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 57
... fire from the outset , the rebels maintained ad- mirable order as they crossed the 600 - yard - wide valley between them and their hilltop objective . Drawing to within 150 yards of the crest , they halted , triggered a volley , then ...
... fire from the outset , the rebels maintained ad- mirable order as they crossed the 600 - yard - wide valley between them and their hilltop objective . Drawing to within 150 yards of the crest , they halted , triggered a volley , then ...
Page 87
... fire . The loom room had caught from some hot ashes , but we at once thought Jane was wreaking vengeance on us all by trying to burn us out . We would not have been sur- prised to have her slip up and stick any of us in the back ...
... fire . The loom room had caught from some hot ashes , but we at once thought Jane was wreaking vengeance on us all by trying to burn us out . We would not have been sur- prised to have her slip up and stick any of us in the back ...
Page 241
... fire , forcing the enemy to take cover . The acknowledged ace among the Yankee sharpshooters was Lieutenant Henry C. Foster . Called " Coonskin ” in recognition of his hunting skills , he would hole up in a camouflaged burrow for days ...
... fire , forcing the enemy to take cover . The acknowledged ace among the Yankee sharpshooters was Lieutenant Henry C. Foster . Called " Coonskin ” in recognition of his hunting skills , he would hole up in a camouflaged burrow for days ...
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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 minié 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