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The husband: charming cad and powerful Congressman, with hopes of becoming the next President; The wife: beautiful society hostess, 20 years old, of Italian descent; The lover: the most handsome widower in Washington. This is the starting point of American Scoundrel, a true story every bit as colourful as a novel. The shooting and trial are described with all Thomas Keneally's powers of dash and drama, against a backdrop of double-dealing, intrigue and 'the slavery question'. Having - through hi...

The Civil War turned the genteel world of Virginia society upside-down for Sallie Brock Putnam. She lived in the Confederate capital of Richmond throughout the war and saw it transformed from a quiet town of culture to a swollen refugee camp, black-market center, prison venue, and hospital complex. As the smoke from nearby battlefields drifted into town, swaggering young soldiers and ambulance trains filled the streets. Putnam describes the excitement of secession giving way to sacrifice and gri...

J. Patton Anderson was from Florida, the seceding state that was referred to as the ""tadpole"" of the Confederate states, but nevertheless was one of the Civil War's great military leaders. Anderson oversaw a large plantation, Casa Bianca, and his views meshed with secessionist views sufficiently for him to be elected as a delegate to the Secession Conference held in Montgomery, Alabama. After Florida seceded, President Davis appointed Anderson as a Brigadier General. Anderson engaged the enemy...

"G. William Quatman has written a superbly detailed study of [Weitzel's] life and Civil War service. The book is deeply researched, well illustrated with maps, and provides an interesting and compelling story of Weitzel's life and services." -Blue & Gray Despite his military achievements and his association with many of the great names of American history, Godfrey Weitzel (1835-1884) is perhaps the least known of all the Union generals. After graduating from West Point, Weitzel, a German immigr...

Examination of one of the least-known battles of the Civil War, fought on May 13, 1865 -- six weeks after the Army of Northern Virginia's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

While faith in the Enlightenment was waning elsewhere by 1850, at the United States Military Academy at West Point and in the minds of academy graduates serving throughout the country Enlightenment thinking persisted, asserting that war was governable by a grand theory accessible through the study of military science. Officers of the regular army and instructors at the military academy and their political superiors all believed strongly in the possibility of acquiring a perfect knowledge of war...

The South Carolina 2nd Heavy Artillery Regiment also known as the 1st Artillery Regiment, was organized at Charleston, South Carolina, during the spring of 1862 using the 2nd South Carolina Artillery Battalion as its nucleus. This unit had enlisted in August, 1861, and went into service at Camp Butler, near Aiken. The 2nd Artillery spent the entire war in and around Charleston and completed their service fighting against Sherman in the Carolinas Campaign. Companies of the SC 2nd Artillery Regi...

This book examines the complexities of life for African Americans in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from the antebellum period through Reconstruction. Although the Valley was a site of fierce conflicts during the Civil War and its military activity has been extensively studied, scholars have largely ignored the Black experience in the region until now.Correcting previous assumptions that slavery was not important to the Valley, and that enslaved people were treated better here than in other parts...