A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy

A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy PDF Author: Mark F. Bielski
Publisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 1611214904
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Abraham Lincoln knew if the Union could cut off shipping to and from New Orleans, the largest exporting port in the world, and control the Mississippi River, it would be a mortal blow to the Confederate economy. Union military leaders devised a secret plan to attack the city from the Gulf of Mexico with a formidable naval flotilla under one commander, David G. Farragut, a native New Orleanian. Jefferson Davis also understood the city’s importance—but he and his military leaders remained steadfastly undecided about where the threat to the city lay, sending troops to Tennessee rather than addressing the Union forces amassing in the Gulf. In the city, Confederate General Mansfield Lovell, a new commander, was thrust into the middle and poised to become a scapegoat. He was hamstrung by conflicting orders from Richmond and lacked both proper seagoing reconnaissance and the unity of command. In the spring of 1862, when a furious naval battle began downriver from the city at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the joyous celebrations of Mardi Gras turned into the Easter season of dread as the sound of the distant bombardment reached New Orleans, portending an ominous outcome. History has not devoted a great deal of attention to the fall of New Orleans, a Civil War drama that was an early harbinger of the dark days to come for the Confederacy. In A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy: The Fall of New Orleans, 1862, historian Mark F. Bielski tells of the leaders and men who fought for control of New Orleans, the largest city in the South, the key to the Mississippi, and the commercial gateway for the Confederacy.

A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy

A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy PDF Author: Mark F. Bielski
Publisher: Savas Beatie
ISBN: 1611214904
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Abraham Lincoln knew if the Union could cut off shipping to and from New Orleans, the largest exporting port in the world, and control the Mississippi River, it would be a mortal blow to the Confederate economy. Union military leaders devised a secret plan to attack the city from the Gulf of Mexico with a formidable naval flotilla under one commander, David G. Farragut, a native New Orleanian. Jefferson Davis also understood the city’s importance—but he and his military leaders remained steadfastly undecided about where the threat to the city lay, sending troops to Tennessee rather than addressing the Union forces amassing in the Gulf. In the city, Confederate General Mansfield Lovell, a new commander, was thrust into the middle and poised to become a scapegoat. He was hamstrung by conflicting orders from Richmond and lacked both proper seagoing reconnaissance and the unity of command. In the spring of 1862, when a furious naval battle began downriver from the city at Forts Jackson and St. Philip, the joyous celebrations of Mardi Gras turned into the Easter season of dread as the sound of the distant bombardment reached New Orleans, portending an ominous outcome. History has not devoted a great deal of attention to the fall of New Orleans, a Civil War drama that was an early harbinger of the dark days to come for the Confederacy. In A Mortal Blow to the Confederacy: The Fall of New Orleans, 1862, historian Mark F. Bielski tells of the leaders and men who fought for control of New Orleans, the largest city in the South, the key to the Mississippi, and the commercial gateway for the Confederacy.

Confederate Defense Of Vicksburg: A Case Study Of The Principle Of The Offensive In The Defense

Confederate Defense Of Vicksburg: A Case Study Of The Principle Of The Offensive In The Defense PDF Author: Major Robert Timothy Howard
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 178289506X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
This study concerns an analysis of the Confederate defense of Vicksburg with respect to one of the nine principles of war, the principle of the offensive. The loss of Vicksburg in the American Civil War was a mortal blow to the Confederacy in that it split the south in two and resulted in the opening of the Mississippi River to the Union forces. During the Campaign for Vicksburg General Grant, leading a Union army engaged General Pemberton, commanding a Confederate army, and proceeded to win one of the most brilliant military successes in history. A distinct contrast in aggressiveness appeared to exist between Grant and Pemberton during this campaign; because once Grant landed his army in Confederate territory, he retained the initiative and kept Pemberton at his mercy. Pemberton was unable to overcome the difficulties he experienced and received little help from outside his command. Finally, because of despair among his men, he surrendered Vicksburg to the Union on July 4, 1863...Certain "actions" that can be taken by a commander relative to the principle of the offensive in the defense and certain "factors" which may prevent his taking these actions are identified and employed in the analysis. Among the more important conclusions of the thesis are: 1.) The Confederate commander at Vicksburg applied the principle of the offensive against Grant’s initial probes into Mississippi and against Federal cavalry raids into Vicksburg area. 2.) The Confederate commander at Vicksburg did not apply the principle of the offensive against Grant’s army during the final Union thrust for Vicksburg (May 1 to July 4, 1863). Several of General Pemberton’s subordinate commanders, however, did apply the principle during this same period. 3.) The primary reasons for Pemberton’s failures with respect to the application of the principle of the offensive were his lack of intelligence resulting from his lack of cavalry and interference with his command decisions from higher authority.

A Vast and Fiendish Plot

A Vast and Fiendish Plot PDF Author: Clint Johnson
Publisher: Kensington Books
ISBN: 0806531312
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This thrilling story, set more than 130 years before 9/11, accurately depicts a group of Confederate soldiers who planned to set fire to New York City in 1864, detailing the lives of these soldiers, as well as prominent members of New York City society and those individuals involved in the Civil War. Original.

The Caning

The Caning PDF Author: Stephen Puleo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781594165160
Category : Assault and battery
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
"Early in the afternoon of May 22, 1856, ardent pro-slavery Congressman Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina strode into the United States Senate Chamber in Washington, D.C., and began beating renowned anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner with a gold-topped walking cane. Brooks struck again and again -- more than thirty times across Sumner's head, face, and shoulders -- until his cane splintered into pieces and the helpless Massachusetts senator, having nearly wrenched his desk from its fixed base, lay unconscious and covered in blood. It was a retaliatory attack. Forty-eight hours earlier, Sumner had concluded a speech on the Senate floor that had spanned two days, during which he vilified Southern slaveowners for violence occurring in Kansas, called Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois a "noise-some, squat, and nameless animal," and famously charged Brooks' second cousin, South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, as having "a mistress. . . who ugly to others, is always lovely to him. ... I mean, the harlot, Slavery." Brooks not only shattered his cane during the beating, but also destroyed any pretense of civility between North and South. One of the most shocking and provocative events in American history, the caning convinced each side that the gulf between them was unbridgeable and that they could no longer discuss their vast differences of opinion regarding slavery on any reasonable level. The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War tells the incredible story of this transformative event. While Sumner eventually recovered after a lengthy convalescence, compromise had suffered a mortal blow. Moderate voices were drowned out completely; extremist views accelerated, became intractable, and locked both sides on a tragic collision course. The caning had an enormous impact on the events that followed over the next four years: the meteoric rise of the Republican Party and Abraham Lincoln; the Dred Scott decision; the increasing militancy of abolitionists, notably John Brown's actions; and the secession of the Southern states and the founding of the Confederacy. As a result of the caning, the country was pushed, inexorably and unstoppably, to war. Many factors conspired to cause the Civil War, but it was the caning that made conflict and disunion unavoidable five years later."--

The Confederate Culture and Its Weakenesses

The Confederate Culture and Its Weakenesses PDF Author: Jon P. Alston
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1663251509
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
SOUTHERN CULTURE CONTAINED ELEMENTS THAT PROVED DYSFUNCTIONAL TO WINNING A PRE-MODERN WAR FOR SECESSION. SOUTHERN CAVALIERS WERE OFTEN MORE CONCERNED WITH THEIR OWN AMBITIONS AND SEARCH FOR HONOR AND POPULARITY. ROBERT E. LEE LOST THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG BECAUSE JEB STUART WAS MORE CONCERNED WITH HIS HONOR THAN WITH FOLLOWING ORDERS. OTHER GENERALS REFUSED TO COOPERATE AND REFUSED TO PREVENT THE UNION CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS AND VICKSBURG.

The American Civil War

The American Civil War PDF Author: Cole Kingseed
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313061262
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
The Civil War is the central event in U.S. history. More than any other event, the war defined the United States as a nation and as a people. What the United States is today, how it views the role of its national government in its daily life, how it interprets its relations within its diverse population, and how it has evolved as a world power are largely the results of the cataclysmic struggle that shook the American republic in the mid-19th century. For better or worse, the irrepressible conflict that gripped the United States nearly 150 years ago has also formed its national character. Kingseed gives a thoroughly readable, learned overview of the Civil War before offering stimulating chapters on the Myth of Southern Martial Superiority, The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln, Could the South Have Won the War?, Anatomy of Defeat: Why Lee Lost the Battle of Gettysburg, and finally, Consequences of the War: A Contemporary Perspective. Eighteen biographical sketches of key civilian, military, and political figures such as Clara Barton, Matthew Brady, J.E.B. Stuart, Ulysses S. Grant, and Frederick Douglass personalize the momentous events of the Civil War, while 16 annotated primary documents, ranging from Lincoln's House Divided against Itself Speech to Jefferson Davis's Inagural Speech on his swearing in as the first, and last, President of the C.S.A., to a bluejacket's remembrances of the horrors witnessed during and after the Battle of Antietam. Ten illustrations, a map of the major campaigns, chronology of events, glossary, annotated bibliography, and index complete this one-stop research resource on the American Civil War.

The Union Navy

The Union Navy PDF Author: Arthur Wyllie
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1430321172
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
This book is over 660 pages and lists all 513 ships of the Union navy that were actively involved in the Civil War. It includes over 160 illustrations and gives highlights of each ships major engagements. A MUST for all Civil War buffs.

The Mobile & Ohio Railroad in the Civil War

The Mobile & Ohio Railroad in the Civil War PDF Author: Dan Lee
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476647119
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
The Mobile & Ohio Railroad was the longest line in the nation when it was completed in spring of 1861--the final spike driven a few weeks after Confederate artillery shelled Fort Sumter. Within days, the M&O was swept up in the Civil War as a prime conveyor of troops and supplies, a strategic and tactical asset to both Confederate and Union armies, who fought to control it. Its northern terminus at Columbus, Kentucky saw some of the earliest fighting in the war. The southern terminus in Mobile, Alabama was the scene of some of the last. U. S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Newton Knight of the "Free State of Jones" and others battled over the M&O, the Federals taking it mile-by-mile. This book chronicles the campaigns and battles for the railroad and the calamity endured by the civilians who lived along it.

The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War

The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War PDF Author: Lorien Foote
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197549985
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 697

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Book Description
Every time Union armies invaded Southern territory there were unintended consequences. Military campaigns always affected the local population -- devastating farms and towns, making refugees of the inhabitants, undermining slavery. Local conditions in turn altered the course of military events. The social effects of military campaigns resonated throughout geographic regions and across time. Campaigns and battles often had a serious impact on national politics and international affairs. Not all campaigns in the Civil War had a dramatic impact on the country, but every campaign, no matter how small, had dramatic and traumatic effects on local communities. Civil War military operations did not occur in a vacuum; there was a price to be paid on many levels of society in both North and South. The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War assembles the contributions of thirty-nine leading scholars of the Civil War, each chapter advancing the central thesis that operational military history is decisively linked to the social and political history of Civil War America. The chapters cover all three major theaters of the war and include discussions of Bleeding Kansas, the Union naval blockade, the South West, American Indians, and Reconstruction. Each essay offers a particular interpretation of how one of the war's campaigns resonated in the larger world of the North and South. Taken together, these chapters illuminate how key transformations operated across national, regional, and local spheres, covering key topics such as politics, race, slavery, emancipation, gender, loyalty, and guerrilla warfare.

Little Phil

Little Phil PDF Author: Eric J. Wittenberg
Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.
ISBN: 1612344399
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Provides insight into the real personality of the famous warrior