1863: The Rebirth of a NationAmerican history has never seen a more tumultuous or more significant year than 1863. During this crucial time the tide of the Civil War turned inexorably from the Confederacy to the Union, with momentous consequences that are still being felt today. It was a year of upheaval unparalleled in our national experience: twelve months of searing brutality and ennobling sacrifice, 365 stirring, dramatic days that changed our country forever. Integrating the events of this epochal year into a panoramic narrative, Joseph E. Stevens presents a grand portrait of the Union and Confederacy at war. He captures two nations struggling to define the American experiment and create a new understanding of freedom on the bloody battlefields of Stones River, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. He also traces the astonishing political, economic, and social transformations that marked 1863 as a watershed. 1863 features a remarkable cast of characters: larger-than-life leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis; charismatic and controversial military commanders like Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, James Longstreet, Joseph Hooker, Stonewall Jackson, George Armstrong Custer, and Nathan Bedford Forrest; avaricious young capitalists like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan; war-haunted writers like Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, and Walt Whitman; war-inspired painters like Winslow Homer and Conrad Wise Chapman. Here, too, is a host of less well known but no less fascinating personalities: soldiers and civilians, slaves and slave owners, farmers and city dwellers, politicians and profiteers, artistocrats and refugees. Theirstories--humorous and harrowing, inspiring and appalling--make 1863 not just a sweeping re-creation of events but a gripping human tale as well. 1863 is popular history at its best--vivid, vibrant, and immensely readable. Written with dramatic intensity and impassioned humanity, it is a thrilling account of the pivotal year of the war that remains the central historical event in the life of our nation. |
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Page 131
... Southern farm women had taken the place of departed husbands and sons when the war began , but without the new ... Southern railroads capable of carrying the logistical load for a nation at war . In the entire Confederacy there were only ...
... Southern farm women had taken the place of departed husbands and sons when the war began , but without the new ... Southern railroads capable of carrying the logistical load for a nation at war . In the entire Confederacy there were only ...
Page 307
... southern tip of Morris Island . The troops would then advance up the four - mile - long ribbon of sand , capture Battery Wagner and Battery Gregg at its northern end , and use rifled artillery to pulverize Fort Sumter , which lay less ...
... southern tip of Morris Island . The troops would then advance up the four - mile - long ribbon of sand , capture Battery Wagner and Battery Gregg at its northern end , and use rifled artillery to pulverize Fort Sumter , which lay less ...
Page 403
... Southern whites be permitted to direct their own affairs , did not wish to see the secessionist element brought back into the national government . Nor did he think the radicals really wanted to rule the Southern states as conquered ...
... Southern whites be permitted to direct their own affairs , did not wish to see the secessionist element brought back into the national government . Nor did he think the radicals really wanted to rule the Southern states as conquered ...
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Common terms and phrases
afternoon Army of Northern Army of Tennessee arrived artillery assault attack batteries battle battlefield Bayou began blue bluecoats Bragg brigade Brown's Ferry Burnside camp campaign captured cavalry Cemetery Ridge Chancellorsville Charleston Chattanooga Chickamauga Colonel column Confederacy Confederate Creek Culp's Hill Custer defensive dispatches division east enemy Federal Ferry fight fire flank force front Gettysburg going Grant ground guns hand head headquarters Hill Hooker horse House hundred ibid infantry Jackson Jefferson Davis John Johnston June later Lee's Lincoln Little Round Top Longstreet looked Lookout McClernand Meade miles military Milliken's Bend miniƩ ball Missionary Ridge Mississippi morning move Murfreesboro night Northern Virginia officers Ohio ordered Pemberton Potomac president Rappahannock rear rebel regiments reinforcements retreat Richmond River Road rode Rosecrans Seminary Ridge sent Sherman soldiers Southern Thomas told troops Union army Vicksburg victory wagon Washington week wounded wrote Yankees York