The Twenty-Fourth Michigan


Book Description

In the tradition of the great regimental histories of the past, this book records the fire which seared the ranks of the Twenty-Four Michigan Regiment of the legendary “Iron Brigade.” Born as the result of a riot, led by a Virginian, met with coldness and hostility by the black-hatted veterans of the brigade, the Twenty-Fourth swore it would win their respect…and so they did with a vengeance. At Fredericksburg, in “artillery hell” and under a murderous crossfire from the guns of “Stonewall” Jackson and “Jeb” Stuart, they performed the manual of arms to stead the line. The first day at Gettysburg they sparked this remark from the confederate ranks…”That ain’t no milishy, there’s those damn black hats again.” With the immortal First Corps they were ordered west of the town to hold long enough for the army to occupy the strategic heights behind them. They held, and by evening they had lost more men than any of the 400-odd Union regiments engaged in the battle. Still later they marched down “that crimson strip across the maps,” which marked Grant’s Wilderness Campaign; they bled at Petersburg and then, their ranks almost decimated, were sent to guard bounty jumpers. The last tribute to their gallant service came as they were chosen the Guard of Honor for Lincoln’s funeral. In a little more than two years of bloody fighting they found their way to nineteenth place on the list of “300 Fighting Regiments.” To read this book is to consort with heroes who, 100 years ago, stood watching their world writhe in agony. It gives hope that in matching their courage, our country will emerge from the cauldron triumphant.




Four Years Under Marse Robert [Illustrated Edition]


Book Description

Includes Civil War Map and Illustrations Pack – 224 battle plans, campaign maps and detailed analyses of actions spanning the entire period of hostilities. “Marse Robert” is one of the endearing nicknames by which General Robert E. Lee was called by his men. This book is the account of Robert Stiles’ experience as a soldier during the Civil War. He traces his own story, giving personal significance to the battles fought and the time he spent under General Lee’s command. Robert Stiles tells firsthand what a Confederate soldier experienced as he marched on and fought through great struggles and deprivation. He takes readers on the difficult journey through the Civil War battle by battle, while providing the personal analysis of an actual participant.




Four Years In The Saddle [Illustrated Edition]


Book Description

Includes Civil War Map and Illustrations Pack – 224 battle plans, campaign maps and detailed analyses of actions spanning the entire period of hostilities. The brutal occupation of Baltimore in 1861 by the Federal troops under Benjamin “Beast” Butler, would be the final straw for many Confederate leaning Marylanders. One such was Harry Gilmor, imprisoned for his political beliefs and his service in the Baltimore County Horse Guards, he was determined to join the Southern forces. As soon as he was released from prison he travelled as fast as possible to join the troops under Colonel Turner Ashby; by March 1862 he was commissioned as a captain of the Twelfth Virginia Cavalry. He set to his task with a passion earning much glory fighting under Jackson in the Valley campaign, even being entrusted with special missions by the great general himself. His military star was on the rise and he began to gain a sterling reputation as a cavalry commander often employed in scouting, raids and ambushes. He was in action at the Battle of Brandy Station, in the Shenandoah Valley and led the famous “Raid Round Baltimore” in 1864. Despite all his cunning and daring the tide of war turned against him and his Confederate comrades and he was captured in February 1865 in Hardy County. As a successful Confederate raider the Federal press had heaped calumnies upon him and his men, so after the war he wrote these memoirs to set the record straight. A dashing read of a famous Confederate cavalry officer.







Rebel Yell


Book Description

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the epic New York Times bestselling account of how Civil War general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became a great and tragic national hero. Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and romance. As much as any person in the Confederate pantheon—even Robert E. Lee—he embodies the romantic Southern notion of the virtuous lost cause. Jackson is also considered, without argument, one of our country’s greatest military figures. In April 1862, however, he was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. But by June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the Western world. Jackson’s strategic innovations shattered the conventional wisdom of how war was waged; he was so far ahead of his time that his techniques would be studied generations into the future. In his “magnificent Rebel Yell…S.C. Gwynne brings Jackson ferociously to life” (New York Newsday) in a swiftly vivid narrative that is rich with battle lore, biographical detail, and intense conflict among historical figures. Gwynne delves deep into Jackson’s private life and traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War, the period that encompasses his rise from obscurity to fame and legend; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a remarkable American hero.




Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade


Book Description

I was no secessionist, and hoped the trouble would be settled without recourse to arms; but when the war came I shouldered my musket in behalf of my native State and defended her to the last. As a com"I was no secessionist, and hoped the trouble would be settled without recourse to arms; but when the war came I shouldered my musket in behalf of my native State and defended her to the last." As a commander in Stonewall Jackson's brigade, John Casler experienced all the horrors and comedy of the American Civil War. His time was not so different from his countrymen on the other side, with the exception of point of view.He buried more than one good friend. "I saw my friend, William I. Blue, lying on his face, dead. I sat down by him and took a hearty cry, and then, thinks I, "It does not look well for a soldier to cry," but I could not help it. While I was at work a Georgian came to "I was no secessionist, and hoped the trouble would be settled without recourse to arms; but when the war came I shouldered my musket in behalf of my native State and defended her to the last." As a commander in Stonewall Jackson's brigade, John Casler experienced all the horrors and comedy of the American Civil War. His time was not so different from his countrymen on the other side, with the exception of point of view.He buried more than one good friend. "I saw my friend, William I. Blue, lying on his face, dead. I sat down by him and took a hearty cry, and then, thinks I, "It does not look well for a soldier to cry," but I could not help it. While I was at work a Georgian came to me and wanted the tools as soon as I was done with them. He said he wanted to bury his brother, and asked if I was burying a brother. 'No,' I replied, 'but dear as a brother.'"




Wandering to Glory


Book Description

In Wandering to Glory DeWitt Boyd Stone, Jr., pieces together the words of officers and soldiers in an imaginative, nontraditional brigade history of one of the Confederacy's most active combat troops. Stone blends firsthand accounts from a variety of sources to tell the colorful story of Brigadier General Nathan George Shanks Evans and his Tramp Brigade. An independent South Carolina unit never permanently attached to a particular army, Evans's Brigade traveled widely, making its way from one frontline to another and earning its nickname. Stone profiles the unit's accomplished but egotistical commander, who gained fame as a hero at the First Battle of Manassas, and traces its impressive war record, which began at Second Manassas and included its moment of glory at ground zero during the Battle of the Crater, at Petersburg, Virginia. Nearly ten percent of all South Carolinians who fought in the Confederate army were members of Evan's Brigade, which included South Carolina's 17th, 18th, 22nd, and 23rd Regiments, the Macbeth Light Artillery, and the infantry companies of the Holcombe Legion. Later the 26th Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers joined the unit. The troops numbered




A Brotherhood Of Valor


Book Description

This unusual and moving chronicle covers some of the most important battles of the Civil War—Sharpsburg (Antietam), Gettysburg, and Chancellorsville—through the stories of the two brigades who confronted each other on the bloody fields of battle. Drawing on original source material, Jeffry Wert reconstructs the drama and terrors of war through the eyes of the ordinary men who became members of two of the most respected fighting units of their respective armies, the Stonewall Brigade of the Confederacy and the Iron Brigade of the Union. There are tales of grueling marches and almost unbearable deprivations; eyewitness accounts of ferocious fighting and devastating losses on both sides; and portraits of acts of courage and valor performed by soldiers and officers who, despite the difficulties they faced, remained dedicated to the cause for which they were fighting.