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Shouts from the wall: Posters and photographs brought home
I am very interested in this suject and have read many books on the sapnish Civil war, especially on the International Brigaders who came and fought for the republic agaist Franco's rebels.I have also done extensivereseasrch on the posters and propoganda used on both sides to make thisintranational conflict an international conflict. I recommmend this book"Palette and the Flame" (by John Tisa)for those who areinterested in the posters used by the republicans in this war. I highyrecommmend this book "Shouts from the Wall" because it is verycomprehensive and informative. The photographs are amasing and moving.Viewing this book makes you aware of the time and the situation of thesebrave soldiers who fought to end fascism. ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

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Chapters: Border States, Lancashire Cotton Famine, Britain in the American Civil War, Australia and the American Civil War, Bleeding Kansas, Arizona Territory, Canada in the American Civil War, Prussia in the American Civil War, Bahamas in the American Civil War, France in the American Civil War, Trans-Mississippi. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 90. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: In the context of the American Civil War, the term border states refers to the five slave states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia, which bordered a free state and were aligned with the Union. All but Delaware share borders with states that joined the Confederacy. In Kentucky and Missouri, there were both pro-Confederate and pro-Union government factions. West Virginia was formed in 1863 from those northwestern counties of Virginia which had seceded from Virginia, after Virginia had declared its secession from the Union. Though every slave state (except South Carolina) contributed some white troops to the Union as well as the Confederate side, the split was most severe in these border states, with men from the same family often fighting on opposite sides. In addition, two territories not yet states the Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma) and the New Mexico Territory (now the states of Arizona and New Mexico) also permitted slavery. Yet very few slaves could actually be found in these territories, despite the institution's legal status there. During the war, the major Indian tribes in Oklahoma signed an alliance with the Confederacy, and participated in its military efforts. Residents of the New Mexico Territory were of divided loyalties; the region was split between the Union and Confederacy at the 34th Parallel. Oklahoma is often cited as a "border state" today, but...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=427798 ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more

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Chapters: Civil Wars Involving the States and Peoples of Africa, Civil Wars Involving the States and Peoples of Asia, Civil Wars Involving the States and Peoples of Europe, Civil Wars Involving the States and Peoples of North America, Civil Wars Involving the States and Peoples of Oceania, Civil Wars Involving the States and Peoples of South America, Irish Civil War, Russian Civil War, Finnish Civil War, Fronde, Cambodian Civil War, 2008 Nord-Kivu Campaign, Angolan Civil War, Spanish Civil War, War in North-West Pakistan, 1947-1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, Lebanese Civil War, Colombian Armed Conflict, Bangladesh Liberation War, Algerian Civil War, Civil War in Chad, Congo Crisis, War of the Castilian Succession, Nepalese Civil War, Croat-bosniak War, Salvadoran Civil War, Civil War in Iraq, Lord's Resistance Army Insurgency, Kivu Conflict, Guatemalan Civil War, Irish Confederate Wars, Cristero War, Royalist Rising of 1651 to 1654, Ten-Day War, Rwandan Civil War, Ivorian Civil War, Cypriot Intercommunal Violence, Second Sudanese Civil War, Scotland in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, New Zealand Land Wars, Internal Conflict in Peru, Sierra Leone Civil War, 1991 Uprisings in Iraq, Chilean Civil War, Costa Rican Civil War, First Carlist War, Catalonian Civil War, First Liberian Civil War, Inca Civil War, Spanish Civil War, 1820-1823, Somali Civil War, Reform War, Persecution of Christians in Mexico, Georgian Civil War, Armagnac-burgundian Civil War, La Violencia, Austrian Civil War, Civil War in Tajikistan, Central African Republic Bush War, Guinea-Bissau Civil War, Attempts at Reconciliation in Somalia, Iraqi Kurdish Civil War, Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, Piedmontese Civil War, Trịnh-nguyễn War, Dongo Conflict, Franco-Spanish War, Colombian Civil War, Second Liberian Civil War, Mozambican Civil War, Central Plains War, Thousand Days War, Uruguayan Civil War, Somalian Revolution, Baussenque Wars, Ugandan Bush War, Sicil...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=11772 ... Read more

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original 1898 publication. Vol II of 2.Bound in leatherette as described inside cover. ... Read more

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Just before dawn on June 9, 1863, Union soldiers materialized from a thick fog near the banks of Virginia's Rappahannock River to ambush sleeping Confederates. The ensuing struggle, which lasted throughout the day, was to be known as the Battle of Brandy Station the largest cavalry battle ever fought on North American soil. Meticulously captured by historian Eric J. Wittenberg, these events marked a major turning point in the Civil War: the waning era of Confederate cavalry dominance in the East gave way to a confident and powerful Union mounted arm. This fascinating volume features a GPS guided tour of the battlefield with illustrations and maps by master cartographer Steven Stanley. ... Read more

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A survey of an important, overlooked battle
This book is a brief survey of the Battle of Brandy Station, one of the more important overlooked battles of the Civil War. The fighting here was savage, and the battle had important implications for the rest of the war. One famous quote from a Confederate, that Brandy Station "made the Union cavalry", is repeated approvingly in this book and other places. As a result, this short survey of the battle is useful, because it gives a brief account of the fighting and how it progressed, and why things came out the way they did.

The battle was fought when the Union cavalry scouted the Confederate positions, trying to figure out where the Confederate army was going, in the late spring of 1863. Of course within a few days the Confederates would be marching north on the road that eventually led to Gettysburg. The Confederates of course didn't want to let the Yankees know this, so they fought the cavalry probe rather vigorously, but the Union forces were handled very aggressively and pushed the Confederates very hard for much of the day. The Yankees finally withdrew, which led the Confederates to claim victory; more perceptive observers noted that the Confederates had been surprised, that many of the Confederate troopers were tired from several days of parades and reviews, and that the Confederate forces, some of them anyway, were timidly handed and rather easily pushed around by the Union forces. Earlier in the war the Union cavalry wouldn't have been this much of a challenge to the Confederates; as the quote cited above notes, after this they became much more of a problem for the Confederates.

I have two major objections to this book. One is that there's no index. With computer programs and the like there's no excuse for not including one at this point, and so I see it as a shortcoming. The other objection I have is the maps. While the book includes 10 maps, none of them are an overview of the whole battlefield, showing all of the places that are included on the detail maps. This is a serious shortcoming, because the text doesn't do that good a job of telling you where the various encounters took place in relation to one another. I finally went online and found two maps: [...] . The first one appears to be a compilation of the maps used in the text of the book, so why it wasn't included with this book is a mystery to me.

Outside of these two shortcomings, this is a useful account of a little-known episode of the Civil War. It includes some pretty interesting anecdotes, from the death of "Grimes" Davis to the saber duel between Wesley Merritt and Rooney Lee. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Civil War.

A Waste of Good Paper
The more I see The History Press' Civil War Sesquicentennial Series the less I'm impressed. So far the series offers short narratives, poor maps, and in this case NO index. Wittenberg seems to have cobbled this together in a hurry. The narrative is choppy and sometimes filled with gaps while reusing quotes more than once. See pages 170 and 172 for his use of the same quote from a Massachusetts cavalryman. He seems not to have proofread his narrative, something that many of his books share. This text does not take us beyond previous Brandy Station books. Wittenberg says in his Introduction: "This book is not intended to be the definitive work on the subject of the Battle of Brandy Station." In that he succeeds. For a battle study that he says he intended to be used in the field, the maps are small and there is no map of the entire Brandy Station area to tie the geography together. Save your money for Bud Hall's study. Caveat emptor.

The Best Brandy Station Book
Books on Brandy Station are limited, both in scope & number. This is quite surprising, since the battle kicked off the Gettysburg Campaign, the most documented campaign in U. S. military history. Brandy Station was the opening act of a brutal drama and critics have, for the most part, ignored its importance. In Gettysburg's massive bibliography, there are but a few titles devoted exclusively to Brandy Station.

The first Brandy Station book, written by Fairfax Downey in 1959, was "Clash of Cavalry: The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863." It is outdated & lacks the first person accounts now demanded by Civil War students & scholars.

2002 gave us "Brandy Station: A Battle Like None Other," a Willow Bend book written by Richard Crouch. An online reviewer calls this an "awful book," criticizing the maps, the editing & the author. The reviewer concludes, "This is a book by an amateur published by amateurs: there are no modern maps to help the narrative, there are typos and words run together. The overall effect is poor. Save your money."

In 2006, McFarland Press released "Brandy Station, Virginia, June 9, 1863: The Largest Cavalry Battle of the Civil War," by Joseph McKinney. Like all McFarland titles, it is quite pricey -- $55 for just 340 pages. (Are you kidding me? And they say the oil companies "price gouge.") The maps are poor. However, the research is first rate & McKinney knows the terrain.

In 2008, as part of its "Campaign" series, Osprey Publishing released "Brandy Station 1863: First Step Towards Gettysburg," written by Dan Beattie & illustrated by Adam Hook. It is well written, well researched & has been well received by readers. But Brandy Station needs more than 96 pages to tell its story.

Fear not! The History Press, as part of its Civil War Sesquicentennial Series, has given us "The Battle of Brandy Station: North America's Largest Cavalry Battle," by Eric J. Wittenberg. What is missing from previous titles can be found in Wittenberg's 16th book.

The maps are plentiful & superb, done by Civil War Preservation Trust cartographer Steve Stanley. It is fairly priced at $25. Primary accounts abound in the bibliography, with 3 full pages devoted to manuscript collections and period newspapers. And Mr. Wittenberg knows the terrain as well as anyone. I do find fault with the publishers for not including an index. But this seems to be their custom, especially as it pertains to this series.

The author calls his latest work an "overview." He's being a little modest here. Until Clark "Bud" Hall's Brandy Station manuscript is released, Wittenberg's book will be the definitive work. Wittenberg, a self-proclaimed disciple of renowned Brandy Station expert Hall, is proud to be in such company. "The Battle of Brandy Station: North America's Largest Cavalry Battle," justifies the comparison.

A much-needed study of an overlooked battle.
Eric Wittenberg writing on the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War, the only improvement would be to make the book very affordable.Being a Civil War Sesquicentennial book, it carries the wished for low price.The Battle of Brandy Station is the newest entry from The History Press in what is a very impressive series.A well-illustrated book with excellent maps by Steven Stanley, period and contemporary pictures, a full Order of Battle with a tour of the field adds real value.A full index, bibliography and complete endnote make this a serious history from a publisher that did not sacrifice quality to lower the price.
The heart of the book is Wittenberg's history and analysis of the battle.The first fifty pages are background and a look at the commanders.He provides a series of word portraits coupled with an understanding of the politics in the mounted arm.The next 110 pages is a detailed account of the battle.A fifteen-page analysis, places the battle in the overall history of the war while identifying winners and losers.An Epilogue covers a human-interest story that is associated with the participants illustrating the direction the war took after the summer of 1863.
This is a well-written account of the fighting using the words of the participants and the author's knowledge to good effect.The battle is a huge swirling mass of men and horses, obscured by gun smoke and dust.The author brings a logical order out of this chaos keeping both the swirling mass and the tactical situation together.The result is a readable, understandable account that keeps the reader involved and the narration moving.This produces both an understanding of mounted combat coupled with an appreciation of the reality of fighting from horseback.
An excellent addition to my library, this book will be a reference on the battle for many years.Highly recommended, this is a much-needed study of an overlooked battle.

Wonderful narrative
My friend and fellow cavalry afficianado has struck gold again with this wonderful narrative of the June 9, 1863 battle at Brandy Station.Since the 1950s we haven't had a good full history of the battle.Eric brings his knowledge of the players, their history, and an impeccable understanding of the terrain (we both together and separately have crawled over every available inch of the ground) to bring to the public an enjoyable, highly readable, and most accurate account of the battle to date.The icing on the cake is that the book has the first driving/walking tour of all the sites - including GPS coordinates, a feature Eric and I, with Mike Nugent, introduced in one of our joint books a few years ago (One Continuous Fight).Prefaced with an imprimatur by Civil War Preservation Trust President Jim Lighthizer, and illustrated with the unbeatable maps of master cartographer Steve Stanley, this book is now the standard for Brandy.Take this book for a walk and enjoy. ... Read more

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This book explores the impact of the Civil Wars enormous death toll from material, political, intellectual, and spiritual angles. Throughout, viewpoints of the most exalted to the most humble give a vivid understanding of the wars shared reality. ... Read more

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Read the book instead
The topic of death during the Civil War and how society came to grapple with the incredible losses is powerful. However, the book reads more like a dissertation and becomes, at times repetitive. Furthermore, the reader's voice is especially annoying and sounds more like she's giving elocution lessons than reading a book, so it sounds particularly choppy. I would recommend reading the hardcopy book instead to easily skip over repetitive parts. ... Read more

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Most Southerners who fought in the Civil War were native born, white, and Confederate. However, thousands with other ethnic backgrounds also took a stand--and not always for the South. Invisible Southerners recounts the wartime experiences of the region's German Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans. As Anne J. Bailey looks at how such outsiders responded to demands on their loyalties, she recaptures the atmosphere of suspicion and prosecession, proslavery sentiment in which they strove to understand, and be understood by, their neighbors.

Divisions within groups complicated circumstances even after members had cast their lot with the Union or Confederacy. Europe's slavery-free legacy swayed many German Americans against the South. Even so, one pro-Union German soldier could still look askance at another, because he was perhaps from a different province in the Old Country or of a different religious sect. Creeks and Cherokees faced wartime questions made thornier by tribal rifts based on wealth, racial mixture, and bitter memories of their forced transport to the Indian Territory decades earlier. The decision was easiest for former slaves, says Bailey, but the consequences more dire. They joined the Union Army in search of freedom and a new life--often to be persecuted by Yankee soldiers and, if captured, punished severely by Rebels.

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An expensive package
This is a series of three lectures on Germans, Native Americans and Blacks, living in the Confederate States of America.How as a group they react to the war and how they accommodate Southern society and the war.The author ignores the largest ethnic group, the Irish, preferring to consider them "white", which they not considered to be at the time.Blacks both slave and free, are considered part of the Union Army not part of the Confederacies' armies except in passing.

The strongest lecture is on the Germans in Texas.This contains some very useful information and insights into how immigrants with a strong anti-slavery tradition survived during the war.This lecture reminds us that the "Dutch" were not really considered "white", but were above the Irish on the social scale.Germans were not able to form regiments in the South serving as individuals or small groups.This subjected them to more racism than they faced in the North's armies.The burden of reconstruction seems to have been as harsh for the Germans as Whites.

The lecture on Native Americans is the weakest of the group.Anne Bailey's sympathy for this group results in overlooking or stretching facts.She does a fair job in presenting the internal tribal divisions that carried into the war and forced, for many, the choice between North and South.The incident at Pea Ridge is glossed over.The internal war between tribal factions, now dressed in Blue or Gray, never fully expanded on.

The lecture on Blacks, slave and free, concentrates on service with the Union Army and Sherman's objections to the USCT.Little is said about Blacks serving with CSA units, although Cleburne's proposal to enlist blacks is covered in depth.The problems of the USCT and the battle to enlist Blacks are given fair treatment.The contribution to victory of the USCT is neither over nor under stated.This lecture is an excellent introduction to the subject or a valuable review.

The information content is above average and the presentation is not badly slanted to the Left or Right.At $25, this is a very expensive book and the buyer needs to consider how much interest they have in the subject.
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Mark Twain once famously said "there was but one solitary thing about the past worth remembering, and that was the fact that it is past and can't be restored."  Well, over recent years, The British Library, working with Microsoft has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collection of 19th century books.

There are now 65,000  titles available  (that's an incredible 25 million pages) of material ranging from works by famous names such as  Dickens, Trollope and Hardy as well as many forgotten literary gems , all of which can now be printed on demand and purchased right here on Amazon.

Further information on The British Library and its digitisation programme can be found on The British Library website. ... Read more