The Third Battalion Mississippi Infantry And The 45th Mississippi Regiment

This is an accounting of the experiences of the soldiers of Hardcastle's 3rd Battalion Mississippi Infantry from enlistment to the end of the war. It includes their mid-war incarnation as the 45th Mississippi Regiment and the role they played in Cleburne's fabled division during almost every major engagement of the Army of Tennessee. Told as much as possible from the point of view of the soldier, the book shows what motivated the original volunteers to join and continue fighting to the end.

The nine court-martial cases included here were compiled and transcribed verbatim by the author/editor from copies of the original, hand-written, case files as a supplement to his book, "The 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry: A Civil War History," McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers, 2012. The case files of the four officers and seven soldiers presented here comprise all of the court-martial records for the 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry found by the Index Project at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The cases include: 1."One Bully Down" -- A soldier/civilian encounter in Memphis, TN. 2. "An Officer's Privilege" -- The rights of enlisted men in the field. 3. "A Pretty Wild Boy" -- How the court dealt with rambunctious soldiers. 4. "Back Home Again in Indiana" -- An early case of absence without leave. 5. "The Misbehaving Soldiers" -- The regiment's only case on record of soldier misconduct in battle. 6. "The Knight-Errant" -- Differences of opinion among the lawyer-officers of the 47th Indiana. 7. "The Cantankerous Cook" -- Violent disputes among enlisted men. 8. "The 'Pugelistick' Champion of the State of Indiana" -- Defining "enlistment" and "desertion" in a volunteer regiment. 9. "The Misplaced" -- Trouble with paperwork during wartime. These court-martial cases provide an unabridged example of the application of Civil War military law in one infantry regiment active in the field throughout the war. The second edition includes additional information on the death of Pvt. Jonathan Benefiel and for added clarity the addition of a semicolon to the last sentence of the first full paragraph on page 56: "On the 1st day of May and during the fight at Port Gibson the proof is that the Defendant was in Hospital day and night assisting the surgeon and nurses in alleviating the suffering of the wounded soldiers; at the Battle of Champion Hills we find the Defendant again in the Hospital day and night attending the wounded soldiers."

While fighting his way toward Atlanta, William T. Sherman encountered his biggest roadblock at Kennesaw Mountain, where Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee held a heavily fortified position. The opposing armies confronted each other from June 19 to July 3, 1864, and Sherman initially tried to outflank the Confederates. His men endured heavy rains, artillery duels, sniping, and a fierce battle at Kolb's Farm before Sherman decided to directly attack Johnston's position on June 27. Kennesaw Mountain tells the story of an important phase of the Atlanta campaign. Historian Earl J. Hess explains how this battle, with its combination of maneuver and combat, severely tried the patience and endurance of the common soldier and why Johnston's strategy might have been the Confederates' best chance to halt the Federal drive toward Atlanta. He gives special attention to the engagement at Kolb's Farm on June 22 and Sherman's assault on June 27. A final section explores the Confederate earthworks preserved within the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.

Organized at Indianapolis in December 1861, the 47th Indiana Volunteer Infantry's Civil War service spanned the Mississippi Valley and the Gulf South. From Louisville to New Orleans and on to Mobile, General James R. Slack and the 47th Indiana took the war to the inland waterways and southern bayous, fighting in many of the Civil War's most famous campaigns, including Vicksburg, Red River and Mobile. This chronicle of the 47th Indiana follows the regiment's odyssey through the words of its officers and men. Sources include Chaplain Samuel Sawyer's account of their exploits in the Indianapolis Daily Journal, soldiers' accounts in Indiana newspapers, stories of war and intrigue from newspapermen of the "Bohemian Brigade," and General Slack's own story in letters to his wife, Ann, including his postwar command on the Rio Grande. Numerous photographs, previously unpublished battle and area maps, and a full regimental roster complete this detailed account.

The Battle of Chickamauga was the third bloodiest of the American Civil War and the only major Confederate victory in the conflict's western theater. It pitted Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee against William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland and resulted in more than 34,500 casualties. In this first volume of an authoritative two-volume history of the Chickamauga Campaign, William Glenn Robertson provides a richly detailed narrative of military operations in southeastern and eastern Tennessee as two armies prepared to meet along the "River of Death." Robertson tracks the two opposing armies from July 1863 through Bragg's strategic decision to abandon Chattanooga on September 9. Drawing on all relevant primary and secondary sources, Robertson devotes special attention to the personalities and thinking of the opposing generals and their staffs. He also sheds new light on the role of railroads on operations in these landlocked battlegrounds, as well as the intelligence gathered and used by both sides. Delving deep into the strategic machinations, maneuvers, and smaller clashes that led to the bloody events of September 19@–20, 1863, Robertson reveals that the road to Chickamauga was as consequential as the unfolding of the battle itself.

So remarkable was the fighting to the east of Atlanta on July 22, 1864, that it earned its place as the only engagement of the Civil War to be widely referred to by the date of its occurrence. Also known as the Battle of Atlanta, this was the largest engagement of the four-month-long Atlanta Campaign for control of the city and the region. Although Confederate commander John Bell Hood’s forces flanked William T. Sherman’s line and were able to crush the end of it, they could go no further. On July 22, 1864, the Confederates came closer to achieving a major tactical victory than on any other day of the Atlanta Campaign. Prolific Civil War historian Earl Hess’s July 22 is a thorough study of all aspects of the most prominent battle of the Civil War’s Atlanta Campaign. Based on exhaustive research in primary sources, Hess has crafted a unique and compelling study of not only the tactics and strategy associated with the engagement but also of the personal experiences of Union and Confederate soldiers and the effects the battle had on them. This book offers fresh insights to the significance that the Battle of July 22 held for the larger Atlanta campaign and the entire Union war effort. Hess also provides a thorough discussion of the death of Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, the most prominent casualty of the battle, and the effect this loss had on Union soldiers and civilians alike. He concludes with an assessment of the battle’s legacy in American history and culture. Detailing one of the larger and more vigorously fought battles of the Civil War, Hess’s treatment of the Battle of Atlanta stands out as a strong example of Civil War operational history. The combination of maneuver, unit handling, stout combat by the individual soldier, and combative spirit on both sides make July 22 one of the most fascinating and remarkable battles in American history. There is much for the student of military history to learn on many levels of tactics, the experience of combat, and battlefield leadership.

The result of meticulous scholarship and decades of careful collecting to create a body of reliable information, this definitive, full-length biography of the enigmatic Confederate poet presents a close examination of the man behind the myth and separates Lost Cause legend from fact."--Jacket.

Despite popular belief, the Civil War did not end when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, in April 1865. The Confederacy still had tens of thousands of soldiers under arms, in three main field armies and countless smaller commands scattered throughout the South. Although pressed by Union forces at varying degrees, all of the remaining Confederate armies were capable of continuing the war if they chose to do so. But they did not, even when their political leaders ordered them to continue the fight. Convinced that most civilians no longer wanted to continue the war, the senior Confederate military leadership, over the course of several weeks, surrendered their armies under different circumstances. Gen. Joseph Johnston surrendered his army in North Carolina only after contentious negotiations with Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. Gen. Richard Taylor ended the fighting in Alabama in the face of two massive Union incursions into the state rather than try to consolidate with other Confederate armies. Personal rivalry also played a part in his practical considerations to surrender. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith had the decision to surrender taken out of his hands—disastrous economic conditions in his Trans-Mississippi Department had eroded morale to such an extent that his soldiers demobilized themselves, leaving Kirby Smith a general without an army. The end of the Confederacy was a messy and complicated affair, a far cry from the tidy closure associated with the events at Appomattox.