The wide-ranging and largely ignored operations around Petersburg, Virginia, were the longest and most extensive of the entire Civil War. The fighting began in June of 1864, when advance elements from the Union Army of the Potomac crossed the James River and botched a series of attacks against a thinlydefended city. The fighting ended nine long months later in the first days of April of 1865. The Five Forks Campaign and the Fall of Petersburg, March 29 – April 2, 1865, includes the ...

Winner, 2014, The Douglas Southall Freeman AwardThe wide-ranging and largely ignored operations around Petersburg, Virginia, were the longest and most extensive of the entire Civil War. The fighting began in June of 1864, when advance elements from the Union Army of the Potomac crossed the James River and botched a series of attacks against a thinly defended city. The fighting ended nine long months later in the first days of April of 1865. In Volume I of The Peter...

Few students of the Civil War know that legendary historian Edwin C. Bearss produced a classic study on the little-known but significant Tupelo Campaign. The fighting in Mississippi was overshadowed by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s more spectacular victory at Brice’s Crossroads a month earlier. Bearss performed the research and writing for the Department of the Interior in 1969, and only a handful of softcover copies were circulated. It is published here for the first time, with the assistance ...

Originally published in 1963, Rebel Victory at Vicksburg by renowned American Civil War and World War II historian Edwin C. Bearss details the Confederate victory. Told with great power and imagery, this book will make an invaluable addition to any historian's collection.

"Incredible!... Anyone interested in the hardship, frustration, and courage of soldiers at war will be enthralled by this book." -- James G. Hollandsworth, author of The Louisiana Native GuardsUntil now, Union army colonel Nathan W. Daniels has been a forgotten man with a forgotten regiment. The white commanding officer of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guard Volunteers, a black regiment, he was removed with his men from mainland military activity and confined to obscure duty on Ship Isla...

One of the greatest challenges faced by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis on their 1804–6 Corps of Discovery expedition was that of medical emergencies on the trail. Without an attending physician, even routine ailments and injuries could have tragic consequences for the expedition’s success and the safety of its members. Of these dangers, the most insidious and potentially devastating was the slow, painful, and oftentimes fatal ravage of venereal disease.Physician Thomas P. Lowry...

Few historians have ever captured the drama, excitement, and tragedy of the Civil War with the headlong elan of Edwin Bearss, who has won a huge, devoted following with his extraordinary battlefield tours and eloquent soliloquies about the heroes, scoundrels, and little-known moments of a conflict that still fascinates America. Antietam, Shiloh, Gettysburg: these hallowed battles and more than a dozen more come alive as never before, rich with human interest and colorful detail culled from...

If you think you know a lot about the Civil War, challenge yourself with this instructive and intriguing book of questions. Covering every battle of the war, commanders and ordinary soldiers, weapons, and armies, this book will test the knowledge of even the most dedicated history buff. Degrees of difficulty range from elementary to questions that even the author had difficulty figuring out, and everything in between. Thousands of provocative questions will sharpen the knowledge of Civil e...

It's a poignant irony in American history that on Independence Day, 1863, not one but two pivotal Civil War battles ended in Union victory, marked the high tide of Confederate military fortune, and ultimately doomed the South's effort at secession. But on July 4, 1863, after six months of siege, Ulysses Grant's Union army finally took Vicksburg and the Confederate west. On the very same day, Robert E. Lee was in Pennsylvania, parrying the threat to Vicksburg with a daring push north to Get...

An incisive look at the turning point of the Civil War, when the great armies of the North and South came to Gettysburg in July 1863—from Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Catton, one of the great historians of the Civil War.Engaging and authoritative, Catton analyzes the course of events at Gettysburg, clarifying its causes and bringing to life the most famous battle ever fought on American soil. Paying full heed to the human tragedies that occurred, Gettysburg: The Final F...

In the Pulitzer prize–winning classic The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara created the finest Civil War novel of our time. The Last Full Measure tells the epic story of the events following the Battle of Gettysburg and brings to life the final two years of the Civil War. Jeff Shaara dramatizes the escalating confrontation between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant—complicated, heroic, and deeply troubled men. For Lee and his Confederate forces, Gettysburg has been an unspeak...

Focused on the pivotal year of 1863, the second volume of Shelby Foote’s masterful narrative history brings to life the Battle of Gettysburg and Grant’s Vicksburg campaign and covers some of the most dramatic and important moments in the Civil War.Includes maps throughout."This, then, is narrative history—a kind of history that goes back to an older literary tradition.... The writing is superb...one of the historical and literary achievements of our time." —The Washingt...