeting Confederate supply lines. Rhea examines how Lee, facing a better-provisioned army whose troops outnumbered Lee’s two to one, consistently fought the Union army to an impasse, employing risky, innovative field tactics to counter Grant’s forces. Like the four volumes that preceded it, On to Petersburg represents decades of research and scholarship and will stand as the most authoritative history of the final battles in the campaign.

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Page Count

607

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807167495

ISBN 13

9780807167496

To the North Anna River

Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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To the North Anna River

Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

With To the North Anna River, the third book in his outstanding five-book series, Gordon C. Rhea continues his spectacular narrative of the initial campaign between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in the spring of 1864. May 13 through 25, a phase oddly ignored by historians, was critical in the clash between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia. During those thirteen days -- an interlude bracketed by horrific battles that riveted the public's attention -- a game of guile and endurance between Grant and Lee escalated to a suspenseful draw on Virginia's North Anna River. From the bloodstained fields of the Mule Shoe to the North Anna River, with Meadow Bridge, Myers Hill, Harris Farm, Jericho Mills, Ox Ford, and Doswell Farm in between, grueling night marches, desperate attacks, and thundering cavalry charges became the norm for both Grant's and Lee's men. But the real story of May 13--25 lay in the two generals' efforts to outfox each other, and Rhea charts their every step and misstep. Realizing that his bludgeoning tactics at the Bloody Angle were ineffective, Grant resorted to a fast-paced assault on Lee's vulnerable points. Lee, outnumbered two to one, abandoned the offensive and concentrated on anticipating Grant's maneuvers and shifting quickly enough to repel them. It was an amazingly equal match of wits that produced a gripping, high-stakes bout of warfare -- a test, ultimately, of improvisation for Lee and of perseverance for Grant.

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Page Count

532

Publisher

LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807131113

ISBN 13

9780807131114

The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

The second volume in Gordon C. Rhea's peerless five-book series on the Civil War's 1864 Overland Campaign abounds with Rhea's signature detail, innovative analysis, and riveting prose. Here Rhea examines the maneuvers and battles from May 7, 1864, when Grant left the Wilderness, through May 12, when his attempt to break Lee's line by frontal assault reached a chilling climax at what is now called the Bloody Angle. Drawing exhaustively upon previously untapped materials, Rhea challenges conventional wisdom about this violent clash of titans to construct the ultimate account of Grant and Lee at Spotsylvania.

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542

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807158151

ISBN 13

9780807158159

Carrying the Flag

The Story Of Private Charles Whilden, The Confederacy's Most Unlikely Hero

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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Carrying the Flag

The Story Of Private Charles Whilden, The Confederacy's Most Unlikely Hero

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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292

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Basic Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0786739525

ISBN 13

9780786739523

The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

Fought in a tangled forest fringing the south bank of the Rapidan River, the Battle of the Wilderness marked the initial engagement in the climactic months of the Civil War in Virginia, and the first encounter between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. In an exciting narrative, Gordon C. Rhea provides the consummate recounting of that conflict of May 5 and 6, 1864, which ended with high casualties on both sides but no clear victor. With its balanced analysis of events and people, command structures and strategies, The Battle of the Wilderness is operational history as it should be written.

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544

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807155802

ISBN 13

9780807155806

In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee

The Wilderness through Cold Harbor

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee

The Wilderness through Cold Harbor

By: Gordon C. Rhea

In early May 1864, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant initiated a drive through central Virginia to crush Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. For forty days, the armies fought a grinding campaign from the Rapidan River to the James River that helped decide the course of the Civil War. Several of the war's bloodiest engagements occurred in this brief period: the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, the North Anna River, Totopotomoy Creek, Bethesda Church, and Cold Harbor. Pitting Grant and Lee against one another for the first time in the war, the Overland Campaign, as this series of battles and maneuvers came to be called, represents military history at its most intense. In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee, a unique blend of narrative and photographic journalism from Gordon C. Rhea, the foremost authority on the Overland Campaign, and Chris E. Heisey, a leading photographer of Civil War battlefields, provides a stunning, stirring account of this deadly game of wits and will between the Civil War's foremost military commanders. Here Grant fought and maneuvered to flank Lee out of his heavily fortified earthworks. And here Lee demonstrated his genius as a defensive commander, countering Grant's every move. Adding to the melee were cavalry brawls among the likes of Philip H. Sheridan, George A. Custer, James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, and Wade Hampton. Forty days of combat produced horrific casualties, some 55,000 on the Union side and 35,000 on the Confederate. By the time Grant crossed the James and began the Siege of Petersburg, marking an end to this maneuver, both armies had sustained significant losses that dramatically reduced their numbers. Rhea provides a rich, fast-paced narrative, movingly illustrated by more than sixty powerful color images from Heisey, who captures the many moods of these hallowed battlegrounds as they appear today. Heisey made scores of visits to the areas where Grant and Lee clashed, giving special attention to lesser-known sites on byways and private property. He captures some of central Virginia's most stunning landscapes, reminding us that though battlefields conjure visions of violence, death, and sorrow, they can also be places of beauty and contemplation. Accompanying the modern pictures are more than twenty contemporary photographs taken during the campaign or shortly afterwards, some of them never before published. At once an engaging military history and a vivid pictorial journey, In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee offers a fresh vision of some of the country's most significant historic sites.

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145

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807132691

ISBN 13

9780807132692

On to Petersburg

Grant and Lee, June 4–15, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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On to Petersburg

Grant and Lee, June 4–15, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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607

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LSU Press

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ISBN 10

0807167495

ISBN 13

9780807167496

The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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544

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LSU Press

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ISBN 10

0807118737

ISBN 13

9780807118733

To the North Anna River

Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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To the North Anna River

Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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534

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807155985

ISBN 13

9780807155981

Stephen A. Swails

Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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Stephen A. Swails

Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction

By: Gordon C. Rhea

Stephen Atkins Swails is a forgotten American hero. A free Black in the North before the Civil War began, Swails exhibited such exemplary service in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry that he became the first African American commissioned as a combat officer in the United States military. After the war, Swails remained in South Carolina, where he held important positions in the Freedmen’s Bureau, helped draft a progressive state constitution, served in the state senate, and secured legislation benefiting newly liberated Black citizens. Swails remained active in South Carolina politics after Reconstruction until violent Redeemers drove him from the state. After Swails died in 1900, state and local leaders erased him from the historical narrative. Gordon C. Rhea’s biography, one of only a handful for any of the nearly 200,000 African Americans who fought in the Civil War or figured prominently in Reconstruction, restores Swails’s remarkable legacy. Swails’s life story is a saga of an indomitable human being who confronted deep-seated racial prejudice in various institutions but nevertheless reached significant milestones in the fight for racial equality, especially within the military. His is an inspiring story that is especially timely today.

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206

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807176567

ISBN 13

9780807176566

The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7--12, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7--12, 1864

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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498

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LSU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0807158143

ISBN 13

9780807158142

In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee

The Wilderness through Cold Harbor

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee

The Wilderness through Cold Harbor

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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145

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ISBN 10

0807132691

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9780807132692

Stephen A. Swails

Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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Stephen A. Swails

Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction

By: Gordon C. Rhea

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LSU Press

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ISBN 10

0807176567

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9780807176566

Book's by Gordon C. Rhea

Carrying the Flag

Carrying the Flag

Cold Harbor

Cold Harbor

On to Petersburg

On to Petersburg

To the North Anna River

To the North Anna River

The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12, 1864

The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7–12, 1864

Carrying the Flag

Carrying the Flag

The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee

In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee

On to Petersburg

On to Petersburg

The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864

To the North Anna River

To the North Anna River

Stephen A. Swails

Stephen A. Swails

The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7--12, 1864

The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7--12, 1864

In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee

In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee

Stephen A. Swails

Stephen A. Swails

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