Today, the Civil War echoes from the past through Winchester’s streets, buildings, and landscape. Structures such as the historic Frederick County Courthouse and the Taylor Hotel, which served various roles during the conflict, provide tangible connections to the experiences of civilians and soldiers in a community that changed hands dozens of times, was the scene of three major battles, and endured countless raids and skirmishes. The site of Unionist Rebecca Wright’s residence offers a po...

This biography explores General Philip H. Sheridan’s impact on the United States during and after the tumultuous Civil War era, offering a new insight into Sheridan’s changing perspectives on leadership and war, and how various individuals, including family, authors, artists, and entrepreneurs, shaped Sheridan’s legacy after his death in the summer of 1888.The son of Irish immigrants, Sheridan played a critical role in crushing the Confederacy during the Civil War, fighting to ensu...

The African American experience in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through ReconstructionThis book examines the complexities of life for African Americans in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. Although the Valley was a site of fierce conflicts during the Civil War and its military activity has been extensively studied, scholars have largely ignored the Black experience in the region until now....

Nestled between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia's Shenandoah Valley enjoyed tremendous prosperity before the Civil War. This valuable stretch of land--called the Breadbasket of the Confederacy due to its rich soil and ample harvests--became the source of many conflicts between the Confederate and Union armies. Of the thirteen major battles fought here, none was more influential than the Battle of Cedar Creek. On October 19, 1864, General Philip Sheridan's Union troops fina...

A fascinating documentation of the Battle of Fisher's Hill, explaining this pivotal Civil War battle and its implications for nearby civilians. The Battle of Fisher's Hill created a greater opportunity to destroy harvests from the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy" than any other Union victory in the hotly contested Shenandoah Valley. Union major general Philip Sheridan's men forced Confederate lieutenant general Jubal A. Early's smaller force to retreat, leading to the burning of barns and ...

This book examines the complexities of life for African Americans in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. Although the Valley was a site of fierce conflicts during the Civil War and its military activity has been extensively studied, scholars have largely ignored the Black experience in the region until now.Correcting previous assumptions that slavery was not important to the Valley, and that enslaved people were treated better there than ...

Author Jonathan Noyalas's study offers not only a history of an overlooked engagement in the oft-contested Shenandoah Valley, but—as Pulitzer Prize finalist Brian Matthew Jordan notes in the book's Foreword—"a keen reminder that Civil War battles are rich laboratories in which to observe the human experience in all its complexity." Decades after the Civil War's end, Confederate veteran John Alexander Stikeleather reflected on his experiences as a soldier in the 4th North Carolina Infantry....

In recent years, Civil War veterans have emerged from historical obscurity. Inspired by recent interest in memory studies and energized by the ongoing neorevisionist turn, a vibrant new literature has given the lie to the once-obligatory lament that the postbellum lives of Civil War soldiers were irretrievable. Despite this flood of historical scholarship, fundamental questions about the essential character of Civil War veteranhood remain unanswered. Moreover, because work on veterans has ...

**Winner of the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military HistoryAn Economist Best Book of the YearA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year**The Battle of Gettysburg has been written about at length and thoroughly dissected in terms of strategic importance, but never before has a book taken readers so close to the experience of the individual soldier.Two-time Lincoln Prize winner Allen C. Guelzo shows us the face, the sights and the sou...

This National Bestseller is a "gripping narrative. . . . the best one-volume history of the decisive battle of the Civil War" ( New York Times Book Review ).America's Civil War raged for more than four years, but it is the three days of fighting in the Pennsylvania countryside in July 1863 that continues to fascinate, appall, and inspire new generations with its unparalleled saga of sacrifice and courage. From Chancellorsv...

A comprehensive collection of Civil War maps and battle plans that brought Union and Confederate forces to the largest battle ever fought on American soil.Thousands of books and articles have been written about Gettysburg—but the military operation itself remains one of the most complex and difficult to understand. Here, Bradley M. Gottfried gives readers a unique and thorough study of the campaign that decided the fate of a nation.Enriched with 144 detaile...

There have been thousands of books put out about the Civil War, but none by a Civil War Buff, so I wrote one. This book was a produce of five years' work and puts the war in a way that casual fans of the war will be surprised at what took place. This book is in three parts: Civil War Timeline: the events, battles, politics, and personal observations of those who were a part of the war. Things that any good soldier of the Civil War should know: the weapons, uniforms, food, duties, marching,...