Whether as a curiosity or a beloved idol, Gene Kelly (1912–1996) lives on in our cultural memory as a fantastic dancer in M-G-M musicals, especially Singin’ in the Rain. But dancing, however extraordinary, was only one of his many gifts. This book, for the first time, offers a full picture of Gene Kelly as the Renaissance man he actually was—dancer, yes, but also choreographer, actor, clown, singer, director, teacher, and mentor. Kelly was a star of radio and television as well as...

Winner of the Eugene Feit Award in Civil War Studies by the New York Military Affairs SymposiumDuring the Civil War, neither the Union nor the Confederate army could have operated without effective transportation systems. Moving men, supplies, and equipment required coordination on a massive scale, and Earl J. Hess’s Civil War Logistics offers the first comprehensive analysis of this vital process. Utilizing an enormous array of reports, dispatches, and pe...

Located near Cumberland Gap in the rugged hills of East Tennessee, Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) was founded in 1897 to help disadvantaged Appalachian youth and reward the descendents of Union loyalists in the region. Its founder was former Union General Oliver Otis Howard, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, who made it his mission to sustain an institution of higher learning in the mountain South that would honor the memory of the Civil War president.In Lincoln Memorial...

Civil War Torpedoes and the Global Development of Landmine Warfare recounts the use of landmines in the American Civil War from their predecessors before 1861 through their legacy in the post-Cold War era. A handful of Confederates pioneered the use of torpedoes, as landmines were commonly called in the 1860s, burying them in front of fortifications, along roads, and as booby traps. Federal troops quickly learned how to deal with them, often using Confederate prisoners to dig them...

From renowned Civil War historian Earl J. Hess comes a study of Union and Confederate soldiers as never seen before. Shattered Courage examines the experience of the men who refused to fight on the day of battle.When Abraham Lincoln took the oath of presidential office on March 4, 1865, he urged the country to care for those “who shall have borne the battle”—a reference to the Union soldiers who successfully met the challenges of combat. But while honoring...

The Civil War produced the largest cavalry force ever raised in American history. In Civil War Cavalry, Earl J. Hess examines that force comprehensively and from new perspectives, challenging standard views of the war’s mounted arm. Hess surveys the organization, training, administration, arming, and mounting of cavalry units and examines mounted troops’ tactical formations and maneuvers. He addresses the nature of cavalry operations, discussing the mounted charge, dismounted figh...

“Hess’s account of the understudied Knoxville Campaign sheds new light on the generalship of James Longstreet and Ambrose Burnside, as well as such lesser players as Micah Jenkins and Orlando Poe. Both scholars and general readers should welcome it. The scholarship is sound, the research, superb, the writing, excellent.” —Steven E. Woodworth, author of Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the WestIn the fall and winter of 1863, Union General Ambrose Burnside and Confederate ...

This three-volume Omnibus e-Book set is a collection of Earl J. Hess’s definitive works on trench warfare during the Civil War. The set includes:Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864, covering the eastern campaigns, from Big Bethel and the Peninsula to Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Charleston, and Mine Run;Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign, covering Wilderness, Spo...

Fought on July 28, 1864, the Battle of Ezra Church was a dramatic engagement during the Civil War's Atlanta campaign. Confederate forces under John Bell Hood desperately fought to stop William T. Sherman's advancing armies as they tried to cut the last Confederate supply line into the city. Confederates under General Stephen D. Lee nearly overwhelmed the Union right flank, but Federals under General Oliver O. Howard decisively repelled every attack. After five hours of struggle, 5,000 Conf...

Fought on July 28, 1864, the Battle of Ezra Church was a dramatic engagement during the Civil War’s Atlanta campaign. Confederate forces under John Bell Hood desperately fought to stop William T. Sherman’s advancing armies as they tried to cut the last Confederate supply line into the city. Confederates under General Stephen D. Lee nearly overwhelmed the Union right flank, but Federals under General Oliver O. Howard decisively repelled every attack. After five hours of struggle, 5,000 Conf...

The Pettigrew-Kirkland-MacRae Brigade was one of North Carolina’s best-known and most successful units during the Civil War. Formed in 1862, the brigade spent nearly a year protecting supply lines before being thrust into its first major combat at Gettysburg. There, James Johnston Pettigrew’s men pushed back the Union’s famed Iron Brigade in vicious fighting on July 1 and played a key role in Pickett’s Charge on July 3, in the process earning a reputation as one of the hardest-fighting uni...

The Civil War’s single-shot, muzzle-loading musket revolutionized warfare-or so we’ve been told for years. Noted historian Earl J. Hess forcefully challenges that claim, offering a new, clear-eyed, and convincing assessment of the rifle musket’s actual performance on the battlefield and its impact on the course of the Civil War.Many contemporaries were impressed with the new weapon’s increased range of 500 yards, compared to the smoothbore musket’s range of 100 yards, and assumed t...