NCW Libraries

Draws on personal accounts from the transatlantic slave trade era to share firsthand insights into what slavery was actually like from the perspectives of former slaves, slave owners, and African slavers. "Comprising personal accounts from an intensely consequential chapter in our country's history, [this book] tells the story of American slavery from its origins in Africa to its abolition with the end of the Civil War. In this new work, Noel Rae...

"The High Command of the Army of the Potomac was a changeable, often dysfunctional band of brothers, going through the fires of war under seven commanding generals in three years, until Grant came east in 1864. The men in charge all too frequently appeared to be fighting against the administration in Washington instead of for it, increasingly cast as political pawns facing down a vindictive congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War. President...

"Jane is excited to be part of Mr. Mercer's expedition to bring orphans and Civil War widows to Washington Territory, but life out west isn't at all what she expected"--

The Civil War battle waged on September 17, 1862, at Antietam Creek, Maryland, was one of the bloodiest in the nation's history: in this single day, the war claimed nearly 23,000 casualties. In Landscape Turned Red, the renowned historian Stephen Sears draws on a remarkable cache of diaries, dispatches, and letters to recreate the vivid drama of Antietam as experienced not only by its leaders but also by its soldiers, both Union and Confederate. Combining...

Balanced and in-depth military coverage (all theaters, North and South) in a non-partisan format with detailed notes, offering meaty, in-depth articles, original maps, photos, columns, book reviews, and indexes. CW-Era Marine Corps — Dahlgren's Marine Battalions to Carolina — Parsons' Texas Cavalry chasing Banks — Final March to Appomattox, eyewitness account, 12th VA Infantry.

University of Southern California professor of journalism Langguth maintains America's first civil war occurred during the 1830s when Andrew Jackson expelled Indian tribes from the Deep South and created a bitter North-South conflict. Cherokees "were driven out of Georgia at bayonet point by U.S. Army forces led by General Winfield Scott. At the center of the story are the American statesmen of the day -- Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun...

A historian's investigation of the life and times of Gen. George Gordon Meade to discover why the hero of Gettysburg has failed to achieve the status accorded to other generals of the conflict. Tom Huntington lives in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, and is an editor for Stackpole Magazines. He is the former editor of Historic Traveler and American History magazines. His articles on historical topics have appeared in Civil War Times, America's Civil War,...

In America's Longest Siege, historian Joseph Kelly captures the toxic mix of nationalism, paternalism, and wealth that made Charleston the center of the nationwide debate over slavery and the tragic act of secession that doomed both the city and the South. Thoroughly researched and compulsively readable, America's Longest Siege offers a new take on the Civil War and the culture that made it inevitable.

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest is perhaps the most compelling and complicated individual that the Civil War brought to prominence. In looking at his life and military career, it quickly becomes obvious that for those who admire him, as well as those who despise him, there is no shortage of ammunition. In The Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1899),...

The greatest of all Civil War campaigns, Gettysburg was the turning point of the turning point in our nation's history. Volumes have been written about this momentous three-day battle, but recent histories have tended to focus on the particulars rather than the big picture: on the generals or on single days of battle-even on single charges-or on the daily lives of the soldiers. In Gettysburg Sears tells the whole story in a single volume. From the...