The Marine Corps Way of War examines the evolving doctrine, weapons, and capability of the United States Marine Corps during the four decades since our last great conflict in Asia. As author Anthony Piscitelli demonstrates, the USMC has maintained its position as the nation’s foremost striking force while shifting its thrust from a reliance upon attrition to a return to maneuver warfare.In Indochina, for example, the Marines not only held territory but engaged in now-legendary confrontational battles at Hue, Khe Sanh. As a percentage of those engaged, the Marines suffered higher casualties than any other branch of the service. In the post-Vietnam assessment, however, the USMC ingrained aspects of Asian warfare as offered by Sun Tzu, and returned to its historical DNA in fighting “small wars” to evolve a superior alternative to the battlefield.The institutionalization of maneuver philosophy began with the Marine Corps’ educational system, analyzing the actual battle-space of warfare—be it humanitarian assistance, regular set-piece battles, or irregular guerrilla war—and the role that the leadership cadre of the Marine Corps played in this evolutionary transition from attrition to maneuver. Author Piscatelli explains the evolution by using traditional and first-person accounts by the prime movers of this paradigm shift. This change has sometimes been misportrayed, including by the Congressional Military Reform Caucus, as a disruptive or forced evolution. This is simply not the case, as the analyses by individuals from high-level commanders to junior officers on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, demonstrate. The ability of the Marines to impact the battlefield—and help achieve our strategic goals—has only increased during the post-Cold War era.Throughout The Marine Corps Way of War: The Evolution of the U.S. Marine Corps from Attrition to Maneuver Warfare in the Post-Vietnam Era, one thing remains clear: the voices of the Marines themselves, in action or through analysis, describing how “the few, the proud” will continue to be America’s cutting-edge in the future as we move through the 21st Century. This new work is must-reading for not only every Marine, but for everyone interested in the evolution of the world’s finest military force.

Less than 1% of our nation will ever serve in our armed forces, leaving many to wonder what life is really like for military families.He answers the call of duty in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Pacific; she keeps the home fires burning. Worlds apart, and in the face of indescribable grief, their relationship is pushed to the limits. 15 Years of War: How the Longest War in U.S. History Affected a Military Family in Love, Loss, and the Cost Of Service provides a unique he said/she said perspective on coping with war in modern-day America. It reveals a true account of how a dedicated Marine and his equally committed spouse faced unfathomable challenges and achieved triumph, from the days just before 9/11 through 15 years of training workups, deployments, and other separations.This story of faith, love, and resilience offers insight into how a decade and a half of war has redefined what it means to be a military family.

“Ironclads are said to master the world, but torpedoes master the ironclads.” Gabriel J. Rains was a Confederate Brigadier General who was more than a military officer—he was a scientist. His Civil War appointment gave him an opportunity to develop explosives. He invented three mines: the “subterra shell” (land mine), the keg torpedo, and the submarine mortar battery (both naval mines). After the Battle of Seven Pines in 1862, he served the Confederacy in two ways, Superintendent of Conscription and Commander of the Torpedo Bureau. He and his men mined the roads around Jackson and the harbors of Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston. His naval mines sank many ships and were more effective than heavy guns.In 1864, at the request of President Jefferson Davis, he mined the principal roads leading into Richmond as well as the lines around Fort Harrison. When it came time to evacuate the city, Rains and his family joined the president and cabinet as they traveled by train to Greensboro.After the war, he earned a patent, prepared a notebook for West Point, and wrote an article on mine warfare. Rains had a significant military career as he introduced a new form of weaponry. To some, he is regarded as the “father of modern mine warfare.”Gabriel Rains and the Confederate Torpedo Bureau by W. Davis Waters and Joseph I. Brown tells his remarkable story.

Now in paperback, Glory or the Grave: The Breakthrough, the Union Collapse, and the Defense of Horseshoe Ridge, September 20, 1863 is the second volume in The Chickamauga Campaign, David Powell’s magnificent three-volume study of this overlooked and often misunderstood campaign. Chickamauga (Cherokee for “River of Death”), lived up to its grim sobriquet in September 1863 when the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee waged a sprawling bloody combat along the banks of West Chickamauga Creek. This installment of Powell’s tour de force depicts the final day of battle, when the Confederate army attacked and broke through the Union lines. The massive rout that ensued was ameliorated somewhat by an incredible defensive stand atop Horseshoe Ridge, which Powell carefully dissects at the regimental level. No one understands Chickamauga like Powell, whose crisp prose and cogent analysis are based upon some 2,000 primary accounts. The result is a rich and deep portrait of the fighting and command relationships on a scale never before attempted, let alone accomplished. The third and final volume, Analysis of a Barren Victory, covers the confused retreat and pursuit into Chattanooga, insight into the fighting and its impact on the war as a whole, a detailed examination into the strengths and losses of the two armies, and an exhaustive bibliography. Powell’s magnum opus, complete with 37 original maps and 40 photos and illustrations is the culmination of more than a decade of research and study and a complete understanding of the battlefield’s complex terrain system. For any student of the Civil War in general, or the Western Theater in particular, Powell’s trilogy is a must-read.

In early July 1864, a quickly patched together force of outnumbered Union soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace prepared for a last-ditch defense along the banks of the Monocacy River. Behind them, barely fifty miles away, lay the capital of the United States, open to attack.Facing Wallace’s men were Lt.

Kandahar. An ancient desert crossroads, and as of fall of 2001, ground zero for the Taliban and al-Qa’ida in southern Afghanistan. In the north, the U. S.-supported Northern Alliance, the Afghan organization opposed to the Taliban regime, has made progress on the battlefield and Kabul has fallen. But in the south, the country is still under the Taliban’s sway, and al-Qa’ida continues to operate there. With no “Southern Alliance” for the U.S. to support, a new strategy is called for. Veteran CIA officer Duane Evans is dispatched to Pakistan to “get something going in the South.”This is the true story of Evans’s unexpected journey from the pristine halls of Langley to the badlands of southern Afghanistan. Within hours after he watched the horrors of 9/11 unfold during a chance visit to FBI Headquarters, Evans begins a personal and relentless quest to become part of the U.S. response against al-Qa’ida. This memoir tracks his efforts to join one of CIA’s elite teams bound for Afghanistan, a journey that eventually takes him to the front lines in Pakistan, first as part of the advanced element of CIA’s Echo team supporting Hamid Karzai, and finally as leader of the under-resourced and often overlooked Foxtrot team.Relying on rusty military skills from Evans’s days as a Green Beret and brandishing a traded-for rifle, he moves toward Kandahar, one of only a handful of Americans pushing forward across the desert in the company of Pashtun warriors into some of the most dangerous, yet mesmerizingly beautiful, landscape on earth.The ultimate triumph of the CIA and Special Forces teams, when absolutely everything was on the line, is tempered by the US tragedy that catalyzed what is now America’s longest war. Evans’s very personal adventure that unfolds within the pages of Foxtrot in Kandahar: A Memoir of a CIA Officer in Afghanistan at the Inception of America’s Longest War, which concludes with an analysis of opportunities lost in the years since his time in Afghanistan, should be required reading for everyone interested in modern warfare.

Gettysburg. Does any other single word in any language invoke so much passion and angst, enthusiasm and sadness, as do those ten letters? But what IS Gettysburg, exactly? I am almost embarrassed to say I discovered the answer to that question—or at least approached an answer—only late in life. Of course, Gettysburg is a small charming city nestled in south-central Pennsylvania, but in so many ways it beggars description. For about half the year its streets are mainly empty, its businesses quiet, the weather cold and blustery. For the other months, however, the place literally teems with hundreds of thousands of visitors, bustling streets and shops, and more than a handful of unique larger-than-life characters whose fan base spans the globe. And then there is the battle—the event—of the Civil War. The battle that raged there during the first days of July 1863 at the price of more than 50,000 casualties decided much (just how much depending upon who you believe) and forever stamped that place with its passion and angst and enthusiasm and its lingering, forever sadness. Its monuments and guns and plaques tell the story of the colossal clash of arms and societies, just as its National Cemetery bears silent witness to at least part of the cost of that bloody event. And somehow this “greatest little town in America,” this mammoth battle, its influential characters (living and dead), its deep meaning and profound influence on our society largely escaped me for nearly six decades. That ended a couple years ago when I finally paid a visit. My journey from the uninitiated to the fully converted only took a short time, but I felt compelled to pen my experiences as they unfolded. And so you hold in your hands Discovering Gettysburg: An Unconventional Introduction to the Greatest Little Town in America and the Monumental Battle that Made It Famous. In it, you will visit with me a host of famous and off-the-beaten-path places on the battlefield, explore the historic town of Gettysburg as it is today, chat with some of the town’s fascinating “resources,” and follow along, as I did, with some of the most engaging storytelling I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. And nowhere inside will you be bothered with footnotes or stumble your way through academic mumbo jumbo. Thankfully, my friend and award-winning cartoonist Tim Hartman agreed to provide the magnificent maps and outstanding caricatures that grace this book. Discovering Gettysburg is, I fully admit, rather unconventional. But so is the place, the event, and the experience of that hallowed ground.

Drafted by Thomas Jefferson, the logical force of the Declaration facilitated the survival of a nation. The Ultimate Guide to the Declaration of Independence explains the document more thoroughly than any book previously published. With the aid of colorized step-by-step diagrams, the authors deconstruct Jefferson’s masterpiece into the six elements of a proposition to demonstrate how the scientific method is basic to its structure. David Hirsch and Dan Van Haften, the critically acclaimed authors of Abraham Lincoln and the Structure of Reason, are the first to discover and demonstrate Jefferson’s use of the six elements of a proposition. Hirsch and Van Haften diagram and explain how six-element structure helped Jefferson organize and compose the Declaration. The result is a much deeper and richer understanding and appreciation of the Declaration that was not previously possible. This concise full-color examination of one of our nation’s most treasured and important documents is perfect for all ages and especially for those interested in history, the use of language, and logic.

This ground-breaking series is a comprehensive history that traces the “Presidential line” of the Washingtons. Volume one begins with the immigrant John Washington who settled in Westmoreland Co., Va. , in 1657, married Anne Pope, and was the great-grandfather of President George Washington. It continues the record of their descendants for a total of seven generations. Volume two is a collection of notable descendants of the next eight generations of John and Anne Washington’s descendants, including Gen. George S. Patton, author Shelby Foote, and actor Lee Marvin. Future volumes trace generations eight through fifteen, making a total of more than 63,000 descendants.Although structured in a genealogical format for the sake of clarity, this is no barebones genealogy but a true family history with more than 1,200 detailed biographical narratives. These, in turn, strive to convey the greatness of the family that produced not only The Father of His Country but many others, great and humble, who struggled to build that country. The Washingtons includes a special volume on the time-honored John Wright line, which in recent years has been challenged largely on the basis of DNA evidence, and another on the royal descents of the presidential line. A cumulative index completes the series.

In October 1863, the Union Army of the Cumberland was besieged in Chattanooga, all but surrounded by familiar opponents: The Confederate Army of Tennessee. The Federals were surviving by the narrowest of margins, thanks only to a trickle of supplies painstakingly hauled over the sketchiest of mountain roads. Soon even those quarter-rations would not suffice. Disaster was in the offing.Yet those Confederates, once jubilant at having routed the Federals at Chickamauga and driven them back into the apparent trap of Chattanooga’s trenches, found their own circumstances increasingly difficult to bear. In the immediate aftermath of their victory, the South rejoiced; the Confederacy’s own disasters of the previous summer—Vicksburg and Gettysburg—were seemingly reversed. Then came stalemate in front of those same trenches. The Confederates held the high ground, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, but they could not completely seal off Chattanooga from the north.The Union responded. Reinforcements were on the way. A new man arrived to take command: Ulysses S. Grant. Confederate General Braxton Bragg, unwilling to launch a frontal attack on Chattanooga’s defenses, sought victory elsewhere, diverting troops to East Tennessee.Battle above the Clouds by David Powell recounts the first half of the campaign to lift the siege of Chattanooga, including the opening of the “cracker line,” the unusual night battle of Wauhatchie, and one of the most dramatic battles of the entire war: Lookout Mountain.

John Bell Hood brought a hangdog look and a hardfighting spirit to the Army of Tennessee. Once one of the ablest division commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia, he found himself, by the spring of 1864, in the war’s Western Theater. Recently recovered from grievous wounds sustained at Chickamauga, he suddenly found himself thrust into command of the Confederacy’s illstarred army even as Federals pounded on the door of the Deep South’s greatest untouched city, Atlanta. His predecessor, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, had failed to stop the advance of armies under Federal commander William T. Sherman, who had pushed and maneuvered his way from Chattanooga, Tennessee, right to Atlanta’s very doorstep. Johnston had been able to do little to stop him.The crisis could not have been more acute.Hood, an aggressive risktaker, threw his men into the fray with unprecedented vigor. Sherman welcomed it.“We’ll give them all the fighting they want,” Sherman said.He proved a man of his word.In All the Fighting They Want, Georgia native Steve Davis, the world’s foremost authority on the Atlanta campaign, tells the tale of the last great struggle for the city. His Southern sensibility and his knowledge of the battle, accumulated over a lifetime of living on the ground, make this an indispensible addition to the acclaimed Emerging Civil War Series.

Confederate Courage on Other Fields: Overlooked Episodes of Leadership, Cruelty, Character, and Kindness offers four valuable but little-studied events of the Civil War. Each story explores the hardships of battle, and demonstrations of courage and other human attributes, away from the glare of well-known battlefields like Gettysburg and Shiloh. These previously untold or little-known stories compiled by Mark Crawford expand our understanding of this dreadful conflict—and of the human spirit. “Rebel Resort of the Dead” introduces readers to General Hospital Number One in Kittrell Springs, North Carolina, where hospital chaplain Rev. M. M. Marshall did his best to tend to the religious needs of severely wounded men. Marshall’s recently discovered recollections are threaded throughout this moving narrative and include many of the last words of dying soldiers.“I’ll Live Yet to Dance on That Foot!” offers the letters of Charles Blacknall, a wealthy plantation owner-turned-Confederate officer who penned candid letters back home that reveal not only an educated and passionate man, but one who is slowly being consumed by war.The astonishing tale of a personal conflict between a Union major and a Confederate colonel unfolds in “An Eye for an Eye.” The quarrel, which quickly became deeply personal, resulted in a series of vicious retaliatory killings, guerrilla warfare, the eventual intervention of president Abraham Lincoln—and the murder of one of the officers.The story of the Battle of Dinwiddie Courthouse, a bitter battle during the closing days of the war in Virginia, is told through many first-person accounts in “The South’s ‘Sunset Charge.’” In this fight, the prelude to the better-known battle of Five Forks, Federal troops put up a stout fight, despite being heavily outnumbered, with the help of their deadly repeating carbines. Few know that many Confederate soldiers were swept away and drowned there in a valiant charge across a muddy rain-swollen river.

Alex Rossino’s Six Days in September is a gripping, fast-paced account of Robert E. Lee’s 1862 campaign to win Southern independence by carrying the war north into Maryland. The thrust across the Potomac River triggered a determined Federal response when Gen. George McClellan led the reorganized and often defeated Army of the Potomac out of Washington’s defenses in pursuit of a victory on Union soil. The resulting battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg (Antietam) wreaked havoc on both armies, witnessed the bloodiest day in American history, and changed the course of the entire Civil War. Deeply researched and written with close attention to the actual events, Rossino’s seamless weaving of history and fiction transports readers into the minds of the Southern generals, the torn hearts of beleaguered civilians, and the ranks of Lee’s long-suffering soldiers who endured the agonizing horrors of Civil War combat. Six Days in September is a panoramic, sweeping account of the complex and decisive Maryland Campaign that altered the destiny of our nation.

“It could be classified as a mere skirmish, but no other fight of the entire four years’ struggle was followed by such important consequences,” explained former Confederate General Thomas Munford years after the Civil War. “It extinguished the campfires of the hitherto invincible army and was the mortal blow which caused the Southern Confederacy to perish forever.” The Battle of Five Forks broke the long siege of Petersburg, triggered the evacuation of Richmond, precipitated the Appomattox Campaign, and destroyed the careers and reputations of two generals. Michael J. McCarthy’s Confederate Waterloo is the first fully researched and unbiased booklength account of this decisive Union victory and the aftermath fought in the courts and at the bar of public opinion.General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had been locked into the sprawling defenses surrounding the logistical stronghold of Petersburg and the Southern capital at Richmond for more than eight months when General Grant struck beyond his far left flank to break the extended Rebel lines. A series of battles led up to April 1, when General Phil Sheridan’s forces struck at Five Forks. The attack surprised and collapsed General George Pickett’s Confederate command and turned Lee’s right flank. An attack along the entire front the following morning broke the siege and forced the Virginia army out of its defenses and, a week later, into Wilmer McLean’s parlor to surrender at Appomattox.Despite this decisive Union success, Five Forks spawned one of the most bitter and divisive controversies in the postwar army when Sheridan relieved Fifth Corps commander Gouverneur K. Warren for perceived failures connected to the battle. The order generated a lifelong effort by Warren and his allies to restore his reputation by demonstrating that Sheridan’s action was both unfair and dishonorable. The struggle climaxed with a Court of Inquiry that generated a more extensive record of testimony and exhibits than any other U.S. military judicial case in the 19th Century. In addition to Sheridan and Warren, participants included Gens. U. S. Grant and Winfield S. Hancock, and a startling aggregation of former Confederate officers.McCarthy’s Confederate Waterloo is grounded upon extensive research and a foundation of primary sources, including the meticulous records of a man driven to restore his honor in the eyes of his colleagues, his family, and the American public. The result is a fresh dispassionate analysis that may cause students of the Civil War to reassess their views about some of the Union’s leading generals.

General William T. Sherman’s 1865 Carolinas Campaign receives scant attention from most Civil War historians, largely because it was overshadowed by the Army of Northern Virginia’s final battles against the Army of the Potomac. Career military officers Mark A. Smith and Wade Sokolosky rectify this oversight with No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar, a careful and impartial examination of Sherman’s army and its many accomplishments.The authors dedicate their professional training and research and writing abilities to the critical days of March 11-16, 1865—the overlooked run-up to the seminal Battle of Bentonville (March 19-21, 1865). They begin with the capture of Fayetteville and the demolition of the arsenal there, before chronicling the two-day Battle of Averasboro in more detail than any other study. At Averasboro, Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee’s Confederates conducted a well-planned and brilliantly executed defense-in-depth that held Sherman’s juggernaut in check for two days. With his objective accomplished, Hardee disengaged and marched to concentrate his corps with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston for what would become Bentonville.This completely revised and updated edition of “No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar”: Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign from Fayetteville to Averasboro, March 1865 is based upon extensive archival and firsthand research. It includes new original maps, orders of battle, abundant illustrations, and a detailed driving and walking tour for dedicated battlefield enthusiasts. Readers with an interest in the Carolinas, Generals Sherman and Johnston, or the Civil War in general will enjoy this book.

Abraham Lincoln’s November 19, 1863, Gettysburg Address is generally recognized as one of the greatest leadership speeches ever written. The Ultimate Guide to the Gettysburg Address explains the 272-word speech more thoroughly than any book previously published. With the aid of colorized step-by-step diagrams, the authors deconstruct the speech into its basic elements and demonstrate how the scientific method is basic to the structure of the Gettysburg Address. Lincoln’s fascination with geometry is well documented. Authors David Hirsch and Dan Van Haften, however, are the first to discover and then demonstrate Lincoln’s use of the six elements of a proposition and then diagram and explain how his in-depth study of geometry helped him compose the Gettysburg Address. The result is a deeper and richer understanding of the Gettysburg Address that was not previously possible. This concise colour examination of one of our nation’s most treasured and important speeches is perfect for all ages and especially for those interested in history, the use of language, and logic.