The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It

EXTRAORDINARY: BEAUTIFULLY EDITED: PROFOUNDLY MOVING: NEW First Edition LOA hardcover (Orig. 2011) Second Printing (c. 2014) * Includes head-notes, a chronology of events, biographical & explanatory endnotes, full-color hand-drawn end-paper maps, & an index * 5.0" x 8.12" x 1.36", 0.70 kg, xxvi+814 (840) pp * ABOUT THE BOOK: The first volume in the widely praised LOA four-volume series of first hand accounts & writings on the American Civil War—features first-hand writings from Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Abraham Lincoln, & more: After the passing of more than 160 years the Civil War remains our greatest national drama, at once heroic, tragic, & epic--our Iliad but also our Bible, a story of sin & judgment, suffering & despair, death & resurrection in a "new birth of freedom." Drawn from letters, diaries, speeches, articles, poems, songs, military reports, legal opinions, & memoirs, "The Civil War: The First Year" gathers more than 120 pieces by more than 60 participants to create a unique firsthand narrative of this great historical crisis. Beginning on the eve of Lincoln's election in November 1860 & ending in January 1862 w/ the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of war, this volume presents writing by figures well-known—Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chesnut, Frederick Douglass, & Lincoln himself among them—& less familiar, like pro-slavery advocate J.D.B. DeBow, Lieutenants Charles B. Haydon of the 2nd Michigan Infantry & Henry Livermore Abbott of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, & plantation mistresses Catherine Edmondston of North Carolina & Kate Stone of Mississippi. Together, the selections provide a powerful sense of the immediacy, uncertainty, & urgency of events as the nation was torn asunder. Companion volumes gather writings from the second, third, and final years of the conflict. * ABOUT THE EDITORS: BROOKS D. SIMPSON is Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University. He is the author of "Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant & the Politics of War & Reconstruction, 1861–1868" & "Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity, 1822–1865", & is the co-editor of "Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865". STEPHEN W. SEARS is the author of "Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam"; "George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon"; "To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign"; "Chancellorsville; Controversies and Commanders"; & "Gettysburg". AARON SHEEHAN DEAN is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Florida & author of "Why Confederates Fought: Family & Nation in Civil War Virginia" and "The Concise Historical Atlas of the U.S. Civil War". * HIGHEST PRAISE: "In this extraordinary, imaginatively-compiled, & beautifully edited collection, men & women of every class & kind express in their own words how it was to live in an America tearing itself apart. All the contradictory emotions those events inspired are here, raw & unfiltered by historians--bigotry & aspiration, anger & forgiveness, cynicism & courage. If there is a richer evocation of those times, I have not seen it." -Geoffrey Ward, co-author of "The Civil War" & author of "A First Class Temperament". * LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing & keeping permanently in print America’s best & most significant writing. The LOA series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, & ribbon markers, & are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries. * SHIPPING: MNEMOSYNE wraps, labels & custom-packages this fine book for FREE domestic shipment via USPS MEDIA MAIL (or USPS PRIORITY MAIL for a below-cost additional fee) & via USPS FIRST CLASS INTERNATIONAL AIRMAIL w/ rates quoted upon request.…