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Jubilant at the outbreak of the Civil War and destitute in its aftermath, Lexington, Virginia, ultimately rose from the ashes to rebuild in the shadow of the conflict's legacy. It is the final resting place of two famous Confederate generals, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and the home of two of the South's most important war-era colleges, Washington College and the Virginia Military Institute. Author Richard G. Williams presents the trials and triumphs of Lexington during the war, including harrowing narratives of Union general Hunter's raid through the town, Lee's struggle between Union and state allegiances and Jackson's rise from professor to feared battlefield tactician.
Originally published in 1969 and now available in this new edition, General Lee’s College offers the early history of the institution that became Washington and Lee University. Emerging from obscure eighteenth- century origins on the Virginia frontier as Liberty Hall Academy, it struggled for survival against what at times appeared to be overwhelming odds. Receiving a sizeable gift from Virginia native George Washington in 1796, the school soon after assumed the name Washington College and established itself in the mold of the classical colleges of the Old South, as faculty and administrators promoted a provincial outlook and strict adherence to Presbyterian teachings. Secession and civil war had a dramatic impact on the college, as military service called away students, most of whom enlisted with the Confederate army. The Union victory in 1865 prompted college trustees to lay out a new vision for the institution, and they elected Confederate general Robert E. Lee, another native son of Virginia, to lead the college as president through the uncertainty of the postwar years. After Lee’s death in 1870, the school’s fortunes ebbed and flowed against the backdrop of Reconstruction. Yet the institution—renamed Washington and Lee University—rebounded in the decades after World War I. With an expanded curriculum, a larger faculty, and a more diverse student body, the school began to blaze a path of success that stretches well into the twenty-first century.
A concise history of the “shot heard round the world”—and the dramatic day that began America’s war for independence. Includes maps and photos. When shots were fired at Lexington and Concord on a spring day in 1775, few, if any, fully grasped the impact they would ultimately have on the world. This concise book offers not only a guide to the historical sites involved but a lively, readable history of the events, a culmination of years of unrest between those loyal to the British monarchy and those advocating for more autonomy and dreaming of independence from Great Britain. On the morning of April 19, Gen. Thomas Gage sent out a force of British soldiers under the command of Lt. Col. Francis Smith to confiscate, recapture, and destroy the military supplies gathered by the colonists and believed to be stored in the town of Concord. Due to the alacrity of men such as Dr. Joseph Warren, Paul Revere, and William Dawes, utilizing a network of signals and outriders, the countryside was well aware of the approaching British—setting the stage for the day’s events. From two historians, this is an outstanding introduction to a momentous battle, and the events that led up to it.
An exhaustive look at the final hours of the Confederacy’s most audacious general. May 1863. The Civil War was in its third spring, and Confederate Lt. Gen. Thomas Jonathan Jackson stood at the peak of his fame. He had risen from obscurity to become “Old Stonewall,” adored across the South and feared and respected throughout the North. On the night of May 2, however, just hours after Jackson executed the most audacious maneuver of his career and delivered a crushing blow against an unsuspecting Union army at Chancellorsville, disaster struck. The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson recounts the events of that fateful night—considered one of the most pivotal moments of the war—and the tense vigil that ensued as Jackson struggled with a foe even he could not defeat. From Guinea Station, where Jackson crosses the river to rest under the shade of the trees, the story follows Jackson’s funeral and burial, the strange story of his amputated arm, and the creation and restoration of the building where he died (now known as the Stonewall Jackson Shrine). This newly revised and expanded second edition features more than 50 pages of fresh material, including almost 200 illustrations, maps, and eye-catching photos. New appendices allow readers to walk in Jackson’s prewar footsteps through his adopted hometown of Lexington, Virginia; consider the ways Jackson’s memory has been preserved through monuments, memorials, and myths; and explore the misconceptions behind the Civil War’s great What-If: “What if Stonewall had survived his wounds?” With the engaging prose of master storytellers, Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White make The Last Days of Stonewall Jackson a must-read for Civil War novices and buffs alike.
From 1861 to 1865, the border separating eastern Kentucky and south-western Virginia represented a major ideological split. This book shows how military invasion of this region led to increasing guerrilla warfare, and how regular armies and state militias ripped communities along partisan lines, leaving wounds long after the end of the Civil War.
Camp Nelson, Kentucky, was designed in 1863 as a military supply depot for the Union Army. Later it became one of the country's most important recruiting stations and training camps for black soldiers and Kentucky's chief center for issuing emancipation papers to former slaves. Richard D. Sears tells the story of the rise and fall of the camp through the shifting perspective of a changing cast of characters—teachers, civilians, missionaries such as the Reverend John G. Fee, and fleeing slaves and enlisted blacks who describe their pitiless treatment at the hands of slave owners and Confederate sympathizers. Sears fully documents the story of Camp Nelson through carefully selected military orders, letters, newspaper articles, and other correspondence, most inaccessible until now. His introduction provides a historical overview, and textual notes identify individuals and detail the course of events.
In October 1864, in the mountains of southwest Virginia, one of the most brutal acts of the Civil War occurs. Brig. Gen. Stephen Burbridge launches a raid to capture Saltville. Included among his forces is the 5th U.S. Colored Cavalry. Repeated Federal attacks are repulsed by Confederate forces under the command of Gen. John S. Williams. As the sun begins to set, Burbridge pulls his troops from the field, leaving many wounded. In the morning, Confederate troops, including a company of ruffians under the command of Captain Champ Ferguson, advance over the battleground seeking out and killing the wounded black soldiers. What starts as a small but intense mountain battle degenerates into a no-quarter, racial massacre. A detailed account from eyewitness reports of the most blatant battlefield atrocity of the war.
“Excellent, readable, and absorbing history . . . gives us a better understanding of this compelling aspect of the Civil War.” —Library Journal Families, communities, and the nation itself were irretrievably altered by the Civil War and the subsequent societal transformations of the nineteenth century. The repercussions of the war incited a broad range of unique problems in Appalachia, including political dynamics, racial prejudices, and the regional economy. This anthology of essays reveals life in Appalachia after the ravages of the Civil War, an unexplored area that has left a void in historical literature. Addressing a gap in the chronicles of our nation, this vital collection explores little-known aspects of history with a particular focus on the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction periods. Acclaimed scholars John C. Inscoe, Gordon B. McKinney, and Ken Fones-Wolf are joined by up-and-comers like Mary Ella Engel, Anne E. Marshall, and Kyle Osborn in a unique volume investigating postwar Appalachia with clarity and precision. Featuring a broad geographic focus, the compelling essays cover postwar events in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. This approach provides an intimate portrait of Appalachia as a diverse collection of communities where the values of place and family are of crucial importance. Highlighting a wide array of topics including racial reconciliation, tension between former Unionists and Confederates, the evolution of post—Civil War memory, and altered perceptions of race, gender, and economic status, Reconstructing Appalachia is a timely and essential study of a region rich in heritage and tradition. “Outstanding.” —North Carolina Historical Review
An exploration of the Shenandoah Valley campaign, known for its role in establishing Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's reputation as a Confederate Hero. It addresses military leadership, the campaign's political and social impact and the difference between memories of the events and historical record.
When Aunt Jemima beamed at Americans from the pancake mix box on grocery shelves, many felt reassured by her broad smile that she and her product were dependable. She was everyone's mammy, the faithful slave who was content to cook and care for whites, no matter how grueling the labor, because she loved them. This far-reaching image of the nurturing black mother exercises a tenacious hold on the American imagination. Micki McElya examines why we cling to mammy. She argues that the figure of the loyal slave has played a powerful role in modern American politics and culture. Loving, hating, pitying, or pining for mammy became a way for Americans to make sense of shifting economic, social, and racial realities. Assertions of black people's contentment with servitude alleviated white fears while reinforcing racial hierarchy. African American resistance to this notion was varied but often placed new constraints on black women. McElya's stories of faithful slaves expose the power and reach of the myth, not only in popular advertising, films, and literature about the South, but also in national monument proposals, child custody cases, white women's minstrelsy, New Negro activism, anti-lynching campaigns, and the civil rights movement. The color line and the vision of interracial motherly affection that helped maintain it have persisted into the twenty-first century. If we are to reckon with the continuing legacy of slavery in the United States, McElya argues, we must confront the depths of our desire for mammy and recognize its full racial implications.