The famed fighting force of Union General William T. Sherman was plagued by a lack of first-rate cavalry--mostly because of Sherman's belief, after some bad experiences, that the cavalry was largely a waste of good horses. The man Grant sent to change Sherman's mind was James Harrison Wilson, a bright, ambitious, and outspoken young officer with a penchant for organization. Wilson proved the perfect man for the job, transforming a collection of independent regiments and brigades into a fiercely effective mounted unit. Wilson's Cavalry, as it came to be known, played a major role in thwarting Confederate General Hood's 1864 invasion of Tennessee, then moved south for the celebrated capture of Selma, Montgomery, and Columbus. Despite such success, it is this book that is the first overall history of the Cavalry Corps. In addition to meticulous description of military actions, the book affords particular attention to Wilson's outstanding achievement in creating an infrastructure for his corps, even as he covered the Federal flanks in the withdrawal to Franklin and Nashville.

Yankee Blitzkrieg is the first comprehensive survey of Wilson's Raid, the largest independent mounted expedition of the Civil War. The Confederacy was reeling when Wilson's raiders left their camps along the Tennessee River in March 1865 and rode south. But there was talk of prolonged rebel resistance in the deep South using the agricultural and industrial facilties of a sweep of territory that ran from Macon to Meridian. That area had hardly been touched by the war, and in Columbus, Georgia, and Selma, Alabama, the South had two of its most productive industrial communities. Twenty-seven year-old General Wilson was certain his large, well-officered, well-trained, and well-armed cavalry corps could deny the Confederates a redoubt in the heart of Alabama and Georgia. Wilson, like many cavalry leaders, north and South, believed the mounted arm had been grievously misused through four years of war. But in March 1865, armed with support from Grant, Sherman, and Thomas, Wilson at last could test the theory that massed heavily armed cavalry could strike swiftly in great strenghth and press to quick victory.... Wilson's strategy was to get there "first with the most men," and it would be tested against the man who had invented the very phrase, Nathan Bedford Forrest. —from the book

Thomas Burr Fisher was one of five brothers who served, between them, in the Fourth and Eleventh Tennessee Cavalry Regiments, Confederate States Army, with remarkable devotion. Using Fishers two memoirs (one untitled, written in 1915, and "Life on the Common Level, " written in 1921), his correspondence, records, and other material, along with the wartime diary of his brother William Fisher and extensive original research, the history of the Western Cavalry is recounted here.

The first full study of the US Army’s World War I Tank Corps—and how it inspired future American generals. Tanks caused havoc among the Germans when they first appeared on the battlefields of Europe in 1917. These metal monsters broke up the trench warfare stalemate and thus hastened the armistice. Because of production delays and political maneuvering, no American tanks made it into the war, and American tankers had to use French machines instead. But a new breed of army officers, of which Eisenhower and Patton are the most famous, saw the promise of this new technology and staked their careers on it. Ike trained the first generation of tankers at Camp Colt at Gettysburg, and Patton led them into battle in France. Dale E. Wilson, a Vietnam veteran and former West Point history professor, brings these early days of the Tank Corps to life. Using eyewitness accounts from the archives at the Army War College and elsewhere, he details the design and building of the first tanks, the training of crews, the monstrous problem of transport in an age when roads were built for horse-drawn carriages, the evolution of armored combat doctrine, and the three great battles in which tanks revolutionized modern warfare: St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne, and St. Quentin. “Breathes life into the early days of the Tank Corps by drawing from extensive research, including firsthand accounts.” —Toy Soldier & Model Figure

Includes over 30 maps and Illustrations The Staff Ride Handbook for the Vicksburg Campaign, December 1862-July 1863, provides a systematic approach to the analysis of this key Civil War campaign. Part I describes the organization of the Union and Confederate Armies, detailing their weapons, tactics, and logistical, engineer, communications, and medical support. It also includes a description of the U.S. Navy elements that featured so prominently in the campaign. Part II consists of a campaign overview that establishes the context for the individual actions to be studied in the field. Part III consists of a suggested itinerary of sites to visit in order to obtain a concrete view of the campaign in its several phases. For each site, or “stand,” there is a set of travel directions, a discussion of the action that occurred there, and vignettes by participants in the campaign that further explain the action and which also allow the student to sense the human “face of battle.” Part IV provides practical information on conducting a Staff Ride in the Vicksburg area, including sources of assistance and logistical considerations. Appendix A outlines the order of battle for the significant actions in the campaign. Appendix B provides biographical sketches of key participants. Appendix C provides an overview of Medal of Honor conferral in the campaign. An annotated bibliography suggests sources for preliminary study.

In the 19th century, one of the surest ways to rise to prominence in American society was to be a war hero, like Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison. But few would have predicted such a destiny for Hiram Ulysses Grant, who had been a career soldier with little experience in combat and a failed businessman when the Civil War broke out in 1861. However, while all eyes were fixed on the Eastern theater at places like Manassas, Richmond, the Shenandoah Valley and Antietam, Grant went about a steady rise up the ranks through a series of successes in the West. His victory at Fort Donelson, in which his terms to the doomed Confederate garrison earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant, could be considered the first major Union victory of the war, and Grant's fame and rank only grew after that at battlefields like Shiloh and Vicksburg. Along the way, Grant nearly fell prey to military politics and the belief that he was at fault for the near defeat at Shiloh, but President Lincoln famously defended him, remarking, "I can't spare this man. He fights." Lincoln's steadfastness ensured that Grant's victories out West continued to pile up, and after Vicksburg and Chattanooga, Grant had effectively ensured Union control of the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as the entire Mississippi River. At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln put him in charge of all federal armies, and he led the Army of the Potomac against Robert E. Lee in the Overland campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and famously, the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. Although Grant was instrumental in winning the war and eventually parlayed his fame into two terms in the White House, his legacy and accomplishments are still the subjects of heavy debate today. His presidency is remembered mostly due to rampant fraud within his Administration, although he was never personally accused of wrongdoing, and even his victories in the Civil War have been countered by charges that he was a butcher. Like the other American Legends, much of Grant's personal life has been eclipsed by the momentous battles and events in which he participated, from Fort Donelson to the White House.

A thoroughly researched account of a memorable Civil War battle Columbus, Georgia, 1865 is a comprehensive study of the Easter Sunday, April 16, 1865, conflict, which occurred in the dark of night and extended over a mile and half through a series of forts and earthworks and was finally decided in an encounter on a bridge a thousand feet in length. This volume offers the first complete account of this battle, examining and recounting in depth not only the composition and actions of the contending forces, which numbered some three thousand men on each side, but meticulously detailing the effect of the engagement on the city of Columbus and its environs. Misulia’s study fills in an omission in the grand account of our cataclysmic national struggle and adds a significant chapter to the history of an important regional city. In addition, Misulia takes on the long-vexing question of which encounter should be recognized as the last battle of the Civil War and argues persuasively that Columbus, Georgia, qualifies for this distinction on a number of counts.

Regarded by many critics as Edmund Wilson's greatest book, Patriotic Gore brilliantly portrays the vast political, spiritual, and material crisis of the Civil War as reflected in the lives and writings of some thirty representative Americans.