Author: Gustavus Woodson Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Author: James A. Morgan
Publisher: Emerging Civil War
ISBN: 9781611216011
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
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. Brig. Gen. David Hunter, the overall Union commander, lost interest in the campaign and turned effective control over to his subordinate Brig. Gen. Henry Benham whose ego and abrasive personality was a significant problem for the officers who served directly under him. On the Confederate side were men like John C. Pemberton, oddly enough a West Point classmate of Benham, who never gained the respect of his subordinates either. The civilian authorities diligently worked behind his back to have him relieved and replaced. He did, however, oversee the construction of a formidable line of defensive works which proved strong enough in the end to save Charleston for much of the war. 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. By including several original sources not previously explored, he takes a fresh look at this small, but potentially game-changing fight, and shows that it was of much more than merely local interest at the time.

Author: Jim Stempel
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786485604
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
It is commonly accepted that the South could never have won the Civil War. By chronicling perhaps the best of the South's limited opportunities to turn the tide, this provocative study argues that Confederate victory was indeed possible. On June 30, 1862, at a small Virginia crossroads known as Glendale, Confederate forces under Robert E. Lee sliced the retreating Army of the Potomac in two and came remarkably close to destroying their Federal foe. Only a string of command miscues on the part of the Confederates--and a stunning command failure by Stonewall Jackson--enabled the Union army to escape a defeat that day, one that may well have vaulted the South to its independence. Never before or after would the Confederacy come as close to transforming American history as it did at the Battle of Glendale.

Author: Brian K. Burton
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253339638
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 550

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Book Description
McClellan's defeat meant that his dream of bringing the United States together as it was before the outbreak of the war was gone forever, and the country's very nature changed as a result."--BOOK JACKET.

Author: Michael C. Hardy
Publisher: McFarland Publishing
ISBN: 9780786469208
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
After a year of fighting, armies on both sides of the American Civil War had abandoned their early optimism regarding a swift conclusion. Beset by military and political pressures, General George B. McClellan committed his Army of the Potomac to the Peninsula Campaign, with the ultimate goal of capturing Richmond and destroying the surrounding Confederates. Hampered by Lincoln's demand for troops to protect Washington, a limited Union Army engaged Confederate forces in a series of engagements in and around the community of Hanover Court House, Virginia, eventually forcing a Confederate retreat but missing the critical opportunity to press on and capture Richmond. It was an opportunity that would never come again, leading to three more years of protracted conflict, the rise of Robert E. Lee as Confederate commander, and a missed chance that haunted McClellan for the rest of his life.

Author: Stephen W. Sears
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618127139
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
Recounts General McClellan's attempt to capture Richmond by advancing up the Virginia peninsula from Yorktown, and how the campaign failed when Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee expelled the Union forces from the peninsula.

Author: George Brinton McClellan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 710

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Book Description
The Civil War memoirs of Lincoln's controversial commander of the Army of the Potomac, with steel-engraved frontispiece portrait, nine illustrations, 3 maps and a two-page facsimile letter; spine and cover corners mended with green mending tape.

Author: Hampton Newsome
Publisher: Civil War Soldiers and Strateg
ISBN: 9781606351321
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
In the fall of 1864, the Civil War's outcome rested largely on Abraham Lincoln's success in the upcoming residential election. As the contest approached, cautious optimism buoyed the President's supporters in the wake of Union victories at Atlanta and in the Shenandoah Valley. With all eyes on the upcoming election, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant conducted a series of large-scale military operations outside Richmond and Petersburg, whichhave, until now, received little attention. Drawing on an array of original sources, Newsome focuses on the October battles themselves, examining the plans for the operations, the decisions made by commanders on the battlefield, and the soldiers' view from the ground. At the same time, he places these military actions in the larger political context of the fall of 1864. With the election looming, neither side could afford a defeat at Richmond or Petersburg. Nevertheless, Grant and Lee were willing to take significant risks to seek great advantage. These military events set the groundwork for operations that would close the war in Virginia several months later.

Author: Robert P. Broadwater
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786485434
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
In the spring of 1862, Union Major General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac launched a bloody offensive up the Virginia Peninsula in an effort to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. This study chronicles the pivotal but often overlooked turning point of the Peninsula Campaign--the Battle of Fair Oaks, also known as Seven Pines. At Fair Oaks, Confederate troops succeeded in driving back Union forces from the edge of Richmond before the Union troops stabilized their position. Though both sides claimed victory, the battle marked the end of the Union offensive. Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, and Winfield Scott Hancock all rose to national prominence for their roles at Fair Oaks, while McClellan saw his reputation ruined. In the end, the legacy of Fair Oaks is one of missed chances and faulty execution, ensuring the war would continue for nearly three more years.

Author: James Longstreet
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 804

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