A Lincoln Man In The Rebel Army Annotated

This is a Confederate memoir like no other. W.E. Hughes was an admirer of Abraham Lincoln before the Civil War for two reasons: 1. He saw Lincoln as a lawyer in the courtroom. 2. He saw Lincoln debate Stephen A. Douglas. Despite deciding that Lincoln was "a bigger man than the Little Giant—Douglas," when war came, Illinois-born Hughes went south to fight for the Confederacy. He gives his reasons and tells of his time in service in this very charming and lively memoir by a successful and intelligent man. In addition to his wartime experiences, Hughes shares a lifetime of tales of his adventures as a stage coach driver, cowboy, lawyer, real estate baron, and businessman. He traveled extensively and had a much-adored granddaughter who shared many of his adventures. Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers, tablets, and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

This edition includes an extensive and hard to find Lincoln biography by Professor John Frost, L.L.D. It contains all seven original volumesd with all of Lincolm's works from 1832 through 1865. "I have endured," wrote Lincoln not long before his death, "a great deal of ridicule without much malice, and have received a great deal of kindness not quite free from ridicule." On Easter Day, 1865, the world knew how little this ridicule, how much this kindness, had really signified. Thereafter, Lincoln the man became Lincoln the hero, year by year more heroic, until to-day, with the swift passing of those who knew him, his figure grows ever dimmer, less real. This should not be. For Lincoln the man, patient, wise, set in a high resolve, is worth far more than Lincoln the hero, vaguely glorious. Invaluable is the example of the man, intangible that of the hero. And, though it is not for us, as for those who in awed stillness listened at Gettysburg with inspired perception, to know Abraham Lincoln, yet there is for us another way whereby we may attain such knowledge—through his words—uttered in all sincerity to those who loved or hated him. Cold, unsatisfying they may seem, these printed words, while we can yet speak with those who knew him, and look into eyes that once looked into his. But in truth it is here that we find his simple greatness, his great simplicity, and though no man tried less so to show his power, no man has so shown it more clearly.

Every great battle takes on new perspectives and meaning when viewed from the prone position of the private soldier, as opposed to the broad sweep of after-battle reports. Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Spottslyvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg...Theodore Gerrish was at them all with Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine Regiment. His vivid, compassionate, and often humorous telling is from the spot on the field where the minie-balls are thickest and the cannonading is deafening. This is one of the best private-soldier memoirs of the American Civil War in its scope and its minute details. The views Gerrish provides at the end of famous officers as seen from the private soldier's point of view include Grant, Meade, Hooker, Josuah Lawrence Chamberlain, and others with whom he came in contact. Some of the humor: “Chaplain, will you be kind enough to tell me what the two capital letters, B.C., stand for, when they are printed together upon anything?” “O, yes. It means before the birth of our Saviour, previous to the beginning of the Christian era.” He proceeded to give quite a profound theological exposition of the matter, and then inquired, “Why did you ask so unusual a question?” “O, nothin’,” answered the innocent Dick, “only we have seen it stamped on these sheets of hard-tack, and were curious to know why it was there.” Of the African-Americans who fought, Gerrish says: "As these two races march beside each other in the struggle of life, we only ask and demand that those who, in their poverty, did all they could to save the nation and assist its defenders, shall not be deprived of their sacred rights." Front-line letters and diaries of the Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it. For less than you'd spend on gas going to the library, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

No military man met more often with Abraham Lincoln and Edwin Stanton than Major-General Edward Davis Townsend. A West Point graduate and an adjutant in Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War, his anecdotes and stories about events and people are some of the most fascinating observations of anyone who was there. He personally read the dispatch to General Scott relating the fall of Fort Sumter. His remarks on Scott's loyalty and the death of Edwin Stanton are not found elsewhere. His contribution is a wonderful addition to the corpus of Civil War literature. Front-line letters and diaries of the Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it. For less than you'd spend on gas going to the library, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

On November 30, 1864, General David Stanley led a successful counterattack against Confederate forces at Franklin, Tennessee. Coming at a decisive moment in the battle, it helped lead to one of the worst disasters of the war for the Rebels. For his actions, Stanley was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Abraham Lincoln. Stanley was involved in many major battles of the war and was also a participant in the Indian Wars. His life encompassed diverse military careers among the union generals in the Civil War and Indian Wars. Here in his own words you can read his fascinating tale. For the first time ever, this long-out-of-print book is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.

One of the most thrilling and unusual missions in the American Civil War is told in detail in the account by William Pittenger, one of the participants. The mission? To disrupt rail communications in the Confederacy. And along the way...steal a locomotive. This fast-paced, well-written story is a true as the good (later) Reverend Pittenger could write it. The tale needed no embellishment because the facts alone are incredible. Later captured, sentenced to die, and held in appalling conditions in Confederate prisons, Pittenger also relates the story of his and his comrades' survival, escape, and eventual repatriation. For less than you'd spend on gas going to the library, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.

"...thank God, the Rebel Scout has lived long enough to outgrow many of the prejudices engendered by the war." Though able to write those words in 1905, at the outbreak of the American Civil War, Dickinson College-educated Maryland native, Thomas Conrad was a passionate fighter for the Rebel cause. Working as a scout in the command of J.E.B. Stuart, he fought alongside his Phi Kappa Sigma buddy and life-long friend, Daniel Mountjoy Cloud. Along the way, he met and ate with Jefferson Davis and was part of a plan (separate from the Booth conspirators) to kidnap Abraham Lincoln. According to Conrad: "Neither President Davis nor his secretary of war had any knowledge of my contemplated attempt to capture Mr. Lincoln and bring him to Richmond. I consulted only the military secretary of General Bragg, and General Bragg at that time had command of Richmond and its defenses. This military secretary enjoined me, above all things, not to hurt a hair upon Lincoln’s head, or treat him with the slightest indignity." By chance, one of Conrad's men met up with John Wilkes Booth during his escape and furnished him with one of Conrad's horses, on which Booth rode to the site of his death. After the war, Conrad was president of what is today Virginia Tech. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above. Buy it today!

Chickamauga, Stone River, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, and Sherman's March to the Sea. Lieutenant Colonel Michael Hendrick Fitch was at all of them and more. Looking back 40 years, he recounts the battles, the humorous tales, the anecdotes of Grant and other famous soldiers whom he met, and simple soldier stories. "As we crossed a creek before arriving at the battlefield, the horses all stopped to drink. Grant pulled out his match-box and lighted a cigar. While he was doing this, his horse let fly with his hind foot at [Baldy] Smith’s horse. Whereupon Smith hit Grant’s horse across the rump with his stick and at the same time made some familiar remark to Grant about riding such a vicious horse. I was looking intently at Grant at the time and was struck with his perfect stolid indifference. He never for an instant changed the position of his hand or head in lighting his cigar, nor said a word, nor did he seem conscious of the episode, though his horse moved up suddenly. I thought it very characteristic of his qualities as a soldier." Front-line letters, diaries, and stories of the Civil War bring an immediacy to a long-ago event and connect us to these everyday men and women who lived it. For the first time, this long out-of-print volume is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE by clicking the cover above or download a sample.