In January 1863 the Union War Department authorized the creation of "a special corps" composed of "persons of African descent"--the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Hundreds of free blacks enlisted. When the 54th Massachusetts spearheaded the suicidal charge against Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863, the regiment was showered with acclaim, but that defining event was not its only illustrious moment. After the devastating repulse at Fort Wagner left all of the unit's ranking officers dead or wounded, Captain Luis F. Emilio (1844-1918) emerged as the 54th's...
In January 1863 the Union War Department authorized the creation of "a special corps" composed of "persons of African descent"--the 54th Massachusetts...
"Custer found himself in the one dilemma all soldiers most dread-he was outnumbered and completely surrounded. With disaster looming in every quarter and no chance of escape. . . ." So Gregory J. W Urwin pulls the reader into a scene describing not the Battle of the Little Big Horn but a Civil War engagement that George Armstrong Custer and his troop survived, thanks to strategy as much as naked courage. Many books have focused on Custer's Last Stand in 1876, making legend of total defeat. Custer Victorious is the first to examine at length, with attention to primary sources, his brilliant...
"Custer found himself in the one dilemma all soldiers most dread-he was outnumbered and completely surrounded. With disaster looming in every quarter ...
Although the siege of Wake Island was not one of World War II's biggest campaigns, it had a profound psychological effect on the course of the nation's struggle. This was the battle that first raised American spirits in the dark weeks following Pearl Harbor. For sixteen suspenseful days, 449 U.S. Marines, assisted by a handful of sailors and soldiers and a few hundred civilian construction workers, withstood repeated attacks by numerically superior Japanese forces. Although Wake finally fell on 23 December 1941, its garrison made the Japanese pay an embarrassingly high price for a tiny coral...
Although the siege of Wake Island was not one of World War II's biggest campaigns, it had a profound psychological effect on the course of the nation'...
In the election year of 1876 the Battle of the Little Big Horn was horrifyingly fresh to opinion makers, who divided along political lines in assigning blame. The late General George A. Custer, who had been a Democrat with aspirations to high office, was more pilloried than praised by President Grant and influential editors of Republican newspapers. Coming to the defense of Custer was Frederick Whittaker, who less than six months after the disaster published this first biography of him. A Complete Life was the beginning of a legend, and Whittaker did more than anyone else except Libby...
In the election year of 1876 the Battle of the Little Big Horn was horrifyingly fresh to opinion makers, who divided along political lines in assignin...
American infantrymen served their country in the fury of battle with muskets, rifles, bayonets, and bare hands. Gregory J.W. Urwin narrates the history of these men from their colonial origins through the War of 1812, the Mexican War, Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, and finally to their painful coming of age in 1918, as a world-class combat force on the fields of France in World War I. He describes their strategic and tactical challenges and documents how military leaders responded to changes and implemented new policies. Thirty-two color plates by illustrator Darby...
American infantrymen served their country in the fury of battle with muskets, rifles, bayonets, and bare hands. Gregory J.W. Urwin narrates the his...
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Philippines were subsequently surrendered in April 1942, Lt. Gene Boyt became a prisoner of war, suffering unthinkable deprivation and brutality at the hands of the ruthless Japanese guards. Bataan: A Survivor's Story, possibly one of the last accounts to come from a Bataan survivor, details the Bataan Death March and Boyt's subsequent forty-two months in Japanese internment camps. In this fast-paced narrative, Boyt's voice conveys the quiet courage of the generation of men who fought and won history's greatest armed conflict.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the Philippines were subsequently surrendered in April 1942, Lt. Gene Boyt became a prisoner of war, suffe...
"Black Flag over Dixie: Racial Atrocities and Reprisals in the Civil War" highlights the central role that race played in the Civil War by examining some of the ugliest incidents that played out on its battlefields. Challenging the American public s perception of the Civil War as a chivalrous family quarrel, twelve rising and prominent historians show the conflict to be a wrenching social revolution whose bloody excesses were exacerbated by racial hatred.
Edited by Gregory J. W. Urwin, this compelling volume focuses on the tendency of Confederate troops to murder black Union soldiers...
"Black Flag over Dixie: Racial Atrocities and Reprisals in the Civil War" highlights the central role that race played in the Civil War by examinin...
Written and first published in 1866 soon after the author's discharge from the Union army, A. F. Sperry's History of the 33d Iowa Infantry is one of the classic regimental histories of the American Civil War. It is a fresh, honest, and detailed account of the regiment's movements and actionsin Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and, most notably, Arkansas, where it played a conspicuous role in the Helena, Little Rock, and Camden campaigns. As the regiment's fife and drum major responsible for sounding the duty calls that regulated a soldier's day, Sperry was well situated to observe the...
Written and first published in 1866 soon after the author's discharge from the Union army, A. F. Sperry's History of the 33d Iowa Infantry is one of t...
