This Civil War history examines one of General Sherman devastating losses—a battle famously captured in Ambrose Bierce’s The Crime at Pickett’s Mill. On May 27, 1864, Union forces under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman attacked Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston and his men at Pickett’s Mill in Paulding County, Georgia. Following his defeat at New Hope Church, Sherman ordered Major General Oliver Howard to attack Johnston's flank, which Sherman believed to be exposed. But the Confederate soldiers were ready, and Sherman's supporting troops never arrived. What ensued was a battle that cost 2,100 lives and a defeat that Sherman left completely out of his memoirs. In this detailed historical analysis, Brad Butkovich draws on personal letters, newspaper accounts and unit histories to bring to life the battle that Union soldier and author Ambrose Bierce called “the Dead-Line.”

Sweeping away many of the myths that have long surrounded Pickett's Charge, Earl Hess offers the definitive history of the most famous military action of the Civil War. He transforms exhaustive research into a moving narrative account of the assault from both Union and Confederate perspectives, analyzing its planning, execution, aftermath, and legacy.

Main Selection of the History Book Club The Battle of Gettysburg, the Civil War’s turning point, produced over 57,000 casualties, the largest number from the entire war that was itself America’s bloodiest conflict. On the third day of fierce fighting, Robert E. Lee’s attempt to invade the North came to a head in Pickett’s Charge. The infantry assault, consisting of nine brigades of soldiers in a line that stretched for over a mile, resulted in casualties of over 50 percent for the Confederates and a huge psychological blow to Southern morale. Pickett’s Charge is a detailed analysis of one of the most iconic and defining events in American history. This book presents a much-needed fresh look, including the unvarnished truths and ugly realities, about the unforgettable story. With the luxury of hindsight, historians have long denounced the folly of Lee’s attack, but this work reveals the tactical brilliance of a master plan that went awry. Special emphasis is placed on the common soldiers on both sides, especially the non-Virginia attackers outside of Pickett’s Virginia Division. These fighters’ moments of cowardice, failure, and triumph are explored using their own words from primary and unpublished sources. Without romance and glorification, the complexities and contradictions of the dramatic story of Pickett's Charge have been revealed in full to reveal this most pivotal moment in the nation’s life. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

At Gettysburg on July 3, 1863, Confederate soldiers launched one of history's most famous infantry assaults: Pickett's Charge. Using the participants' own words, Richard Rollins deftly reconstructs that momentous event. Separate sections cover planning and preparation; the preliminary artillery barrage; the charges of Pickett's, Pettigrew's, and Trimble's Divisions; and defensive actions up and down the Federal line. From the generals who devised the assault to the lower-level officers and men who bravely walked through shell and shot, Rollins offers a comprehensive, panoramic view of the charge, with more than 150 firsthand accounts—including accounts from Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Meade, and Hancock—many of them long forgotten and previously unpublished.

Soon after the failed Confederate assault on the third day at Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee told General George E. Pickett that, despite the defeat, “the men and officers of your command have written the name of Virginia as high today as ever it has been written before.” Like Lee, Walter Harrison—inspector general for the division—admired the gallantry of the men with whom he served and sought to honor them. To that end he wrote this history of his division, the only book by a participant devoted to one of the more famous large units in the Army of Northern Virginia. Harrison knew his unit inside and out and vividly recounts the many important campaigns and battles in which it saw heavy action—including Seven Pines, Seven Days, Fredericksburg, the siege of Suffolk, and Gettysburg. Originally published in 1870, before the Lost Cause controversialists dramatically shaped the literature, Harrison’s narrative is restrained and dependable. His willingness to criticize generals and politicians makes his portraits of Pickett, Lewis A. Armistead, Richard B. Garnett, James L. Kemper, Montgomery D. Corse, and others less renowned balanced, revealing, and often moving. Even Lee himself comes under close scrutiny. Now widely available for the first time, Pickett’s Men is rewarding reading for Civil War scholars and enthusiasts.

The story of the brave Vermont brigade that helped win the Civil War. On the Fourth of July, 1863, reporting on the aftermath of the Civil War’s most crucial battle, the New York Times wrote: “A Vermont brigade held the key position at Gettysburg and did more than any other body of men to gain the triumph which decided the fate of the Union.” The citizen soldiers led by General George J. Stannard helped stabilize the line, and then shattered the right flank of Pickett’s famous charge just when the battle’s outcome hung in the balance. Over a decade since its original release, Nine Months to Gettysburg is now available in paperback. Coffin draws on scores of soldiers’ letters to relate how and why young recruits from isolated hill farms flocked to the Union colors in response to Lincoln’s call in 1862. And in the nine months leading up to Gettysburg, they recorded, in extraordinary detail, foraging for food, enduring homesickness, monotony, and often fatal diseases. This book movingly captures their myriad anxieties as they are thrust suddenly into the most important infantry maneuver directed against the Confederate assault.

This is the first book-length, critical analysis of Lieutenant General James Longstreet's actions at the Battle of Gettysburg. The author argues that Longstreet's record has been discredited unfairly, beginning with character assassination by his contemporaries after the war and, persistently, by historians in the decades since. By closely studying the three-day battle, and conducting an incisive historiographical inquiry into Longstreet's treatment by scholars, this book presents an alternative view of Longstreet as an effective military leader, and refutes over a century of negative evaluations of his performance.