15 minute read
Savas Beatie
Thunder in the Harbor
Fort Sumter and the Civil War Richard W. Hatcher, III
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$32.95 • Hardback • 336 pages • 6x9 50 Images, 3 maps • May 2022 HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-593-9
Fort Sumter. Charleston. April 1861. The bombardment and surrender of Sumter were only the beginning of the story. Both sides understood the military significance of the fort and the busy seaport, which played host to one of the longest and most complicated campaigns of the entire Civil War. Richard Hatcher’s Thunder in the Harbor is the first modern monograph to document the role of both the fort and the city throughout the entire Civil War. Nearly 18 months of shelling had rendered Fort Sumter almost unrecognizable, but the significance of its location remained. During the eight decades that followed, the United States invested millions of dollars and thousands of hours rebuilding and rearming the fort to face potential foreign threats in three different wars. Hatcher, the former historian at Fort Sumter, mined a host of primary sources to produce an in-depth and fascinating account of the intricacies, complexities, and importance of this campaign to the overall war effort.
The Army of Northern Virginia’s and Army of the Potomac’s March to Gettysburg Volume 1: June 3-22, 1863 Eric J. Wittenberg Scott L. Mingus Sr.
$34.95 • Hardback • 432 pages • 6x9 50 images, 20 maps • June 2022 HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-584-7 Eric J. Wittenberg lives in OH Scott L. Mingus Sr. lives in York, PA
Scott L. Mingus Sr. and Eric J. Wittenberg, the authors of more than forty Civil War books, have once again teamed up to present a history of the opening moves of the Gettysburg Campaign in the two-volume study “If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania”: The Army of Northern Virginia’s and Army of the Potomac’s March to Gettysburg. This compelling study is one of the first to integrate the military, media, political, social, economic, and civilian perspectives with rank-and-file accounts from the soldiers of both armies as they inexorably march toward their destiny at Gettysburg. This first installment covers June 3-22, 1863, while the second, spanning June 22-30, completes the march and carries the armies to the eve of the fighting.
$34.95 • Hardback • 384 pages • 6x9 10 images, 6 maps • October 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-61121-592-2 Richard M. McMurry lives in Dalton, GA
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.
Thirteen Months in Dixie, or, the Adventures of a Federal Prisoner in Texas
Including the Red River Campaign, Imprisonment at Camp Ford, and Escape Overland to Liberated Shreveport, 1864-1865 Jeaninne Surette Honstein Steven A. Knowlton
$18.95 • Hardback • 168 pages • 6x9 • 18 images, 3 maps • May 2022 BIO008000 • 978-1-61121-588-5 • Jeaninne Surette Honstein lives in Princeton, NJ • Steven A. Knowlton lives in Princeton, NJ
Thirteen Months in Dixie recounts Oscar Federhen’s often horrifying and sometimes thrilling ordeals as a starving prisoner of war. The captured artillerist tried to escape many times and faced sadistic guards and vicious hounds before making good his deadly effort. Making his way back to Union lines forced him to range cross-country through northeast Texas. He had to dodge regular Confederates, irregulars, and Comanches, but was captured a second time and escaped yet again, finally witnessing the collapse of Confederate army in the spring of 1865 in freedom. This is not only a gripping true story of courage, adventure, and devotion to duty, but a valuable primary source about the lives of Civil War prisoners.
Man of Fire
William Tecumseh Sherman in the Civil War Derek D. Maxfield
Emerging Civil War Series • $14.95 • Paperback 192 pages • 6x9 • 150 images, 10 maps June 2022 • BIO008000 • 978-1-61121-599-1 Derek D. Maxfield lives in Churchville, NY
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.
John Brown’s Raid
Harpers Ferry and the Coming of the Civil War, October 16-18, 1859 Jon-Erik M. Gilot Kevin R. Pawlak
Emerging Civil War Series • $14.95 • Paperback 192 pages • 6x9 • 150 images, 10 maps June 2022 • HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-597-7 Jon-Erik M. Gilot lives in Wheeling, WV Kevin R. Pawlak lives in Manassas, VA
The first shot of the American Civil War was not fired on April 12, 1861, in Charleston, South Carolina, but instead came on October 16, 1859, in Harpers Ferry, Virginia—or so claimed former slave turned abolitionist Frederick Douglass. John Brown, the infamous fighter on the Kansas plains and detester of slavery, led a band of nineteen men on a desperate nighttime raid that targeted the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. There, they planned to begin a war to end slavery in the United States. But after 36 tumultuous hours, John Brown’s Raid failed, and Brown himself became a prisoner of the state of Virginia. Brown’s subsequent trial further divided north and south on the issue of slavery as Brown justified his violent actions to a national audience forced to choose sides. Ultimately, Southerners cheered Brown’s death at the gallows while Northerners observed it with reverence. The nation’s dividing line had been drawn. Herman Melville and Walt Whitman extolled Brown as a “meteor” of the war. Roughly one year after Brown and his men attacked slavery in Virginia, the nation split apart, fueled by Brown’s fiery actions.
Six Miles from Charleston, Five Minutes to Hell
The Battle of Seccessionville James A. Morgan III
Emerging Civil War Series • $14.95 • Paperback 192 pages • 6x9 • 150 images, 10 maps June 2022 • HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-601-1
The small, curiously named village of Secessionville, just outside of Charleston, South Carolina was the site of an early war skirmish, the consequences of which might have been enormous had the outcome been different. It quickly would be forgotten, however, as the Seven Days battles, fought shortly afterward and far to the north, attracted the attention of Americans on both sides of the conflict. The battle at Secessionville was as bloody and hard fought as any similar sized encounter during the war. But it was poorly planned and poorly led by the Union commanders whose behavior did not do justice to the courage of their men. That courage was acknowledged by Confederate Lt. Iredell Jones who wrote, “let us never again disparage our enemy and call them cowards, for nothing was ever more glorious than their three charges in the face of a raking fire of grape and canister.” For the Federals, the campaign on James Island was a joint Army-Navy operation which suffered from inter-service rivalries and no small amount of mutual contempt. In Six Miles from Charleston, Five Minutes to Hell, historian Jim Morgan examines the lead up to the James Island campaign as well as the skirmish itself on June 16, 1862 and its aftermath.
When Hell Came to Sharpsburg
$34.95 • Hardback • 384 pages • 6x9 35 images, 8 maps • May 2022 HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-590-8 Steven Cowie lives in Knoxville, TN
The Battle of Antietam, fought in and around Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day in American history. Despite the large number of books and articles on the subject, the horrendous effect that the battle had on area civilians is rarely discussed. When Hell Came to Sharpsburg: The Battle of Antietam and its Impact on the Civilians Who Called it Home by Steven Cowie rectifies this oversight. When Hell Came to Sharpsburg investigates how the battle and its armies wreaked emotional, physical, and financial havoc on the people of Sharpsburg. For proper context, the author explores the savage struggle and its gory aftermath and explains how soldiers stripped the community of resources and spread diseases.
The Maps of Spotsylvania through Cold Harbor
An Atlas of the Fighting at Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor, Including all Cavalry Operations, May 7 through June 3, 1864 Bradley M. Gottfried
Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series $37.95 • Hardback • 352 pages 7x10 • 134 maps • June 2022 • HIS036050 978-1-61121-586-1 • Bradley M. Gottfried lives in MD
The Maps of Spotsylvania through Cold Harbor breaks down the entire operation into thirty-five map sets or “action sections” enriched with 134 detailed full-page color maps. These cartographic originals bore down to the regimental and battery level and include the march to and from the battlefields and virtually every significant event in between. This unique presentation allows readers to easily and quickly find a map and text on any portion of the campaign, from the march to Spotsylvania Court House to Cold Harbor.
The Maryland Campaign of September 1862
Volume I -
$24.95 • Paperback • 576 pages • 6x9 images, 22 maps • May 2022 • HIS036050 978-1-61121-605-9 Thomas G. Clemens lives in Keedysville, MD
When Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland in September 1862, the campaign included some of the most influential combat of the entire Civil War. One of the campaign’s participants was Ezra A. Carman, who wrote an 1,800-page manuscript on the campaign.
Thomas Clemens has spent more than two decades editing and richly annotating Carman’s exhaustively written manuscript. The result is The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, published for the first time in three volumes. 106
The Maryland Campaign of September 1862
$26.95 • Paperback • 696 pages • 6x9 16 photos, 63 maps • May 2022 • HIS036050 978-1-61121-606-6 Thomas G. Clemens lives in Keedysville, MD
Antietam is the eagerly awaited second volume of Ezra Carman’s magisterial The Maryland Campaign of September 1862. Many have written about the climactic September 17 battle, but it is impossible to do so without referencing Carman’s definitive manuscript. Carman’s prose is augmented by his detailed maps of the dawn to nearly dusk fighting on September 17, which have never appeared in their original form in any book on the battle.
The Maryland Campaign of September 1862
Volume III - Shepherdstown Ford and the End of the Campaign General Ezra A. Carman Thomas G. Clemens
$22.95 • Paperback • 336 pages • 6x9 images, 4 maps • May 2022 • HIS036050 978-1-61121-607-3 Thomas G. Clemens lives in Keedysville, MD
The third and final volume of Ezra Carman’s magisterial The Maryland Campaign of September 1862. This study concludes with Dr. Clemens’ invaluable bibliographical dictionary, a genealogical goldmine of personal information about the soldiers, politicians, and diplomats who had an impact on shaping Carman’s manuscript.
War in the Western Theater
Emerging Civil War Anniversary Series $29.95 • Hardback • 312 pages • 6x9 100 images, 10 maps • June 2022 HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-596-0 Chris Mackowski lives in NY Sarah Kay Bierle lives in Temecula, CA
Often relegated to a backseat by action in the Eastern Theater, the Western Theater is actually where the Federal armies won the Civil War. In the Eastern Theater, the principal armies fought largely within a 100-mile corridor between the capitals of Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, with a few ill-fated Confederate invasions north of the Mason-Dixon Line. The Western Theater, in contrast, included the entire area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, from Kentucky in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south—a vast geographic expanse that, even today, can be challenging to understand. The Western Theater of War revisits some of the Civil War’s most legendary battlefields: Shiloh, Chickamauga, Franklin, the March to the Sea, and more.
The Second Battle of Winchester
The Confederate Victory That Opened the Door to Gettysburg Eric J. Wittenberg Scott L. Mingus Sr.
$24.95 • Paperback • 528 pages 6x9 76 images, 18 maps • April 2022 HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-604-2 Eric J. Wittenberg lives in OH Scott L. Mingus Sr. lives in York, PA
Milroy, a veteran Indiana politician-turned-soldier, was convinced Lee’s approaching Army of Northern Virginia consisted of nothing more than cavalry or was merely a feint, and so defied repeated instructions to withdraw, costing Milroy hundreds of killed and wounded and about 4,000 captured (roughly one-half of his command), with the remainder routed from the battlefield. Today, the Second Battle of Winchester is largely forgotten. But in June 1863, the politically charged front-page news caught President Lincoln and the War Department by surprise and forever tarnished Milroy’s career. The beleaguered Federal soldiers who fought there spent a lifetime seeking redemption, arguing their three-day “forlorn hope” delayed the Rebels long enough to allow the Army of the Potomac to arrive and defeat Lee at Gettysburg. For the Confederates, the decisive leadership masked significant command issues that would become painfully evident during the early days of July on a different battlefield in Pennsylvania.
Grant vs Lee
Emerging Civil War Anniversary Series • $29.95 • Hardback 312 pages • 6x9 100 images, 10 maps • April 2022 HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-595-3 Chris Mackowski lives in NY Dan Welch lives in Gettysburg, PA
By the spring of 1864, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia had become battle-hardened, battle-weary foes locked in an ongoing stalemate. Abraham Lincoln needed to break the deadlock and so brought to the east the unassuming “dust-covered man” who had strung together victory after victory in the west: Ulysses S. Grant. Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant would come to symbolize the armies they led as the spring campaign got underway, and the clash that began in the Virginia Wilderness on May 5, 1864, turned into a long, desperate deathmatch that inexorably led to Appomattox Court House eleven months later. The war would come to an end, but at what cost along the way?
Defending the Arteries of Rebellion
Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi River Valley, 1861-1865 Neil P. Chatelain
$22.95 • Paperback • 336 pages 6x9 42 images, 8 maps • April 2022 HIS036050 • 978-1-61121-603-5 Neil P. Chatelain lives in Humble, TX
Most studies of the Mississippi River focus on Union campaigns to open and control it, overlooking Southern attempts to stop them. Now in paperback, Neil Chatelain’s Defending the Arteries of Rebellion is the other side of the story. Confederate President Jefferson Davis realized the value of the Mississippi River and its entire valley, which he described as the “great artery of the Confederacy.” To protect these arteries of rebellion, Southern strategy called for crafting a ring of powerful fortifications supported by naval forces. Different military branches, however, including the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Revenue Service, as well as civilian privateers and even state naval forces, competed for scarce resources to operate their own vessels. A lack of industrial capacity, coupled with a dearth of skilled labor, further complicated Confederate efforts and guaranteed the South’s grand vision of deploying dozens of river gunboats and powerful ironclads would never be fully realized.
