Gary W. Gallagher – författare

Was the Confederacy doomed from the start in its struggle against the superior might of the Union? Did its forces fight heroically against all odds for the cause of states' rights? In reality, these suggestions are an elaborate and intentional effort on the part of Southerners to rationalize the secession and the war itself. Unfortunately, skillful propagandists have been so successful in promoting this romanticized view that the Lost Cause has assumed a life of its own. Misrepresenting the war's true origins and its actual course, the myth of the Lost Cause distorts our national memory. In The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, nine historians describe and analyze the Lost Cause, identifying ways in which it falsifies history—creating a volume that makes a significant contribution to Civil War historiography.

Even one hundred and fifty years later, we are haunted by the Civil War—by its division, its bloodshed, and perhaps, above all, by its origins. Today, many believe that the war was fought over slavery. This answer satisfies our contemporary sense of justice, but as Gary Gallagher shows in this brilliant revisionist history, it is an anachronistic judgment.In a searing analysis of the Civil War North as revealed in contemporary letters, diaries, and documents, Gallagher demonstrates that what motivated the North to go to war and persist in an increasingly bloody effort was primarily preservation of the Union. Devotion to the Union bonded nineteenth-century Americans in the North and West against a slaveholding aristocracy in the South and a Europe that seemed destined for oligarchy. Northerners believed they were fighting to save the republic, and with it the world’s best hope for democracy.Once we understand the centrality of union, we can in turn appreciate the force that made northern victory possible: the citizen-soldier. Gallagher reveals how the massive volunteer army of the North fought to confirm American exceptionalism by salvaging the Union. Contemporary concerns have distorted the reality of nineteenth-century Americans, who embraced emancipation primarily to punish secessionists and remove slavery as a future threat to union—goals that emerged in the process of war. As Gallagher recovers why and how the Civil War was fought, we gain a more honest understanding of why and how it was won.

If one is to believe contemporary historians, the South never had a chance. Many allege that the Confederacy lost the Civil War because of internal division or civilian disaffection; others point to flawed military strategy or ambivalence over slavery. But, argues distinguished historian Gary Gallagher, we should not ask why the Confederacy collapsed so soon but rather how it lasted so long. In The Confederate War he reexamines the Confederate experience through the actions and words of the people who lived it to show how the home front responded to the war, endured great hardships, and assembled armies that fought with tremendous spirit and determination.Gallagher’s portrait highlights a powerful sense of Confederate patriotism and unity in the face of a determined adversary. Drawing on letters, diaries, and newspapers of the day, he shows that Southerners held not only an unflagging belief in their way of life, which sustained them to the bitter end, but also a widespread expectation of victory and a strong popular will closely attuned to military events. In fact, the army’s “offensive-defensive” strategy came remarkably close to triumph, claims Gallagher—in contrast to the many historians who believe that a more purely defensive strategy or a guerrilla resistance could have won the war for the South. To understand why the South lost, Gallagher says we need look no further than the war itself: after a long struggle that brought enormous loss of life and property, Southerners finally realized that they had been beaten on the battlefield.Gallagher’s interpretation of the Confederates and their cause boldly challenges current historical thinking and invites readers to reconsider their own conceptions of the American Civil War.

In this collection, Civil War historian Gary W. Gallagher examines Robert E. Lee, his principal subordinates, the treatment they have received in the literature on Confederate military history, and the continuing influence of Lost Cause arguments in the late-twentieth-century United States. Historical images of Lee and his lieutenants were shaped to a remarkable degree by the reminiscences and other writings of ex-Confederates who formulated what became known as the Lost Cause interpretation of the conflict. Lost Cause advocates usually portrayed Lee as a perfect Christian warrior and Stonewall Jackson as his peerless ""right arm"" and often explained Lee's failings as the result of inept performances by other generals. Many historians throughout the twentieth century have approached Lee and other Confederate military figures within an analytical framework heavily influenced by the Lost Cause school.The twelve pieces in Lee and His Generals in War and Memory explore the effect of Lost Cause arguments on popular perceptions of Lee and his lieutenants. Part I offers four essays on Lee, followed in Part II by five essays that scrutinize several of Lee's most famous subordinates, including Stonewall Jackson, John Bankhead Magruder, James Longstreet, A.P. Hill, Richard S. Ewell, and Jubal Early. Taken together, these pieces not only consider how Lost Cause writings enhanced or diminished Confederate military reputations but also illuminate the various ways post--Civil War writers have interpreted the actions and impacts of these commanders.Part III contains two articles that shift the focus to the writings of Jubal Early and LaSalle Corbell Pickett, both of whom succeeded in advancing the notion of gallant Lost Cause warriors. The final two essays, which contemplate the current debate over the Civil War's meaning for modern Americans, focus on Ken Burns's documentary The Civil War and on the issue of battlefield preservation. Gallagher adeptly highlights the chasm that often separates academic and popular perceptions of the Civil War and discusses some of the ways in which the Lost Cause continues to resonate.Lee and His Generals in War and Memory will certainly attract those interested in Lee and his campaigns, the Army of Northern Virginia, the establishment of popular images of the Confederate military, and the manner in which historical memory is created and perpetuated.

Civil War Witnesses and Their Books: New Perspectives on Iconic Works serves as a wide-ranging analysis of texts written by individuals who experienced the American Civil War. Edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Stephen Cushman, this volume, like its companion, Civil War Writing: New Perspectives on Iconic Texts (2019), features the voices of authors who felt compelled to convey their stories for a variety of reasons. Some produced works intended primarily for their peers, while others were concerned with how future generations would judge their wartime actions. One diarist penned her entries with no thought that they would later become available to the public. The essayists explore the work of five men and three women, including prominent Union and Confederate generals, the wives of a headline-seeking US cavalry commander and a Democratic judge from New York City, a member of Robert E. Lee's staff, a Union artillerist, a matron from Richmond's sprawling Chimborazo Hospital, and a leading abolitionist US senator.Civil War Witnesses and Their Books shows how some of those who lived through the conflict attempted to assess its importance and frame it for later generations. Their voices have particular resonance today and underscore how rival memory traditions stir passion and controversy, providing essential testimony for anyone seeking to understand the nation's greatest trial and its aftermath.

In the seventy-three succinct essays gathered in The Enduring Civil War, celebrated historian Gary W. Gallagher highlights the complexity and richness of the war, from its origins to its memory, as topics for study, contemplation, and dispute. He places contemporary understanding of the Civil War, both academic and general, in conversation with testimony from those in the Union and the Confederacy who experienced and described it, investigating how mid-nineteenth-century perceptions align with, or deviate from, current ideas regarding the origins, conduct, and aftermath of the war. The tension between history and memory forms a theme throughout the essays, underscoring how later perceptions about the war often took precedence over historical reality in the minds of many Americans. The array of topics Gallagher addresses is striking. He examines notable books and authors, both Union and Confederate, military and civilian, famous and lesser known. He discusses historians who, though their names have receded with time, produced works that remain pertinent in terms of analysis or information. He comments on conventional interpretations of events and personalities, challenging, among other things, commonly held notions about Gettysburg and Vicksburg as decisive turning points, Ulysses S. Grant as a general who profligately wasted Union manpower, the Gettysburg Address as a watershed that turned the war from a fight for Union into one for Union and emancipation, and Robert E. Lee as an old-fashioned general ill-suited to waging a modern mid-nineteenth-century war. Gallagher interrogates recent scholarly trends on the evolving nature of Civil War studies, addressing crucial questions about chronology, history, memory, and the new revisionist literature. The format of this provocative and timely collection lends itself to sampling, and readers might start in any of the subject groupings and go where their interests take them.

Shirley Rose Gray's memoir and diary chronicle her World War II experiences with a USO show in the Pacific Theater during the summer of 1945. Part of comedic film actor Eddie Bracken's troupe of entertainers, the twenty-two-year-old native of Los Angeles performed on bitterly contested islands such as Guam, Peleliu, Tinian, and Saipan, as well as aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga and other naval vessels. Her narrative recounts traveling on crowded planes, performing in wet clothes amid stifling heat, and dealing with homesickness and physical exhaustion. In addition to encountering utterly foreign people and landscapes, Gray witnessed the human and material destruction of ferocious battles. She and the other members of Bracken's show developed a sense of camaraderie, different but somewhat akin to that among veterans. Gray's time on the islands included memorable moments apart from her performances. She spent many hours in hospitals talking to wounded men and often served food to grateful enlisted personnel. On Peleliu, she squeezed into a cave, once used by Japanese forces as a hospital, that contained decomposing corpses of slain soldiers. She spent an hour flying in a Navy dive bomber and, encouraged by Marines, briefly steered an amphibious tank. She met many well-known figures, including Admiral Richard E. Byrd, the famous polar explorer, who gave her the stars off his uniform's collar. A bomber crew painted her picture on the nose of their aircraft and named it the "Squirrelly Shirley." Gray's highly personal memoir, episodic in nature, is descriptive rather than contemplative. No passages explain why the U.S. military endeavor merited praise; instead, Gray takes for granted that the uniformed men who attended Bracken's show fought for a just cause. Her straightforward prose leaves no doubt that she believed the troupe contributed to the war effort, and that she derived satisfaction from her efforts on stage and in other interactions with U.S. servicemen as the war entered its final phase.

In the spring of 1864, in the vast Virginia scrub forest known as the Wilderness, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee first met in battle. The Wilderness campaign of May 5–6 initiated an epic confrontation between these two Civil War commanders — one that would finally end, eleven months later, with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.The eight essays here assembled explore aspects of the background, conduct, and repercussions of the fighting in the Wilderness. Through an often-revisionist lens, contributors to this volume focus on topics such as civilian expectations for the campaign, morale in the two armies, and the generalship of Lee, Grant, Philip H. Sheridan, Richard S. Ewell, A. P. Hill, James Longstreet, and Lewis A. Grant. Taken together, these essays revise and enhance existing work on the battle, highlighting ways in which the military and nonmilitary spheres of war intersected in the Wilderness.The contributors: —eter S. Carmichael, ''Escaping the Shadow of Gettysburg: Richard S. Ewell and Ambrose Powell Hill at the Wilderness'' — Gary W. Gallagher, ''Our Hearts Are Full of Hope: The Army of Northern Virginia in the Spring of 1864'' — John J. Hennessy, ''I Dread the Spring: The Army of the Potomac Prepares for the Overland Campaign'' — Robert E. L. Krick, ''Like a Duck on a June Bug: James Longstreet’s Flank Attack, May 6, 1864'' — Robert K. Krick, ''''Lee to the Rear,'' the Texans Cried'' — Carol Reardon, ''The Other Grant: Lewis A. Grant and the Vermont Brigade in the Battle of the Wilderness'' — Gordon C. Rhea, ''Union Cavalry in the Wilderness: The Education of Philip H. Sheridan and James H. Wilson'' — Brooks D. Simpson, ''Great Expectations: Ulysses S. Grant, the Northern Press, and the Opening of the Wilderness Campaign''

A variety of important but lesser-known dimensions of the Chancellorsville campaign of spring 1863 are explored in this collection of eight original essays. Departing from the traditional focus on generalship and tactics, the contributors address the campaign’s broad context and implications and revisit specific battlefield episodes that have in the past been poorly understood.Chancellorsville was a remarkable victory for Robert E. Lee’s troops, a fact that had enormous psychological importance for both sides, which had met recently at Fredericksburg and would meet again at Gettysburg in just two months. But the achievement, while stunning, came at an enormous cost: more than 13,000 Confederates became casualties, including Stonewall Jackson, who was wounded by friendly fire and died several days later.The topics covered in this volume include the influence of politics on the Union army, the importance of courage among officers, the impact of the war on children, and the state of battlefield medical care. Other essays illuminate the important but overlooked role of Confederate commander Jubal Early, reassess the professionalism of the Union cavalry, investigate the incident of friendly fire that took Stonewall Jackson’s life, and analyze the military and political background of Confederate colonel Emory Best’s court-martial on charges of abandoning his men.ContributorsKeith S. Bohannon, Pennsylvania State University and Greenville, South CarolinaGary W. Gallagher, University of VirginiaA. Wilson Greene, Petersburg, VirginiaJohn J. Hennessy, Fredericksburg, VirginiaRobert K. Krick, Fredericksburg, VirginiaJames Marten, Marquette UniversityCarol Reardon, Pennsylvania State UniversityJames I. Robertson Jr., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

The Maryland campaign of September 1862 ranks among the most important military operations of the American Civil War. Crucial political, diplomatic, and military issues were at stake as Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan maneuvered and fought in the western part of the state. The climactic clash came on September 17 at the battle of Antietam, where more than 23,000 men fell in the single bloodiest day of the war.Approaching topics related to Lee’s and McClellan’s operations from a variety of perspectives, contributors to this volume explore questions regarding military leadership, strategy, and tactics, the impact of the fighting on officers and soldiers in both armies, and the ways in which participants and people behind the lines interpreted and remembered the campaign. They also discuss the performance of untried military units and offer a look at how the United States Army used the Antietam battlefield as an outdoor classroom for its officers in the early twentieth century.The contributors are William A. Blair, Keith S. Bohannon, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, Lesley J. Gordon, D. Scott Hartwig, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, Carol Reardon, and Brooks D. Simpson.

Stephen Dodson Ramseur, born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, in 1837, compiled an enviable record as a brigadier in the Army of Northern Virginia. Commissioned major general the day after his twenty-seventh birthday, he was the youngest West Pointer to achieve that rank in the Confederate army. He later showed great skill as a divisional leader in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaigns before he was fatally wounded at Cedar Creek on 19 October of that year. Based on Ramseur's extensive personal papers as well as on other sources, this absorbing biography examines the life of one of the South's most talented commanders and brings into sharper focus some of the crosscurrents of this turbulent period. |One of the principal aims of the Sandinista government in Nicaragua was to end the exploitation of the rural poor. But its attempts to promote balanced economic development and redistribute agricultural resources created labor shortages that threatened th

Originally published by UNC Press in 1989, Fighting for the Confederacy is one of the richest personal accounts in all of the vast literature on the Civil War. Alexander was involved in nearly all of the great battles of the East, from First Manassas through Appomattox, and his duties brought him into frequent contact with most of the high command of the Army of Northern Virginia, including Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and James Longstreet. No other Civil War veteran of his stature matched Alexander's ability to discuss operations in penetrating detail-- this is especially true of his description of Gettysburg. His narrative is also remarkable for its utterly candid appraisals of leaders on both sides. |Rescued from an archive and published only eight years ago, this private memoir by Confederate General Porter Alexander is now recognized as one of the best books by a participant in the Civil War.

The six essays collected here explore the enduring impact of the America Civil War on that nation's national consciousness. Contributors examine subjects as diverse as tactics, the uses of autobiography and the power of myth-making in the southern tradition. Their work should help to refocus the view of the third day at Gettysburg, illustrating the rewards of imaginative scholarship - even for the most intensely studied battle in America's history. The contributors are Robert L. Bee, A. Wilson Greene, Gary W. Gallagher, Robert K. Krick, Willian Garrett Piston and Carol Reardon.

This title deals with the campaign that made Stonewall Jackson a hero of the Confederacy. It explores the Shenandoah Valley campaign, best known for its role in establishing Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson's reputation as the Confederacy's greatest military idol. The authors address questions of military leadership, strategy and tactics, the campaign's political and social impact, and the ways in which participants' memories of events differed from what is revealed in the historical sources. In the process, they offer valuable insights into one of the Confederacy's most famous generals, those who fought with him and against him, the campaign's larger importance in the context of the war, and the complex relationship between history and memory. The contributors are Jonathan M. Berkey, Keith S. Bohannon, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, A. Cash Koeniger, R. E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, and William J. Miller.

Was Robert E. Lee a gifted soldier whose only weaknesses lay in the depth of his loyalty to his troops, affection for his lieutenants, and dedication to the cause of the Confederacy? Or was he an ineffective leader and poor tactician whose reputation was drastically inflated by early biographers and Lost Cause apologists? These divergent characterizations represent the poles between which scholarly and popular opinion on Lee has swung over time. In eight essays, Gary Gallagher offers his own refined thinking on Lee, exploring the relationship between Lee's operations and Confederate morale, the quality of his generalship, and the question of how best to assess his legacy in light of the many distortions that grew out of Lost Cause historiography.

The Wilderness campaign of May 5-6, 1864, initiated an epic confrontation between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee that would ultimately end, eleven months later, with Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The eight essays assembled here explore aspects of the background, conduct, and repercussions of the fighting in the Wilderness. Contributors to this volume revise and enhance our thinking on the battle, highlighting ways in which the military and non-military spheres of war intersected in the Wilderness. The contributors are Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, John J. Hennessy, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, Carol Reardon, Gordon C. Rhea, and Brooks D. Simpson.

This book provides new insights into the bloodiest day of the Civil War.The Maryland campaign of September 1862 ranks among the most important military operations of the American Civil War. The climactic clash came on September 17 at the battle of Antietam, where more than 23,000 men fell in the single bloodiest day of the war. Exploring topics related to Lee's and McClellan's operations from a variety of perspectives, contributors to this volume examine questions of military leadership, strategy, and tactics; the performance of untried military units; and the ways in which the battle has been remembered. The contributors are William A. Blair, Keith S. Bohannon, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, Lesley J. Gordon, D. Scott Hartwig, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, Carol Reardon, and Brooks D. Simpson. The editor is Gary W. Gallagher.

This book describes the antecedents and aftermath of a key campaign.This collection of seven original essays by leading Civil War historians reinterprets the bloody Fredericksburg campaign and places it within a broader social and political context. By analyzing the battle's antecedents as well as its aftermath, the contributors challenge long-held assumptions about the engagement and clarify our picture of the war as a whole. The contributors are William Marvel, Alan T. Nolan, Carol Reardon, Gary W. Gallagher, A. Wilson Greene, George C. Rable, and William A. Blair. The editor is Gary W. Gallagher.

This title explores key political, diplomatic, social, and military issues at stake. The Richmond campaign of 1862, waged by armies under Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan, ranks as one of the most important military operations of the first years of the American Civil War. This book offers nine essays in which well-known Civil War historians explore questions regarding high command, strategy and tactics, the effects of the fighting upon politics and society both North and South, and the ways in which emancipation figured in the campaign. The authors have consulted previously untapped manuscript sources and reinterpreted more familiar evidence, sometimes focusing closely on the fighting around Richmond and sometimes looking more broadly at the background and consequences of the campaign. The contributors are William A. Blair, Keith S. Bohannon, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, John T. Hubbell, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, James Marten, and William J. Miller.

Comprised of essays from twelve leading scholars, this volume extends the discussion of Civil War controversies far past the death of the Confederacy in the spring of 1865. Contributors address, among other topics, Walt Whitman's poetry, the handling of the Union and Confederate dead, the treatment of disabled and destitute northern veterans, Ulysses S. Grant's imposing tomb, and Hollywood's long relationship with the Lost Cause narrative. The contributors are William Blair, Stephen Cushman, Drew Gilpin Faust, Gary W. Gallagher, J. Matthew Gallman, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Harold Holzer, James Marten, Stephanie McCurry, James M. McPherson, Carol Reardon, and Joan Waugh.

This book takes a fresh look at the longest campaign in the region. Generally regarded as the most important Civil War military operation conducted in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the campaign of 1864 lasted more than four months and claimed more than 25,000 casualties. Beyond the loss of agricultural bounty to the Confederacy and the boost in Union morale a victory would bring, events in the Valley also would affect Abraham Lincoln's chances for reelection in the November 1864 presidential canvass. The eleven original essays in this volume reexamine common assumptions about the campaign, its major figures, and its significance.The contributors are William W. Bergen, Keith S. Bohannon, Andre M. Fleche, Gary W. Gallagher, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, William J. Miller, Aaron Sheehan-Dean, William G. Thomas, and Joan Waugh.

This book tells about the Confederate victory and its cost. Chancellorsville was a remarkable victory for Robert E. Lee's troops, a fact that had significant psychological importance for both sides, which had met recently at Fredericksburg and would meet again at Gettysburg in just two months. But the achievement, while stunning, came at an enormous cost of more than 13,000 Confederate casualties, including Stonewall Jackson, who was wounded by friendly fire and died several days later.A variety of important but lesser-known dimensions of the Chancellorsville campaign are explored in this collection of eight original essays. Departing from the traditional focus on generalship and tactics, the contributors address the campaign's broad context and implications and revisit specific battlefield episodes that have in the past been poorly understood.The contributors include Keith S. Bohannon, Gary W. Gallagher, A. Wilson Greene, John J. Hennessy, Robert K.Krick, James Marten, Carol Reardon, and James I. Robertson Jr.

This volume explores the Shenandoah Valley campaign, best known for its role in establishing Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s reputation as the Confederacy’s greatest military idol. The authors address questions of military leadership, strategy and tactics, the campaign’s political and social impact, and the ways in which participants'' memories of events differed from what is revealed in the historical sources. In the process, they offer valuable insights into one of the Confederacy’s most famous generals, those who fought with him and against him, the campaign’s larger importance in the context of the war, and the complex relationship between history and memory.The contributors are Jonathan M. Berkey, Keith S. Bohannon, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, A. Cash Koeniger, R. E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, and William J. Miller.

This is a sampler of the best scholarship on the Civil War and its memory.The twelve essays in ""Wars within a War"" explore the internal stresses that posed serious challenges to the viability of the opposing sides in the Civil War as well as some of the ways in which wartime disputes and cultural fissures carried over into the postwar years and beyond.Comprised of contributions from leading scholars, this volume extends the discussion of controversies far past the death of the Confederacy in the spring of 1865. The contributors address, among other topics, Walt Whitman's poetry, the handling of the Union and Confederate dead, the treatment of disabled and destitute northern veterans, Ulysses S. Grant's imposing tomb, and Hollywood's long relationship with the Lost Cause narrative.Reflecting a variety of approaches and methodologies, these essays provide a starting point for anyone interested in how Americans have argued about the prosecution, meaning, and memory of the war.

This title includes versions of history we learn at the movies. More than 60,000 books have been published on the Civil War. Most Americans, though, get their ideas about the war - why it was fought, what was won, what was lost - not from books but from movies, television, and other popular media. In an engaging and accessible survey, renowned Civil War historian Gary Gallagher guides readers through the stories told in recent film and art, showing how they have both reflected and influenced the political, social, and racial currents of their times.Gallagher argues that popular understandings of the war have been shaped by four traditions that arose in the nineteenth century and continue to the present: the Lost Cause, in which Confederates are seen as having waged an admirable struggle against hopeless odds; the Union Cause, which frames the war as an effort to maintain a viable republic in the face of secessionist actions; the Emancipation Cause, in which the war is viewed as a struggle to liberate 4 million slaves and eliminate a cancerous influence on American society; and the Reconciliation Cause, which represents attempts by northern and southern whites to extol ""American"" virtues and mute the role of African Americans. Gallagher traces an arc of cinematic interpretation from one once dominated by the Lost Cause to one now celebrating Emancipation and, to a lesser degree, Reconciliation. In contrast, the market for art among contemporary Civil War enthusiasts reflects an overwhelming Lost Cause bent. Neither film not art provides sympathetic representations of the Union Cause, which, Gallagher argues, carried the most weight in the Civil War era.This lively investigation into what popular entertainment teaches us and what it reflects about us will prompt readers to consider how we form opinions on current matters of debate, such as the use of the military, the freedom to dissent, and the flying of the Confederate flag.

The six essays in this volume testify to the enduring impact of the Civil War on our national consciousness. Covering subjects as diverse as tactics, the uses of autobiography, and the power of myth-making in the southern tradition, they illustrate the rewards of imaginative scholarship — even for the most intensely studied battle in America’s history.The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond brings current research and interpretation to bear on a range of pivotal issues surrounding the final day of the battle, July 3, 1863. This revisionist approach begins by expanding our knowledge of the engagement itself: individual essays address Confederate general James Longstreet’s role in Pickett’s Charge and Union general George Meade’s failure to pursue Lee after the fighting. Other essays widen the scope of investigation to look at contemporary reactions to the Confederate defeat across the South, the construction of narratives by the participants themselves — from Confederate survivors of Pickett’s assault to Union sergeant Ben Hirst — and the reverberations of Pickett’s final momentous charge.Combining fresh evidence with the reinterpretation of standard sources, these essays refocus our view of the third day at Gettysburg to take in its diverse stories of combat and memory.The contributors are Gary W. Gallagher, William Garrett Piston, Carol Reardon, Robert K. Krick, Robert L. Bee, and A. Wilson Greene.

Stephen Dodson Ramseur, born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, in 1837, compiled an enviable record as a brigadier in the Army of Northern Virginia. Commissioned major general the day after his twenty-seventh birthday, he was the youngest West Pointer to achieve that rank in the Confederate army. He later showed great skill as a divisional leader in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaigns before he was fatally wounded at Cedar Creek on 19 October of that year. Based on Ramseur’s extensive personal papers as well as on other sources, this absorbing biography examines the life of one of the South’s most talented commanders and brings into sharper focus some of the crosscurrents of this turbulent period.

Top military historians examine one of the bloodiest clashes between Grant and Lee. The Spotsylvania Campaign was a crucial period in the protracted confrontation between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in spring 1864. Approaching the campaign from a variety of perspectives, the contributors to this volume explore questions regarding high command, tactics and strategy, the impact of continuous fighting on officers and soldiers in both armies, and the ways in which some participants chose to remember and interpret the campaign. They offer insight into the decisions and behavior of Lee and of Federal army leaders, the fullest descriptions to date of the horrific fighting at the 'Bloody Angle' on May 12, and a revealing look at how Grant used his memoirs to counter Lost Cause interpretations of his actions at Spotsylvania and elsewhere in the Overland Campaign. The contributors are William A. Blair, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, William D. Matter, Carol Reardon, and Gordon C. Rhea.

This Omnibus ebook contains the two-volume collection of essays, edited by Gary Gallagher, that covers the Shenandoah Valley Campaigns of 1862 and 1864.1862:This volume explores the Shenandoah Valley campaign, best known for its role in establishing Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s reputation as the Confederacy’s greatest military idol. The authors address questions of military leadership, strategy and tactics, the campaign’s political and social impact, and the ways in which participants'' memories of events differed from what is revealed in the historical sources. In the process, they offer valuable insights into one of the Confederacy’s most famous generals, those who fought with him and against him, the campaign’s larger importance in the context of the war, and the complex relationship between history and memory.The contributors are Jonathan M. Berkey, Keith S. Bohannon, Peter S. Carmichael, Gary W. Gallagher, A. Cash Koeniger, R. E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, and William J. Miller.1864:Generally regarded as the most important Civil War military operation conducted in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the campaign of 1864 lasted more than four months and claimed more than 25,000 casualties. Beyond the loss of agricultural bounty to the Confederacy and the boost in Union morale a victory would bring, events in the Valley also would affect Abraham Lincoln’s chances for reelection in the November 1864 presidential canvass.The eleven original essays in this volume reexamine common assumptions about the campaign, its major figures, and its significance. Taking advantage of the most recent scholarship and a wide range of primary sources, contributors consider strategy and tactics, the performances of key commanders on each side, the campaign’s political repercussions, and the experiences of civilians caught in the path of the armies.The contributors are William W. Bergen, Keith S. Bohannon, Andre M. Fleche, Gary W. Gallagher, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Robert E. L. Krick, Robert K. Krick, William J. Miller, Aaron Sheehan-Dean, William G. Thomas, and Joan Waugh. The editor is Gary W. Gallagher.