This is the best biography of one of the most exciting, colorful, and controversial figures of the Civil War. A renowned cavalryman, Nathan Bedford Forrest perfected a ruthless hit-and-run guerrilla warfare that terrified Union soldiers and garnered the respect of warriors like William Sherman, who described his adversary as "that Devil, Forrest . . . the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side." Historian Bruce Catton rated Forrest "one of the authentic military geniuses of the whole war," but Brian Steel Wills covers much more than the cavalryman's incredible feats on...
This is the best biography of one of the most exciting, colorful, and controversial figures of the Civil War. A renowned cavalryman, Nathan Bedford Fo...
On the day that Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861, twenty-seven-year-old William Dorsey Pender, en route to the provisional Confederate capital in Montgomery, Alabama, hurriedly scribbled a note to his wife, Fanny. So began a prolific correspondence between a rising Confederate officer and his cherished wife that would last until Pender was mortally wounded at Gettysburg.
First published by UNC Press in 1965, Pender's letters are filled with personal details, colorful descriptions, and candid opinions of such important figures as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart, and...
On the day that Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861, twenty-seven-year-old William Dorsey Pender, en route to the provisional Confederate capital in Montg...
-You are making history today, - the University of Virginia Extension Division agent Samuel Crockett observed to a gathering of students and faculty on September 15, 1954, in Wise, Virginia. The occasion was the opening convocation of what would become Clinch Valley College of the University of Virginia, and the 109 students assembled, many of whom were Korean War veterans or women, were indeed part of something quite special. People in Southwest Virginia and friends in Charlottesville--not the least being University of Virginia President Colgate W. Darden Jr.--had worked tirelessly to...
-You are making history today, - the University of Virginia Extension Division agent Samuel Crockett observed to a gathering of students and facult...
From Birth of a Nation to Cold Mountain, hundreds of directors, actors, and screenwriters have used the Civil War to create compelling cinema. However, each generation of moviemakers has resolved the tug of war between entertainment value and historical accuracy differently. Historian Brian Steel Wills takes readers on a journey through the portrayal of the war in film, exploring what Hollywood got right and wrong, how the films influenced each other, and, ultimately, how the movies reflect America's changing understandings of the conflict and of the nation.
From Birth of a Nation to Cold Mountain, hundreds of directors, actors, and screenwriters have used the Civil War to create compelling cinema. However...
The battlefield reputation of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, long recognized as a formidable warrior, has been shaped by one infamous wartime incident. At Fort Pillow in 1864, the attack by Confederate forces under Forrest's command left many of the Tennessee Unionists and black soldiers garrisoned there dead in a confrontation widely labeled as a "massacre." In The River Was Dyed with Blood, best-selling Forrest biographer Brian Steel Wills argues that although atrocities did occur after the fall of the fort, Forrest did not order or intend a systematic execution of...
The battlefield reputation of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, long recognized as a formidable warrior, has been shaped by one infamous...
