True story based on letters written during the American Civil War between a young Confederate soldier and his loving wife. Fifty-five letters in their entirety in this factual archive.
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Civil War History Books & Novels
If you can recommend any great books, please let us know. We're especially interested in promoting self-published books that contain information about specific areas and/or families (not genealogies, though). If it is your own book, we do request a reciprocal link on your website. Thanks!
Unselfish
by John Parsons
Centered on the Civil War, the story revolves around Joseph, his son John, a doctor friend (OLD DOC) and two other faithful friends who answer the call of that period to help end the abhorrent practice of slavery and to reuninte the states of America. What they thought would be a short-lived adventure turned out to be hell on earth. Lives were lost from bullets, disease and the mental torment of their experiences. It is their story and meant to solicit thoughts in the readers’ mind on man’s failures. As Albert Einstein said, “only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
Even though the book is for all intents and purposes historical fiction, it is loosely based on a few letters passed down through the generations, as well as stories that have withstood the passage of time.
Find out, after reading the book, what OLD DOC’s predictions are by solving his cipher. Learn what he thinks is the future of mankind. OLD DOC loved to challenge what little brainpower man uses. After living through this living torment on earth, trying to save those he could from the butchery of man, he put his final thoughts into his code in asking at the end of the book, “ Why isn’t Jesus smiling?”
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The Uncivil War: Battle in the Classroom
by Nick K. Adams
The Uncivil War demonstrates how history can become magically alive and meaningful when students become personally involved.
Morgan Huddleston and Jeremy Wiggins have shared a classroom for three years, disliking each other the whole time and in constant competition. Then a fourth grade social studies assignment reveals they are directly connected by tragic events that occurred 150 years earlier. Morgan and Jeremy contact their relatives and learn they both had a great-great-great-grandfather present at the Civil War Battle of Chickamauga – but on opposite sides. Morgan’s distant grandfather fought for the Confederacy while Jeremy’s distant grandfather was a Union soldier who was killed in the battle. So the big “What if…?” question is raised in the classroom. How the two students arrive at a resolution that ends their own uncivil war is the heartening conclusion to the story. The Uncivil War melds its contemporary setting with flashbacks that draw on historical characters, preserved family letters, and actual battlefield events, bringing history to life. |
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Undaunted Heart:
The True Story of a Southern Belle & a Yankee General
by Suzy Barile
When a brigade of General Sherman’s victorious army marched into Chapel Hill in 1865, the Civil War had just ended. One of Sherman’s generals called on David Swain, University of North Carolina president, to inform him the town was under Union occupation.
Against this unlikely backdrop began a passionate and controversial love story still vivid in town lore. Swain’s daughter Ella met the Union general, and life for these young people, who had spent the war on opposite sides, was forever altered. When General Atkins met Ella, the two “‘changed eyes’ at first sight and a wooing followed.”
Author Suzy Barile, a descendant of Ella Swain and Smith Atkins, tells their story, separating facts from the embellishments the famous courtship and marriage have taken on over the generations. Excerpts from Ella’s unpublished letters are interwoven throughout Undaunted Heart, revealing a loving marriage that transcended differences and scandal.
Soft cover, 6 x 9, 264 pages, $16.95.
ISBN: 978-0-9820771-1-5. Distributed by John F. Blair Publisher.
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Crossroads of the Conflict: The Defining Hours for the Blue and Gray
by Donald W. McLaughlin, a Gettysburg Battlefield Guide for 16 years.
The book
offers the reader important information about the Battlefield that is a chronological study of the monuments in the order in which the events took place as the battle progressed. This book provides the factual recordings of the inscriptions on the monuments of the Battlefield at Gettysburg.
The book can be used to provide the reader with a hands-on reference while touring the Battlefield by bus, car or on foot. It also serves to offer the reader an historical account of the significance of each monument, brigade marker and flank marker (left and right) on the battle grounds. In addition, the author has included numerous hand-drawn maps throughout the book to assist the reader in understanding how, the Battle itself, unfolded. These are the monuments that stand as a symbol to Americans struggle to survive as a nation. Through this book the Battlefield and the words upon the monuments come to life as a lasting memorial to those who died during this conflict.
Available June 2008. Check back for more information on where to buy. |
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Tales of Travis Hawkins McLeod, A Texan in the War Between the States by Dale Roberts
A fast-moving, vivid and intriguing tale of a young man caught up in a mind-rupturing, soul-searing swirl of bizarre events that thrusts him into a world he has never imagined. Totally unprepared, he must cope with this strange new world of yesteryear.
About the author:
Dale Roberts has long been fascinated by the history of the War Between the States era. He has been involved in reenactment and living history events for some years as well as entertaining at public and private schools as a living history actor depicting life of a soldier in various wars. With a wonderfully active imagination, he enjoys writing fiction as well as serious articles. He currently resides in Crockett, Texas. |
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Bourland in North Texas and Indian Territory During the Civil War
by Patricia Adkins-Rochette
From the introduction: "My
major objective in this study was to illustrate how close many Indian Territory residents of the Civil War era came to starvation — a topic that was not addressed in the Oklahoma public schools of the 1940s and 1950s.
Themes in this study are starvation, corn, cattle, horses, Negroes and slaves, plus the Plains Indians and their captives. The major reason that the people of Indian Territory almost starved was that their cattle were stolen and driven back East to feed the Union and Confederate armies. Bourland’s Regiment attempted to feed and clothe the Indian refugees."
More from the website |
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A Beckoning Hellfire
by J D R Hawkins
During the bloody American Civil War, the stark reality of death leads one young man on a course of revenge that takes him from his quiet farm in northern Alabama to the horrific battlefields of Virginia and Pennsylvania.
On Christmas Eve 1862, David Summers hears the dreaded news: his father has perished at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Reeling with grief and thoughts of vengeance, David enlists and sets off for Richmond to join the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
But once in the cavalry, David’s life changes drastically, and his dream of glamorous chivalry becomes nothing but a cold, cruel existence of pain and suffering. He is hurled into one battle after another, and his desire for revenge wanes when he experiences first-hand the catastrophes of war.
A haunting look at the human side of one of America’s most tragic conflicts, A Beckoning Hellfire speaks to the delusion of war’s idealism. |
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Who's Ever Seen a Dead Cavalry Man - our Civil War Ancestor
John T. Reardon
The author shares his research with the next generation of the descendants of a Civil War officer in the 13th Pa Cavalry. Others too, may be interested in tracing the lieutenant’s service record from before Bull Run to after Appomattox. His experiences took him from Harper’s Ferry and the Shenandoah Valley, through the southern prison pens, parole and a return to duty in the very area where he had been a prisoner.
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The tiny gold colored markings on that beautifully framed and handcrafted military document actually were a chronological listing, in tiny lettering, of the events in a soldier’s career and the battles his unit participated in. He was an Irish immigrant, a ninety day man, a Sergeant Major, a dragoon, a lieutenant, a survivor. The Irish dragoons escaped from Early, guarded Grant and searched for Sherman. They truly earned the title Veteran.
John T. Reardon , 20 Elizabeth Ave, Dover, DE 19901, 302-698-0667
$12.95 + 2.05 postage |
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In their Honor - Soldiers of the Confederacy - The Elmira Prison Camp
by Diane Janowski with photographs by Allen C. Smith
In Their Honor respectfully remembers these men and boys, and tells their stories. Research by the author has brought awareness of the soldiers’ relationships - brothers, fathers and sons, cousins and friends. Descendants of the soldiers have contributed harrowing stories of survival or despair. They were captured together. Some made it home.
In their Honor includes narratives from prisoners’ families, and a complete revised list of the Confederate dead at Woodlawn National Cemetery. |
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