Spooky Season Reads

Though removed from the frontlines, Cleveland played an active role in national events before, during, and after the Civil War.

President Lincoln visited this abolitionist hotbed after his 1860 election. Following his assassination five years later, his funeral train made a stop there. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County sent over 9,000 troops to war. More than 1,700 never returned. Born just outside Cleveland, James Garfield emerged from the war to become President of the United States. Most vitally, the economic prosperity of the war years began the transformation of this small but thriving village into a future manufacturing powerhouse.

Author W. Dennis Keating, member and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, creates a panoramic view of the city through one of the nation's most troubled times.

Look into the eyes of these soldiers and see the faces of those who dared to stare into the face of Death.

The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought December 11-15, 1862, is often remembered for the seemingly futile attacks by the Army of the Potomac against dug in Confederates on Marye's Heights. Less well understood is the fighting south of the heights on what has become known as Slaughter Pen Farm. In this work the images of thirty Union soldiers are published for the first time. They give a face and history to those men who struggled across that bloody landscape, as well as to those that charged up the slope of Marye's Heights into Confederate fire.

Authors Matthew Borders and Joseph Stahl introduce you to these men, their stories and their sacrifice on the bullet swept battlefield of Fredericksburg.

With vivid battlefield accounts based on extensive primary research, award-winning author Jack Dempsey’s masterful biography tells the amazing story of an unsung hero.

Detroit’s Alpheus Starkey Williams never tired in service to his city or his country. A veteran of the Mexican-American War, he was a preeminent military figure in Michigan before the Civil War. He was key to the Lost Order, the Battle of Gettysburg, the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign. His generalship at Antietam made possible the Emancipation Proclamation, and Meade and Sherman relied on his unshakable leadership. A steady hand in wartime and in peacetime, Williams was a Yale graduate, lawyer, judge, editor, municipal official, militia officer, diplomat and congressman who stood on principle over party.

Although war was traditionally the purview of men, the realities of America’s Civil War often brought women into the conflict. They served as nurses, sutlers, and washerwomen. Some even disguised themselves as men and joined the fight on the battlefield. In the border state of Missouri, where Southern sympathies ran deep, women sometimes clashed with occupying Union forces because of illegal, covert activities like spying, smuggling, and delivering mail. When caught and arrested, the women were often imprisoned or banished from the state. In at least a couple of cases, they were even sentenced to death. Join award-winning author Larry Wood as he chronicles the misadventures and ordeals of the lady rebels of Missouri.

VIew Indiana's Civil War history through the unique lens of medical personnel with images and newspaper articles from the time.

Indiana in the Civil War: Doctors, Hospitals, and Medical Care is a unique visual history of the people and places most vital to the medical care of Indiana troops during America's darkest hour. From the guerilla warfare in Missouri to the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, Indiana men and women struggled to care for the sick and injured. Often finding even the best physicians could do little to cure diseases that were more deadly than enemy fire, doctors, nurses, and patients explain in their own words how they combated disease and survived horrific wounds during the War Between the States. Even with the strong support of Indiana's governor, Oliver P. Morton, caregivers still faced daunting obstacles, including court martials, their own disease and injury, and military red tape. Showcasing almost 200 vintage images and utilizing newspaper accounts written during the period by surgeons, patients, and hospital observers, this book provides new insight on Civil War medical care.

Meet the men from Southwestern Illinois who served in the Civil War. Learn about their lives prior to enlistment, follow them into battle, and bear witness to their legacy.

The men of southwestern Illinois, both white and Black, rallied to the Union banner when the Civil War broke out. Lewis Martin, an escaped slave, enlisted in the Union army and suffered horrendous injuries at the Battle of the Crater. Shurtleff College’s entire 1864 class joined up, and so many men from McKendree College served in the Illinois 117th that it became known as the “McKendree Brigade.” Some of the volunteers came from pioneer American stock, like Franklin Moore, whose forefathers fought in the War of 1812 and the Revolution. Others, such as Swiss-born John Kuhn, were immigrants. Author John J. Dunphy follows the men from southwestern Illinois who risked their lives to end the Southern rebellion.