A history of the Sixth Tennessee Cavalry U.S.A., a Southern Unionist regiment led by Colonel Fielding Hurst, during the American Civil War from 1862 to 1865.

The true story of one man's reluctant but relentless war against the invaders of his country.A quiet, wealthy plantation owner, Jack Hinson watched the start of the Civil War with disinterest. Opposed to secession and a friend to Union and Confederate commanders alike, he did not want a war. After Union soldiers seized and murdered his sons, placing their decapitated heads on the gateposts of his estate, Hinson could remain indifferent no longer. He commissioned a special rifle for long-range accuracy, he took to the woods, and he set out for revenge. This remarkable biography presents the story of Jack Hinson, a lone Confederate sniper who, at the age of 57, waged a personal war on Grant's army and navy. The result of 15 years of scholarship, this meticulously researched and beautifully written work is the only account of Hinson's life ever recorded and involves an unbelievable cast of characters, including the Earp brothers, Jesse James, and Nathan Bedford Forrest.

This biographical dictionary documents the Union army colonels who commanded regiments from Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Entries are arranged first by state and then by regiment, and provide a biographical sketch of each colonel focusing on his Civil War service. Many of the colonels covered herein never rose above that rank, failing to win promotion to brigadier general or brevet brigadier general, and have therefore received very little scholarly attention prior to this work.

"An unusually strong collection of essays ...the scholarship is impeccable."---Gaines M. Foster, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge --

The Nashville Campaign, culminating with the last major battle of the Civil War, is one of the most compelling and controversial campaigns of the conflict. The campaign pitted the young and energetic James Harrison Wilson and his Union cavalry against the cunning and experienced Nathan Bedford Forrest with his Confederate cavalry. This book is an analysis of contributions made by the two opposing cavalry forces and provides new insights and details into the actions of the cavalry during the battle. This campaign highlighted important changes in cavalry tactics and never in the Civil War was there closer support by the cavalry for infantry actions than for the Union forces in the Battle of Nashville. The retreat by Cheatham's corps and the Battle of the Barricade receive a more in-depth discussion than in previous works on this battle. The importance of this campaign cannot be overstated as a different outcome of this battle could have altered history. The Nashville Campaign reflected the stark realities of the war across the country in December 1864 and would mark an important part of the death knell for the Confederacy.

For more than 150 years, the story of the First West Tennessee Cavalry U.S.A. (renamed the Sixth Tennessee Cavalry) has been told from the perspectives of Col. Fielding Hurst, his critics, and his defenders. Now the story of this misunderstood irregular Union cavalry regiment is portrayed through the eyes and emotions of his second-in-command, Lt. Col. William K.M. Breckenridge. Long silenced by death and the mist of history, Breckenridge's journal retells the regiment's story. His contemporary voice and facts drawn from period documents provide a far clearer portrait than previously available. Through careful and detailed research, In The Shadow of the Devil debunks many legends and folklore regarding both Fielding Hurst and the First West Tennessee Cavalry. Further, the reputations of the soldiers themselves are somewhat restored as the specific war crimes of a few are detailed. A life too long hidden by death and the fog of history emerges with a strong and compelling voice. Now allowed to speak, that voice tells a story both convincing and historically significant.

Today's moviegoers and critics generally consider some Hollywood products--even some blockbusters--to be legitimate works of art. But during the first half century of motion pictures very few Americans would have thought to call an American movie "art." Up through the 1950s, American movies were regarded as a form of popular, even lower-class, entertainment. By the 1960s and 1970s, however, viewers were regularly judging Hollywood films by artistic criteria previously applied only to high art forms. In Hollywood Highbrow, Shyon Baumann for the first time tells how social and cultural forces radically changed the public's perceptions of American movies just as those forces were radically changing the movies themselves. The development in the United States of an appreciation of film as an art was, Baumann shows, the product of large changes in Hollywood and American society as a whole. With the postwar rise of television, American movie audiences shrank dramatically and Hollywood responded by appealing to richer and more educated viewers. Around the same time, European ideas about the director as artist, an easing of censorship, and the development of art-house cinemas, film festivals, and the academic field of film studies encouraged the idea that some American movies--and not just European ones--deserved to be considered art.