Civil War Biography

In Lincoln and California Brian McGinty explains the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and the Golden State, describing important events that took place in California and elsewhere during Lincoln's lifetime. He includes the histories of Lincoln's close friends and personal acquaintances who made history as they went to California, lived there, and helped to keep it part of the imperiled Union.

John Brown was fiercely committed to the militant abolitionist cause, a crusade that culminated in Brown’s raid on the Federal armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859 and his subsequent execution. Less well known is his devotion to his family, and they to him. Two of Brown’s sons were killed at Harpers Ferry, but the commitment of his wife and daughters often goes unacknowledged. As detailed by Laughlin-Schultz, Brown’s second wife and his daughters were in many ways the most ordinary of women. However, they also lived extraordinary lives.

By the age of 26, John Wilkes Booth had achieved success on the stage. He had rugged good looks and the fame he craved. Yet that wasn’t enough for the fanatical actor. On April 14, 1865, just a few days following the end of the American Civil War, Booth stepped into the presidential box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington and shot Abraham Lincoln. He subsequently managed an incredible escape until he himself was killed.

"The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865" is an evocative and historically significant diary penned by Eliza Frances Andrews, which vividly captures the tumult and transformation of the American South during the waning days of the Civil War and the onset of Reconstruction.

Try to imagine the city of Malaga is to be evacuated overnight. A total of 150,000 people will have to walk 200 kilometers along the coastal road in search of a safe refuge while being pursued by Italian tanks, bombed by German aircraft, and shelled by Rebel Nationalist ships. Many will be too weak to reach the safe port of Almería and will only survive because an ambulance and a Canadian doctor come to help. A doctor who will later be accused of spying and betrayal and will be unwillingly pushed out of Spain by the very people he had come to assist.

From Cover to Cover and Sea to Shining Sea: The Authors who gave America its Voice Instant American Literature delves into our rich literary heritage. Filled with quirky facts and lively illustrations, this spirited survey visits the war-torn trenches with Stephen Crane, creeps through the nightmarish realm of Edgar Allan Poe, and ponders Walden Pond with henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. If you don’t know who (or what!) Natty Bumppo is or which legendary torne made famous the words “Simplicity! Simplicity! Simplicity! Then this book is for you. In this vastly informative ...

William Tecumseh Sherman (February 8, 1820-February 14, 1891) holds a unique position in American history. Synonymous with barbarity in the South, Sherman is lauded as a war hero in the North, and modern historians consider him the harbinger of total war. As a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-65), Sherman was recognized for his outstanding command of military strategy but criticized for the harshness of his "scorched earth" policies.

From 1861 till his assassination in 1865, Abraham Lincoln was an American legal representative and statesman who functioned as the 16th president of the United States. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, preserving the Union, eliminating slavery, enhancing the federal government, and helping the economy of the United States. Lincoln grew up on the frontier, mainly in Indiana, and was born into poverty in a log cabin.

At age 36, Clara Brown was separated from her beloved husband, Richard, and three children on the auction block. After being freed at the age of 57, she begins a tireless search for her only remaining family member, her daughter Eliza Jane. Clara worked her way west on a wagon train bound for Colorado by doing laundry and cooking for 26 single men who were on the wagon train. What Clara accomplishes in her 28 years of freedom will simply astound you

An awkward first meeting with US Army officers, on the eve of the Civil War. A conversation on the White House portico with a young cavalry sergeant who was a fiercely dedicated abolitionist. A tense exchange on a navy ship with a Confederate editor and businessman. In this eye-opening book, Elizabeth Brown Pryor examines six intriguing, mostly unknown encounters that Abraham Lincoln had with his constituents.

In the late 1950s, as America prepared for the Civil War centennial, two very old men lay dying. Albert Woolson, 109 years old, slipped in and out of a coma at a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital, his memories as a Yankee drummer boy slowly dimming. Walter Williams, at 117, blind and deaf and bedridden in his daughter's home in Houston, Texas, no longer could tell of his time as a Confederate forage master. The last of the Blue and the Gray were drifting away; an era was ending.

It's possible that the world would have remembered Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882) if only because she was the wife of one of America's greatest presidents, and was present for his shocking assassination. But Mary was one of the most unique women to ever be first lady, and she was in the White House during the country's most trying time. Yet history hasn't exactly been kind.

Civil War Leaders is an informative introduction to the lives of several of the war's key players. Though historians could name hundreds of political and military leaders who left their mark during the Civil War, this book presents the lives and contributions made by the era's greatest leaders, representatives of both sides in the conflict, Northerners and Southerners alike. While their efforts may, at times, have pitted one against the other, their legacies represent a patchwork of American biographies.

In the early 1900s, Watson Stewart set out to record the principal events of his life in a set of personal memoirs. These writings, originally finished on his 77th birthday in 1904, have been rediscovered and compiled - over 120 years later - by Watson’s descendants. The resulting text is an enlightening glimpse into life as a pioneer in a country on the brink of Civil War. Watson led a remarkable life filled with family tragedy, Native American relations, Civil War, and squabbles with some of the most famous historical figures in American history.

The Civil War is seen anew, and a great American family is brought to life, in Robert Roper’s brilliant evocation of the family Whitman. Walt Whitman’s work as a nurse to the wounded soldiers of the Civil War had a profound effect on the way he saw the world. Much less well known is the extraordinary record of his younger brother George Washington Whitman, who led his men in 21 major battles almost to die in a Confederate prison camp as the fighting ended.

In this new short biography of Ulysses S. Grant, leading scholars provide an accessible introduction to Grant and his legacy. Grant led Federal forces to victory in the Civil War, was the first modern American president, and authored his memoirs, which would eventually become one of the greatest books of nonfiction by an American author. The authors present a thematic exploration of Grant, providing the necessary insight to appreciate Grant and correct the myths that for too long clouded his true importance.

During World War II, Heinz Drossel saved Soviet prisoners of war and several Jews, including Marianne Hirschfeld. Again and again, he wasn't afraid to risk his own life when others' safety was at risk. Nearly all of Hirschfeld's family members were murdered by Nazis; she survived in hiding - and met Heinz again by coincidence after the war was over. They married in 1946. At that time, starting over was difficult. In the judicial service, Drossel witnessed Nazis continuing with their careers....

A thrilling dive into the little-known, darker side of a revered president’s history, Lincoln’s Lie untangles the threads behind a mysterious 1864 newspaper article to reveal how Lincoln manipulated the media during the Civil War, shining new light onto today’s issues of fake news and presidential conflict with the press.

Today Albert Sidney Johnston is one of the most overlooked generals of the Civil War, but in April 1862 he was widely considered the Confederacy's best general. After graduating from West Point, Johnston had a distinguished military career that ensured he would play a principal role in the Civil War. Near the beginning of the war Johnston was given command of the Western Department, which basically comprised the entire Western theater at the time.

Fort Sumter: Civil War Beginnings outlines the battle and explains how it came about. In less than an hour, you will meet the main participants, understand Union and Confederate troop movements, and learn how South Carolina initiated the first battle of the civil war. It's not the complete story, but enough to bring you up to speed, understand the issues of the day, and maybe encourage you to explore more on your own.