Civil War Railroads

Jennifer Chiaverini's New York Times best-selling Elm Creek Quilt novels, with their irresistible blend of storytelling magic and quilting lore, have captured the hearts of countless fans. In this moving novel about morality, freedom, and the power of human courage, Chiaverini whisks listeners back to antebellum America.

Ruth’s beau died - simply because he was a slave.She is determined to help other enslaved people as she assists with the Underground Railroad. Recently freed and illiterate, Ruth is hired to bake mouth-watering delicious bread in a Philadelphia bakery. Her boss Joseph is kind, handsome, and determined to put an end to slavery. She feels emotionally connected to him as they work together for a common cause. His presence is like a fresh splash of spring rain on her parched soul. However, Joseph has plans. He’s determined to make some major changes in his life. He desperately wants to ...

As a conductor for the Underground Railroad - the covert resistance network created to aid and protect slaves seeking freedom - William Still helped as many as 800 people escape enslavement. He also meticulously collected the letters, biographical sketches, arrival memos, and ransom notes of the escapees. The Underground Railroad Records is an archive of primary documents that trace the narrative arc of the greatest, most successful campaign of civil disobedience in American history.

Brought up amid the luxury of plantation life, Marianne Johnston never questions her sheltered life until, driven by her conscience, she joins the Underground Railroad. Soon Marianne is living a dangerous double life, helping slaves flee by night and acting the belle by day. And nothing is riskier than her attraction to wild, heartless young Southerner Yves Chamard - while being courted by his noble older brother.

Despite all we know about the Civil War, its causes, battles, characters, issues, impacts, and legacy, few books have explored Canada's role in the bloody conflict that claimed more than 600,000 lives. A surprising 20,000 Canadians went south to take up arms on both sides of the conflict, while thousands of enslaved people, draft dodgers, deserters, recruiters, plotters, and spies fled northward to take shelter in the attic that is Canada. Though many escaped slavery and found safety through the Underground Railroad, they were later joined by KKK members wanted for murder.

In 1993, Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her. As Tobin sat in rapt attention, Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.

Introducing "American History: The Legends that Shaped the USA" a riveting exploration of the rich and fascinating early history of the United States. This book takes you on a journey through the remarkable stories of American legends, from the birth of the country, through Westward expansion, wars, and political scandals. It delves into the lives of heroes, leaders, and presidents who played pivotal roles in shaping America's history, making it the great country it is today. Are you interested in exploring the rich and fascinating early history of the United States? This book takes you on ...

Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise comes to life. The U.S. government pitted two companies - the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads - against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. As its peak the work force approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as 15,000 workers on each line. The surveyors, the men who picked the route, lived off buffalo, deer, and antelope.

The Underground Railroad was the passage to freedom for many slaves, but it was rife with dangers. There were dedicated conductors and safe houses, but also arduous nights in the mountains and days in threatening towns. For those who made it to Midnight (the code name given to Detroit), the Detroit River became a River Jordan and Canada became their land of Canaan - the Promised Land where they could live freely in black settlements under the protection of British law.

John Brown and the Last Train is the story of John Brown and his last raid on Missouri slave farms and the subsequent trip north to Canada. Along the way, a baby was born to a Freedom Seeker and they fought in the Battle of the Spurs. They received help from the major UGR Stations in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. Famous detective, Allan Pinkerton helped them get across to Canada. This is historical fiction based on factual events and told through the voices of the Freedom Seekers.

Thomas B. Allen’s expertise in military history and strategy is combined with Roger MacBride Allen’s knowledge of technology to reveal a lesser-known yet fascinating side of the 16th president of the United States. Their authoritative narrative reveals Lincoln as our nation’s first hands-on commander in chief, whose appreciation for the power of technology plays a critical role in the North’s Civil War victory over the less-developed South.

The Transcontinental Railroad, laid across the United States during the 1860s, remains the very epitome of contradiction. On the one hand, it was a triumph of engineering skills over thousands of miles of rough terrain, but on the other hand, it drained the natural resources in those places nearly dry.

The focus of this selection concerns both the Federal and Confederate efforts to disable or maintain the railroads within the active theaters of the war. Real railroads of iron and steam and ribbons of steel vanishing into the horizon quickly became a strategic objective of both armies in the Civil War. Raiders and protectors were deployed both North and South. The damage inflicted on roadways and rolling stock was not always easy to accomplish.

At the young age of 13, Virginia Hensley is told the family secret. For nearly five years the farm she loves and feels safe at has been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Virginia’s parents request that she help in the dangerous and illegal activity of transporting and hiding runaway slaves. Unforeseen situations arise, forcing the Hensley family to take risks that put the entire family in danger. In the fall of 1860, Abraham Lincoln is elected President. Soon after taking office in March of 1861, a battle is fought at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The dividing line is drawn, as eleven ...

A union spy, James Andrews, leads a group of union volunteers on a dangerous mission to steal a confederate locomotive, only to find the engineer will stop at nothing to get it back. April 1862. The American Civil War has been raging for a year. Northern spy James J. Andrews launches a daring raid into Georgia to disrupt Southern transportation, a move that could end the war. He steals a locomotive “The General” and begins a race to friendly lines, while “The General”’s engineer, Bill Fuller is determined to get it back.

Rachel Benton and her daughter embark on a pleasant country drive to research her ancestors when a sudden storm drives them in an unexpected direction. Stranded and alone, an isolated cabin seems to offer refuge, but within those timbered walls more threats await. Rachel’s troubles in the present are woven together with a family embroiled in the Civil War and the lives they touch on their journey to freedom. Lives are imperiled, and a dawning realization changes Rachel’s life forever. Dual time lines skillfully woven together draw readers into the action-filled story. And true details ...

No one knows where the term Underground Railroad came from - there were no trains or tracks, only "conductors" who helped escaping slaves to freedom. Including real stories about "passengers" on the "railroad", this audiobook chronicles slaves' close calls with bounty hunters, their exhausting struggles on the road, and what they sacrificed for freedom.

A true story of a fugitive slave named Jim Baker that has gone unpublished for over a hundred years. I was touched by the stories recounted by this unknown fugitive and sadly reminded of how our nation once oppressed a people based on the color of their skin. This story is about Jim’s upbringing, his escape to Indiana and his eventual attempted return to Tennessee, recounted by a pastor named Thomas Addington. Jim found both friend and foe on his journey but yearned to bring his family into the freedom he had experienced. Jim Baker’s story is a reminder that we must both love God and ...

In building a railroad, there is only one decisive spot - the end of the track. Nothing like this great work had ever been seen in the world when the last spike, a golden one, was driven in Promontory Peak, Utah, in 1869, as the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific tracks were joined. Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men - the famous and the unheralded, ordinary men doing the extraordinary - who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the continent into a nation.

Follow a seventeen year old mercenary from Germany in this fiction/fantasy novel as he travels to America, fights in the Civil War by spying and blowing up ammunition trains. Then, through his experience with the newly patented dynamite builds railroads across America. Meet the woman he marries, who he saves from a renegade Indian attack on the western plains. As he settles in the town he established in the hills of Pennsylvania, he discovers a cave with a magic elixir, "Fountain of Youth" and builds a national tourist attraction. All this in a page turner that will keep you cheering for an...