The 2nd North Carolina Cavalry fought its first major battle in its home state at New Bern on March 14, 1862, and narrowly escaped with its men and reputation intact. The regiment was nearly decimated in the Gettysburg Campaign, but was rebuilt and later fought with Robert E. Lee's cavalry in most major battles, including Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, with only a handful of men. This history covers not only the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry's accomplishments and failures, but the events going on around them which influenced their actions and performance. The author pays particular attention to the 2nd North Carolina's involvement with the Army of Northern Virginia and the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade, and includes official documents, letters written to and from home, diaries and memoirs to present the soldiers' war experiences.

The 2nd North Carolina Cavalry fought its first major battle in its home state at New Bern on March 14, 1862, and narrowly escaped with its men and reputation intact. The regiment was nearly decimated in the Gettysburg Campaign, but was rebuilt and later fought with Robert E. Lee's cavalry in most major battles, including Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, with only a handful of men. This history covers not only the 2nd North Carolina Cavalry's accomplishments and failures, but the events going on around them which influenced their actions and performance. The author pays particular attention to the 2nd North Carolina's involvement with the Army of Northern Virginia and the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade, and includes official documents, letters written to and from home, diaries and memoirs to present the soldiers' war experiences.

In April 1862, the Civil War was entering its second year and North Carolina was rallying to supply more troops for the Confederacy. The Partisan Ranger Act, passed by the Confederate Congress on April 21, prompted local leaders to recruit companies of irregular soldiers for service in the Confederate Army. Seven such companies were banded together into a regiment to form the 4th North Carolina Cavalry: a true cross-section of North Carolina, it contained soldiers from the largest urban areas and smallest rural areas from fifteen counties. This history of the 4th North Carolina Cavalry is based largely on primary source material--the official records, letters, diaries and recollections of the soldiers. The 4th North Carolina saw action in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and was a part of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The roster comprises a large part of the book and provides biographical, genealogical and military information about each soldier.

A remarkable biography of a Confederate brigadier general’s experiences during—and after—the Civil War: “Well-written and deeply researched” (Eric J. Wittenberg, author of Out Flew the Sabers). Rufus Barringer fought on horseback through most of the Civil War with General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, and rose to lead the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade in some of the war’s most difficult combats. This book details his entire history for the first time. Barringer raised a company early in the war and fought with the 1st North Carolina Cavalry from the Virginia peninsula through Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He was severely wounded at Brandy Station, and as a result missed the remainder of the Gettysburg Campaign, returning to his regiment in mid-October, 1863. Within three months he was a lieutenant colonel, and by June 1864 a brigadier general in command of the North Carolina Brigade, which fought the rest of the war with Lee and was nearly destroyed during the retreat from Richmond in 1865. The captured Barringer met President Lincoln at City Point; endured prison; and after the war did everything he could to convince North Carolinians to accept Reconstruction and heal the wounds of war. Drawing upon a wide array of newspapers, diaries, letters, and previously unpublished family documents and photographs, as well as other firsthand accounts, this is an in-depth, colorful, and balanced portrait of an overlooked Southern cavalry commander. It is easy today to paint all who wore Confederate gray with a broad brush because they fought on the side to preserve slavery—but this biography reveals a man who wielded the sword and then promptly sheathed it to follow a bolder vision, proving to be a champion of newly freed slaves—a Southern gentleman decades ahead of his time.

In April 1862, the Civil War was entering its second year and North Carolina was rallying to supply more troops for the Confederacy. The Partisan Ranger Act, passed by the Confederate Congress on April 21, prompted local leaders to recruit companies of irregular soldiers for service in the Confederate Army. Seven such companies were banded together into a regiment to form the 4th North Carolina Cavalry: a true cross-section of North Carolina, it contained soldiers from the largest urban areas and smallest rural areas from fifteen counties. This history of the 4th North Carolina Cavalry is based largely on primary source material--the official records, letters, diaries and recollections of the soldiers. The 4th North Carolina saw action in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and was a part of General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The roster comprises a large part of the book and provides biographical, genealogical and military information about each soldier.

Provides a brief history and "certain information such as organization, campaigns, losses, commanders, etc." for each unit listed in "Marcus J. Wright's List of Field Officers, Regiments, and Battalions in the Confederate States Army, 1861-1865."--Intro., p.xi.

The night after the commander of the 4th South Carolina Regiment sent his men home, he burned the wagon with the regiment's records rather than have it fall into enemy hands. Lloyd Halliburton has reconstructed the story from General Stokes' personal correspondence and memorabilia.

The transition from the Soviet to the post-1991 Russian military is a fascinating story of decline and reinvention. The Soviet army suffered a slow demise, dissolving in 2000 and only gradually reforming based on radically different principles. The First Chechnya War (1994-1996) was the lowest point for the Soviet military but the Second Chechnya War (1999-2004) saw the initial stirrings of the new Russian army. The Five Day War with Georgia in August 2008 was its first major success and marked Russia's return to world power status. Lively accounts and maps describe the actions of these wars, along with the Crimea operation of 2014, the separatist struggles in eastern Ukraine and the ongoing Russian intervention in Syria.