Faces of Union Soldiers at Antietam

Faces of Union Soldiers at Antietam PDF Author: Joseph Stahl & Matthew Borders
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467142786
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
The Battle of Antietam, fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, was the bloodiest day in American history, with more than twenty-three thousand dead, wounded and missing. This book invites the reader to walk the routes of some of the units on the field through the stories of thirty-six individual soldiers who fought on that day. The images of the soldiers in this work, many of which have never been published before, give faces to the fighting men at Antietam, as well as insight into their lives. Join Matthew Borders and Joseph Stahl as they share their expertise and grant glimpses into the lives of those who fought to preserve the Union.

Faces of Union Soldiers at South Mountain and Harpers Ferry

Faces of Union Soldiers at South Mountain and Harpers Ferry PDF Author: Matthew Borders
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467147435
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
The first Confederate invasion of the North in the fall of 1862 led to a series of engagements known as the Maryland Campaign. Though best remembered for its climax, there was desperate fighting at both South Mountain and Harpers Ferry prior to the bloodletting at Antietam Creek. These battles in particular were desperate affairs of bloody attacks and determined defense. In this work are the images of thirty Union soldiers, published here for the first time, that help give a face and a history to those men who struggled up the slopes of South Mountain or sheltered from Confederate cannons at Harpers Ferry. Join Matthew Borders and Joseph Stahl as they introduce you to these men, their battles and their stories.

Faces of Union Soldiers at Fredericksburg

Faces of Union Soldiers at Fredericksburg PDF Author: Joseph Stahl & Matthew Borders
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467151270
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Look into the eyes of these soldiers and see the faces of those who dared to stare into the face of Death. The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought December 11-15, 1862, is often remembered for the seemingly futile attacks by the Army of the Potomac against dug in Confederates on Marye's Heights. Less well understood is the fighting south of the heights on what has become known as Slaughter Pen Farm. In this work the images of thirty Union soldiers are published for the first time. They give a face and history to those men who struggled across that bloody landscape, as well as to those that charged up the slope of Marye's Heights into Confederate fire. Authors Matthew Borders and Joseph Stahl introduce you to these men, their stories and their sacrifice on the bullet swept battlefield of Fredericksburg.

Faces of the Civil War

Faces of the Civil War PDF Author: Ronald S Coddington
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
ISBN: 1421410397
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Book Description
Archival images and biographical sketches of Union soldiers tell the stories of their lives during and after the Civil War. Before leaving to fight in the Civil War, many Union and Confederate soldiers posed for a carte de visite, or visiting card, to give to their families, friends, or sweethearts. Invented in 1854 by a French photographer, the carte de visite was a small photographic print roughly the size of a modern trading card. The format arrived in America on the eve of the Civil War, fueling intense demand for the keepsakes. Many cards of Civil War soldiers survive today, but the experiences?and often the names?of the individuals portrayed have been lost to time. A passionate collector of Civil War–era photography, Ron Coddington researched the history behind these anonymous faces in military records, pension files, and other public and personal documents. In Faces of the Civil War, Coddington presents 77 cartes de visite of Union soldiers from his collection and tells the stories of their lives during and after the war. These soldiers came from all walks of life. All were volunteers. Their personal stories reveal a tremendous diversity in their experience of war: many served with distinction, some were captured, some never saw combat while others saw little else. The lives of survivors were even more disparate. While some made successful transitions back to civilian life, others suffered permanent physical and mental disabilities, which too often wrecked their families and careers. In compelling words and haunting pictures, Faces of the Civil War offers a unique perspective on the most dramatic and wrenching period in American history.

Crossroads of Freedom

Crossroads of Freedom PDF Author: James M. McPherson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199830908
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
The Battle of Antietam, fought on September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest single day in American history, with more than 6,000 soldiers killed--four times the number lost on D-Day, and twice the number killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks. In Crossroads of Freedom, America's most eminent Civil War historian, James M. McPherson, paints a masterful account of this pivotal battle, the events that led up to it, and its aftermath. As McPherson shows, by September 1862 the survival of the United States was in doubt. The Union had suffered a string of defeats, and Robert E. Lee's army was in Maryland, poised to threaten Washington. The British government was openly talking of recognizing the Confederacy and brokering a peace between North and South. Northern armies and voters were demoralized. And Lincoln had shelved his proposed edict of emancipation months before, waiting for a victory that had not come--that some thought would never come. Both Confederate and Union troops knew the war was at a crossroads, that they were marching toward a decisive battle. It came along the ridges and in the woods and cornfields between Antietam Creek and the Potomac River. Valor, misjudgment, and astonishing coincidence all played a role in the outcome. McPherson vividly describes a day of savage fighting in locales that became forever famous--The Cornfield, the Dunkard Church, the West Woods, and Bloody Lane. Lee's battered army escaped to fight another day, but Antietam was a critical victory for the Union. It restored morale in the North and kept Lincoln's party in control of Congress. It crushed Confederate hopes of British intervention. And it freed Lincoln to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation, which instantly changed the character of the war. McPherson brilliantly weaves these strands of diplomatic, political, and military history into a compact, swift-moving narrative that shows why America's bloodiest day is, indeed, a turning point in our history.

Connecticut Yankees at Antietam

Connecticut Yankees at Antietam PDF Author: John Banks
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1614239835
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

Book Description
Stories of New England soldiers who perished in this bloody battle, based on their diaries and letters. The Battle of Antietam, in September 1862, was the single bloodiest day of the Civil War. In the intense conflict and its aftermath across the farm fields and woodlots near Sharpsburg, Maryland, more than two hundred men from Connecticut died. Their grave sites are scattered throughout the Nutmeg State, from Willington to Madison and Brooklyn to Bristol. Here, author John Banks chronicles their mostly forgotten stories using diaries, pension records, and soldiers’ letters. Learn of Henry Adams, a twenty-two-year-old private from East Windsor who lay incapacitated in a cornfield for nearly two days before he was found; Private Horace Lay of Hartford, who died with his wife by his side in a small church that served as a hospital after the battle; and Captain Frederick Barber of Manchester, who survived a field operation only to die days later. This book tells the stories of these and many more brave Yankees who fought in the fields of Antietam. Includes photos

Faces of Union Soldiers at Culp's Hill

Faces of Union Soldiers at Culp's Hill PDF Author: Joseph Stahl
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439678448
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
The most pivotal deffensive line in the most pivotal battle in the history of America. The fighting at Culp's Hill during the Battle of Gettysburg was some of the fiercest during the bloody battle, and holding the hill, for the Union, was essential not only for victory in battle, but protecting the country as a whole. Authors Matthew Borders and Joseph Stahl present intimate portraits of twenty-eight soldiers who defended Culp's Hill, including in-depth analysis of never before published images and harrowing accounts of heroism in the fight to save the Union.

To Antietam Creek

To Antietam Creek PDF Author: D. Scott Hartwig
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421408767
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 808

Book Description
A richly detailed account of the hard-fought campaign that led to Antietam Creek and changed the course of the Civil War. In early September 1862 thousands of Union soldiers huddled within the defenses of Washington, disorganized and discouraged from their recent defeat at Second Manassas. Confederate General Robert E. Lee then led his tough and confident Army of Northern Virginia into Maryland in a bold gamble to force a showdown that could win Southern independence. The future of the Union hung in the balance. The campaign that followed lasted only two weeks, but it changed the course of the Civil War. D. Scott Hartwig delivers a riveting first installment of a two-volume study of the campaign and climactic battle. It takes the reader from the controversial return of George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac through the Confederate invasion, the siege and capture of Harpers Ferry, the daylong Battle of South Mountain, and, ultimately, to the eve of the great and terrible Battle of Antietam.

The Long Road to Antietam

The Long Road to Antietam PDF Author: Richard Slotkin
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0871406659
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A masterful account of the Civil War's turning point in the tradition of James McPherson's Crossroads of Freedom. In the summer of 1862, after a year of protracted fighting, Abraham Lincoln decided on a radical change of strategy—one that abandoned hope for a compromise peace and committed the nation to all-out war. The centerpiece of that new strategy was the Emancipation Proclamation: an unprecedented use of federal power that would revolutionize Southern society. In The Long Road to Antietam, Richard Slotkin, a renowned cultural historian, reexamines the challenges that Lincoln encountered during that anguished summer 150 years ago. In an original and incisive study of character, Slotkin re-creates the showdown between Lincoln and General George McClellan, the “Young Napoleon” whose opposition to Lincoln included obsessive fantasies of dictatorship and a military coup. He brings to three-dimensional life their ruinous conflict, demonstrating how their political struggle provided Confederate General Robert E. Lee with his best opportunity to win the war, in the grand offensive that ended in September of 1862 at the bloody Battle of Antietam.

Cedar Mountain to Antietam

Cedar Mountain to Antietam PDF Author: M. Chris Bryan
Publisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 1611215781
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 409

Book Description
This history of the Union XII Corps “skillfully weaves firsthand accounts into a compelling story about the triumphs and defeats of this venerable unit” (Bradley M. Gottfried, author of The Maps of Antietam). The diminutive Union XII Corps found significant success on the field at Antietam. Its soldiers swept through the East Woods and the Miller Cornfield—permanently clearing both of Confederates—repelled multiple Southern assaults against the Dunker Church plateau, and eventually secured a foothold in the West Woods. This important piece of high ground had been the Union objective all morning, and its occupation threatened the center and rear of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s embattled Army of Northern Virginia. Yet federal leadership largely ignored this signal achievement and the opportunity it presented. The achievement of the XII Corps is especially notable given its string of disappointments and hardships in the months leading up to Antietam. M. Chris Bryan’s Cedar Mountain to Antietam begins with the formation of this often-luckless command as the II Corps in Maj. Gen. John Pope’s Army of Virginia on June 26, 1862. Bryan explains in meticulous detail how the corps endured a bloody and demoralizing loss after coming within a whisker of defeating Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson at Cedar Mountain on August 9; suffered through the hardships of Pope’s campaign before and after the Battle of Second Manassas; and triumphed after entering Maryland and joining the reorganized Army of the Potomac. The men of this small corps earned a solid reputation in the Army of the Potomac at Antietam that would only grow during the battles of 1863. This unique study, which blends unit history with sound leadership and character assessments, puts the XII Corps’ actions in proper context by providing significant and substantive treatment to its Confederate opponents. Bryan’s extensive archival research, newspapers, and other important resources, together with detailed maps and images, offers a compelling story of a little-studied yet consequential command that fills a longstanding historiographical gap.