Confederate Artillery Organizations


Book Description

Confederate Artillery Organizations: An Alphabetical Listing of the Officers and Batteries of the Confederacy, 1861–1865 is a remarkable, immensely useful, and exceedingly rare book containing the names of the officers and every Confederate artillery unit. It is so rare that most scholars in the field don’t even know of its existence. It was originally published as simply Confederate Artillery Organizations by the U.S. War Department in 1898, one of Marcus J.Wright’s compilation aids to help assemble and organize the massive publication that would appear as the 128-volume The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (1880-1901), known to researchers and students alike as simply Official Records. Editor Ray Sibley spent more than a decade researching the thousands of entries, correcting mistakes, and adding many artillery units and additional officers unknown to the original compilers more than a century ago. Sibley utilized archival records, manuscripts, letters, diaries, and other sources to verify the original work, correct mistakes, and add further useful information in the form of hundreds of valuable footnotes. This new updated and easy-to-use reference work sets forth the linage of the Confederate artillery. It lists, in alphabetical order, individual batteries to artillery regiments, the names and alternate names for the batteries and the names of the men who led them. Also included are the dates of acceptance into Confederate service for each unit. Most companies have an annotation that includes an alternate name (if there was one), and the date if a unit disbanded or was merged into another organization.The annotations for officers include date of appointment, date of promotion to a higher grade (if any), date of transfers (if any), date dropped from rolls (if any), and date relieved of command (if any). Confederate Artillery Organizations also contains four rare and hard-to-find lists of Confederate artillery officers: “Memorandum of Artillery Officers, C. S. A.,” “List of Officers Corps of Artillery, C. S. Army, on U.S. Register of 1861,” “Superintendents of Armories,” and “Military Store-Keeper of Ordnance.” These lists illustrate the ranking of each officer in his respective grade. The extensive bibliography prepared by Mr. Sibley is an invaluable guide to Civil War historiography. Scholars, researchers, and students of the Civil War will be thankful Ray Sibley turned his considerable talents to this project. His tireless efforts made sure this rare book got back into print (including all digital formats), and turned what was once a valuable rare work into a reference book that is now both widely available and absolutely indispensable.




I Dread the Thought of the Place


Book Description

"In this book, the author provides an hour-by-hour tactical history of the battle, beginning before dawn on September 17 and concluding with the immediate aftermath of the battle, including General McClellan's fateful decision to not pursue Lee's retreating forces back across the Potomac to Virginia. But this is not only an operational history of Antietam: the author also offers the reader insight into the experiences of enlisted soldiers, the terror of the fighting itself, and the emotional aftermath for those who survived"--




Fighting for the Confederacy


Book Description

Originally published by UNC Press in 1989, Fighting for the Confederacy is one of the richest personal accounts in all of the vast literature on the Civil War. Alexander was involved in nearly all of the great battles of the East, from First Manassas through Appomattox, and his duties brought him into frequent contact with most of the high command of the Army of Northern Virginia, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and James Longstreet. No other Civil War veteran of his stature matched Alexander's ability to discuss operations in penetrating detail-- this is especially true of his description of Gettysburg. His narrative is also remarkable for its utterly candid appraisals of leaders on both sides.




The Guns at Gettysburg


Book Description

The guns still stand at Gettysburg amid the markers and the monuments on the hallowed ground. And it is fitting that they do, for Gettysburg marked not only the high tide of the Confederacy and the turning point of the war, but also the greatest cannonade ever seen in this hemisphere. In no battle of the Civil War did artillery play a more decisive role than it did here, and no factor contributed more to the Union victory than the superior handling of the Federal cannon. Amid all the discussions of the errors of generalship on both sides, too little credit has been given to that all-but-forgotten hero of the battle, General Henry Jackson Hunt, the chief of the Union artillery. In reappraising and retelling the battle form the artilleryman’s point of view, Colonel Downey has made a real contribution to our understanding of the reasons for the Confederate failure to crush the Army of the Potomac.




The Artillery of Gettysburg


Book Description

The battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 marked the turning point of the American Civil War. The apex of the Confederacy's final major invasion of the North, the devastating defeat also marked the end of the South's offensive strategy against the North. From this battle until the end of the war, the Confederate armies largely remained defensive. The Artillery of Gettysburg is a thoughtful look at the role of the artillery during the July 1?3, 1863 conflict. Bradley M. Gottfried provides insight into how the two armies employed their artillery, how the different kinds of weapons functioned in battle, and the strategies for using each of them. He shows how artillery affected the ebb and flow of battle for both armies and thus provides a unique way of understanding the strategies of the Federal and Union commanders.




General James Longstreet


Book Description

General James Longstreet fought in nearly every campaign of the Civil War, from Manassas (the first battle of Bull Run) to Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, and was present at the surrender at Appomattox. Yet, he was largely held to blame for the Confederacy's defeat at Gettysburg. General James Longstreet sheds new light on the controversial commander and the man Robert E. Lee called “my old war horse.”







Catalogue of Beta Theta Pi


Book Description




Cavalryman of the Lost Cause


Book Description

Now in paperback, this major biography of J.E.B. Stuart—the first in two decades—uses newly available documents to draw the fullest, most accurate portrait of the legendary Confederate cavalry commander ever published. • Major figure of American history: James Ewell Brown Stuart was the South’s most successful and most colorful cavalry commander during the Civil War. Like many who die young (Stuart was thirty-one when he succumbed to combat wounds), he has been romanticized and popular- ized. One of the best-known figures of the Civil War, J.E.B. Stuart is almost as important a figure in the Confederate pantheon as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. • Most comprehensive biography to date: Cavalryman of the Lost Cause is based on manuscripts and unpublished letters as well as the latest Civil War scholarship. Stuart’s childhood and family are scrutinized, as is his service in Kansas and on the frontier before the Civil War. The research in this biography makes it the authoritative work.