The Civil War Day By Day

Priest, John Michael. Antietam The Soldiers' Battle. White Mane Publishing Company, 1990.
1.65 x 9.31 x 6.28 Inches; 464 pages; On September 13, 1862, in a field near Frederick, Maryland, four Union soldiers hit the jack-pot. There they found, wrapped carelessly around three cigars, a copy of General Robert E. Lee's most recent orders detailing Southern objectives and letting Union officers know that Lee had split his Army into four vulnerable groups. General George B. McClellan realized his opportunity to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia one piece at a time. "If I cannot whip Bobbie Lee," exulted McClellan, "I will be willing to go home." But the notoriously prudent Union general allowed precious hours to pass, and, by the time he moved, Lee's army had begun to regroup and prepare for battle near Antietam Creek. The ensuing fight would prove to be not only the bloodiest single day of the entire Civil War, but the bloodiest in the history of the U.S. Army. Countless historians have analyzed Antietam (known as Sharpsburg in the South) and its aftermath, some concluding that McClellan's failure to vanquish Lee constituted a Southern victory, others that the Confederate retreat into Virginia was a strategic win for the North. But in Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle, historian John Michael Priest tells this brutal tale of slaughter from an entirely new point of view: that of the common enlisted man. Concentrating on the days of actual battle--September 16, 17, and 18, 1862--Priest vividly brings to life the fear, the horror, and the profound courage that soldiers displayed, from the first Federal cavalry probe of the Confederate lines to the last skirmish on the streets of Sharpsburg. Antietam is not a book about generals and their grand strategies, but rather concerns men such as the Pennsylvanian corporal who lied to receive the Medal of Honor; the Virginian who lay unattended on the battlefield through most of the second day of fighting, his arm shattered from a Union artillery shell; the Confederate surgeon who wrote to the sweetheart he left behind enemy lines in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania that he had seen so much death and suffering that his "head had whitened and my very soul turned to stone." Besides being a gripping tale charged with the immediacy of firsthand accounts of the fighting, Antietam also dispels many misconceptions long held by historians and Civil War buffs alike. Seventy-two detailed maps--which describe the battle in the hourly and quarter-hourly formats established by the Cope Maps of 1904--together with rarely-seen photographs and his own intimate knowledge of the Antietam terrain, allow Priest to offer a substantially new interpretation of what actually happened. When the last cannon fell silent and the Antietam Creek no longer ran red with Union and Confederate blood, twice as many Americans had been killed in just one day as lost their lives in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American war combined. This is a book about battle, but more particularly, about the human dimension in battle. It asks "What was it like?" and while the answers to this simple question by turns horrify and fascinate, they more importantly add a whole new dimension to the study of the American Civil War.. 0942597095.

Hardcover, AN/VG+.

[SW: United States Americas History Books Civil War Antietam Campaigns Military,]

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McKissack, Patricia C. DAYS OF JUBILEE: THE END OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES, New York Scholastic, Inc. 2003
ISBN: 0-590-10764-X Very Good

From the Publisher For two and a half centuries African-American slaves sang about, prayed for, and waited on their long anticipated freedom -- a day of Jubilee. But freedom didn't come for slaves at the same time. DAYS OF JUBILEE chronicles the various stages of U.S. emancipation beginning with those slaves who were freed for their service during the Revolutionary War, to those who were freed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Using slave narratives, letters, diaries, military orders, and other documents, the McKissacks invite young readers to celebrate coming freedom and the Days of Jubilee. From The Critics Publishers Weekly "There wasn't one day when all the slaves were freed at the same time," write the McKissacks (Rebels Against Slavery) in this compelling chronicle of slavery's demise in America. "Whenever slaves learned they were free, that day became their Jubilee." The authors begin with the tenuous compromises made after the Revolutionary War and underscore historical events by weaving extensive quotes from slave narratives and the stories of contemporary persons. They include not only the famous, such as President Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, but also citizens such as James Forten, an African-American businessman who "was shocked and dismayed when the United States Constitution was ratified without abolishing slavery" and who worked actively as an abolitionist throughout his life. Sideline perspectives like that of Southern slaveholder Mary Chestnut, whose diary documents her views on the Civil War, offer additional texture. Tinted sidebars provide expanded profiles, including that of Philip Coleman, an enslaved coachman who "prided himself on being a gentleman's gentleman" until he witnesses the death of white men at the hands of Union soldiers, and realizes that "his master is not invincible as once he'd thought" and runs away. The McKissacks ably balance the nation's gradual progress with heartrending examples of prejudice even after the Civil War that illustrate how far the nation still needed to go to achieve true equality. The inclusion of individual voices and life stories lends this well-researched overview of emancipation a sense of immediacy and relevance for today's readers. Ages 8-12. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information. Children's Literature - Alicia Dodson This book, written by a husband and wife, traces the journey of slaves and slavery in America. At first glance, the book would appear to be a picture book, but the reader soon realizes that it is more of a documentary picture book. Patricia and Frederick McKissack have incorporated various Civil War journals and Pre-Civil War/Civil War documents such as The Emancipation Proclamation and South Carolina's Declaration of Causes of Secession that trace the evolution and progression of the slave's fight for freedom in America. Perhaps the most interesting part of this book is that it presents both sides of the slavery issue. The McKissacks do not deny or ignore what slaveholders and those fighting against freedom were writing. The text includes quotes from Mary Chestnut, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and nameless slaves known only through slave narratives. The well-chosen pictures help illuminate the events of the Civil War and the time surrounding it. <P> At the beginning of each chapter, the authors include a chapter title, a short quote from an important document, and then a longer quote from a journal or letter. This helps prepare the reader for what will come in the following chapters. The illustrations and well-chosen documents help give the reader a comprehensive and unbiased view of the Civil War. 2003, Scholastic Press, Ages 13 up. Soft Cover 10.52x8.36x.59 in. 1.40 lbs. Advance Reading Copy

[SW: Children - Africana, Children - History]

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Manigault, Edward; Confederate Major (edited by Warren Ripley): Siege Train: The Journal of A Confederate Artilleryman in the Defense of Charleston, 1986 Columbia, South Carolina, USA University of South Carolina Press

Hard Cover Near Fine/Very Good Edition: Book Club (BCE/BOMC) 0-87249-491-8 Grey cloth on boards. Owners bookplate on fep. Laid in a review from this book club and advertisements for other books. Photographs, maps, fold out maps, line illustrations. Jacket has some minimal edgeware on the corners and spine corners. "On July 10, 1863, Confederate Major Edward Manigault began a diary which is today one of the most unusual documents to survive the Civil War. Covering 13 months of combat, it is a day-by-day, sometimes hour-by hour, account of life at the front during the Civil War. Although the diary was an official document, his descriptions of infantry fighting often include amusing personal asides - such as having to choose between saving a valuable saddle or saving his life when his horse was shot out from under him. Major Manigault's journal provides a wealth of information for Civil War scholars, Siege Train is a vivid picture of day-to-day operations as well as the trials of a competent, but uncelebrated, battalion commander trying to accomplish his job under combat conditions."

[SW: Civil War American Civil War History American History War Artillery]

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Bowman, John S.. The Civil War - Day by day.

Introduction by Henry Steele Commager. Greenwich: Brompton Books / Dorset Press. Reprinted 1991. OHardc. with illustr. OU. 224 pages with over 350 photographs, maps, illustrations the book provides the reader with an overview of the personalities, pa ssions and events that forged what is now the American nation. - 31 x 24. * A day by day chronology of the political and diplomatic events of the Civil War, the weapons and equipment used and brief pen sketch biographies of the important personalities of the war. .

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