Author: Ronald S. Coddington Publisher: JHU Press ISBN: 1421400308 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 314
Book Description
“Extensive research, fascinating characters . . . The author has done an admirable job of literally placing a face on the ordinary Confederate soldier.” —The Journal of Southern History “The history of the Civil War is the stories of its soldiers,” writes Ronald S. Coddington in the preface to Faces of the Confederacy. This book tells the stories of seventy-seven Southern soldiers—young farm boys, wealthy plantation owners, intellectual elites, uneducated poor—who posed for photographic portraits, cartes de visite, to leave with family, friends, and sweethearts before going off to war. Coddington, a passionate collector of Civil War-era photography, conducted a monumental search for these previously unpublished portrait cards, then unearthed the personal stories of their subjects, putting a human face on a war rife with inhuman atrocities. The Civil War took the lives of twenty-two of every hundred men who served. Coddington follows the exhausted survivors as they return home to occupied cities and towns, ravaged farmlands, a destabilized economy, and a social order in the midst of upheaval. This book is a haunting and moving tribute to those brave men. Like its companion volume, Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soldiers and Their Stories, this book offers readers a unique perspective on the war and contributes to a better understanding of the role of the common soldier. “With his meticulous research and a journalist’s eye for good stories, Ron Coddington has brought new life to Civil War photographic portraits of obscure and long-forgotten Confederates whose wartime experiences might otherwise have been lost to history.” —Bob Zeller, cofounder and president of the nonprofit Center for Civil War Photography
Author: Ronald S. Coddington Publisher: JHU Press ISBN: 142140625X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
A renowned collector of Civil War photographs and a prodigious researcher, Ronald S. Coddington combines compelling archival images with biographical stories that reveal the human side of the war. This third volume in his series on Civil War soldiers contains previously unpublished photographs of African American Civil War participants—many of whom fought to secure their freedom. During the Civil War, 200,000 African American men enlisted in the Union army or navy. Some of them were free men and some escaped from slavery; others were released by sympathetic owners to serve the war effort. African American Faces of the Civil War tells the story of the Civil War through the images of men of color who served in roles that ranged from servants and laborers to enlisted men and junior officers. Coddington discovers these portraits— cartes de visite, ambrotypes, and tintypes—in museums, archives, and private collections. He has pieced together each individual’s life and fate based upon personal documents, military records, and pension files. These stories tell of ordinary men who became fighters, of the prejudice they faced, and of the challenges they endured. African American Faces of the Civil War makes an important contribution to a comparatively understudied aspect of the war and provides a fascinating look into lives that helped shape America.
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.
Author: Earl J. Hess Publisher: UNC Press Books ISBN: 1469628767 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 544
Book Description
As a leading Confederate general, Braxton Bragg (1817–1876) earned a reputation for incompetence, for wantonly shooting his own soldiers, and for losing battles. This public image established him not only as a scapegoat for the South's military failures but also as the chief whipping boy of the Confederacy. The strongly negative opinions of Bragg's contemporaries have continued to color assessments of the general's military career and character by generations of historians. Rather than take these assessments at face value, Earl J. Hess's biography offers a much more balanced account of Bragg, the man and the officer. While Hess analyzes Bragg's many campaigns and battles, he also emphasizes how his contemporaries viewed his successes and failures and how these reactions affected Bragg both personally and professionally. The testimony and opinions of other members of the Confederate army--including Bragg's superiors, his fellow generals, and his subordinates--reveal how the general became a symbol for the larger military failures that undid the Confederacy. By connecting the general's personal life to his military career, Hess positions Bragg as a figure saddled with unwarranted infamy and humanizes him as a flawed yet misunderstood figure in Civil War history.
Author: Gabor S. Boritt Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199879729 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
After the Civil War, someone asked General Pickett why the Battle of Gettysburg had been lost: Was it Lee's error in taking the offensive, the tardiness of Ewell and Early, or Longstreet's hesitation in attacking? Pickett scratched his head and replied, "I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it." This simple fact, writes James McPherson, has escaped a generation of historians who have looked to faulty morale, population, economics, and dissent as the causes of Confederate failure. These were all factors, he writes, but the Civil War was still a war--won by the Union army through key victories at key moments. With this brilliant review of how historians have explained the Southern defeat, McPherson opens a fascinating account by several leading historians of how the Union broke the Confederate rebellion. In every chapter, the military struggle takes center stage, as the authors reveal how battlefield decisions shaped the very forces that many scholars (putting the cart before the horse) claim determined the outcome of the war. Archer Jones examines the strategy of the two sides, showing how each had to match its military planning to political necessity. Lee raided north of the Potomac with one eye on European recognition and the other on Northern public opinion--but his inevitable retreats looked like failure to the Southern public. The North, however, developed a strategy of deep raids that was extremely effective because it served a valuable political as well as military purpose, shattering Southern morale by tearing up the interior. Gary Gallagher takes a hard look at the role of generals, narrowing his focus to the crucial triumvirate of Lee, Grant, and Sherman, who towered above the others. Lee's aggressiveness may have been costly, but he well knew the political impact of his spectacular victories; Grant and Sherman, meanwhile, were the first Union generals to fully harness Northern resources and carry out coordinated campaigns. Reid Mitchell shows how the Union's advantage in numbers was enhanced by a dedication and perseverance of federal troops that was not matched by the Confederates after their home front began to collapse. And Joseph Glatthaar examines black troops, whose role is entering the realm of national myth. In 1960, there appeared a collection of essays by major historians, entitled Why the North Won the Civil War, edited by David Donald; it is now in its twenty-sixth printing, having sold well over 100,000 copies. Why the Confederacy Lost provides a parallel volume, written by today's leading authorities. Provocatively argued and engagingly written, this work reminds us that the hard-won triumph of the North was far from inevitable.
Author: Dave Mark Publisher: ISBN: 9780692719213 Category : Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
Maryland's role in the Civil War continues to attract interest, study, and collection beyond its 150th anniversary. One reason for this continued popularity is the vast photographic legacy left us that recorded the people, places and events that breathes life into this increas-ingly distant time period. This book presents the largest collection, public or private, ever assembled of original photographs of Marylanders who fought for the Confederacy. Mary-land's location between the North and South during the Civil War placed its population in a unique position literally as a "House Divided" when sizeable numbers of citizens served in both the Union and Confederate armies. It is estimated that about 12,000 of those men volunteered for the Southern forces, and faces of nearly 200 of those men are published here, many for the first time. This remarkable collection marks the culmination of more than forty-two years of dedicated collecting and researching by collector and author Dave Mark. Through his tireless effort, the compelling stories of bravery, sacrifice, triumph and tragedy on the part of these Marylanders can now be told through this collection of original photographs that recorded this chapter of Maryland's heritage.
Author: Mike Rothmiller Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN: 9781975782597 Category : Languages : en Pages : 460
Book Description
This book has been nominated for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in American history. This book is the authors protest against the removal of confederate statues and monuments. The author wants you to join his fight to preserve the history of the confederacy, and he plans to donate a significant portion of the proceeds from this book to legitimate organizations diligently working to maintain America's history. By purchasing this book, you'll demonstrate your support for keeping the history of the Confederate States of America alive. In the forward of the book, the author eviscerates the woefully ignorant individuals and the despicable pandering politicians demanding the removal of confederate monuments; which in effect, is akin to stealing knowledge from future generations of African American's. Their actions equate to racism. Many people have commented they would have purchased the book simple for the forward and dedication. The book contains over 400 photographic portraits of the courageous generals of the Confederacy. The Civil War was a tragic and bloody rebellion in American history claiming the lives of nearly 700,000 soldiers fighting for the Union and The Confederate States of America. Most historians agree the Confederate soldiers were considered Americans during the war, and are deemed Americans today. Many of the Confederate Generals in this book fought for America in the Mexican War before resigning their commissions to serve heroically in the Confederate States of America military. In the eyes of millions of Southerners and Northerners, these men were true patriots of the South. No one can deny they are an integral part of America history and they must be remembered. After the civil war, the surviving Confederate Generals quickly reconciled with the Union and supported it. Many of these Generals later served in the United States Senate, the United States Congress and as Governors of states. Never forget, as surely as Union Generals viewed themselves as patriots, the Generals of the South considered themselves patriots. All served, all sacrificed. All carried visible and internal wounds for life, and all bled in some fashion. Those are the perils of war and all who served, deserve respect and their place in history. It's been said a picture is worth a thousand words. Each image in this book speaks countess words. "I have fought against the people of the North because I believed they were seeking to wrest from the South its dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward them bitter or vindictive feelings, and I have never seen the day when I did not pray for them." Robert E. Lee
Author: Cormac O'Brien Publisher: Quirk Books ISBN: 9781594741388 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
Provides the birth and death dates, astrological sign, nicknames, famous words, and little-known or bizarre facts about the lives of over twenty-five people on the Union and Confederate sides of the Civil War.
Author: Debra West Smith Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company ISBN: 1455616850 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 101
Book Description
The Civil War was a war unlike any other. The bravery and strength the soldiers showed, the determination in the direst of circumstances, and the fearlessness when met with challenges never dreamed of set these dark years apart. So much has been recorded about the War Between the States from the bloody battles to the steadfast generals. However, there were others present who are often forgotten: young people who were faced with a fate they never thought they would meet when their lives were taken out of their control. These children of the Confederacy soon grew accustomed to empty fields, family members who never returned home, and lives shortened by the hard impact of a bullet. Many felt a calling to join the cause and found themselves in the same situations as their adult counterparts: prisoners of war, amputees, spies, or guides for generals-only they were barely twenty years old. This collection of true accounts presents the voices of those who faced the ultimate test of character and courage and until now have so rarely been heard. The stories of these emerging adults provide an engrossing exploration of the Civil War in a way that is unlike any other in delivery and subject matter.
Author: Ronald S. Coddington
Author: Ronald S. Coddington
Author: Ronald S Coddington
Author: Earl J. Hess
Author: Gabor S. Boritt
Author: Dave Mark
Author: Mike Rothmiller
Author: Shannon Pritchard
Author: Cormac O'Brien
Author: Debra West Smith