All of middle Tennessee held its breath when the new year dawned in 1863.On the previous day, December 31 – the last day of 1862 – just outside Murfreesboro along Stones River, the Confederate Army of Tennessee had launched a morning attack that nearly bent the Federal Army of the Cumberland back upon itself.The two armies, nearly equal in size, had prepared identical attack plans, but the Confederates had struck first. Fighting throughout the day, amid the rocky outcroppings and cedar groves, proved desperate. Federals managed to hold on until dark, but as the last hours of the old year slipped away, the Army of the Cumberland faced possible annihilation.The armies rang in the New Year to the sounds of suffering on the battlefield, although the armies themselves remained largely still.Meanwhile, hundreds of miles to the east, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. He needed battlefield victories to bolster its authority, but thus far, those victories had eluded him. The stakes for the Army of the Cumberland, in the wake of other Federal failures were enormous.But the fighting along Stones River was not over. On January 2, Confederates launched another massive assault.In Force of a Cyclone: The Battle of Stones River, December 31, 1862-January 2, 1863, authors Caroline Davis and Bert Dunkerly explore a significant turning point of the Civil War – a battle that had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. Lincoln himself often looked back on that fragile New Year’s Day and all that was at stake. “I can never forget whilst I remember anything,” he told Federal commander Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, “that about the end of last year and the beginning of this, you gave us a hard-earned victory, which, had there been a defeat instead the nation could scarcely have lived over.”

Some, like Abraham Lincoln, Stonewall Jackson and John Reynolds, have become legendary. Others, like Earl Van Dorn, have become infamous. Some, like Albert Sidney Johnston, James McPherson, and Elmer Ellsworth, have left more questions than answers about unfulfilled potential and lost opportunities. Many – too many – have faded into obscurity. The Civil War took as many as 720,000 lives – among them, some of the best and brightest military leaders on both sides, from army commanders to beloved regimental commanders. Other leaders fell, grievously wounded, and in doing so changed the course of battles. Other leaders fell, not from death or wounds, but because of their own missteps or misdeeds. Their reputations never recovered from their falls from grace. Fallen Leaders: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War recounts the fall of some of the most famous, infamous, and under-appreciated commanders from both north and south. This collection of essays brings together the best scholarship from Emerging Civil War’s blog, symposia, and podcast – all of it revised and updated – coupled with original pieces, designed to shed new light and insight on some of the most significant casualties of the war.

In October of 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood set out through Alabama on what would be the final campaign of the Army of Tennessee. One event in particular, overlooked and misunderstood for generations, portended what was to follow and is the subject of Noel Carpenter’s Prelude to Disaster: John Bell Hood, the Army of Tennessee, and the Fatal March to Decatur. By late 1864, Hood’s army of hardened veterans had one thin ray of hope: they would somehow invade Tennessee and defeat Union General George Thomas outside Nashville in a victory that would force General William T. Sherman to follow them into Tennessee (and perhaps even Kentucky). While weighing his options for a Tennessee River crossing, however, Hood diverted his army to the town of Decatur, Alabama, a decision that undermined his own plan for a rapid move north to Nashville.In his only mention of his army’s action at Decatur, Alabama, Hood described it all in just one sentence: “While the Army turned Decatur, I ordered a slight demonstration to be made against the town till our forces passed safely beyond.” In fact, this four-day detour was a turning point that set the stage for the disastrous Tennessee Campaign that followed. In this fascinating and meticulously detailed and documented account—the first book-length study of the weighty decision to march to Decatur and the combat that followed there—the author investigates the circumstances surrounding these matters and how they overwhelmed the controversial young army commander and potentially doomed his daring campaign. Prelude to Disaster is required reading for everyone interested in the Western Theater, and especially the doomed Tennessee Campaign.

Artificial Intelligence meets Gettysburg. And it is a marvelous pairing. Author Patrick Brennan, a long-time student of the Civil War, published author, and an editorial advisor for The Civil War Monitor magazine, has teamed up with his technology-astute daughter Dylan Brennan to bring the largest Civil War battle to life in striking life-like colors in this remarkable two volume study. Rather than guess or dabble with the colors, as so many do these days, the Brennans used an artificial intelligence-based computerized color identifier to determine the precise color of uniforms, flesh, hair, equipment, terrain, houses, and much more. The result is a monumental full-color study of the important three-day battle that brings the men, the landscape, and the action into the 21st Century. The deep colorization of battle-related woodcuts, for example, reveals a plethora of details that have long passed unseen. The photos of the soldiers and their officers look as if they were taken yesterday. The use of this modern technology has also solved a couple lingering mysteries. It not only helped pinpoint the precise location of one of Gettysburg’s most famous “death” images, but determined that two of the seven “Union” dead depicted were in fact Confederates. As Pat Brennan explains, that may also be a “first” when it comes to Civil War photography: “It was long believed this was an image of seven dead Union soldiers. In fact, only five are Union men. The other two are Confederates. I am still researching the issue, but I believe this may be the only photo we have from the entire Civil War that portrays dead from both sides.” Gettysburg in Color: Vol. 1: Brandy Station to Little Round Top and Vol. 2: The Peach Orchard to Falling Waters, will be out in July 2022 and include nearly 300 photos, paintings, drawings, and woodcuts colorized utilizing the latest in color-recognition software, together with Brennan’s unique digital painting techniques, incredible 3-D maps, and his own extensive research.

June 1776: Just a month before America declared its independence from Great Britain, a British fleet of warships and thousands of British soldiers appeared off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. Following a brutal day-long battle, the most powerful navy in the world was bloodily repulsed by the Americans. In the spring of 1779, a British force brazenly marched up to Charleston from Savannah and tested the city’s defenses before falling back. Finally, in the spring of 1780, a massive British force returned to Charleston and laid siege to the city. This siege resulted in the worst defeat of the Revolutionary War for the Americans, as they lost the city and an entire army of nearly 6,000 men. After being conquered by the British, the citizens and soldiers suffered more than two years of occupation and imprisonment. However, the siege of Charleston marked the beginning of the end of the Revolutionary War. The fall of Charleston initiated a series of events that ultimately resulted with the American victory at Yorktown and the successful independence of the United States. Charleston, South Carolina is one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the United States. Numerous sites, battlefields, and buildings from the period of the Revolution still exist. In To the Last Extremity: The Battles for Charleston, historian Mark Maloy not only recounts the Revolutionary War history of Charleston, he takes you to the places where the history actually happened. He shows you where the outnumbered patriots beat back the most powerful navy in the world, where soldiers bravely defended the city in 1779 and 1780, and where thousands suffered under occupation. Through it all, brave patriots were willing to defend the city and their liberty “to the last extremity.”

General Ulysses S. Grant is best remembered today as a war-winning general, and he certainly deserves credit for his efforts on behalf of the Union. But has he received too much credit at the expense of other men? Have others who fought the war with him suffered unfairly at his hands? In General Grant and the Verdict of History: Memoir, Memory, and the Civil War, Professor Frank P. Varney examines Grant’s relationship with three noted Civil War generals: the brash and uncompromising “Fighting Joe” Hooker; George H. Thomas, the stellar commander who earned the sobriquet “Rock of Chickamauga”; and Gouverneur Kemble Warren, who served honorably and well in every major action of the Army of the Potomac before being relieved less than two weeks before Appomattox, and after he had played a prominent part in the major Union victory at Five Forks.In his earlier book General Grant and the Rewriting of History, Dr. Varney studied the tempestuous relationship between Grant and Union General William S. Rosecrans. During the war, Rosecrans was considered by many of his contemporaries to be on a par with Grant himself; today, he is largely forgotten. Rosecrans’s star dimmed, argues Varney, because Grant orchestrated the effort. In General Grant and the Verdict of History, Varney continues his study of Grant and that his memoirs have heavily shaped how the war is remembered (and written about) today.Unbeknownst to most students of the war, Grant used his official reports, interviews with the press, and his memoirs to influence how future generations would remember the war and his part in it. Aided greatly by his two terms as president, by the clarity and eloquence of his memoirs, and in particular by the dramatic backdrop against which those memoirs were written, our historical memory has been influenced to a degree greater than many realize. It is beyond time to return to the original sources—the letters and journals and reports and memoirs of other witnesses and the transcripts of courts-martial—to examine Grant’s story from a fresh perspective. The results are enlightening, and more than a little disturbing.

Irvin McDowell was a prominent figure during the early months of the Civil War. The West Point graduate was a dutiful, dependable, and diligent military officer. With so much at stake in 1861, he was called upon to lead the Union’s most prominent Eastern army. Pressed by the media and President Abraham Lincoln to move into Virginia and defeat the gathering Confederate forces, McDowell led his neophyte army to the plains of Manassas and was soundly defeated after a long day of hard fighting. Thereafter, he held a large independent command in northern Virginia during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and served in the Army of Virginia under Gen. John Pope during the disastrous Second Manassas Campaign. Despite his significant contributions, a lack of primary materials (and few personal papers) made it seemingly impossible to pen his biography. Authors Frank Simione Jr. and Gene Schmiel used available sources to create a reliable synthesis of the man and his career in Searching for Irvin McDowell: The Civil War’s Forgotten General. Unless or until his private papers surface, it will stand as the best treatment of McDowell.

The Civil War was primarily a land conflict, but it was not only that. “Nor must Uncle Sam’s web-feet be forgotten,” wrote Abraham Lincoln. “At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their tracks.” From the Arctic Circle to the Caribbean, swift Rebel raiders decimated Union commerce pursued by the U. S. Navy. Offshore, storm-tossed blockaders in hundreds of vessels patrolled from Hatteras to Galveston while occasionally lobbing a few shots at a speeding Rebel runner. Around the continental periphery, it was ships vs. powerful fortifications as titanic clashes erupted: Port Royal, New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile. Massive army-navy amphibious operations presaged twentieth-century conflicts: The Peninsula, North Carolina Sounds, Fort Fisher. In the heartland, the two services invented riverine warfare: Forts Henry and Donelson, Island No. 10, Memphis, Vicksburg. And through it all, emerging technology of the machine age played a critical role: iron armor, torpedoes, steam propulsion, heavy naval artillery. However, nothing in the history and traditions of the United States Navy had prepared it for civil war. The sea service would expand tenfold from a third-rate force to (temporarily) one of the most powerful and advanced navies. Meanwhile, former shipmates in the Confederacy struggled to construct a fleet from nothing, applying innovative technologies and underdog strategies to achieve more than anyone thought possible. Both sides faced unprecedented strategic, tactical, and technological challenges that made their navies indispensable – even as the navies themselves faced those same sorts of challenges. The Civil War on the Water: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War compiles favorite navy tales and obscure narratives by distinguished public historians of the Emerging Civil War in celebration of the organization’s tenth anniversary. This eclectic collection presents new stories and familiar battles from a unique perspective – from the water – sea, surf, and stream.

He has been accused of "studied and ingenious cruelty." By turns he has been called a savior and a barbarian, a hero and a villain, a genius and a madman. But whatever you call William Tecumseh Sherman, you must admit he is utterly fascinating. Sherman spent a lifetime in search of who he was, striving to find a place and a calling. Informally adopted by the Ewing family of Lancaster, Ohio, when his own father died when he was just nine, the young redhead lived in a spacious mansion just up the hill from his mother. Later, as a young man he would marry his adopted sister, Ellen. After attending West Point, the intrepid Ohioan found that being a soldier suited him. Yet he always seemed to miss his opportunity. The second Seminole War was in its closing days before he saw action. When the Mexican-American War broke out, he anticipated the opportunity to earn military glory only to be posted to Pittsburgh on recruiting duty. Transferred to California, he arrived too late after surviving two shipwrecks, then ended up on administrative duties. Hounded by his family to leave the military, Sherman tried banking and practicing law. Finally, he became superintendent of a new military academy in Louisiana and thought he had found his place - until civil war intervened. But after leading his troops at the battle of Bull Run, the anxious brigadier general was sent West to Kentucky. Apprehensive over the situation in the Blue Grass State, suffering from stress, insomnia and anxiety Sherman begged to be relieved. Sent home to recover, the newspapers announced he was insane. Colleagues concluded he was "gone in the head." Instead, like a phoenix, he rose from the ashes to become a hero of the republic. Forging an identity in the fire of war, the unconventional general kindled a friendship with Ulysses S. Grant and proved to everyone at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Georgia, and in the Carolinas that while he was unorthodox, he was also brilliant and creative. More than that, he was eminently successful and played an important role in Union victory. Man of Fire: William Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War tells the story of a man who found himself in war - and that, in turn, secured him a place in history. Condemned for his barbarousness or hailed for his heroics, the life of this peculiar general is nonetheless compelling - and thoroughly American.

The Battle of Wise’s (Wyse) Forks, March 7-11, 1865, has long been thought of as nothing more than an insignificant skirmish during the final days of the Civil War and relegated to a passing reference in a footnote if it is mentioned at all. Mark A. Smith’s and Wade Sokolosky’s “To Prepare for Sherman’s Coming”: The Battle of Wise’s Forks, March 1865, now in paperback for the first time, erases this misconception and elevates this battle and its related operations to the historical status it deserves. By March 1865, the Confederacy was on its last legs. Its armies were depleted, food and resources were scarce, and morale was low. Gen. Robert E. Lee was barely holding on to his extended lines around Richmond and Petersburg, and Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman was operating with nearly complete freedom in North Carolina on his way north to form a junction with Union forces in Virginia. As the authors demonstrate, the fighting that is the subject of this book came about when Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant initiated a broad military operation to assist Sherman.The responsibility for ensuring a functioning railroad from New Bern to Goldsboro rested with Maj. Gen. Jacob D. Cox. On March 2, 1865, Cox ordered his hastily assembled Provisional Corps to march toward Goldsboro. In response to Cox’s movement, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston executed a bold but risky plan to divert troops away from Sherman by turning back Cox’s advance. Under the command of the aggressive but controversial Gen. Braxton Bragg, the Confederates stood for four days and successfully halted Cox at Wise’s Forks. This delay provided Johnston with the precious time he needed to concentrate his forces and fight the large and important Battle of Bentonville.“To Prepare for Sherman’s Coming” is the result of years of careful research in a wide variety of archival sources, and relies upon official reports, diaries, newspapers, and letter collections, all tied to a keen understanding of the terrain. Sokolosky and Smith, both career army officers, have used their expertise in military affairs to produce what is not only a valuable book on Wise’s Forks, but what surely must be the definitive study of one of the Civil War’s overlooked yet significant battles. Outstanding original maps by George Skoch coupled with period photographs reinforce the quality of this account and the authors’ commitment to excellence.

Ulysses S. Grant stood at the center of the American Civil Ware maelstrom. The Ohio nature answered his nation’s call to service and finished the war as a lieutenant general in command of the U. S. Army. Three years later he ascended to the presidency in an attempt to better secure the peace he had helped win on the battlefield. Despite his major achievements in war and peace, political and sectional enemies battered his reputation. For nearly a century his military and political career remained deeply misunderstood. Since the Civil War centennial, however, Grant’s reputation has blossomed into a full renaissance. His military record garners new respect and, more recently, an appreciation for his political career—particularly his strong advocacy for civil rights—is quickly catching up. Throughout these decades his personal memoirs, marking him as a significant American “Man of Letters,” have never gone out of print. Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of

Joseph Eggleston Johnston was one of the original five full generals of the Confederacy. He graduated West Point in the same 1829 class as Robert E. Lee and served in the War with Mexico, the Seminole Wars in Florida, and in Texas and Kansas. By 1860 he was widely looked upon as one of America's finest military officers. Yet, Johnston remains an enigma. Richard McMurry's masterful The Civil Wars of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston: Volume 1: Virginia to Mississippi, 1861-1863 unlocks Johnston the general and represents a lifetime of study and thinking about the officer, his military career, and his simultaneous battles with the government in Richmond in general, and with President Jefferson Davis in particular. This first installment opens with secession and the beginning of the war and continues through his appointment as full general, his role at Manassas, his literary duel with Davis, and stewardship at the helm of the Confederacy's primary army in Virginia. After Johnston is forced back to the gates of Richmond and wounded at Fair Oaks/Seven Pines, McMurry carries his subject through recovery and into the Western Theater, where Johnston tries and fails to rescue the trapped Confederate garrison at Vicksburg, Mississippi. This installment ends on the eve of Johnston's command with the Army of Tennessee in North Georgia. Dr. McMurry weaves hundreds of primary sources, many previously unused, into an elegant prose that captures Johnston in a way that has never been accomplished. In elegant fashion, McMurry also sheds fresh light on old controversies and examines Johnston's relationships and their impact on the course of the war. Here, finally, is the definitive biography of Joe Johnston.

The discovery of Robert E. Lee’s Special Orders No. 191 outside of Frederick, Maryland, on September 13, 1862, is one of the most important and hotly disputed events of the American Civil War. For more than 150 years, historians have debated if George McClellan, commander of the Union Army of the Potomac, dawdled upon receiving a copy of the orders before advancing to challenge Lee’s forces at the Battle of South Mountain. In this detailed new study, authors Gene Thorp and Alexander Rossino exhaustively document how ‘Little Mac’ rapidly reorganized his army, advanced on Frederick with more speed than previously thought, and then moved with uncharacteristic energy to take advantage of Lee’s divided forces. These actions enabled McClellan to strike a blow that wrecked Lee’s plans for a decisive battle on his own terms and sent the Army of Northern Virginia reeling back toward the Potomac River. The Tale Untwisted: General George B. McClellan, the Maryland Campaign, and the Discovery of Lee’s Lost Orders proposes a rich, new interpretation of the fate and impact of the Lost Orders on the history of the 1862 Maryland Campaign.

Artificial Intelligence meets Gettysburg. And it is a marvelous pairing. Author Patrick Brennan, a long-time student of the Civil War, published author, and an editorial advisor for The Civil War Monitor magazine, has teamed up with his technology-astute daughter Dylan Brennan to bring the largest Civil War battle to life in striking life-like colors in this remarkable two volume study. Rather than guess or dabble with the colors, as so many do these days, the Brennans used an artificial intelligence-based computerized color identifier to determine the precise color of uniforms, flesh, hair, equipment, terrain, houses, and much more. The result is a monumental full-color study of the important three-day battle that brings the men, the landscape, and the action into the 21st Century. The deep colorization of battle-related woodcuts, for example, reveals a plethora of details that have long passed unseen. The photos of the soldiers and their officers look as if they were taken yesterday. The use of this modern technology has also solved a couple lingering mysteries. It not only helped pinpoint the precise location of one of Gettysburg’s most famous “death” images, but determined that two of the seven “Union” dead depicted were in fact Confederates. As Pat Brennan explains, that may also be a “first” when it comes to Civil War photography: “It was long believed this was an image of seven dead Union soldiers. In fact, only five are Union men. The other two are Confederates. I am still researching the issue, but I believe this may be the only photo we have from the entire Civil War that portrays dead from both sides.” Gettysburg in Color: Vol. 1: Brandy Station to Little Round Top and Vol. 2: The Peach Orchard to Falling Waters, will be out in July 2022 and include nearly 300 photos, paintings, drawings, and woodcuts colorized utilizing the latest in color-recognition software, together with Brennan’s unique digital painting techniques, incredible 3-D maps, and his own extensive research.

Thundering across the screen, Judah Ben-Hur’s iconic chariot race against his former friend turned bitter foe remains an indelible part of cinematic history and established Charlton Heston as an international superstar. In many ways the race was a metaphor for the actor’s dynamic life, symbolizing his struggle to establish himself in his profession. Brian Steel Wills captures for the first time a comprehensive view of the actor’s climb to fame, his search for the perfect performance, and the meaningful roles he played in support of the causes he embraced. The actor was born and raised in the Michigan woodlands and suburbs of Chicago, where he found his love of acting in the books he read and the movies he saw. 'Chuck' Heston’s introduction to the craft that would become his life’s work began at New Trier High School and spilled over into Northwestern University. The Second World War interrupted his journey when he served his country, after which he and his wife Lydia headed to Asheville, North Carolina, where they both acted and directed in theatre. The lights of New York City and Broadway beckoned, and live television offered an important platform, but Hollywood and feature films were his destiny. His roles were as varied as they were powerful, and included stints as Moses, Ben-Hur, El Cid, Michelangelo, Mike Vargas, and Charles 'Chinese' Gordon under legendary directors like Cecil B. DeMille, William Wyler, Franklin Schaffner, and Orson Welles. He shifted to science fiction in Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green, a wide range of action and disaster films, and more nuanced roles such as Will Penny. Over his decades of performance Heston defined and redefined his 'public face' in a constant quest for an audience for his work. He undertook wide-ranging public service roles for the government, the arts, and other causes. His leadership in the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute carried him from Hollywood to the halls of Congress. He became an outspoken advocate of the arts and other public and charitable causes, marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, and supported Second Amendment rights with the National Rifle Association. He did so even when his positions often clashed with other actors on issues ranging from nuclear arms, national security, and gun rights. The proud independent shifted decidedly to the Republican Party and appeared at political rallies and conventions, but rebuffed calls to run for office in favour of assuming similar roles on the big screen. Award-winning historian Brian Steel Wills digs deep to paint a rich portrait of Heston’s extraordinary life – a mix of complications and complexities that touched film, television, theatre, politics, and society. His carefully crafted 'public face' was impactful in more ways than the ordinarily shy and private family man could have ever imagined.

Nearly 4,700 Confederate soldiers are known to have dies as a result of the Battle of Gettysburg. Confederates Killed in Action at Gettysburg, by historian Gregory A. Coco, offers a selection of 50 stories, each describing the last moments of a soldier’s life from Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. The accounts are as haunting as they are informative.