This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil WarThe author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom and the New York Times bestsellers Crossroads of Freedom and Tried by War, among many other award-winning books, James M. McPherson is America's preeminent Civil War historian. In this collection of provocative and illuminating essays, McPherson offers fresh insight into many of the enduring questions about one of the defining moments in our nation's history. McPherson sheds light on topics large and small, from the average soldier's avid love of newspapers to the postwar creation of the mystique of a Lost Cause in the South. Readers will find insightful pieces on such intriguing figures as Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Jesse James, and William Tecumseh Sherman, and on such vital issues as Confederate military strategy, the failure of peace negotiations to end the war, and the realities and myths of the Confederacy. This Mighty Scourge includes several never-before-published essays--pieces on General Robert E. Lee's goals in the Gettysburg campaign, on Lincoln and Grant in the Vicksburg campaign, and on Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief. All of the essays have been updated and revised to give the volume greater thematic coherence and continuity, so that it can be read in sequence as an interpretive history of the war and its meaning for America and the world. Combining the finest scholarship with luminous prose, and packed with new information and fresh ideas, this book brings together the most recent thinking by the nation's leading authority on the Civil War. |
From inside the book
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Page 12
... Maryland insisted that “slavery was ordained by God and sanctioned by humanity.” If slave states remained in a Union ruled by Lincoln and his party, “the safety of the rights of the South will be entirely gone.”19 If these warnings were ...
... Maryland insisted that “slavery was ordained by God and sanctioned by humanity.” If slave states remained in a Union ruled by Lincoln and his party, “the safety of the rights of the South will be entirely gone.”19 If these warnings were ...
Page 21
... Maryland again and again to lead many more slaves to freedom, she also served as a scout during the Civil War and led Union soldiers on raids into the South Carolina interior to liberate hundreds more slaves. For children black and ...
... Maryland again and again to lead many more slaves to freedom, she also served as a scout during the Civil War and led Union soldiers on raids into the South Carolina interior to liberate hundreds more slaves. For children black and ...
Page 23
... Maryland's Eastern Shore, Harriet was hired out by her owner as early as age five for household chores and child-tending in the homes of other whites. Rebellious even then, she was sometimes starved, abused, or beaten for minor ...
... Maryland's Eastern Shore, Harriet was hired out by her owner as early as age five for household chores and child-tending in the homes of other whites. Rebellious even then, she was sometimes starved, abused, or beaten for minor ...
Page 24
... Maryland and Delaware. Traveling at night on foot or hidden in a wagon driven by one of the “conductors” of this metaphorical railroad, hiding during the day in the woods or at one of the “stations,” Harriet made her way to Wilmington ...
... Maryland and Delaware. Traveling at night on foot or hidden in a wagon driven by one of the “conductors” of this metaphorical railroad, hiding during the day in the woods or at one of the “stations,” Harriet made her way to Wilmington ...
Page 25
... Maryland for this purpose.9 Many of the fugitives she conducted north were her relatives. Tubman had a strong sense of family. During her childhood two sisters were sold to buyers in states farther south. The trauma of that separation ...
... Maryland for this purpose.9 Many of the fugitives she conducted north were her relatives. Tubman had a strong sense of family. During her childhood two sisters were sold to buyers in states farther south. The trauma of that separation ...
Contents
THE LOST CAUSE REVISITED | 41 |
ARCHITECTS OF VICTORY | 107 |
HOME FRONT AND BATTLE FRONT | 143 |
LINCOLN | 185 |
Notes | 223 |
Index | 253 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln Adams American American Civil War Ann Rutledge Antietam antislavery Army of Northern attack Basler battle biography campaign capture Charles Charles Francis Adams Civil command Confeder Confederacy Confederate armies Confederate Veterans Congress Constitution Copperhead Davis’s declared defeat defensive Democrats Diary election emancipation Emancipation Proclamation enemy Federal Fehrenbacher fighting forces fought Gettysburg Grant Greeley Halleck Harriet Harriet Tubman Henry Herndon historians Ibid James Jefferson Davis Jesse John Brown July later Lee’s army letter Lowell March Maryland Massachusetts McClellan McClernand military Mississippi Missouri negotiations newspapers North Northern Virginia officers Papers peace political Potomac president Proclamation quoted raid rebels regiment Republican Richmond River secession Seven Days battles Seward Sherman slavery slaves South Carolina Southern strategy Tennessee territory theater tion troops Tubman Union armies Union soldiers United Vicksburg victory vols Washington William Wilson words wrote Yankee York York Tribune