A history of the series of American Civil War battles fought at a town outside of Richmond, Virginia.Robert E. Lee feared the day the Union army would return up the James River and invest the Confederate capital of Richmond. In the spring of 1864, Ulysses Grant, looking for a way to weaken Lee, was about to exploit the Confederate commander's greatest fear and weakness. After two years of futile offensives in Virginia, the Union commander set the stage for a campaig...

Long overshadowed by the American Civil War, the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) has received significantly less attention from historians partly because of its questionable origin and controversial outcome. Rather than treat the conflict with a form of historical amnesia, the contributors to this volume argue that the Mexican-American War was a formative experience for the more than three hundred future Civil War generals who served in it as lower-grade officers. The Mexican War was the ...

A comprehensive and fully illustrated account of the Shiloh Campaign, with over a hundred photographs and detailed maps.After taking Forts Henry and Donelson, the Union army prepared to try and take the vital rail hub of Corinth, Mississippi. To facilitate this, Major General H. Halleck planned to combine Grant’s Army of West Tennessee with Buell’s Army of the Ohio. Meanwhile the newly formed Confederate Army of the Mississippi was placed under the command of Gener...

The Battle of Petersburg’s intense four-day clash marked a missed Union opportunity, prolonging the Civil War with dramatic consequences.May and June 1864 in Virginia witnessed some of the most brutal and bloody fighting of the Civil War. Combined losses for the two armies after the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna, and Cold Harbor exceeded 80,000 killed, wounded, and captured. The result? A stalemate outside Richmond.The carnage notwithstan...

A concise history and analysis of the 1864 American Civil War battle that marked the end for the Army of Tennessee."A well-researched and informative read, Chick's study of the Nashville campaign is a must for anyone seeking to learn more about this often-overlooked battle, as well as those interested in the war in the Western Theatre and generalship in the Civil War."— The NYMAS ReviewThe November 1864 battle of F...

"Chick does a good job of portraying [General Beauregard] as the first real hero of the Confederacy, who at times proved his own worst enemy." — The NYMAS ReviewFew Civil War generals attracted as much debate and controversy as Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard. He combined brilliance and charisma with arrogance and histrionics. He was a Catholic Creole in a society dominated by white Protestants, which made him appear exotic next to the likes of Albert Sid...

The Battle of Petersburg was the culmination of the Virginia Overland campaign, which pitted the Army of the Potomac, led by Ulysses S. Grant and George Gordon Meade, against Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. In spite of having outmaneuvered Lee, after three days of battle in which the Confederates at Petersburg were severely outnumbered, Union forces failed to take the city, and their final, futile attack on the fourth day only added to already staggering casualties. By holding P...