The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Civil War, 2nd Edition

by Axelrod, Ph.D., Alan

• ISBN13: 9781592571321
• ISBN10: 1592571328
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-02
• Publisher: DK Publishing, Inc.

Summary

Includes a listing of Civil War re-enactments! A comprehensive overview of America's bloodiest war-from the first shots fired at Fort Sumter to Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Featuring a clear chronology of major events and detailed explanations of key battles, this second edition includes: Instructions on how to trace Civil War ancestry An in-depth look at the weaponry Coverage of the lesser-known but still pivotal battles An expanded glossary and appendixes, and more

Author Biography

Alan Axelrod is the author of over 50 books, including The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to American History, The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to Twentieth Century History, and The Complete Idiot's Guide(r) to the American Revolution.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Fire-Bell in the Night	1	(52)
Beginnings	3	(14)
Fort Sumter, South Carolina, April 12, 1861	4	(4)
Jamestown, Virginia, August 1619	8	(1)
A ``Peculiar Institution''	8	(1)
Three-Fifths of a Man	9	(1)
Against the American Grain	10	(1)
Freedom-Loving Quakers and Enlightened Colonists	11	(1)
The Feds Take a Stand	11	(1)
A Simple Machine	11	(4)
Eli Whitney, Inventor	12	(1)
A New Economy	13	(1)
A Major Purchase	13	(2)
``Title Page to a Great Tragic Volume''	15	(2)
Liberty and Union, Now and Forever?	17	(12)
The South Says No	18	(2)
Calhoun's Theory	18	(2)
Jackson Acts	20	(1)
The Liberators	20	(3)
Genius of Universal Emancipation	21	(1)
A Life in Search of Liberation	21	(1)
Murder in Virginia	22	(1)
Notes from Underground	23	(1)
War and Gold	23	(6)
Mexican Sunset	24	(2)
Gold Rush	26	(3)
Descent into War	29	(12)
The Tortured Course of Compromise	29	(3)
The Compromise of 1850	30	(1)
Kansas Bleeds	31	(1)
Beyond Compromise	32	(3)
The Little Woman Who Made This Great War	32	(1)
Dred Verdict	33	(2)
Some More Blood: The Raid on Harpers Ferry	35	(1)
The Raid Begins	35	(1)
Enter Lieutenant Colonel R. E. Lee	35	(1)
John Brown's Body	36	(1)
The Shattered Party	37	(2)
The Union Dissolves	39	(2)
Bleak Inaugural	41	(12)
``Black'' Lincoln	42	(1)
The Wayward Sisters	42	(2)
Olive Branches	44	(1)
Crittenden Tries	45	(1)
Buchanan Acts---More or Less	45	(1)
Farewell	45	(4)
Dangerous Inaugural Journey	46	(2)
Baltimore Transfer	48	(1)
Two Failures and a Tariff	49	(1)
The Peace Convention Fails	49	(1)
Crittenden Fails	49	(1)
The Morrill Tariff	50	(1)
The ``Essence of Anarchy''	50	(3)
Part 2: Rally Round	53	(96)
``We'll Manage to Keep House''	55	(16)
A Meeting with the President	56	(1)
City of Spies	56	(3)
But Just Who Were ``They''?	51	(7)
A Question of Intelligence---and Counterintelligence	58	(1)
A Tale of Two Governments	59	(5)
Lincoln and His Cabinet	59	(2)
Davis of Mississippi	61	(3)
Grim Realities	64	(7)
The Arsenal of 1861	64	(2)
The Art of War, 1861	66	(1)
The Armies	66	(1)
Taking Command	66	(1)
Worst and Best	67	(4)
The Anaconda and a Picnic Party	71	(16)
Old Fuss and Feathers	72	(2)
The Anaconda Plan	73	(1)
War Without Glory	74	(1)
Blockade of Chesapeake Bay	74	(1)
What the World Thought	74	(3)
Dixie Diplomacy	75	(1)
The English Question	75
``One War at a Time''	16	(61)
States on the Border	77	(4)
Civil War in Missouri	77	(1)
Carthage and Wilson's Creek	78	(1)
Montani Semper Liberi	79	(1)
Brawl in Baltimore	79	(1)
Habeas Corpus Held Hostage	80	(1)
The Battle of Bull Run	81	(6)
The Rebel Rose	82	(1)
Cheers	83	(1)
Like a Stone Wall	84	(1)
Pursued by Furies	84	(3)
The Young Napoleon and a Man Who Fights: McClellan and Grant	87	(16)
A Saddle and Small Victories	88	(1)
Philippi	88	(1)
Rich Mountain	88	(1)
Death Leap	89	(1)
A Granny and a Tannery Clerk	90	(2)
Lee Retreats from Cheat Mountain	90	(1)
Grant Retreats from the Battle of Belmont	91	(1)
Hope for the Young Napoleon	92	(4)
Little Mac Takes Command	93	(1)
Triumph at Fort Donelson	93	(3)
Place of Peace	96	(7)
Grant's Mistake	97	(1)
Carnage at Shiloh	98	(1)
Sherman Emerges	98	(2)
The Battle of Island 10	100	(1)
He Fights	100	(3)
Ocean, Valley, and River	103	(16)
``What Are You Waiting For, Tardy George?''	104	(2)
Flesh and Iron	106	(4)
Tweaking the Anaconda	106	(1)
A Resurrection	106	(1)
Tin Can on a Shingle	107	(2)
Duel at Hampton Roads	109	(1)
Sails Furled	110	(1)
Blue Light in the Valley	110	(3)
Retreat at Kernstown	111	(1)
Victory at McDowell	111	(1)
Front Royal	112	(1)
Attack at Winchester	112	(1)
Cross Keys	113	(1)
Port Republic	113	(1)
New Orleans Falls	113	(6)
``Beast'' Butler in the Crescent City	115	(1)
The ``Woman Order'' and the Will to Fight	115	(1)
Hollow Victory	116	(3)
Blue, Gray, and Red	119	(16)
An Army Without Officers	120	(1)
Missouri's Misery	120	(5)
Pea Ridge	121	(1)
Guerrillas and Young Guns	122	(3)
Confederate Arizona	125	(3)
Sibley's Invasion	125	(1)
The Battle of La Glorietta Pass	126	(1)
Arizona Rangers	126	(1)
California Column	127	(1)
Texas Troubles	127	(1)
The Real Conflict	128	(7)
The Rage of Cochise	128	(1)
A Lost Horse Race	129	(1)
Apache Uprising and Navajo War	130	(1)
Massacre at Sand Creek	130	(1)
``Necessity Knows No Law''	131	(4)
Seven Days and Another Bull Run	135	(14)
Fair Oaks Prelude	136	(1)
Jeb and the Gray Ghost	137	(1)
Seven-Day Duel	138	(4)
Resistance at Oak Grove	138	(1)
Mechanicsville	139	(1)
Gaines's Mill	139	(1)
Savage's Station	140	(1)
Frayser's Farm	141	(1)
Malvern Hill	141	(1)
Success and Glory; Disaster and Shame	142	(3)
Pope Takes Command	142	(2)
Slow March to Freedom	144	(1)
Second Bull Run	145	(1)
Dragon Dix and the Angel of the Battlefield	146	(3)
Enter the Nurses	146	(1)
Walt Whitman Among the Wounded	147	(2)
Part 3: Die to Make Men Free	149	(54)
In Blood Proclaimed	151	(10)
The Prayer of Twenty Million	152	(1)
``Again I Have Been Called Upon to Save the Country''	152	(2)
Invasion Plans	153	(1)
The Lost Order	154	(1)
The Battle of Antietam	154	(3)
The Blast of a Thousand Bugles	154	(1)
Bloody Lane	155	(2)
Slow Road to Emancipation	157	(4)
Preliminary Proclamation	158	(1)
Forever Free	158	(1)
Congress Acts	159	(2)
A Worse Place Than Hell	161	(14)
A Second Ride Around	162	(1)
Popular, Reluctant, Hapless: Burnside	163	(4)
Slaughter at Fredericksburg	164	(2)
A Chicken Could Not Live	166	(1)
``I Am Responsible''	167	(1)
``Heartfelt Sympathies . . . Earnest Prayers''	167	(4)
Modern Weapons, Medieval Medicine	168	(1)
Mary Edwards Walker, M.D.	168	(2)
Shoddy Goods: A Soldier's Life	170	(1)
The Mud March	171	(1)
Give Us Victories	171	(4)
Fighting Joe	172	(1)
Camp Followers	173	(1)
Of Cavalry and Balloons	173	(1)
``The Finest Army on the Planet''	174	(1)
Bread and Bullets	175	(16)
``Bread! Bread!''	176	(3)
Paper War	177	(1)
The Draft and Desertion	178	(1)
Diary of a Southern Lady	179	(1)
War News	179	(2)
Journalists and Artists	179	(1)
The Photographers	180	(1)
Foreign Affairs	181	(1)
Old Kentucky Home	182	(3)
Friendly Advice	183	(1)
Curtain Down: Iuka, Corinth, Perryville	184	(1)
Assault at Vicksburg	185	(6)
Holly Springs and Chickasaw Bluffs	185	(1)
Try, Try Again	186	(2)
Victory, Slow and Bold	188	(1)
Total War	188	(3)
Thunderstorm from a Cloudless Sky	191	(12)
``May God Have Mercy on General Lee . . .''	192	(5)
Hooker's Plan	192	(1)
Outgeneraled on a Cracker Barrel	193	(2)
Lee's Masterpiece	195	(1)
``. . . And Rest Under the Shade of the Trees''	195	(1)
``What Will the Country Say?''	196	(1)
Lee's Bold Offensive	197	(6)
Lee Heads Northward	197	(2)
Brandy Station	199	(1)
Disaster at Winchester	199	(1)
Crossing the Potomac	200	(1)
Stuart's Raid	200	(1)
Surprise!	201	(1)
A Used Up Man	201	(2)
Part 4: That the Nation Might Live	203	(46)
Gettysburg	205	(16)
Legend of the Shoes	206	(1)
Of ``Gods and Generals''	207	(1)
Day One: July 1, 1863	208	(3)
The High Ground	209	(1)
Retreat to a Cemetery	210	(1)
``If I Had Stonewall Jackson . . .''	211	(1)
Day Two: Union Holds the High Ground	211	(5)
Longstreet Advises	212	(1)
The Fishhook	212	(1)
Quick, Bold, Cheerful, and Hopeful	212	(1)
Temporary Insanity	213	(1)
The Professor	214	(1)
Devil's Den, Peach Orchard, and Wheatfield	215	(1)
Day Three: Massive Assault	216	(2)
Longstreet Advises Again	216	(1)
Pickett's Charge	216	(1)
``A Sob---A Gasp''	217	(1)
Never Forget	218	(3)
``My God, Is That All?''	218	(1)
These Honored Dead	219	(1)
Gettysburg: Impact and Heritage	220	(1)
``Not for Uncle Sambo''	221	(14)
The Draft Riots	222	(3)
Racial Rage	222	(1)
A Ragged, Coatless Army	223	(1)
Northern Rebellion?	224	(1)
Copperheads: Snakes in the Grass?	225	(2)
Knights and Castles: Secret Societies	225	(1)
A Man Named Vallandigham	226	(1)
The Great Northwest Conspiracy	227	(2)
Morgan Rides and Raids	227	(1)
Another Riot	228	(1)
The Northern Revolt Sputters and Dies	229	(1)
Glory	229	(6)
Corps d'Afrique	230	(1)
Congress Acts	231	(1)
Muskets or Shovels?	232	(1)
The 54th Massachusetts Regiment	233	(2)
From Chickamauga Mud to a Battle Above the Clouds	235	(14)
By the Book	236	(1)
``Old Rosy'' Gets a Kick in the Pants	236	(2)
Counterattack at Chickamauga	238	(4)
In the Thick of It	239	(1)
A ``Gap'' That Wasn't	240	(2)
Rock of Chickamauga	242	(1)
The Good Dog	242	(3)
Yankees Under Siege	243	(1)
Cracker Line	244	(1)
A Visit from the President	244	(1)
A Battle Above the Clouds and a Soldier's Battle	245	(2)
Fighting Joe	246	(1)
Sherman	246	(1)
``You Scaled the Mountain!''	246	(1)
Sunset in the West	247	(2)
Part 5: The Last Full Measure	249	(86)
Mr. Lincoln's General	251	(14)
He Fights	252	(4)
Grant's Will	253	(1)
Grant's Strategy	254	(1)
A New Army of Veterans	254	(2)
``And Fightin' Means Killin'''	256	(3)
A Tale of Two Generals	256	(2)
The Fort Pillow Massacre	258	(1)
Prisoners of War	259	(6)
Exchange and Parole	259	(1)
Grant's Grim Decision	260	(1)
Andersonville and Other Horrors	261	(4)
The Butcher	265	(14)
Lee's Hope	266	(1)
Lost in the Wilderness	266	(6)
Two Days and 17,666 Men	267	(1)
Spotsylvania	268	(2)
Yellow Tavern	270	(1)
The Mule Shoe	271	(1)
Sigel Struggles, Butler Beaten	272	(1)
``To Fight It Out on This Line''	273	(6)
Cold Harbor	273	(1)
Petersburg	274	(2)
The Crater Catastrophe	276	(1)
Another New Kind of War	277	(2)
Damn the Torpedoes	279	(14)
Pirate Navy	280	(5)
From Enrica to Alabama	281	(1)
Adventures of the Alabama	282	(1)
Duel at Sea	283	(2)
The Alabama Claims	285	(1)
Impatient Admiral	285	(1)
Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864: 6:00 a.m.	286	(1)
Tecumseh Sinks	286	(1)
Tennessee Strikes Her Colors	286	(1)
Silent Service	287	(3)
A Man Named Hunley	288	(1)
Anatomy of a Submarine	288	(1)
Brave Men, Doomed Men	289	(1)
Death of the Housatonic	289	(1)
Welcome Victory	290	(3)
Lincoln versus McClellan	290	(1)
Sherman Enters Georgia	291	(2)
``I Almost Tremble''	293	(14)
The Atlanta Campaign	294	(8)
Sherman at Dalton	295	(1)
Counterattack at Cassville	296	(1)
Assault at Kennesaw Mountain	297	(1)
Hood Succeeds Johnston	298	(1)
``War Is Cruelty''	298	(4)
Fiery March to the Sea	302	(1)
Hood's Gamble	302	(1)
Who Burned Atlanta?	303	(1)
Franklin and Nashville	304	(1)
A Gift for His President	304	(1)
Columbia Burns	305	(1)
The Stars and Stripes over Sumter	305	(2)
On to Richmond!	307	(16)
Menace in the Shenandoah Valley	308	(2)
Early's Raid	308	(1)
Sheridan the Ruthless	309	(1)
``Kilcavalry'' Raids Richmond	310	(1)
Of Terror and Greek Fire	311	(3)
The St. Albans Raid	312	(1)
The Fires of New York	312	(2)
``With Malice Toward None''	314	(1)
Breakout from Petersburg	315	(3)
Diplomacy and Politics	316	(1)
``Wake Up. We Are Coming''	316	(1)
Fort Stedman Taken...	317	(1)
. . . And Lost	317	(1)
Five Forks	318	(1)
Evacuation	319	(1)
The Nightmare Gone	320	(3)
Appomattox Ending	323	(12)
Pursuit	324	(3)
Namozine Church	324	(1)
Amelia Springs	325	(1)
Sayler's Creek	325	(1)
High Bridge and Farmville	326	(1)
Appomattox Station and Appomattox Court House	327	(1)
``I Had Rather Die a Thousand Deaths''	327	(4)
Like a Wraith of Morning Mist	328	(1)
In the McLean House	329	(2)
Coda	331	(4)
Part 6: Taps and Reveille	335	(78)
Malice Toward One	337	(16)
An Evening at Ford's Theatre	338	(4)
Matinee Idol	338	(2)
Still Waters Run Deep	340	(1)
``Sic Semper Tyrannis!''	341	(1)
Death Watch	342	(2)
April 15, 1865, 7:22 A.M.	342	(1)
``Useless, Useless''	343	(1)
Accomplices All	343	(1)
Odor of Conspiracy	344	(3)
``Lieutenant, We Have Got a Sure Thing''	345	(1)
That Scoundrel Baker	345	(1)
The Very Highest Levels	346	(1)
Reconstruction Without Lincoln	347	(2)
The New President: A Tailor by Trade	347	(1)
``I'm Ready''	348	(1)
Wade-Davis Plan	349	(1)
Congress Acts	349	(4)
Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights	350	(1)
Fourteenth Amendment	350	(1)
Military Government	351	(2)
War Without End	353	(10)
Articles of Impeachment	354	(1)
Reconstruction---or Deconstruction	355	(1)
Political Agenda	355	(1)
Carpetbaggers	356	(1)
Scalawags	356	(1)
Forrest and the KKK	356	(1)
The Elevation of ``His Fraudulency''	357	(2)
Separate and Unequal	359	(4)
The Cotton States	359	(1)
Lynch Law	360	(1)
From the Back of the Bus	361	(2)
Memory	363	(50)
From Killing Fields to Subdivisions	364	(2)
Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind	364	(1)
Defending the Flag	365	(1)
The Historians	366	(2)
The Presence of the Past	367	(1)
Civil War Archaeology	367	(1)
The Enthusiasts	368	(3)
Do-It-Yourself Scholarship: The Sources	368	(2)
A Confederate (or Yankee) in the Attic	370	(1)
Reenactors and Reenactments	371	(1)
Yesterday Everyday	371	(2)
Civil War Lit	372	(1)
Hollywood Battlefield	372	(1)
One Nation, Indivisible	373	(2)
Appendixes
A Words of War	375	(10)
B Who Was Who in the Civil War	385	(12)
C Major Civil War Sites and Sights	397	(6)
D Civil War Weapons	403	(4)
E A Civil War Library	407	(6)
Index	413