Book Description

History is constantly changing. What we know of past events is based on someone's interpretation. Even first-person accounts can vary widely and, in fact, did in the reports of Benedict Arnold's conduct at the second Battle of Saratoga in 1777. The conventional histories were based on a now-discredited account by one officer. A letter made public in 2016 painted a different version of events more favorable to Arnold. Hallowed Ground: How Forgotten Battles Changed America provides a fresh look at history through the lens of battles that deserve new attention, starting with the Saratoga Campaign. The little-taught Mexican War that preceded the Civil War is too easily recalled as an important training ground for the legendary military leaders of the Civil War. It was also a land grab condemned by Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Henry Clay, and many others. The issues of technology and preparedness are major themes of the chapters on Selma, Alabama, during the Civil War and the Saint-Mihiel offensive in World War I. Selma was a focal point of Confederate efforts to build munitions while the US Army played catchup on aircraft, tanks, and wireless communications at Saint-Mihiel. Future American military leaders such as George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower, and William Mitchell quickly learned the new technologies. The fifth chapter tells the forgotten story of one of the most inspiring Americans of the twentieth century, Dr. Gordon Seagrave, a Baptist missionary on the northern frontier of Burma who became one of the military's greatest combat surgeons.