Civil War Series

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Irish citizens on both sides of the Mason-Dixon answered the call to arms.  This was most evident at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Louisiana Irish Rebels charged with the cry We are the Louisiana Tigers! Irish soldiers of the Alabama Brigade and the Texas Brigade launched assaults on the line's southern end at Little Round Top. During Pickett's Charge, Gaelic brothers fought each other as determined Irishmen of the Sixty-Ninth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry repelled Irish of the Virginia Brigade in one of the most decisive moments in American history. Author Phillip Thomas Tucker reveals the compelling story.

The Civil War never left South Carolina, from its beginning at Fort Sumter in 1861 through the destructive, harrowing days of Sherman's march through the state in 1865.

Included here are the stories of Confederate civilians and soldiers who remained true to their cause throughout the perilous struggle. An English aristocrat risked his life to run the blockade and become one of the defenders of Charleston. The Haskells of Abbeville sent seven sons into Confederate service. Many South Carolina women made heart-rending sacrifices, including a disabled woman from Laurens County whose heroic efforts preserved Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, from wartime ravages. Author Karen Stokes details the lives of men and women whose destinies intertwined with a tragic era in Palmetto State history.

In the Southern Appalachian Mountains, no character was more loved or despised than George W. Kirk.

This inured Union officer led a group of deserters on numerous raids between Tennessee and North Carolina in 1863, terrorizing Confederate soldiers and civilians alike. At Camp Vance in Morganton, Kirk's mounted raiders showcased guerrilla warfare penetrating deep within Confederate territory. As Home Guards struggled to keep Western North Carolina communities safe, Kirk's men brought fear and violence throughout the region for their ability to strike and create havoc without warning. Civil War historian Michael C. Hardy examines the infamous history of George W. Kirk and the Civil War along the Blue Ridge.

During the Civil War, only Virginia and Tennessee saw more action than Missouri. Ulysses S. Grant first proved his ability there. Sterling Price, a former governor of Missouri, sided with the Confederacy, raised an army and led it in battle all over the state. Notorious guerrilla warriors "Bloody" Bill Anderson and William Quantrill terrorized communities and confounded Union military commanders. Brian Warren and Joseph "Whit" McCoskrie provide a chronological overview of more than three hundred of the documented engagements that took place within Missouri's borders, furnishing photos, maps, biographical sketches and military tactics.

Relive the final days of the Civil War with this compelling account of Wilson's Raid told by memoirs of those who witnessed it.

In the closing months of the Civil War, General James Wilson led a Union cavalry raid through Alabama and parts of Georgia. Wilson, the young, brash boy general of the Union, matched wits against Nathan Bedford Forrest, the South's legendary wizard of the saddle. Wilson's Raiders swept through cities like Selma, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery, destroying the last remaining industrial production centers of the Confederacy along with any hopes of its survival. Forrest and his desperately outnumbered cavalry had no option but to try to stop the Union's advance. Join Russell Blount as he examines the eyewitness accounts and diaries chronicling this defining moment in America's bloodiest war.

Before the Civil War, North Carolina was divided by the battle over secession. Some state leaders remained loyal to the Union because they saw the potential for compromise with Northern states. William Alexander Graham helped broker the Compromise of 1850. John Motley Morehead and Jonathan Worth led the campaign against secession in early 1861. Most continued to serve their state under the Confederacy. Although Zebulon B. Vance opposed secession, he served in the Confederate army and as governor of the state during the Civil War. Historian and author Steve M. Miller tells the story of the Tar Heel Unionists who bravely fought to steer their state away from the disastrous future they foresaw.

The Confederate States of America boasted five capital cities in four years. The center of the Confederate government moved from one Southern city to another, including Montgomery, Richmond, Danville, Greensboro and Charlotte. From the heady early days of the new country to the dismal last hours of a transient government, each city played a role in the Confederate story. While some of these sites are commemorated with impressive monuments and museums, others offer scant evidence of their importance in Civil War history. Join award-winning historian Michael C. Hardy as he recounts the harrowing history of the capitals of the Confederacy.

In the long and bitter prelude to war, southern transplants dominated California government, keeping the state aligned with Dixie. However, a murderous duel in 1859 killed "Free Soil" U.S. Senator David C. Broderick, and public opinion began to change. As war broke out back east, a golden-tongued preacher named Reverend Thomas Starr King crisscrossed the state endeavoring to save the Golden State for the Union. Seventeen thousand California volunteers thwarted secessionist schemes and waged brutal campaigns against native tribesmen resisting white encroachment as far away as Idaho and New Mexico. And a determined battalion of California cavalry journeyed to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley to battle John Singleton Mosby, the South's deadliest partisan ranger. Author Richard Hurley delves into homefront activities during the nation's bloodiest war and chronicles the adventures of the brave men who fought far from home.

Guilford County residents felt the brutal impact of the Civil War on both the homefront and the battlefield. From the plight of antislavery Quakers to the strength of women, the county was awash in political turmoil. Intriguing abolitionists, fire-breathing secessionists, peacemakers, valiant soldiers and carpetbaggers are some of the figures who contributed to the chaotic time. General Joseph E. Johnston's parole of the Army of Tennessee at Greensboro, as well as the birth of a free black community following the Confederate defeat, brought amazing changes. Local author and historian Carol Moore traces the romantic days in the lead-up to war, the horrors of war itself and the decades of aftermath that followed.

Join Matthew Borders and Joseph Stahl as they share their expertise and grant glimpses into the lives of those who fought to preserve the Union.

The Battle of Antietam, fought near Sharpsburg, Maryland, was the bloodiest day in American history, with more than twenty-three thousand dead, wounded and missing. This book invites the reader to walk the routes of some of the units on the field through the stories of thirty-six individual soldiers who fought on that day. The images of the soldiers in this work, many of which have never been published before, give faces to the fighting men at Antietam, as well as insight into their lives

In this recently unearthed memoir, Civil War veteran James Howard Lowell offers a firsthand account of his brutal journey west on a wagon train attacked by Indian Dog Soldiers. The Boston Yank staggers snow blind through a Laramie Plains blizzard to reach Salt Lake City, where he meets Brigham Young. In Montana, he joins an old forty-niner to work a mining claim, practices tomahawk jurisprudence in Fort Benton and builds a mackinaw to head downriver through Deadman Rapids to trade with the Crow and Gros Ventre tribes. Lowell's great-great-granddaughter edits this tale populated with colorful characters, narrow escapes and important historical events, such as the Baker Massacre. It features Lowell's letters to his sweetheart and Civil War correspondence.

The free black community of Hinsonville sent its sons to serve the Union when called on. Author Dr. Cheryl Renée Gooch reveals the compelling stories of these brave men and their other Hinsonville comrades.

As members of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, brothers Wesley, William and George Jay survived the bloody battle at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, memorialized in the film Glory. George W. Duffy and Stephen J. Ringgold were part of the only black regiment to lead President Lincoln's funeral procession in Washington. William B. Fitzgerald, Abraham Stout, Samuel H. Blake and Isaac A. Hollingsworth fought with troops who cornered Robert E. Lee's army, forcing surrender at Appomattox Court House.