Best Little Stories from the Civil War: More Than 100 True Stories - Softcover

Kelly, C. Brian; Smyer, Ingrid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1888952806 ISBN 13: 9781888952803

Publisher: Cumberland House, 1998

Synopsis

This collection of more than 100 stories from America's Civil War is drawn from the writings of soldiers, sailors, slaves, politicians, and ordinary citizens as much as from the accomplishments of military leaders. The stories present the war in historical sequence through the voices of the common people, not just military and political leaders.

Best Little Stories of the Civil War includes:

• Soldiers describing their first experiences in battle Edward Porter Alexander, the Georgia native who was stranded in San Francisco with his wife when war broke out (he later became a Confederate general.
• Thomas N. Conrad, the Washington, D.C., headmaster of a boys school who spied for the South.
• Julia Ward Howe, who was inspired to write the words of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" after watching young troops marching through Washington to the battlefields from her balcony at the Willard Hotel.
• New Orleans native George Cable, who describes what it was like to see Union ships sail up the Mississippi to take command of his city.

These and many more stories and anecdotes fill the pages of this fascinating book that will make the Civil War come alive with the thoughts and feelings of real people.

About this title

About the Author

C. BRIAN KELLY, a prize-winning journalist, is cofounder of Montpelier Publishing and a columnist and editor emeritus for Military History magazine. He is also a lecturer in newswriting at the University of Virginia. Kelly's articles have appeared in Reader's Digest, Friends, Yankee, Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, and other magazines. He is the author of several books on American history and resides in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

There was nothing pro forma about the firing on Fort Sumter. In thirty-four hours, the little island fortress in Charleston harbor was shelled into submission. A few words from its commander, Major Robert Anderson, effectively give the picture. He described quarters "entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls seriously impaired, the (powder) magazine surrounded by flames and its door closed from the effects of the heat."

By then, April 13, 1861, the Federal garrison's only provision was prok and only "four barrels and three cartridges of powder" were accessible because of the jammed door to the fort's magazine. Outside the bar the Federal resupply ships whose deployment has finally triggered the war's start merely stood by as Sumter suffered bombardment, their commanders unwilling to sacrifice ships or men to a now-hopeless rescue mission.

In was on the evening of April 13 that Anderson agreed to surrender...

About this edition

• Publisher: Cumberland House
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1888952806
• ISBN 13: 9781888952803
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 331