Cumberlands A Story Of The Civil War

The book has been copy edited. Editing completed July 31, 2014. Edward Kruger is a small farmer and part time student living on Middle Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau when he is swept into the Civil War after the South passes a Conscription Act in 1862. Despite reservations because of his family's Mennonite past and against the will of the Northern woman he cares for Edward becomes a member of a Confederate cavalry company and participates in the Confederate invasion of Kentucky and then fights in the hard fought battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Edward senses changes in himself questioning his fate as the war continues and he finds himself back home on the Plateau engaging in a merciless and bitterly fought guerilla war. His cavalry company moving with the currents of the fluid conflict eventually joins the forces of Fighting Joe Wheeler in Georgia opposing Union commander William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea. As the relentless fighting continues through Georgia and into the Carolinas Edward is forced to come to terms with his role in the war and ask himself one important question. Can he survive the war intact and return home to the woman he can only hope is waiting there for him?

Johnson sought to attack Morgan before he could unite with Forrest, who was on his Lebanon raid at that time, but Morgan hearing that Johnson had infantry and artillery supports, endeavored to avoid an engagement. Johnson forced the fight, engaged Morgan with spirit, and although repulsed three times, after the first and second repulse formed promptly and renewed the attack.

By the end of the Civil War, Champ Ferguson had become a notorious criminal whose likeness covered the front pages of Harper’s Weekly, Leslie’s Illustrated, and other newspapers across the country. His crime? Using the war as an excuse to steal, plunder, and murder Union civilians and soldiers. Cumberland Blood: Champ Ferguson’s Civil War offers insights into Ferguson's lawless brutality and a lesser-known aspect of the Civil War, the bitter guerrilla conflict in the Appalachian highlands, extending from the Carolinas through Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia. This compelling volume delves into the violent story of Champ Ferguson, who acted independently of the Confederate army in a personal war that eventually garnered the censure of Confederate officials. Author Thomas D. Mays traces Ferguson's life in the Cumberland highlands of southern Kentucky, where—even before the Civil War began—he had a reputation as a vicious killer. Ferguson, a rising slave owner, sided with the Confederacy while many of his neighbors and family members took up arms for the Union. For Ferguson and others in the highlands, the war would not be decided on the distant fields of Shiloh or Gettysburg: it would be local—and personal. Cumberland Blood describes how Unionists drove Ferguson from his home in Kentucky into Tennessee, where he banded together with other like-minded Southerners to drive the Unionists from the region. Northern sympathizers responded, and a full-scale guerrilla war erupted along the border in 1862. Mays notes that Ferguson's status in the army was never clear, and he skillfully details how raiders picked up Ferguson's gang to work as guides and scouts. In 1864, Ferguson and his gang were incorporated into the Confederate army, but the rogue soldier continued operating as an outlaw, murdering captured Union prisoners after the Battle of Saltville, Virginia. Cumberland Blood, enhanced by twenty-one illustrations, is an illuminating assessment of one of the Civil War's most ruthless men. Ferguson's arrest, trial, and execution after the war captured the attention of the nation in 1865, but his story has been largely forgotten. Cumberland Blood: Champ Ferguson's Civil War returns the story of Ferguson's private civil war to its place in history.

Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau played host to some of the most dramatic military maneuvering of the Civil War. As Federal forces sought to capitalize on the capture of Nashville, they moved into a region split by the most vicious guerrilla warfare outside Missouri. The bitter conflict affected thousands of ordinary men and women struggling to survive in the face of a remorseless war of attrition, and its legacy continues to be felt today.

The Civil War You Never Knew... Behind the conflict that divided a nation and forever changed its citizens are the riveting tales of the men and women who made an impact in the Civil War, both on and off the battlefield. Drawn from the writings of soldiers, slaves, politicians, and military leaders, Best Little Stories: Voices of the Civil War extends beyond the statistics and battle accounts to present the intensely personal, human side of the conflict. Fascinating characters come to life, including: James Alexander Walker, who served with honor under Stonewall Jackson, even after he was booted from the Virginia Military Institute for talking back to the notoriously stodgy Professor Jackson. Charles Strahan, a Confederate veteran who made strides to reconcile the Blue and Gray when he raised money to erect a monument to honor his former enemy, the soldiers of the Union army. Gen. Julius H. Stahel, winner of the Medal of Honor, who was egregiously omitted from the official after-action report on the battle of Piedmont, Virginia, despite having led the Union forces to victory after suffering from a gunshot wound.

“Anyone who is interested in Civil War logistics, wartime railroads, and the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania needs to read this study.” —Eric J. Wittenberg, award-winning historian and author The Civil War was the first conflict in which railroads played a major role. Although much has been written about their role in general, little has been written about specific lines. The Cumberland Valley Railroad, for example, played an important strategic role by connecting Hagerstown, Maryland to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Its location enhanced its importance during some of the Civil War’s most critical campaigns. Because of its proximity to major cities in the Eastern Theater, the Cumberland Valley Railroad was an enticing target for Confederate leaders and an invaluable resource for the Union Army. In October 1859, abolitionist John Brown used the CVRR in his fateful Harpers Ferry raid. The line was under direct threat by invading Confederates during the Antietam Campaign, and the following summer suffered serious damage during the Gettysburg Campaign. In 1864, Rebel raiders burned much of its headquarters town, Chambersburg, including the homes of many CVRR employees. The railroad was as vital to residents of the bustling and fertile Cumberland Valley as it was to the Union war effort. Targeted Tracks is grounded on the railway’s voluminous reports, the letters and diaries of local residents and Union and Confederate soldiers, official reports, and newspaper accounts. The primary sources, combined with the expertise of the authors, bring this largely untold story to life. “Mingus and Wingert have done a splendid job telling the story of the industrial, economic, social, and military history of the CVRR . . . engaging.” —Ted Alexander, chief historian (ret.), Antietam National Battlefield

During its two-year history, the cavalry of the Army of the Cumberland fought the Confederates in some of the most important actions of the Civil War, including Stones River, Chickamauga, the Tullahoma Campaign, the pursuit of Joseph Wheeler in October 1863 and the East Tennessee Campaign. They battled with legendary Confederate cavalry units commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest, John Hunt Morgan, Wheeler and others. By October 1864, the cavalry grew from eight regiments to four divisions--composed of units from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and Tennessee--before participating in Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, where the Union cavalry suffered 30 percent casualties. This history of the Army of the Cumberland's cavalry units analyzes their success and failures and re-evaluates their alleged poor service during the Atlanta Campaign.