Military Collection: Battles and Wars 1

"Great Battles" introduces 30 major battles from the Ancient era to the present day. Beginning with the battle of Marathon (490 BC), where a combined force of Greeks defeated a much larger Persian invasion force, this book covers key battles right up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led coalition forces. -- Publisher details.

V. 1. From the earliest times to the Battle of Lepanto.--V. 2. From the defeat of the Spanish Armada, in 1588, to the Battle of Waterloo, in 1815 -- V. 3. From the Seven Days Battle, in 1862, to the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in 1944.

Traces the evolution of military strategy and tactics through close analyses of the eighteen most celebrated victories in the history of land warfare and assesses the role of chance, planning, maneuver, improvisation, and weather in combat.

Cyril Bentham Falls CBE (Mar. 2, 1888 - Apr. 23, 1971) was a military historian noted for his work on the First World War. He was born in Dublin and died in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Falls served in the First World War I, reaching the rank of Captain in the British Army. He was on the General Staff for the 36th (Ulster) Division and 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division. He received the French Croix de Guerre. After the war, he helped write several volumes of the British official History of the Great War. Later he wrote both detailed specialist histories as well as histories intended for the average reader. An expert on the history of the First World War, he was the Chichele Professor of Military History at All Souls, Oxford University from 1946 to 1953.

Contents: Tsushima; Tannenberg; The Marne; Verdun: Jutland: Offensive 1918; Battle of he Atlantic; Battle of France; Battle of Britain; Moscow; Pearl Harbor; Singapore; Midway; El Alamein; Stalingrad; Kursk; Schweinfurt; Imphal-Kohima; Normandy 1944; Leyte Gulf; The Chongchon River: Dien Bien Phu: & the Tet offensive;

With more than 1,100 entries written by some 500 distinguished contributors, "The Oxford Companion to American Military History" is "the most comprehensive treatment of American military history ever compiled" (Parameters: U.S. Army War College Quarterly) and an "easy-to-browse, well-organized work" (The Washington Post). Here is a gold mine of information on American military history, exploring battles and soldiers, ships and weapons, services and doctrines--as well as the social and cultural impact of the U.S. military at home and around the world. Readers will find Stephen E. Ambrose writing on the D-Day landing, James M. McPherson on the battle of Antietam, John Keegan on the changing experience of combat, Jean Bethke Elshtain on Jane Addams, Mark A. Noll on religion and war, and Robert M. Utley on Sitting Bull. Ranging from brief factual pieces to extensive essays, the entries examine every major war from the Revolution to the Persian Gulf; important battles from Bunker Hill, to the Alamo, Gettysburg, Little Bighorn, Normandy, and Khe Sanh; and military leaders from Washington to Grant, Lee, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Westmoreland, and Schwarzkopf. Moreover, the Companion examines a wide range of subjects: relevant acts of Congress and on diplomatic policies such as the Monroe Doctrine and the Marshall Plan; on peace and antiwar movements; on war in film, literature, music, and photography; and on war viewed through the disciplinary lenses of anthropology, economics, gender studies, and psychology. With maps of several major wars, extensive cross-referencing, lists of further readings, and an index, this volume is the first place to turn for information on our nation's military history.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Barbara W. Tuchman, author of the World War I masterpiece The Guns of August, grapples with her boldest subject: the pervasive presence, through the ages, of failure, mismanagement, and delusion in government.   Drawing on a comprehensive array of examples, from Montezuma's senseless surrender of his empire in 1520 to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Barbara W. Tuchman defines folly as the pursuit by government of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives. In brilliant detail, Tuchman illuminates four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain's George III, and the United States' own persistent mistakes in Vietnam. Throughout The March of Folly, Tuchman's incomparable talent for animating the people, places, and events of history is on spectacular display.   Praise for The March of Folly   "A glittering narrative . . . a moral [book] on the crimes and follies of governments and the misfortunes the governed suffer in consequence."--The New York Times Book Review   "An admirable survey . . . I haven't read a more relevant book in years."--John Kenneth Galbraith, The Boston Sunday Globe   "A superb chronicle . . . a masterly examination."--Chicago Sun-Times

Over recent decades, John W. Dower, one of America's preeminent historians, has addressed the roots and consequences of war from multiple perspectives. In War Without Mercy (1986), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, he described and analyzed the brutality that attended World War II in the Pacific, as seen from both the Japanese and the American sides. Embracing Defeat (1999), winner of numerous honors including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, dealt with Japan's struggle to start over in a shattered land in the immediate aftermath of the Pacific War, when the defeated country was occupied by the U.S.-led Allied powers. Turning to an even larger canvas, Dower now examines the cultures of war revealed by four powerful events--Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, and the invasion of Iraq in the name of a war on terror. The list of issues examined and themes explored is wide-ranging: failures of intelligence and imagination, wars of choice and "strategic imbecilities," faith-based secular thinking as well as more overtly holy wars, the targeting of noncombatants, and the almost irresistible logic--and allure--of mass destruction. Dower's new work also sets the U.S. occupations of Japan and Iraq side by side in strikingly original ways. One of the most important books of this decade, Cultures of War offers comparative insights into individual and institutional behavior and pathologies that transcend "cultures" in the more traditional sense, and that ultimately go beyond war-making alone.

The author examines centures of conflict in a variety of diverse societies and cultures. "Keegan is at once the most readable and the most original of living military historians . . . A History of Warfare is perhaps the most remarkable study of warfare that has yet been written."--The New York Times Book Review - From the trade paperback edition.

"...the first book to provide a comprehensive and authoritative summary of world-wide military history since the end of the Second World War. Starting with the defeat of the Axi powers in Europe and the Pacific, it examines the Cold War era, the wars of the decolonization of Africa and elsewhere, the Middle East conflicts, the wars in southeast Asia, and important new phenomena such as the growth of international terrorism. In addition it analyses the changing weaponry of war from the most sophisticated fighter aircraft to the infantryman's rifle." ~ from the book's inner jacket

Foreword by Mountbatten of Burma.

What is the role of the personalities of leaders who take their nations or their following across the threshold into war? "Why Nations Go to War" is built around 10 case studies culminating in the two new wars that ushered in the twenty-first century, Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Battles of the Bible" presents a comprehensive and illuminating account of the wars of ancient Israel. The Bible's military episodes, recounted here in vivid detail, cover a vast period, from the invasion of Canaan by the Israelites under Joshua's command, through the conquest of the kingdom by David and Solomon and the split of the kingdom into Judah and Israel, to the Maccabees' successful rebellion against Seleucid domination. The reliability of these accounts is supported by their technical accuracy and the descriptions of topographical conditions peculiar to specific battlefields. They bear comparison with military campaigns well after the biblical era and provide strategic and tactical lessons of value even today. "Battles of the Bible" is a fascinating and valuable work, not only for its exacting scrutiny of the biblical accounts but also for its insight into their wider and continuing relevance. This new, thoroughly revised edition takes into account current historical and archaeological research, as well as modern trends in biblical scholarship. - From the publisher.

The Father of History's recounting of and observations about the ancient conflict between Greece and Persia.

"Thucydides called his account of two decades of war between Athens and Sparta 'a possession for all time,' and indeed it is the first and still the most famous work in the Western historical tradition. Considered essential reading for generals, statesmen, and liberally educated citizens for more than 2,000 years, The Peloponnesian War is a mine of military, moral, political, and philosophical wisdom. However, this classic book has long presented obstacles to the uninitiated reader. Written centuries before the rise of modern historiography, Thucydides' narrative is not continuous or linear. His authoritative chronicle of what he considered the greatest war of all time is rigorous and meticulous, yet omits the many aids to comprehension modern readers take for granted--such as brief biographies of the story's main characters, maps, and other visual enhancements, and background on the military, cultural, and political traditions of ancient Greece. Robert Strassler's new edition amends these omissions, and not only provides a new coherence to the narrative overall but effectively reconstructs the lost cultural context that Thucydides shared with his original audience. Based on the venerable Richard Crawley translation, updated and revised for modern readers, "The Landmark Thucydides" includes a vast array of superbly designed and presented maps, brief informative appendices by outstanding classical scholars on subjects of special relevance to the text, explanatory marginal notes on each page, an index of unprecedented subtlety and depth, and numerous other useful features. Readers will find that with this edition they can dip into the text at any point and be immediately oriented with regard to the geography, season, date, and stage of the conflict. In any list of the Great Books of Western Civilization, The Peloponnesian War stands near the top. This handsome, elegant, and authoritative new edition will ensure that its greatness is appreciated by future generations." - From the Publisher.

"To say the Punic Wars (264-146 BC) were a turning point in world history is a vast understatement. This bloody and protracted conflict pitted two flourishing Mediterranean powers against one another, leaving one an unrivaled giant and the other a literal pile of ash. To later observers, a collision between these civilizations seemed inevitable, yet to the Romans and Carthaginians at the time hostilities erupted seemingly out of nowhere, with what were expected to be inconsequential results. Mastering the West offers a thoroughly engrossing narrative of this century of battle in the western Mediterranean while treating a full range of themes: the antagonists' military, naval, economic, and demographic resources; the political structures of both republics; and the postwar impact of the conflicts on the participants and victims. The narrative also investigates questions of leadership and the contributions and mistakes of leaders like Hannibal, Fabius the Delayer, Scipio Africanus, Masinissa, and Scipio Aemilianus. Dexter Hoyos, a leading expert of the period, treats the two great powers evenly, without neglecting the important roles of Syracuse, Macedon, and especially Numidia. Written with verve in a clear, accessible style, with a range of illustrations and newly-commissioned maps, Mastering the West will be the most reliable and engaging narrative of this pivotal era in ancient history." - From the publisher.

"First published just before the end of the Roman Republic by that legendary country's most immortalized leader, "The Gallic War", also called "Commentarii de Bello Gallico", is an account of Julius Caesar's capture of Gaul in the first century. Beginning with the Helvetian War in 58 B.C., Caesar uses his exemplary Latin prose to explain how his forces were protecting Provence, and how they were later drawn out in campaigns against the Veneti, the Aquitani, numerous Germanic peoples, the Belgae, the Gauls, and the Bretons. Caesar, perhaps in defense of his expensive and geographically vast wars, explains the methods of his campaigns, from the timing of the seasons to provisioning and defense. This autobiographical work is both a concise reckoning of forces and an informative wartime narrative, consistently revealing the author as a brilliant military commander and a leader politically unrivaled by his contemporaries. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper, follows the translation of W. A. MacDevitte, and includes an introduction by Thomas De Quincey." - From the Publisher.

The Battle of Actium was a naval battle fought between a maritime fleet of Octavian led by Marcus Agrippa and the combined fleets of both Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII Philopator. The battle took place on 2 September 31 BC in the Ionian Sea, near the former Roman colony of Actium, Greece, and was the climax of over a decade of rivalry between Octavian and Antony. Antony's fleet sailed through the bay of Actium on the western coast of Greece, in a desperate attempt to break free of the naval blockade. It was there that Antony's fleet faced the much larger fleet of smaller, more manoeuvrable ships under commanders Gaius Sosius and Agrippa. Octavian pursued them and defeated their forces in Alexandria on 1 August 30 BC—after which Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide.

"In 72 B.C., in the heart of Rome's Mediterranean empire, a slave named Spartacus ignited one of the most violent episodes of slave resistance in the history of the Roman Empire--indeed in the world annals of slavery. This volume organizes original translations of 80 Greek and Latin sources into topical chapters that look at the daily lives of slaves trained as gladiators and those who labored on farms in Italy and Sicily, including accounts of revolts that preceded and anticipated that of Spartacus. In a carefully crafted introductory essay, Shaw places Spartacus in the broader context of the first and second-century B.C. Rome, Italy, and Sicily explain why his story continues to be a popular symbol of rebellion today. The volume also includes a glossary, chronology, selected bibliography, three maps, an annotated list of ancient writers, and questions for consideration." - From the Publisher.

The Pax Romana is famous for having provided a remarkable period of peace and stability, rarely seen before or since. Yet the Romans were first and foremost conquerors, imperialists who took by force a vast empire stretching from the Euphrates in the east to the Atlantic coast in the west. Their peace meant Roman victory and was brought about by strength and dominance rather than co-existence with neighbours. The Romans were aggressive and ruthless, and during the creation of their empire millions died or were enslaved. But the Pax Romana was real, not merely the boast of emperors, and some of the regions in the Empire have never again lived for so many generations free from major wars. So what exactly was the Pax Romana and what did it mean for the people who found themselves brought under Roman rule? Acclaimed historian Adrian Goldsworthy tells the story of the creation of the Empire, revealing how and why the Romans came to control so much of the world and asking whether the favourable image of the Roman peace is a true one. He chronicles the many rebellions by the conquered, and describes why these broke out and why most failed. At the same time, he explains that hostility was only one reaction to the arrival of Rome, and from the start there was alliance, collaboration and even enthusiasm for joining the invaders, all of which increased as resistance movements faded away. A ground-breaking and comprehensive history of the Roman Peace, Pax Romana takes the reader on a journey from the bloody conquests of an aggressive Republic through the age of Caesar and Augustus to the golden age of peace and prosperity under diligent emperors like Marcus Aurelius, offering a balanced and nuanced reappraisal of life in the Roman Empire.

"What caused the fall of Rome? Since Gibbon's day scholars have hotly debated the question and come up with answers ranging from blood poisoning to immortality. In recent years, however, the most likely explanation has been neglected: was it not above all else a military collapse? Professor Ferrill believes it was and puts forth his case in this provocative book." - From the Publisher.

From Finland to Newfoundland and Jelling to Jerusalem, follow in the wake of the Vikings--a transformative story of a people that begins with paganism and ends in Christendom. In AD 800, the Scandinavians were just barbarians in longships. Though they held sway in the north, their power meant little more than the ability to pillage and plunder, which they did to bolster their status at home. But as these Norse warriors left their strongholds to trade, raid, and settle across wide areas of Europe, Asia, and the North Atlantic, their violent and predatory culture left a unique imprint on medieval history. The twist that no one predicted, however, was a much slower, insidious takeover than any the Vikings would execute, and by a turn of the tide, they themselves became its target. For as they made their mark on Europe, Europe made its mark on them. By the year 1200, what remained of the Vikings' pagan origins floated beneath the surface and the strong, strange territories of the north had become a part of Latin Christendom. Northmen are there to tell the tale, pay homage to what was lost, and celebrate what was won. Focusing on key events, including the sack of Lindisfarne in 793 and the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, medieval history expert John Haywood recounts the saga of the Viking Age, from the creation of the world through to the dwindling years of halfhearted raids and elegiac storytelling in the thirteenth century. He does so with meticulous research, engaging narrative, and sensitivity for his subject, shedding light and blood along the way. - From the publisher.

The year 1066 is one of the most important dates in the history of the Western world: the year William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings and changed England and the English forever. The events leading to-and following-this turning point in history are shrouded in mystery. Distorted by the biased accounts written by a subjugated people, many believe it was the English who ultimately won the battle, since the Normans became assimilated into the English way of life.  Drawing on a wealth of contemporary sources, David Howarth gives us memorable portraits of the kings: Edward the Confessor, Harold of England, William of Normandy, as well as the leading political figures of the time. Howarth describes the English commoners: how they worked, fought, died, and how they perceived the overthrow of their world from their isolated shires.

The battles and political scheming that took place during the various medieval crusades have often been described, but little has been written about crusading from the point of view of the actual participants - those recruits who marched across Europe and fought the infidel, as well as those they fought against. Ronald C. Finucane discusses the social composition of the fighting forces, the part played by superstitious ideas and the conduct of the soldiers on and off the field of battle. From book jacket.

With ramifications on geopolitics today, a vivid chronicle of the Christian and Islamic struggle to control the sacred places of Palestine and the Middle East between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. Crusade and jihad are often reckoned to have represented two sides of the same coin: each resonated on the opposing sides in the holy wars of the Middle Ages and each has been invoked during the war on terror. A chronicle of the Christian and Islamic struggle to control the sacred places of Palestine and the Middle East between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, this dynamic new history demonstrates that this simple opposition ignores crucial differences. Placing an equal emphasis on the inner histories of Christianity and Islam, the book traces the origins and development of crusade and jihad, showing for example that jihad reflected internal tensions in Islam from its beginnings. The narrative also reveals the ways in which crusade and jihad were used to disguise ambitions for power and to justify atrocity and yet also inspired acts of great chivalry and heroic achievement. The story brims with larger-than-life characters, among them Richard the Lionheart, Nur al-Din, Saladin, Baybars, and Ghengis Khan. Lambert concludes by considering the long after-effects of jihad and crusade, including the role of the latter in French imperialism and of the former in the wars now afflicting the Middle East and parts of Africa. This vivid, balanced account will interest all readers who wish to understand the complexities of the medieval world and how it relates to our own. - From the publisher.

The glory and tragedy of the Hundred Year's War is revealed in a new historical narrative, bringing Henry V, the Black Prince, and Joan of Arc to fresh and vivid life. In this captivating new history of a conflict that raged for over a century, Gordon Corrigan reveals the horrors of battle and the machinations of power that have shaped a millennium of Anglo-French relations. The Hundred Years War was fought between 1337 and 1453 over English claims to both the throne of France by right of inheritance and large parts of the country that had been at one time Norman or, later, English. The fighting ebbed and flowed, but despite their superior tactics and great victories at Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, the English could never hope to secure their claims in perpetuity: France was wealthier and far more populous, and while the English won the battles, they could not hope to hold forever the lands they conquered. Military historian Gordon Corrigan's gripping narrative of these epochal events is combative and refreshingly alive, and the great battles and personalities of the period - Edward III, The Black Prince, Henry V, and Joan of Arc among them - receive the full attention and reassessment they deserve.

In the course of the Hundred Years War, Henry V was the English figure most responsible for the mutual antipathy that existed between France and England. His art of attacking an opponent by making total war on civilians, as well as soldiers, created tremendous distrust and enmity between the two countries, which survives even to this day. He was a man of many contradictions, a perverse mix of rigorous orthodoxy--exemplified by his fanatical and intolerant religion--and neurotic insecurity, stemming in part from the dubious nature of his claim to the English throne. Henry V owed his popularity at home to victories against the French that gratified an emerging English nationalism. A tremendously ardent military strategist who experimented with ballistics and built the first English navy, at the time of his early death at the age of thirty-six he controlled one-third of modern-day France. Utilizing new discoveries from local French historical societies, Desmond Seward draws a portrait of Henry V that shows him as a brilliant military strategist, ambitious conqueror, and, at least briefly, triumphant warrior king. - From the publisher.

This classic account shows how the fall of Constantinople in May 1453, after a siege of several weeks, came as a bitter shock to Western Christendom. The city's plight had been neglected, and negligible help was sent in this crisis. To the Turks, victory not only brought a new imperial capital but guaranteed that their empire would last. To the Greeks, the conquest meant the end of the civilization of Byzantium and led to the exodus of scholars stimulating the tremendous expansion of Greek studies in the European Renaissance.

The Spanish Armada was the defining moment of Elizabeth I's reign. Spain's defeat secured Protestant rule in England and launched Elizabeth onto the global stage.

Actual words of more than a hundred eye-witnesses woven into a narrative.

In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire, dispatched an invasion fleet to the Christian island of Rhodes. This would prove to be the opening shot in an epic clash between rival empires and faiths for control of the Mediterranean and the center of the world. In Empires of the Sea, acclaimed historian Roger Crowley has written a thrilling account of this brutal decades-long battle between Christendom and Islam for the soul of Europe, a fast-paced tale of spiraling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar. Crowley conjures up a wild cast of pirates, crusaders, and religious warriors struggling for supremacy and survival in a tale of slavery and galley warfare, desperate bravery and utter brutality. Empires of the Sea is a story of extraordinary color and incident, and provides a crucial context for our own clash of civilizations.

Europe in 1618 was riven between Protestants and Catholics, Bourbon and Hapsburg--as well as empires, kingdoms, and countless principalities. After angry Protestants tossed three representatives of the Holy Roman Empire out the window of the royal castle in Prague, world war spread from Bohemia with relentless abandon, drawing powers from Spain to Sweden into a nightmarish world of famine, disease, and seemingly unstoppable destruction.

A narrative account of the 1642 war touched off by the attempt of King James's son Charles to arrest his parliamentary antagonists.

Launching a new series of encyclopedias entitled "The Wars of the United States," this panoramic reference comprises some 700 detailed mini-essays on battles, campaigns, skirmishes, raids, massacres, and sea fights, along with approximately 400 biographical sketches of the leading American and British soldiers. - From the publisher.

In hard, tight, and exact language, disciplined by close reasoning and close documentation, and seasoned with a sharp sense of character and drama, Hiller B. Zobel has written a definitive account. . . . Full of gripping detail, a good deal of myth-shattering, and some discriminating reappraisals. -Arthur B. Tourtellot, author of "Lexington and Concord," in the "New York Times Book Review." Make[s] eighteenth-century courtroom scenes crackle with excitement. - "Yale Review."

The most complete account of the clash that changed the course of America history the battle of Bunker Hill. It was the first book about the battle in almost 100 years and it marked the emergence of an author who has become widely acknowledged as the best historian of the American Revolution writing today. The books readability was and still is vividly clear from the opening pages. Suddenly in the empty streets of Charlestown there were moving figures. In single file fifty men hugged the dark sides of the vacant houses, stopping every few feet to listen for the sound of a hostile footstep. Across the harbor in Boston, three British major generals conferred on a plan to destroy the impromptu American army that has been besieging them. The drama's appeal swiftly expands from suspense to profoundly human dimensions. We meet privates, sergeants, lieutenants, colonels and generals from both armies who frequently tell their stories in their own words. There are pages rich in courage and laden with heartbreak. "For God's sake spare that man!" shouts Colonel Israel Putnam as his men take deadly aim at a British officer. I love him as a brother! The British commander, General William Howe, stares numbly at his shattered bleeding ranks and experiences a moment I never felt before. There is only one word for such history: unforgettable. - From Amazon.

The bestselling author of "In the Heart of the Sea," "Mayflower," and "In the Hurricane's Eye" tells the story of the Boston battle that ignited the American Revolution, in this "masterpiece of narrative and perspective." (Boston Globe) In the opening volume of his acclaimed American Revolution series, Nathaniel Philbrick turns his keen eye to pre-Revolutionary Boston and the spark that ignited the American Revolution. In the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party and the violence at Lexington and Concord, the conflict escalated and skirmishes gave way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It was the bloodiest conflict of the revolutionary war, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists. Philbrick gives us a fresh view of the story and its dynamic personalities, including John Adams, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and George Washington. With passion and insight, he reconstructs the revolutionary landscape--geographic and ideological--in a mesmerizing narrative of the robust, messy, blisteringly real origins of America. - From the publisher.

"Tourtellot's book is the best account we have of the day of Lexington and Concord. The actions of each individual who played a conspicuous part in the day's work are minutely traced but Mr. Tourtellot never loses the main thread of his narrative and the wealth of detail he has included gives substance and color to an exciting story."― J. C. Miller, New York Herald Tribune Book Review "Tourtellot does not let his 19th of April float up in the spring air unconnected with a past or a future. He has built in very skillfully the story of the months before that day and then sends its echoes rolling on through time―and into distant states and nations....No other books generally available performs an even remotely comparable job. Makes full use of old material, adds a good deal that has come to light in the intervening years, and, standing firmly on its own base, presents magnificently for the general reader and the specialist this immortal opening chapter of our beginnings as a nation."―Bruce Lancaster, The Saturday Review "The result of thoughtful examination of the evidence and clear writing."―Walter Muir Whitehill, New England Quarterly "An absorbing and vital history, containing much newly published information about a crucial week in the history of the United States. "―J.M. Goodsell, Christian Science Monitor.

The content consists of: Of Lexington and Concord, and the myths of the war, 1763--1775; The Republican war, 1775--1776; Toward an American standing army, 1776--1777; On and off the road of despair, 1777--1779; Moral defeat and military turnabout, 1779--1781; Of war, national legitimacy, and the Republican order, 1781--1789. - From the publisher.

In this highly acclaimed book, Charles Royster explores the mental processes and emotional crises that Americans faced in their first national war. He ranges imaginatively outside the traditional techniques of analytical historical exposition to build his portrait of how individuals and a populace at large faced the Revolution and its implications. The book was originally published by UNC Press in 1980. - From the publisher.

Between 1819 and 1845, as veterans of the Revolutionary War were filing applications to receive pensions for their service, the government was surprised to learn that many of the soldiers were not men, but boys, many of whom were under the age of sixteen, and some even as young as nine. In Boy Soldiers of the American Revolution, Caroline Cox reconstructs the lives and stories of this young subset of early American soldiers, focusing on how these boys came to join the army and what they actually did in service. Giving us a rich and unique glimpse into colonial childhood, Cox traces the evolution of youth in American culture in the late eighteenth century, as the accepted age for children to participate meaningfully in society--not only in the military--was rising dramatically. Drawing creatively on sources, such as diaries, letters, and memoirs, Caroline Cox offers a vivid account of what life was like for these boys both on and off the battlefield, telling the story of a generation of soldiers caught between old and new notions of boyhood. - From the publisher.

The War for Independence touched virtually every American. It promised liberty, the opportunity for a better life, and the excitement of the battlefield. It also brought disappointment, misery, and mourning. In this collection of original essays that highlight the variety and richness of recent research, eleven leading historians investigate the diverse experiences of Americans from North to South, from coast to backcountry, from white townsfolk to African American slaves. Revolutionary ideology may have inspired some soldiers in the Continental Army, but as the case studies in this volume document, the men of New England also weighed family commitments, economic concerns, and local politics when deciding whether or not to enlist in the militia. Slaves joined the army believing the war would bring them personal freedom while women served as auxiliaries or as camp followers. Those left behind defended the homefront?unless the war took their homes and made them refugees. On the frontier, politically astute Native Americans weighed the relative advantages to themselves before deciding to support the patriots or the Crown. By bringing together the perspectives of soldiers, women, African Americans, and American Indians, War and Society in the American Revolution gives readers a fuller sense of the meaning of this historical moment. At the same time, these essays show that instead of unifying Americans, the war actually exacerbated social divisions, leaving unresolved the inequalities and tensions that would continue to trouble the new nation. - The publisher.

During the American Revolutionary War, General Francis Marion, known as "The Swamp Fox," waged a guerrilla war against British forces under General Tarleton, harrassing them and eventually driving the British Army out of South Carolina. This book, written by one of his militia members, tells the story of the Swamp Fox. - The publisher.

Nell has documented the African American heroes and patriots who fought during the Revolutionary War, many of which have been forgotten by historians and writers. He identifies many black soldiers, including Crispus Attucks, the first martyr in the Boston Massacre; Henry Hill, a veteran of numerous battles, including Lexington, Princeton, and Yorktown; Peter Salem, Titus Coburn, Alexander Ames, Barzilai Lew, Cato Howe, Seymour Burr, Jeremy Jonah and numerous others. - From the publisher.

Americans like to think of themselves as a peaceful and peace-loving people, and in remembering their own revolutionary past, American historians have long tended to focus on colonial origins and Constitutional aftermath, neglecting the fact that the American Revolution was a long, hard war. In this book, John Shy shifts the focus to the Revolutionary War and explores the ways in which the experience of that war was entangled with both the causes and the consequences of the Revolution itself. This is not a traditional military chronicle of battles and campaigns, but a series of essays that recapture the social, political, and even intellectual dimensions of the military effort that had created an American nation by 1783. From the book jacket.

The contents are as follows: The military background of the revolution -- The guns of Lexington and Concord -- The costly victory at Bunker Hill -- The trials of organizing an army -- The siege and evacuation of Boston -- The Canadian magnet -- Death, defeat, and disaster in the north -- The awakening of the south -- The gathering of the armies before new York -- Long Island : the battle and the retreat -- The loss of New York and the retreat across Jersey -- The American counterattack at Trenton and Princeton -- Howe's invasion of the north -- The failure of Burgoyne's campaign -- Valley Forge and the new American army -- The British withdrawal to New York -- The expansion of the war -- The British offensive in the south -- The critical year, 1780-1781 -- American retaliation in the south -- The Yorktown Campaign -- The end of the war. - From the publisher.

"This book is an attempt to trace the military history of the American people during the era of the American Revolution, 1763-1789. It is more an effort to examine military policy and attitudes toward war than it is an exercise in battles and campaigns. By enlarging upon the traditional dates of the War of Independence (1775-1783), I have sought, additionally, to examine the causes and the consequences of the Revolution as they relate to things military." - From the Preface.

This book is the engrossing and little-known story of a powerful circle of men- the wing of the Federalist party led by Alexander Hamilton- who won a bitter fight for a national army, but divided the country and destroyed their own party in the process. Here is history that raises questions about the power and influence of militarism in American politics: Did Alexander Hamilton intentionally provoke the Whiskey Rebellion to prove the need for a federal army? Were the Federalists prepared to use military force to prevent Thomas Jefferson from becoming President in 1800? Were these men militarists? Were they after a national army in order to maintain their own power? Unfolding the critical events of America's first two decades of Independence. - From the publisher.

All of the intimate physical things for daily living and all of the tools for revolution recreate here the War for Independence as it really was for the soldier. The book includes 200 photographs of actual specimens and special paintings and drawings by leading military artists, The Book of the Continental Soldier offers an eyewitness kind of understanding of how the Continental Army functioned, of the things the soldier used to live and to win. Despite an impressive shelf of technical and popular studies and biographies of the conflict and the era, this handsome book deals with an almost neglected area. Harold L. Peterson (1922-1978) wrote nineteen books in the historical firearms field, was an arms and armor adviser and consultant to national and international museums, a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians, and a winner of the U.S. Department of the Interior Distinguished Service medal for outstanding contributions in historical research and museum planning. In 1963, he was appointed the Chief Curator of the U.S. National Park Service and all of the national historic sites, a post he held until his death in 1978. This book is recommended as a standard work in the field of military history by the Company of Military Historians.

For Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis, The Cause marks the culmination of a lifetime of engagement with the founding era, completing a trilogy of books that began with Founding Brothers. Here Ellis, countering popular histories that romanticize the "Spirit of '76," demonstrates through "evocative profiles of British loyalists, slaves, Native Americans and soldiers uncertain of what was being founded" (Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune) that the rebels fought not for a nation but under the mantle of "The Cause," a mutable, conveniently ambiguous principle all but destined to give rise to the warring factions of later American history. Combining action-packed tales of North American military campaigns with characteristically trenchant insight, The Cause "deftly foreshadows all the issues that would complicate America's trajectory" (Richard Stengel, New York Times Book Review), forcing us to finally reconsider the story we have long told ourselves about our origins--as a people, and as a nation."At the intersection of his expertise and our need for coherence about our national founding arrives historian Joseph J. Ellis. . . . Ellis is no apologist, but he is a chronicler of the entire revolution, its best aspirations, its worst contradictions, and its ongoing dilemmas." --Hugh Hewitt, Washington Post

While every schoolchild in America has heard of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette little is known of the African-American contribution to the American Revolution. William Cooper Nell, a nineteenth century abolitionist, wished to reexamine our understanding of this famous war and highlight to the world the black soldiers who fought and died for the cause of American Independence. In this fascinating work he uncovers intriguing stories such as that of Crispus Attucks who is considered the first casualty of the American Revolution. Nell exposes how in each state, from Massachusetts to Florida, African-Americans were active participants in the Revolution. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in the introduction to Nell's work, perfectly expresses the value of services given by African-Americans: "we are to reflect upon them as far more magnanimous, because rendered to a nation which did not acknowledge them as citizens and equals, and in whose interests and prosperity they had less at stake. It was not for their own land they fought, not even for a land which had adopted them, but for a land which had enslaved them, and whose laws, even in freedom, oftener oppressed than protected. Bravery, under such circumstances, has a peculiar beauty and merit." Nell's work is a brilliant reassessment of history and wonderfully explains the contributions of African-Americans to the War of Independence. Jessie Carney Smith in her book Black First also explains that this work deserves acknowledgement in its own right because it was "the first substantial historical work by a black man in America." William Cooper Nell was an African-American abolitionist, author and civil servant of Boston. He worked tirelessly at the outbreak of the American Civil War to get black soldiers accepted into the Union Army. He died in 1874 at the age of 58. His most famous work The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution was first published in 1855.

The Revolutionary War encompassed at least two struggles: one for freedom from British rule, and another, quieter but no less significant fight for the liberty of African Americans, thousands of whom fought in the Continental Army. Because these veterans left few letters or diaries, their story has remained largely untold, and the significance of their service largely unappreciated. Standing in Their Own Light restores these African American patriots to their rightful place in the historical struggle for independence and the end of racial oppression. Revolutionary era African Americans began their lives in a world that hardly questioned slavery; they finished their days in a world that increasingly contested the existence of the institution. Judith L. Van Buskirk traces this shift to the wartime experiences of African Americans. Mining firsthand sources that include black veterans' pension files, Van Buskirk examines how the struggle for independence moved from the battlefield to the courthouse--and how personal conflicts contributed to the larger struggle against slavery and legal inequality. Black veterans claimed an American identity based on their willing sacrifice on behalf of American independence. And abolitionists, citing the contributions of black soldiers, adopted the tactics and rhetoric of revolution, personal autonomy, and freedom. Van Buskirk deftly places her findings in the changing context of the time. She notes the varied conditions of slavery before the war, the different degrees of racial integration across the Continental Army, and the war's divergent effects on both northern and southern states. Her efforts retrieve black patriots' experiences from historical obscurity and reveal their importance in the fight for equal rights--even though it would take another war to end slavery in the United States.

Originally published in 1961, this classic work remains the most comprehensive history of the many and important roles played by African Americans during the American Revolution. With this book, Benjamin Quarles added a new dimension to the military history of the Revolution and addressed for the first time the diplomatic repercussions created by the British evacuation of African Americans at the close of the war. The compelling narrative brings the Revolution to life by portraying those tumultuous years as experienced by Americans at all levels of society. In an introduction, Gary B. Nash traces the evolution of scholarship on African Americans in the American Revolution from its early roots with William C. Nell to this groundbreaking study. Quarles's work not only reshaped our thinking about the black revolutionary experience but also invigorated the study of black history as we know it today. Thad W. Tate, in a foreword, pays tribute to the importance of this work and explains its continuing relevance.

This compact history of the war attempts to separate myth from reality. Professor Coles narrates the main operations on both land and sea of the three-year struggle. He examines the conflict from the British (and Canadian) as well as the American point of view, relating events in America to the larger war going on in Europe. "A balanced analysis of tactics and strategy, this book also summarizes succinctly and clearly recent scholarship on causes and describes briefly the war's military, economic, and political consequences. Coles has surveyed thoroughly the existing literature but arrived at a number of independent judgments. It is the best single-volume account of the war in all its aspects. In recounting sea battles, Coles puts aside the patriotic blinders that have for so long prevented a sensible understanding of American capabilities and strategic necessities; thus American naval victories are put in a proper perspective. And in dealing with land engagements, he has shunned the mocking and amused attitude which has so often passed for historical judgment. Undergraduates will be stimulated by the hints of modern parallels and will find useful the excellent annotated bibliography and simple maps."- From "Choice"

Until now, the story of Iroquois participation in the War of 1812 has not received detailed examination, and there have consequently been major gaps in our understanding of the Iroquois, their relations with Euroamerican society, and the course of the war itself. The Iroquois in the War of 1812 proves that, in fact, the Six Nations' involvement was 'too significant to ignore.' Benn explores this involvement by focusing on Iroquois diplomatic, military, and cultural history during the conflict. He looks at the Iroquois' attempts to stay out of the war, their entry into hostilities, their modes of warfare, the roles they played in different campaigns, their relationships with their allies, and the effects that the war had on their society. He also details the military and diplomatic strength of the Iroquois during the conflict, despite the serious tensions that plagued their communities. This account reveals how the British benefited more than the Americans from the contributions of their Iroquois allies and underscores how important the Six Nations were to the successful defense of Canada. It will appeal to general readers in both Canada and the United States and will have relevance for students and scholars of the military, colonial, and Native history. - From the publisher.

This comprehensive and authoritative history of the War of 1812, thoroughly revised for the 200th anniversary of the historic conflict, is a myth-shattering study that will inform and entertain students, historians, and general readers alike. Donald R. Hickey explores the military, diplomatic, and domestic history of our second war with Great Britain, bringing the study up to date with recent scholarship on all aspects of the war, from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.   The newly expanded The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition includes additional information on the British forces, American Indians, and military operations such as the importance of logistics and the use and capabilities of weaponry. Hickey explains how the war promoted American nationalism and manifest destiny, stimulated peacetime defense spending, and enhanced America's reputation abroad. He also shows that the war sparked bloody conflicts between pro-war Republican and anti-war Federalist neighbors, dealt a crippling blow to American Indians, and solidified the United States's antipathy toward the British. Book-of-the-Month Club and History Book Club selections and received one of the two 1990 "Best Book Awards" from the American Military Institute.

"Tennesseans at War, 1812-1815," tells the often forgotten story of the central role citizens and soldiers from Tennessee played in the Creek War in Alabama and the War of 1812. Although frequently discussed as separate military conflicts, the War of 1812 against Great Britain and the Creek War against Native Americans in the territory that would become Alabama were part of the same forceful projection of growing American power. Success in both wars won America security against attack from abroad and vast tracks of new land in "the Old Southwest." Tom Kanon explains the role Tennesseans played in these changes and how they remade the south. Because it was a landlocked frontier state, Tennessee's economy and security depended heavily upon the river systems that traversed the region; some, like the Tennessee River, flowed south out of the state and into Native American lands. Tennesseans of the period perceived that gaining mastery of these waterways formed an urgent part of their economic survival and stability. The culmination of fifteen years of research, Kanon's work draws on state archives, primary sources, and eyewitness accounts, bringing the information in these materials together for the first time. Not only does he narrate the military campaigns at the heart of the young nation's expansion, but he also deftly recalls the economic and social pressures and opportunities that encouraged large numbers of Tennesseans to leave home and fight. Expounding on the social roles and conditions of women, slaves, minorities, and Native Americans in Tennessee, Kanon also brings into focus the key idea of the "home front" in the minds of Tennesseans doing battle in Alabama and beyond. Kanon shows how the goal of creating, strengthening, and maintaining an ordered society permeated the choices and actions of the American elites on the frontiers of the young nation. - From the publisher.

Examination of the Creek War which integrates that struggle into the larger conflict that broke out in 1812 between Great Britain and the United States   Using American, British, and Spanish documents, many previously unknown, Frank Owsley's study establishes the Creek War and the struggle to control the Gulf borderlands as integral parts of the War of 1812. The war between the United States and a large part of the Creek nation is usually studied as local or regional history. These documentary sources, however, show the larger picture. They show Spain to have been a major influence in the Creek War and indicate the extent to which the British were aiding the Indians and using them to redirect American troops. On the other hand, Andrew Jackson, in charge of the American forces on the Gulf Coast, emerged from the conflict as a first-rate military commander. His victories on the Gulf gave the West a leader and aided in shifting political power from the eastern seaboard to the South and West.   Owsley concludes that the victories in the Gulf region were of sufficient magnitude to justify the claim that the War of 1812 was not a draw but a decisive American victory and that had there been a general of Jackson's caliber on the northern frontier, the United States might have had a clear-cut victory there.   As a result of the war, the United States held its claim on Louisiana, annexed the Mobile district, forced Spain out of Florida, and broke the power of the southern Indians, thus opening vast lands for settlement from the new nation on the eastern seaboard. From the publisher.

A rousing account of one of the critical turning points in American history that tells the gripping story of the burning of Washington and the improbable last stand at Baltimore that helped save the nation and inspired its National Anthem. Through the Perilous Fight combines bravura storytelling with brilliantly rendered character sketches to recreate the thrilling six-week period when Americans rallied from the ashes to overcome their oldest adversary--and win themselves a new birth of freedom.

"The twentieth century is usually seen as 'the century of total war.' But as the historian David Bell argues in this landmark work, the phenomenon actually began much earlier, in the era of muskets, cannons, and sailing ships -- in the age of Napoleon. In a sweeping, evocative narrative, Bell takes us from campaigns of "extermination" in the blood-soaked fields of western France to savage street fighting in ruined Spanish cities to central European battlefields where tens of thousands died in a single day. Between 1792 and 1815, Europe plunged into an abyss of destruction. It was during this time, Bell argues, that our modern attitudes toward war were born. In the eighteenth century, educated Europeans thought the war was disappearing from the civilized world. So when large-scale conflict broke out during the French Revolution, they could not resist treating it as "the last war" -- a final, terrible spasm of redemptive violence that would usher in a reign of perpetual peace. As this brilliant interpretive history shows, a war for such stakes could only be apocalyptic, fought without restraint or mercy. Ever since the dream of perpetual peace and the nightmare of total war have been bound tightly together in the Western world -- right down to the present day, in which the hopes for an "end to history" after the cold war quickly gave way to renewed fears of full-scale slaughter. With a historian's keen insight and a journalist's flair for detail, Bell exposes the surprising parallels between Napoleon's day and our own -- including the way that ambitious 'wars of liberation,' such as the one in Iraq, can degenerate into a gruesome guerrilla conflict. The result is a book that is as timely and important as it is unforgettable." - From the Publisher.

"A complete account of the Napoleonic campaigns that explores the tactical methods Napoleon employed to achieve victory. He is characterized in this book as a scrambler, who never had a plan that he did not change or compromise, but always emerged victorious, blundering to glory." - From the publisher.

"Waterloo was the last battle fought by Napoleon and the one which finally ended his imperial dreams. It involved the deployment of huge armies and incurred heavy losses on both sides; for those who fought in it, Dutch and Belgians, Prussians and Hanoverians as well as British and French troops, it was a murderous struggle.It was a battle that would be remembered very differently across Europe. In Britain, it would be seen as an iconic battle whose memory would be enmeshed in British national identity across the following century. In London news of the victory unleashed an outburst of patriotic celebration and captured the imagination of the public. The Duke of Wellington would go on to build his political career on it, and towns and cities across Britain and the Empire raised statues and memorials to the victor. But it was only in Britain that Waterloo acquired this iconic status. In Prussia and Holland its memory was muted - in Prussia overshadowed by the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig, in Holland a simple appendage to the prestige of the House of Orange. And in France, it would be portrayed as the very epitome of heroic defeat. Encapsulated in the bravery of General Cambronne and the last stand of the Old Guard, remembered movingly in the lines of Stendhal and Victor Hugo, the memory of Waterloo served to sustain the romantic legend of the Napoleonic Wars - and contributed to the growing cult of Napoleon himself." - From the Publisher.

"The Frontline Napoleonic Library is an unparalleled collection of classic works on the Napoleonic Wars. Presenting some of the finest memoirs and studies of the period the collection brings together renowned contemporary accounts with more recent analytical publications. One of the most important collections of original letters from participants in the Waterloo campaign. The letters formed the basis of William Sibornes's groundbreaking History of the Waterloo Campaign. Accounts from every branch of the British Army." - From the Publisher.

"What was it like to be a soldier on a Napoleonic battlefield? What happened when cavalry regiments charged directly at one another? What did the generals do during battle? Drawing on memoirs, diaries, and letters of the time, this book explores what actually happened in battle and how the participants' feelings and reactions influenced the outcome. Rory Muir focuses on the dynamics of combat in the age of Napoleon, enhancing his analysis with accounts of those who were there - the frightened foot soldier, the general in command, the young cavalry officer whose boils made it impossible to ride, and the smartly dressed aide-de-camp, tripped up by his voluminous pantaloons." - From the Publisher.

In the theatre of war, how important is costume? And in peacetime, what purpose does military spectacle serve? This book goes behind the scenes of the British military at its height to show how dress and discipline helped mold the military man while serving to intimidate civil rioters in peacetime. - From the publisher.

A reference work on the Napoleonic Wars which covers all the important soldiers, sailors, strategies, armaments and battles that shaped Napoleon's career. Includes information on the campaigns led by Napoleon as well as related events such as the Peninsular War.

A conflict with Mexico, leading to the territorial expansion of the United States, was not unwanted. California was President Polk’s prime objective from the beginning of his administration, and this Mexican province was to be acquired by conquest in a war initiated on the Texas-Mexican border. To this end, President Polk sent several agents to Texas, but the man at the center of the war intrigue was Commodore Robert F. Stockton, independently wealthy, prominent in politics, and the head of great business enterprises.
Sufficient evidence exists to substantiate in every important particular the steps in Polk’s path of intrigue: his attempts to bribe Mexican officials; his efforts to encourage revolutionary forces in the Mexican provinces; his use of the threat of force to frighten Mexico into selling California; his attempt to initiate a war by proxy through the government of Texas and Anson Jones.

The Mexican War has long been overshadowed in the public imagination by the most popular of all American wars, the Civil War. And it has been swept under the carpet of national conscience as, at worst, a calculated land grab from a neighbor too weak to defend itself. Otis Singletary's concise, dramatic account of the war that won the Southwest and California for the United States is designed to evoke in modern readers a fresh appreciation of one of the most colorful but neglected episodes in American military affairs—and certainly one of the most significant. Victory in this "military exercise" turned our attention to the Far West, made possible the Gold Rush of '49, and brought vast new territories and new peoples into the Union—altering the face of the nation and greatly influencing its future course.

Mr. Singletary treats the military, political, economic, and diplomatic aspects of the war. He focuses on the ways in which the Mexican War exemplified the dynamic spirit of Manifest Destiny and was a microcosm of peculiarly American—and peculiarly democratic—problems of waging war.

"All in all, this is the best short account of the Mexican War yet written."—T. Harry Williams, The Journal of Modern History

Eminent military historian John S.D. Eisenhower has written a highly readable and expert account of a war which--though frequently overlooked--turned out to be the training ground for the American Civil War.

Foote's comprehensive history of the Civil War includes three compelling volumes: Fort Sumter to Perryville, Fredericksburg to Meridian, and Red River to Appomattox. Here, for certainty, is one of the grand historical narratives of our century, a unique and brilliant achievement that must be firmly placed in the ranks of the masters. Anyone who wants to relive the Civil War will go through this volume with pleasure. Years from now, Foote's monumental narrative will likely continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind.

Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, "Battle Cry of Freedom" will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War.James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentousepisodes that preceded the Civil War--the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry--and then moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics, and the personalities. Particularlynotable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory.The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict: the South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Unionfounded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war--slavery--and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. This "new birth of freedom," as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America'sbloodiest conflict.This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing "second American Revolution" we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.

This is the story of Lincoln's famous army of the Potomac during the early years of the Civil War, when it was under the command of General George B. McClellan.

The critical months between the autumn of 1862 and midsummer 1863 is the focus of Glory Road. During this time the outcome of the Civil War is determined, as the battles at Fredericksburg, Rappahannock and Chancellorsville set the state for Union victory as Gettysburg.

This final volume of The Army of the Potomac trilogy relates the final year of the Civil War. When it was first published in 1953, the author was awarded both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for excellence in nonfiction.

"The crowning achievement of one of America's most distinguished military historians." --Lincoln Prize jury "Readers will find much to debate in this book--including . . . its affirmation that, because of emancipation, 'the Civil War calls for a rethinking of the attitude . . . that war is always futile, that its rewards never match its cost, that any conflict [must be] immediately decisive and virtually without loss of American lives.'" --Gary W. Gallagher

An award-winning and highly recommended comprehensive reference set on the political, social, and military aspects of the American Civil War. The Encyclopedia of the American Civil War is the most comprehensive reference set ever compiled on this pivotal confrontation. Its five oversized volumes, rich with illustrations, maps, and primary source documents, offer more than 1,600 authoritative entries that chart the war's strategic aims, analyze diplomatic and political maneuvering, describe key military actions, sketch important participants, assess developments in military science, and discuss the social and financial impact of the conflict. Written by scholars, the essays are both authoritative and easily accessible to history buffs, students, and general readers. Brief entry bibliographies lead curious readers to the most reliable sources for further information. Over 1,600 signed A-Z entries, authored by notable scholars and referenced for further reading Over 300 contributors, including some of the leading Civil War scholars at work today More than 500 illustrations, including contemporary photographs, lithographs, and drawings 75 maps created specifically for this encyclopedia A chronology, glossary, and exhaustive index Over 250 primary source documents

Contents: 1. Confederate history -- 2. Maryland -- 3. West Virginia and biographical supplement: biographies of Confederates living outside the South -- 4. Virginia -- 5. North Carolina -- 6. South Carolina -- 7. Georgia -- 8. Alabama -- 9. Mississippi -- 10. Tennessee -- 11. Kentucky -- 12. Missouri -- 13. Louisiana -- 14. Arkansas -- 15. Texas -- 16. Florida -- 17. Navy -- 18. Index v. 1, A-H -- 19. Index v. 2, I-Z.

Provides portraits and background information for important Union and Confederate leaders, and describes each officer's most important battles.

Records the years of the Civil War, the generals and the foot soldiers, the politicians and the drummer boys, the triumphs and the tragedies, the strategies and the blunders.

Presents detailed accounts and outcomes of twelve major battles.

The Battlefields of the Civil War tells the stories of thirteen of the most important battles, including First Manassas, Shiloh, Antietam, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness. William C. Davis not only describes the events and outcomes of those great engagements, but also delves into the characters of the army commanders, revealing in many cases just how much their personalities influenced the actions of their subordinates - and ultimately the outcome of the battles themselves. Rounding out the narrative are 35 full-page color photograph spreads of Civil War artifacts (including flags, uniforms, artillery projectiles, and arms), 28 color paintings of soldiers in various regiment uniforms, and 166 historical photographs.

A military history of the personalities and leadership abilities of ten important American Civil War generals. The author evaluates the strategies they employed, and gives us insight into the talents that are needed to claim such victories.

This volume contains 821 maps, 106, engravings and 209 drawings. From its front flap: "After the Civil War, the U.S. Government and the Army embarked on a landmark joint endeavor. For the first time in American history, the federal government itself - led by the Army - compiled a military history. The history was composed of all of the official military documents from both sides of the war, and it proved to be a massive production. It was called 'War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies' and referred to as the 'Official Records', or 'O.R.'. It contained official reports, letters, telegrams, strength returns, and casualty lists, covering all theaters throughout the war. The Army then got together the official military maps to supplement the O.R. This was called 'The Atlas to Accompany the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies'. The maps had been drawn during the war by engineers, draftsmen, and sometimes even generals themselves for actual military use. Only a few maps, drawn later by cartographers, were added for historical purposes. Tactical and strategic maps indicate troop dispositions; defense lines, redoubts, and fortifications of key sites are clearly shown. Terrain maps often contain picket positions, signal stations, and lines of march. Some are rough sketches, some cartographic masterpieces. All are informative and reveal the knowledge - or lack of knowledge - that both sides possessed about the terrain, and the strength and the position of opposing troops. The index to maps is an invaluable aid. It refers to campaigns and battles, rivers, creeks, lakes, bays, islands, bridges, fords, ferries, landings, roads, railroads, mountains, towns, churches, forts, and much more. In this reprint, the index the and maps are conveniently bound in one volume. Here, in brief, is a completely indispensable tool for both historian and Civil War buff, reproduced with absolute precision and fidelity."

Craig L. Symonds is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy where he taught naval history and Civil War History for thirty years.

"Battle in the Civil War" is a step-by-step explanation of how the Blue and Grey armies squared up to fight each other; how they maneuvered on the battlefield and what happened when they came to close combat. Military historian Paddy Griffith looks at the problems faced by the commanders in this fascinating conflict and examines in detail how they overcame them.

A guide-index to the records administered by the National Archives and Records Service.

European military observers, primarily Prussian, British, and French, traveled to America in surprising numbers to witness the War between the States. Here is a thorough and fascinating account of these observers, of why they came to view the American campaigns, of what they wrote, of what their armies learned from the reports, and, ultimately, of the military influence of the Civil War on subsequent warfare and on later European military theorists.

An extensive review of the tactics, maneuvers, and organization that led to a victory for the North in the Civil War.

In this widely heralded book first published in 1986, four historians consider the popularly held explanations for southern defeat--state-rights disputes, inadequate military supply and strategy, and the Union blockade--undergirding their discussion with a chronological account of the war's progress. In the end, the authors find that the South lacked the will to win, that weak Confederate nationalism and the strength of a peculiar brand of evangelical Protestantism sapped the South's ability to continue a war that was not yet lost on the field.

Describes tactical theory in the 1850s and suggests how each related to Civil War tactics. Why did the Confederacy lose so many men? The authors contend that the Confederates bled themselves nearly to death in the first three years of the war by making costly attacks more often than the Federals. Offensive tactics, which had been used successfully by Americans in the Mexican War, were much less effective in the 1860s because an improved weapon--the rifle--had given increased strength to defenders. This book describes tactical theory in the 1850s and suggests how each related to Civil War tactics. It also considers the development of tactics in all three arms of the service during the Civil War.   In examining the Civil War the book separates Southern from Northern tactical practice and discusses Confederate military history in the context of Southern social history. Although the Southerners could have offset their numerical disadvantage by remaining on the defensive and forcing the Federals to attack, they failed to do so. The authors argue that the Southerners' consistent favoring of offensive warfare was attributable, in large measure, to their Celtic heritage: they fought with the same courageous dash and reckless abandon that had characterized their Celtic forebears since ancient times. The Southerners of the Civil War generation were prisoners of their social and cultural history: they attacked courageously and were killed--on battlefields so totally defended by the Federals that "not even a chicken could get through." - From the publisher.

Contents: Tennessee goes to war -- The Confederate resurgence of 1862 -- The Year of the War for Chattanooga -- The last hard year of war -- Suggested readings.

Volume 1. "The Photographic History of the Civil War "was first published in 1911 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the great conflict. Extremely popular then, it has become a rare book. Here, in five double volumes, is the complete and unabridged original edition, text and photographs carefully reproduced in the original format and full size. The thousands of photographs contained within are remarkable in their immediacy, spontaneity, and authenticity. They demonstrate the power of the camera as well as the importance of the photographer. This series is a unique record of one of the greatest conflicts in the history of mankind. Also included in this series are maps to mark the battles, and line-art decorations that give a feel of the era in which they were composed. These pictures can be viewed as art, as history and as journalism. Covering every aspect of the war - from the front to weapons, from tactics to the wounded, from everyday life to grief, from victory to defeat - these volumes are a testament to a mighty conflict and to the great nation which emerged from it. The first volume of The Photographic History of the Civil War is a record of the the opening battles of the war. It spans two years and is 732 pages in the hardcover edition.

Volume II. The Photographic History of the Civil War was first published in 1911 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the great conflict. Extremely popular then, it has become a rare book. Here, in five double volumes, is the complete and unabridged original edition, text and photographs carefully reproduced in the original format and full size. The thousands of photographs contained within are remarkable in their immediacy, spontaneity, and authenticity. They demonstrate the power of the camera as well as the importance of the photographer.   They are a unique record of one of the greatest conflicts in the history of mankind.  These pictures can be viewed as art, as history and as journalism. Covering every aspect of the war --from the front to weapons, from tactics to the wounded, from everyday life to grief, from victory to defeat--these volumes are a testament to a mighty conflict and to the great nation which emerged from it. This volume describes the decisive battles of the Civil War, and the Cavalry on both sites of the battle. 

Discusses and illustrates the armies and navies of both the Union and the Confederacy.

Volume IV. The Photographic History of the Civil War was first published in 1911 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the great conflict. Extremely popular then, it has become a rare book. Here, in five double volumes, is the complete and unabridged original edition, text and photographs carefully reproduced in the original format and full size. The thousands of photographs contained within are remarkable in their immediacy, spontaneity, and authenticity. They demonstrate the power of the camera as well as the importance of the photographer.   They are a unique record of one of the greatest conflicts in the history of mankind.  These pictures can be viewed as art, as history and as journalism. Covering every aspect of the war --from the front to weapons, from tactics to the wounded, from everyday life to grief, from victory to defeat--these volumes are a testament to a mighty conflict and to the great nation which emerged from it. This volume describes in detail the lives of soldiers on both sides of the conflict, and the secret service. It also contains photographs, diagrams, and text about the prisons and hospitals used during the Civil War.

Volume V."The Photographic History of the Civil War "was first published in 1911 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the great conflict. Extremely popular then, it has become a rare book. Here, in five double volumes, is the complete and unabridged original edition, text and photographs carefully reproduced in the original format and full size. The thousands of photographs contained within are remarkable in their immediacy, spontaneity, and authenticity. They demonstrate the power of the camera as well as the importance of the photographer. They are a unique record of one of the greatest conflicts in the history of mankind. These pictures can be viewed as art, as history and as journalism. Covering every aspect of the war --from the front to weapons, from tactics to the wounded, from everyday life to grief, from victory to defeat--these volumes are a testament to a mighty conflict and to the great nation which emerged from it. This volume covers the armies and the leaders of the Civil War, as well as some of the eloquent writing to emerge from the battle, including poetry.

When General Ulysses S. Grant targeted Forts Henry and Donelson, he penetrated the Confederacy at one of its most vulnerable points, setting in motion events that would elevate his own status, demoralize the Confederate leadership and citizenry, and, significantly, tear the western Confederacy asunder. More to the point, the two battles of early 1862 opened the Tennessee River campaign that would prove critical to the ultimate Union victory in the Mississippi Valley. In Grant Invades Tennessee, award-winning Civil War historian Timothy B. Smith gives readers a battlefield view of the fight for Forts Henry and Donelson, as well as a critical wide-angle perspective on their broader meaning in the conduct and outcome of the war. The first comprehensive tactical treatment of these decisive battles, this book completes the trilogy of the Tennessee River campaign that Smith began in Shiloh and Corinth 1862, marking a milestone in Civil War history. Whether detailing command-level decisions or using eye-witness anecdotes to describe events on the ground, walking readers through maps or pulling back for an assessment of strategy, this finely written work is equally sure on matters of combat and context. Beginning with Grant's decision to bypass the Confederates' better-defended sites on the Mississippi, Smith takes readers step-by-step through the battles: the employment of a flotilla of riverine war ships along with infantry and land-based artillery in subduing Fort Henry; the lesser effectiveness of this strategy against Donelson's much stronger defense, weaponry, and fighting forces; the surprise counteroffensive by the Confederates and the role of their commanders' incompetence and cowardice in foiling its success. Though casualties at the two forts fell far short of bloodier Civil War battles to come, the importance of these Union victories transcend battlefield statistics. Grant Invades Tennessee allows us, for the first time, to clearly see how and why.

In the spring of 1862, many Americans still believed that the Civil War, "would be over by Christmas." The previous summer in Virginia, Bull Run, with nearly 5,000 casualties, had been shocking, but suddenly came word from a faraway place in the wildernesses of Southwest Tennessee of an appalling battle costing 23,000 deaths, most of them during a single day. It was more than had resulted from the entire American Revolution. As author Winston Groom reveals in this dramatic, heart-rending account, the Battle of Shiloh would singlehandedly change the psyche of the military, politicians, and American people--North and South--about what they had unleashed by creating a Civil War. In this gripping telling of the first "great and terrible" battle of the Civil War, Groom describes the dramatic events of April 6 and 7, 1862, when a bold surprise attack on Ulysses S. Grant's encamped troops and the bloody battle that ensued would alter the timbre of the war. The Southerners struck at dawn on April 6th, and Groom vividly recounts the battle that raged for two days over the densely wooded and poorly mapped terrain. Driven back on the first day, Grant regrouped and mounted a fierce attack the second, and aided by the timely arrival of reinforcements managed to salvage an encouraging victory for the Federals. Groom's deft prose reveals how the bitter fighting would test the mettle of the motley soldiers assembled on both sides and offer rehabilitation of sorts for Union General William Sherman. He would go on from the victory at Shiloh to become one of the great generals of the war. But perhaps the most alarming outcome, Groom poignantly reveals, was the realization that for all its horror, the Battle of Shiloh had solved nothing, gained nothing, proved nothing, and the thousands of maimed and slain were merely wretched symbols of things to come. With a novelist's eye for telling and a historian's passion for detail, context, and meaning, Groom brings the key characters and moments of battle to life. Shiloh is an epic tale, deftly told by a masterful storyteller.

A definitive study of the climactic and pivotal battle of Antietam offers a vivid account of the two armies, the soldiers and officers, and the bitter, bloody campaign and analyzes the impact of Antietam on the Civil War as a whole.

In this thrilling narrative history of the Civil War's most strategically important campaign, Winston Groom describes the bloody two-year grind that started when Ulysses S. Grant began taking a series of Confederate strongholds in 1861, climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg two years later. For Grant and the Union it was a crucial success that captured the Mississippi River, divided the South in half, and set the stage for eventual victory. Vicksburg, 1863 brings the battles and the protagonists of this struggle to life: we see Grant in all his grim determination, Sherman with his feistiness and talent for war, and Confederate leaders from Jefferson Davis to Joe Johnston to John Pemberton. It is an epic account by a masterful writer and historian.

"In July 1863, as the Confederate army approached the crossroads village of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the prospect of victory for the South appeared bright. With morale low among the Union army in the wake of a succession of defeats, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Army Commander Robert E. Lee saw an opportunity to win a decisive battle on Union soil. After three bloody days, however, one-third of Lee's army had been killed or wounded, and Lee was forced to retreat to Virginia. This major loss, considered to be the Civil War's turning point, became the first of many Union victories that ultimately led to Appomattox and complete Confederate defeat." "With dramatic text and pictures, Gettysburg humanizes this crucial battle: the thoughts, emotions, and actions of the men who commanded, fought, and died there. As Abraham Lincoln said four months after the battle, those who died at Gettysburg gave their last full measure of devotion that the nation might experience a new birth of freedom. This is the story of those brave men." - From the book jacket.

Jay Luvaas is a professor of history at the U.S. Army War College and North America's most distinguished conductor of battlefield tours. Colonel Harold Nelson, also of the War College, is a professional soldier who sets practical experience of his craft in a broad theoretical framework. The two have combined to produce the definitive guidebook to the battle of Gettysburg and one of the most distinguished examples of its genre. - From Amazon. "A day-by-day, hour-by-hour account of the bloody three days of July 1, 2, and 3, 1863 with official reports and physical observations of the commanding officers in their own words. Unlike previously published material on Gettysburg, this portable volume provides a unique blend of documentary sources and physical terrain description with 25 stops arranged in order of the actual battle as it unfolded in 1863." - From book jacket.

On a November afternoon in 1864, the weary General John Bell Hood surveyed the army waiting to attack the Federals at Franklin, Tennessee. He gave the signal almost at dusk, and the Confederates rushed forward to utter devastation. This book describes the events and causes of the five-hour battle in gripping detail, particularly focusing on the reasons for such slaughter at a time when the outcome of the war had already been decided. The genesis of the senseless tragedy, according to McDonough and Connelly, lay in the appointment of Hood to command the Army of Tennessee. It was his decision to throw a total force of some 20,000 men into an ill-advised frontal assault against the Union troops. The Confederates made their approach, without substantial artillery support, on a level of some two miles. Why did Hood select such a catastrophic strategy? The authors analyze his reasoning in full. Their vivid and moving narrative, with statements from eyewitnesses to the battle, makes compelling reading for all Civil War buffs and historians. Book jacket.

"Sherman's March" is the vivid narrative of General William T. Sherman's devastating sweep through Georgia and the Carolinas in the closing days of the Civil War. Weaving together hundreds of eyewitness stories, Burke Davis graphically brings to life the dramatic experiences of the 65,000 Federal troops who plundered their way through the South and those of the anguished -- and often defiant -- Confederate women and men who sought to protect themselves and their family treasures, usually in vain. Dominating these events is the general himself -- "Uncle Billy" to his troops, the devil incarnate to the Southerners he encountered. "What gives this narrative its unusual richness is the author's collation of hundreds of eyewitness accounts...The actions are described in the words, often picturesque and often eloquent, of those who were there, either as participants -- Union soldiers, Confederate soldiers -- in the fighting and destruction or as victims of Sherman's frank vow to 'make Georgia howl.' Mr. Davis intercuts these scenes with closeups of the chief actors in this nightmarish drama, and he also manages to give us a coherent historical account of the whole episode. A powerful illustration of the proposition put forth in Sherman's most famous remark." -- The New Yorker -- From the Trade Paperback edition.

Continuing in the vein of the Lincoln-prize-winning "Lincoln and His Admirals," acclaimed naval historian Craig L. Symonds presents an operational history of the Civil War navies - both Union and Confederate - in this concise volume. Illuminating how various aspects of the naval engagement influenced the trajectory of the war as a whole, The Civil War at Sea adds to our understanding of America's great national conflict. Both the North and the South developed and deployed hundreds of warships between 1861 and 1865. Because the Civil War coincided with a revolution in naval technology, the development and character of warfare at sea from 1861-1865 was dramatic and unprecedented. Rather than a simple chronology of the war at sea, Symonds addresses the story of the naval war topically, from the dramatic transformation wrought by changes in technology to the establishment, management, and impact of the blockade. He also offers critical assessments of principal figures in the naval war, from the opposing secretaries of the navy to leading operational commanders such as David Glasgow Farragut and Raphael Semmes. Symonds brings his expertise and knowledge of military and technological history to bear in this essential exploration of American naval engagement throughout the Civil War.

Contains both of the author's previous books "The Life of Billy Yank" and "The life of Johnny Reb."

"Drawing extensively upon the letters, diaries, and memoirs of Northern soldiers, Hess reveals their deepest fears and shocks, and also their sources of inner strength. By identifying recurrent themes found in these accounts, Hess constructs a multilayered view of the many ways in which these men coped with the challenges of battle." - From book jacket.

Never did so large a proportion of the American population leave home for an extended period and produce such a detailed record of its experiences in the form of correspondence, diaries, and other papers as during the Civil War. Based on research in more than 1,200 wartime letters and diaries by more than 400 Confederate officers and enlisted men, this book offers a compelling social history of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia during its final year, from May 1864 to April 1865. Organized in a chronological framework, the book uses the words of the soldiers themselves to provide a view of the army's experiences in camp, on the march, in combat, and under siege--from the battles in the Wilderness to the final retreat to Appomattox. It sheds new light on such questions as the state of morale in the army, the causes of desertion, ties between the army and the home front, the debate over arming black men in the Confederacy, and the causes of Confederate defeat. Remarkably rich and detailed, Lee's Miserables offers a fresh look at one of the most-studied Civil War armies.

Unabridged reproduction of rare and valuable 1864 catalog brimming with uniform and dress regulations, arms and ammunition, horse "furniture," tables of military pay, uniform accessories, insignia and other equipment. Detailed descriptions of hats, coats, "trowsers," boots, tents, swords, more. 226 illustrations.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Jefferson Davis sent merchant marine James D. Bulloch to Europe to clandestinely acquire arms and ships for the Confederate navy. His first stop was Britain, a country hedging its bets on who would win the War Between the States and willing to secretly provide the Confederacy with the naval technology to fight the Union on the high seas. Bulloch's mission continued for the length of the war, and his story, told by the man himself, is one of the least-understood aspects of the Civil War, even today.

A comprehensive, yet concise history of the C.S.A.'s naval development of the ironclad warship. Still covers the construction, deployment, and fate of these fascinating vessels. Writes surprisingly about difficulties faced by the builders obtaining materiel and the problem of getting the ships from their construction sites into action. Further, he explores the manpower issues regarding manning the vessels vs. the army's needs and their refusal to share manpower with the navy.

This account concerns the notorious prisoner of war camp in Andersonville, Georgia, where over 14,000 Union prisoners died from disease, starvation, and neglect. - From the Publisher.

The 1890s, argues Timothy B. Smith in his new book, represented the climax of battlefield preservation in America. But what makes this decade so important?   This decade was the perfect time for the establishment of these national parks. Five Civil War battlegrounds--at Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Antietam, and Vicksburg--were commemorated as national sites during this time. Just past the bitterness and racial tensions of Reconstruction and prior to the explosive growth brought on by the Second Industrial Revolution, the time was right for the war's veterans from both sides to come together, in a spirit of reconciliation and brotherhood, to lead the efforts to open the parks. As yet unmarred by development, these battlefield sites were preserved mostly intact, just how the veterans would have remembered them. To date, they represent the country's finest preserved battlefields. Smith's book is the first to look at the process of battlefield reservation as a whole.  He focuses on how each of these sites was established and the important individuals--the congressmen, the former soldiers, the veteran commissioners--who were the catalysts for the creation of these parks.   The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation is a watershed book about an essential period in the history of battlefield preservation and will be of interest to any reader who wishes to have a better understanding how such preservation efforts were initiated.   Timothy B. Smith is the author of This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park and The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield.  He is a former park ranger at the Shiloh National Military Park and now teaches at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent takes us on an explosive adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where Civil War reenactors, battlefield visitors, and fans of history resurrect the ghosts of the Lost Cause through ritual and remembrance. "The freshest book about divisiveness in America that I have read in some time. This splendid commemoration of the war and its legacy ... is an eyes-open, humorously no-nonsense survey of complicated Americans."--The New York Times Book Review. For all who remain intrigued by the legacy of the Civil War--reenactors, battlefield visitors, Confederate descendants and other Southerners, history fans, students of current racial conflicts, and more--this ten-state adventure is part travelogue, part social commentary, and always good-humored. When the author leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart. Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of 'hardcore' reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison's commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book's climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the 'Civil Wargasm.' Written with Horwitz's signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and the new 'classrooms, courts, country bars' where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways.

A touching and thrilling story of a young girl's experiences at the battle of Gettysburg, first published in 1889.

Military records from the American West.

This book is by far the most detailed coverage of the battles that happened between American settlers and native Americans. It provides not just a high level view, but details on the backgrounds and motivations for every battle. Though it is even handed in showing when Indians or Americans were the aggressors, the picture that it paints is of hundreds of years of American dishonesty and brutality against the Indians. This book covers the little skirmishes, the huge battles, and the sequences and causes of them all. Want to know what Andrew Jackson did besides sign the infamous Indian Removal Act? It's all here, every battle including statistics on how many from each side were killed, injured or taken prisoner. One memorable story is the account of the purposeful extinction of the Pequot tribe where they chased down every last Indian they could find to eliminate the tribe from the face of the earth. These are but very small samples of the enormous coverage of this book. - From Amazon.

An account of the misunderstandings and treacheries that resulted in violence between Indians and white men in the four hundred years following Columbus's arrival in the New World.

The bestselling author of "Mayflower" sheds new light on one of the iconic stories of the American West Little Bighorn and Custer are names synonymous in the American imagination with unmatched bravery and spectacular defeat. Mythologized as Custer's Last Stand, the June 1876 battle has been equated with other famous last stands, from the Spartans' defeat at Thermopylae to Davy Crockett at the Alamo. In his tightly structured narrative, Nathaniel Philbrick brilliantly sketches the two larger-than-life antagonists: Sitting Bull, whose charisma and political savvy earned him the position of leader of the Plains Indians, and George Armstrong Custer, one of the Union's greatest cavalry officers and a man with a reputation for fearless and often reckless courage. Philbrick reminds readers that the Battle of the Little Bighorn was also, even in victory, the last stand for the Sioux and Cheyenne Indian nations. Increasingly outraged by the government's Indian policies, the Plains tribes allied themselves and held their ground in southern Montana. Within a few years of Little Bighorn, however, all the major tribal leaders would be confined to Indian reservations. Throughout, Philbrick beautifully evokes the history and geography of the Great Plains with his characteristic grace and sense of drama. The Last Stand is a mesmerizing account of the archetypal story of the American West, one that continues to haunt our collective imagination. - From the publisher.

The author of "The Journey of Crazy Horse" presents a legendary battle through the eyes of the Lakota. The saga of Custer's Last Stand, has become ingrained in the lore of the American West, and the key players Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and George Armstrong Custer have grown to larger-than-life proportions. Now, award-winning historian Joseph M. Marshall presents the revisionist view of the Battle of the Little Bighorn that has been available only in the Lakota oral tradition. Drawing on this rich source of storytelling, Marshall uncovers what really took place at the Little Big Horn and provides fresh insight into the significance of that bloody day. - From the publisher.

Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown introduces readers to great chiefs and warrors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes, revealing in heartwrenching detail the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that methodically stripped them of freedom. A forceful narrative still discussed today as revelatory and controversial, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee permanently altered our understanding of how the American West came to be defined. - From the publisher.

With the Great Sioux War as background and context, and drawing on many new materials, Thomas Powers establishes what really happened in the dramatic final months and days of Crazy Horse's life. nbsp; He was the greatest Indian warrior of the nineteenth century, whose victory over General Custer at the battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 was the worst defeat ever inflicted on the frontier army. But after surrendering to federal troops, Crazy Horse was killed in custody for reasons which have been fiercely debated for more than a century. The Killing of Crazy Horse pieces together the story behind this official killing.

"His Own Story" as told to S M Barrett In this newly revised work an American legend comes to life. Speaking from his heart, Geronimo, the great Native American warrior, tells his own story and that of his people. Includes a special introduction by Frederick Turner and new historical and interpretative comments.

Defeated politically and running out of money after a ranch deal went bad, Theodore Roosevelt began writing his epic history of the conquest of the American West in 1888. He wove a sweeping drama, well documented and filled to the brim with Americans fighting Indian confederacies in the north and south while dealing with the machinations of the British, French, and Spanish and their sympathizers. Roosevelt wanted to show how backwoodsmen such as Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, followed by hardy pioneer settlers, won the United States the claim to land west of the Alleghenies. Heroism and treachery among both the whites and the Indians can be seen in his rapidly shifting story of a people on the move in pursuit of their manifest destiny. By force and by treaty, the new nation was established in the east, and when the explorers and settlers pushed against the Mississippi, everything west of the river was considered part of that nation. This complete set is a must-have for anyone with an interest in the history of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt, one of the greatest minds in American history, was himself a fighting, riding, conquering man who spent much of his life in the wilderness. Truly there is no one else better suited to write about the politics, the fighting, and the bravery of these men than Theodore Roosevelt himself.

Traces the history of the revolvers, pistols, rifles, and other firearms used in the West from 1776 to 1900

An absorbing and comprehensive work, "Indian Wars" recounts the violent conflicts between Native Americans and white settlers that lasted more than three hundred years, the effects of which still resonate today. Here, the widely respected historians Robert Utley and Wilcomb Washburn examine both small battles and major wars -- from the Native rebellion of 1492, to Crazy Horse and the Sioux War, to the massacre at Wounded Knee. This volume contains a new introduction by Robert Utley.

In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair led the United States army in a campaign to destroy a complex of Indian villages at the Miami River in northwestern Ohio. Almost within reach of their objective, St. Clair's 1,400 men were attacked by about one thousand Indians. The U.S. force was decimated,suffering nearly one thousand casualties in killed and wounded, while Indian casualties numbered only a few dozen. But despite the lopsided result, it wouldn't appear to carry much significance; it involved only a few thousand people, lasted less than three hours, and the outcome, which was never indoubt, was permanently reversed a mere three years later. Neither an epic struggle nor a clash that changed the course of history, the battle doesn't even have a name.Yet, as renowned Native American historian Colin Calloway demonstrates here, St. Clair's Defeat - as it came to be known - was hugely important for its time. It was both the biggest victory the Native Americans ever won, and, proportionately, the biggest military disaster the United States hadsuffered. With the British in Canada waiting in the wings for the American experiment in republicanism to fail, and some regions of the West gravitating toward alliance with Spain, the defeat threatened the very existence of the infant United States. Generating a deluge of reports, correspondence,opinions, and debates in the press, it produced the first congressional investigation in American history, while ultimately changing not only the manner in which Americans viewed, raised, organized, and paid for their armies, but the very ways in which they fought their wars.Emphasizing the extent to which the battle has been overlooked in history, Calloway illustrates how this moment of great victory by American Indians became an aberration in the national story and a blank spot in the national memory. Calloway shows that St. Clair's army proved no match for the highlymotivated and well-led Native American force that shattered not only the American army but the ill-founded assumption that Indians stood no chance against European methods and models of warfare. An engaging and enlightening read for American history enthusiasts and scholars alike, The Victory withNo Name brings this significant moment in American history back to light.

Bringing together Custer, Sherman, Grant, and other fascinating military and political figures, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and Geronimo, this "sweeping work of narrative history" (San Francisco Chronicle) is the fullest account to date of how the West was won--and lost. After the Civil War the Indian Wars would last more than three decades, permanently altering the physical and political landscape of America. Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail. He illuminates the intertribal strife over whether to fight or make peace; explores the dreary, squalid lives of frontier soldiers and the imperatives of the Indian warrior culture; and describes the ethical quandaries faced by generals who often sympathized with their native enemies. In dramatically relating bloody and tragic events as varied as Wounded Knee, the Nez Perce War, the Sierra Madre campaign, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, we encounter a pageant of fascinating characters, including Custer, Sherman, Grant, and a host of officers, soldiers, and Indian agents, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Red Cloud and the warriors they led. The Earth Is Weeping is a sweeping, definitive history of the battles and negotiations that destroyed the Indian way of life even as they paved the way for the emergence of the United States we know today.

On the night of February 15, 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine was ripped in half by an explosion in Havana harbor with the loss of 266 American lives. War with Spain followed nine weeks later. After a three-month fight on two fronts half a world apart, the era of isolation was gone forever, as the United States formed alliances and gained spheres of influence that would shape its destiny for decades to come. - From Amazon.

In 1898, Remington became an illustrator and correspondent during the Spanish-American War. He worked on the New York Journal owned by publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. He found he did not like being in the midst of the war and requested to be recalled.

The award-winning, new definitive history of Teddy Roosevelt and the legendary Rough Riders "Thrilling. ... A classic."--True West WINNER: The Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award; New Mexico-Arizona Book Award; and Colorado Book Award The now-legendary Rough Riders were a volunteer regiment recruited in 1898 to help drive the Spaniards out of Cuba. Drawn from America's southwestern territories and led by the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt, these men included not only cowboys and other Westerners, but also several Ivy Leaguers and clubmen, many of them friends of "TR." Roosevelt and his men quickly came to symbolize American ruggedness, daring, and individualism. He led them to victory in the famed Battle of San Juan Hill, which made TR a national hero and cemented the Rough Riders' iconic place in history. Now Mark Lee Gardner synthesizes previously unknown primary accounts--private letters, diaries, and period newspaper reports from public and private archives across the country--to breathe fresh life into the Rough Riders and pay tribute to their daring feats and indomitable leader.

"Mr. Thomas has understood [the Spanish Civil War] incredibly well and has written it superbly. A full, vivid and deeply serious treatment of a great subject."--Vincent Sheean, The New York Times Book Review A masterpiece of the historian's art, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War remains the best, most engrossing narrative of one of the most emblematic and misunderstood wars of the twentieth century. Revised and updated with significant new material, including new revelations about atrocities perpetrated against civilians by both sides in this epic conflict, this "definitive work on the subject" (Richard Bernstein, The New York Times) has been given a fresh face forty years after its initial publication in 1961. In brilliant, moving detail, Thomas analyzes a devastating conflict in which the hopes, dreams, and dogmas of a century exploded onto the battlefield. Like no other account, The Spanish Civil War dramatically reassembles the events that led a European nation, in a continent on the brink of world war, to divide against itself, bringing into play the machinations of Franco and Hitler, the bloodshed of Guernica, and the deeply inspiring heroics of those who rallied to the side of democracy. Communists, anarchists, monarchists, fascists, socialists, democrats -- the various forces of the Spanish Civil War composed a fabric of the twentieth century itself, and Thomas masterfully weaves the diffuse and fascinating threads of the war together in a manner that has established the book as a genuine classic of modern history. "Stands without rivals as the most balanced and comprehensive book on the subject."--American Historical Review