The American Colonial Wars is a comprehensive review of the French, English, and American colonial battles in America and Canada. It was written by then Major Matthew Forney Steele, Second United States Cavalry in 1909 and issued by the War Department.

The American Revolutionary War: The Northern Campaigns is a comprehensive review of the northern American Revolutionary War battles. It was written by then Major Matthew Forney Steele, Second United States Cavalry in 1909 and issued by the War Department.

The American Revolutionary War: The Southern Campaigns is a comprehensive review of the southern American Revolutionary War battles. It was written by then Major Matthew Forney Steele, Second United States Cavalry in 1909 and issued by the War Department.

On the 18th of June, 1812, Congress declared war against Great Britain. The grounds upon which the declaration was made were just and sufficient, but not more so than they had been for several years. Nor can it well be seen by a careful review of the case that there was much less cause for war with France than there was for war with England. These two states had been engaged in hostilities for several years. The British Ministry by their "Orders in Council" declared the coasts of France and her allies and colonies in a state of blockade. Napoleon replied with his famous Berlin and Milan...

The Mexican War grew out of the annexation of Texas and the dispute between the United States and Mexico over the boundary line. Texas had achieved her independence of Mexico in 1836, and in less than a year her sovereignty was acknowledged by the United States. Soon afterwards Texas applied for annexation to the United States, and a bill to that effect, after much discussion in Congress, finally passed in march, 1845. The second half of this book covers in detail the campaign of Major General Winfield Scott, ending with the surrender of Mexico as well as the political aftermath.

This book does not attempt to trace the causes of The American Civil War. There are even yet more matters of controversy than of exact history. We are concerned merely with its military history. We want to learn the lessons from its campaigns, and to do so to the best advantage we must forget the sectional prejudice we may have imbibed in our childhood. Indeed we must forget, if we have not already done so, much of the fiction we were taught, under the guise of history, in the school-rooms of our youth. We must strive to get at the exact truth of events, and then study coldly, critically,...

In the late 1800's, the great military historian Major Matthew Forney Steele, Second United States Cavalry, authored critiques of all the major battles of the American civil war. The War Department (predecessor of the U.S. Department of Defense) collected, and Penny Hill Press recently uncovered, his civil war battle histories. Each presents a day-by-day description of Union and Confederate actions and provides the author's opinions as to why each of these actions -- on both the Union and Confederate sides -- were appropriate or inappropriate. The War Department collected Major Steele's...

The region known as the Valley of Virginia, or the Shenandoah Valley, played an important part in the Civil War from the beginning almost to the end. Indeed Lee's little army was hastening toward that region in its very last march, and, if it had not been headed off by Sheridan's cavalry at Appomattox, the last hostile action on Virginia soil, like the first, might have taken place in the Shenandoah Valley. The situation of Richmond and Washington fore-ordered that Virginia, rather than Kentucky or other border State, should become the principal theater of operations, and the mountain region...

After the Union defeat at Manassas in July 1861, Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Federal forces in and around Washington and organized them into a formidable fighting machine- the Army of the Potomac. In March 1862, leaving a strong force to cover the capital, McClellan shifted his army by water to Fort Monroe on the tip of the York-James peninsular, only 100 miles southeast of Richmond. Early in April he advanced toward the Confederate capital. Anticipating such a move, the Southerners abandoned the Manassas area and marched to meet the Federals. By the end of May, McClellan's...

The Maryland Campaign of 1862, which culminated in the Battle of Antietam, was a major turning point in the American Civil War and in the history of this nation. Lasting for just fifteen days, the courage, sacrifice and eventual outcome of the campaign would forever burn into the American memory names like McClellan and Lee, places like "Bloody Lane" and the "Cornfield," and principles such as emancipation and freedom. With over 23,000 casualties, the battle of Antietam was the bloodiest one-day battle in American history. When the guns finally fell silent on the campaign and the Confederate...