Gettysburg The Final Fury

An incisive look at the turning point of the Civil War, when the great armies of the North and South came to Gettysburg in July 1863—from Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Catton, one of the great historians of the Civil War. Engaging and authoritative, Catton analyzes the course of events at Gettysburg, clarifying its causes and bringing to life the most famous battle ever fought on American soil. Paying full heed to the human tragedies that occurred, Gettysburg: The Final Fury gives an hour-by-hour account of the three-day battle, from the skirmish that began the engagement, to Pickett’s ill-fated charge. Catton provides context for the fateful decisions made by each army’s commanders, and examines the battle’s military and political consequences, placing it within the larger narrative of the Civil War and American history. Described by The Chicago Tribune as “military history…at its best,” Gettysburg, The Final Fury is a classic. Features 41 illustrations and 5 maps.

An incisive look at the turning point of the Civil War, when the great armies of the North and South came to Gettysburg in July 1863-from Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Catton, one of the great historians of the Civil War. Engaging and authoritative, Catton analyzes the course of events at Gettysburg, clarifying its causes and bringing to life the most famous battle ever fought on American soil. Paying full heed to the human tragedies that occurred, Gettysburg: The Final Fury gives an hour-by-hour account of the three-day battle, from the skirmish that began the engagement, to Pickett's ill-fat.

"I left three years ago to do my part in putting down this unholy rebellion." By 1861, Charles Adam Wetherbee had officially traded his comfortable life as a college student for one that included drafty Sibley tents, long marches in weather and wilderness of all kinds, and bloodshed. A Union infantryman with the Thirty-Fourth Illinois Volunteer Regiment, he survived the battles of Shiloh, Stones River, Liberty Gap, Atlanta, and others. One hundred years later, long after Wetherbee had died, a tattered and faded diary was found at a home in Lawrence, Kansas. The homeowner opened its pages and was astonished to discover that Wetherbee had penned every detail of his daily life during the Civil War. Wetherbee's diary presents a realistic view of what a soldier's life entailed, as the reader is thrust into the firsthand drama of the Civil War as it was endured by enlisted participants. Get a true sense of what the Civil War was like from someone who was there to witness an Unholy Rebellion.

From the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning history A Stillness at Appomattox, an electrifying account of the end of the Civil War—Grant and Lee’s final maneuvers as four years of internecine conflict inched to a close. “The end of the war was like the beginning, with the army marching down the open road under the spring sky.” Here is the triumphant close of Bruce Catton’s history of the Army of the Potomac, the major Union army that fought and ultimately won the war. In the spring of 1865, the war was in its endgame, as Grant broke through the defenses at Petersburg and chased Lee’s army for the final clash. Meanwhile, Lee had one final option open to him: escape to North Carolina and join up with General Joe Johnston or otherwise accept defeat. Here are the war’s final days and minutes, the race to the finish of America’s bloodiest years.

Sherman's March is the vivid narrative of General William T. Sherman's devastating sweep through Georgia and the Carolinas in the closing days of the Civil War. Weaving together hundreds of eyewitness stories, Burke Davis graphically brings to life the dramatic experiences of the 65,000 Federal troops who plundered their way through the South and those of the anguished -- and often defiant -- Confederate women and men who sought to protect themselves and their family treasures, usually in vain. Dominating these events is the general himself -- "Uncle Billy" to his troops, the devil incarnate to the Southerners he encountered. "What gives this narrative its unusual richness is the author's collation of hundreds of eyewitness accounts...The actions are described in the words, often picturesque and often eloquent, of those who were there, either as participants -- Union soldiers, Confederate soldiers -- in the fighting and destruction or as victims of Sherman's frank vow to 'make Georgia howl.' Mr. Davis intercuts these scenes with closeups of the chief actors in this nightmarish drama, and he also manages to give us a coherent historical account of the whole episode. A powerful illustration of the proposition put forth in Sherman's most famous remark." -- The New Yorker

The fight for the Wheatfield at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, has long been one of the most confusing and misunderstood engagements of that famous battle until now. Gettysburg’s Bloody Wheatfield provides readers with a blow-by-blow description of the fight where one out of every three soldiers was a casualty.

"Describes the opposing viewpoints of the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg"--