There were over 75 raids and battles that took place in Maryland during the Civil War, including "Bloody Antietam"--the bloodiest day in American military history.As a border state between the North and South during the Civil War, Maryland's loyalties were strong for both sides. The first casualties of the war occurred during the Baltimore Riot of April 19, 1861, when members of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment were attacked by Confederate supporters while traversing through the city on thei...

On Christmas Day 1860, the "Daily Pittsburgh Gazette "announced that more than one hundred cannons from the nearby U.S. Arsenal were to be shipped south. Fiercely loyal to the Union, Pittsburghers halted the movement of the artillery, which would have been seized by secessionist sympathizers. Over the course of the Civil War, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County provided both troops and equipment--including heavy artillery--in disproportionately large numbers. While no major battles were fought...

Anyone wondering what sort of experience prepares one for a future as an engineer may be surprised to learn that it includes delivering newspapers. But as Henry Petroski recounts his youth in 1950s Queens, New York–a borough of handball games and inexplicably numbered streets–he winningly shows how his after-school job amounted to a prep course in practical engineering.Petroksi’s paper was The Long Island Press, whose headlines ran to COP SAVES OLD WOMAN FROM THUG and DiMA...

An in-depth account of the Civil War people and events that left their mark on the city at the heart of the Union, shaping its historic legacy.When the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861, Washington, DC, was a small, essentially Southern city. The capital rapidly transformed as it prepared for invasion—army camps sprung up in Foggy Bottom, the Navy Yard on Anacostia was a beehive of activity, and even the Capitol was pressed into service as a barracks....

The heavy fog that shrouded Antietam Creek on the morning of September 17, 1862, was disturbed by the boom of Federal artillery fire. The carnage and chaos began in the East Woods and Cornfield and continued inexorably on as McClellan's and Lee's troops collided at the West Woods, Bloody Lane and Burnside Bridge. Though outnumbered, the Rebels still managed to hold their ground until nightfall. Chief historian of the Antietam National Battlefield, Ted Alexander renders a fresh and gripping...

The cultural and criminal history of downtown Manhattan comes to life in this far-reaching exploration of a legendary street.Originally a Lenape trail running the length of Manhattan Island, The Bowery has become one of the most notorious streets in America. Developed in stages by the Dutch, the British, and then Americans, this stretch of street has continually risen from its own ashes, experiencing a seemingly endless cycle of popularity, poverty and prosperity.

In the two hundred years following the War of 1812, the Chesapeake Campaign became romanticized in tall tales and local legends. St. Michael's on the Eastern Shore of Maryland was famously cast as the town that fooled the British, and in Baltimore, the defenders of Fort McHenry were reputably rallied by a remarkably patriotic pet rooster. In Virginia, the only casualty in a raid on Cape Henry was reportedly the lighthouse keeper's smokehouse larder, while Admiral Cockburn was said to have ...

Regiments from Chester County fought bravely in all theaters of World War II, while locals at home took extraordinary measures to support the Allies. West Chester resident G. Raymond Rettew developed a process to mass produce vitally needed penicillin while a peaceful farm transformed into the bustling Valley Forge General Hospital in 1943. Women entered labor positions at companies, including Lukens Steel, to meet production demands. The Coatesville YMCA created and distributed a newslett...

The ingenious people of the Garden State were instrumental in the early development of the submarine. The first American submarine sank off Fort Lee in 1776, and the first successful one adopted by the U.S. Navy was invented by Paterson's John Holland at the end of the nineteenth century. Those early vessels were tested in the Passaic River and on the Jersey City waterfront. Today, the only surviving Union Civil War submarine, built in Newark, sits in the National Guard Militia Museum in S...

The little-known true stories of ten British loyalists who fled to Canada during the American Revolution, then came back to try to reclaim their land.In 1778, New York State Patriots forced colonists loyal to the British government to flee north into what became Ontario and Quebec. Many of the defiant young British Americans soon returned south—as soldiers, spies, and scouts to fight for their multigenerational farms along the Mohawk River, Lake Champlain, and Hudso...

On September 10, 1813, the hot, still air that hung over Lake Erie was broken by the sounds of sharp conflict. Led by Oliver Hazard Perry, the American fleet met the British, and though they sustained heavy losses, Perry and his men achieved one of the most stunning victories in the War of 1812. Author Walter Rybka traces the Lake Erie Campaign from the struggle to build the fleet in Erie, Pennsylvania, during the dead of winter and the conflict between rival egos of Perry and his second i...

Enormous sacrifice on the battlefields and tireless effort on the homefront� Pittsburgh answered the call to duty after the news of Pearl Harbor hit local airwaves that infamous afternoon. With its high enlistment rates and booming war industries, the city was instrumental in the Allied victory. Duquesne University professor Joseph F. Rishel has compiled the memories of seventeen residents who lived through the war years, from GIs serving overseas to real-life Rosie the Riveters who kept t...