Without question, the most famous battle of the Civil War took place outside of the small town of Gettysburg from July 1-3, 1863. Over those three days, nearly 8,000 would die, over 30,000 would be casualties, and the most famous attack of the war, Picketts Charge, would fail Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia. The South would go on to lose the war, and when it did, the importance of Gettysburg as one of the high tide marks of the Confederacy became apparent, making the battle all th...

With the exception of George Washington, perhaps the most famous and celebrated general in American history is Robert E. Lee (January 19, 1807 October 12, 1870), despite the fact he led the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia against the Union in the Civil War. The son of U.S. Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III, a relative of Martha Custis Washington, and a top graduate of West Point, Lee had distinguished himself so well before the Civil War that President Lincoln as...

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.The American Civil War started when eleven southern ‘slave’ states declared their independence from the United States of America. Abraham Lincoln’s Republican government were strongly against slavery and fought to abolish it and keep the country united.The American Civil War: History in an Hour gives a concise and authoritative overview of these four years of bloody and devastating warfare to help you understand how the ...

A huge column of blood red smoke rose a thousand feet as the battleship USS Arizona blew up. The USS Oklahoma capsized. The California, Nevada and West Virginia were all sunk at their moorings. 181 Japanese warplanes had attacked the US Pacific Fleet as it lay at anchor in Pearl Harbor. There had been no formal declaration, but the United States of America was now at war...Read about the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, along with the merciless invasion of South East Asia by the a...

This is the definitive military history of the Civil Wars which swept the British Isles from 1642 to 1649.The martial aspects of the wars are covered in detail along with a comprehensive overview of the religious and political dimensions which shaped the armies involved in the conflict. This excellent single volume history is the perfect introduction to the military history of this turbulent decade which shaped the destiny of the British Isles.This book is part of the Military History From...

Dont fight a battle if you dont gain anything by winning.General Erwin RommelA fascinating account of a deadly combination: the supreme German weapon of war in the hands of the finest military tacticians of last century.Illustrated throughout with full coverage of all the German tanks, tank battles and campaigns in the period 1943-1945, from Kursk to the last battles in the east, along with commanders, strategy, tactics and technical details.This book is part of The Hitlers War Machine ser...

The Tiger I is the most famous tank in history. In the right hands it enjoyed spectacular successes, but the Tiger I was also plagued by an array of technical and design flaws which made it a death trap for novice and unwary crews. This unique overview draws on a wide variety of primary accounts of the Tiger I in action from both the Allied and the German perspective. Rare photographs, technical drawings and contemporary reports of the Tiger in combat help to set aside the myths and bring ...

Great battles mark history's turning points, occurring as they do where cultures and ideologies clash.While some battles have been won by the superior force, others have been won by a sheer dogged refusal to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds. Superior weaponry has sometimes brought victory, as at Plassey, while the superior generalship of a Napoleon, a Wellington, or a Marlborough has won the day on other occasions.All the great battles in this boo...

The early battles of the First World War during the autumn and winter of 1914 were open, mobile affairs of the kind long familiar to professional soldiers. By early 1915, however, a new type of war had emerged - trench warfare.Modern artillery and machine-guns had been employed in the Boer War only a decade or so previously, but the perfection of their use led to the creation of a static front: the Western Front. Attempts to circumvent this Front, notably at Gallipoli in 1915, only...

One of the most important, and controversial, Confederate generals during the Civil War was Lieutenant General James Longstreet, Robert E. Lees old warhorse. Longstreet was Lees principal subordinate for most of the war, ably managing a corps in the Army of Northern Virginia. Longstreet was instrumental in Confederate victories at Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg, and Chickamauga, while he was also effective at Antietam and the Battle of the Wilderness, where he was nearly killed by a shot thr...

Wade Hampton III (March 28, 1818 April 11, 1902) was one of the foremost Confederate cavalry leaders during the Civil War and afterward a politician from South Carolina, serving as its 77th Governor and as a U.S. Senator. At the start of the war, he resigned from the Senate and enlisted as a private in the South Carolina Militia; however, the governor of South Carolina insisted that Hampton accept a colonel's commission, even though he had no military experience at all. Hampton organized and...

In the narrative of the Civil War, Edward Porter Alexander has loomed larger in death than in life. Just 25 years old when the war broke out, Porter Alexander had already served as an engineer and officer in the U.S. Army, but the native Georgian resigned his commission in May 1861 and joined the Confederacy after his home state seceded. Porter Alexander spent 1861 as an intelligence officer, and he served as part of a signal guard, but he soon became chief of ordnance for Joseph Johnstons...