Examines the Battle of Gettysburg through letters, journals, articles, and speeches from the people who lived through those days.

Imagine being fifteen years old, facing the bloodiest battle ever to take place on U.S. soil: the Battle of Gettysburg. In July 1863, this is exactly what happened to Tillie Pierce, a normal teenager who became an unlikely heroine of the Civil War (1861-1865). Tillie and other women and girls like her found themselves trapped during this critical three-day battle in southern Pennsylvania. Without training, but with enormous courage and compassion, Tillie and other Gettysburg citizens helped save the lives of countless wounded Union and Confederate soldiers. In gripping prose, Tillie Pierce: Teen Eyewitness to the of Battle Gettysburg takes readers behind the scenes. And through Tillie’s own words, the story of one of the Civil War’s most famous battles comes alive.

One hundred and fifty years after the Battle of Gettysburg, the words of the soldiers and onlookers present for those three fateful days still reverberate with the power of their courage and sacrifice. Eyewitness Gettysburg gathers letters, journals, articles and speeches from the people who lived through those legendary three days. Tied together with narrative by historian Rod Gragg and illustrated with a wealth of photographs and images, Eyewitness Gettysburg will transport you to the battlefield, immersing you in the emotional intensity of the struggle of brother against brother for the future of the United States of America.

From the events that led to the clash at Gettysburg in July 1863 to the retreat of Robert E. Lee's defeated Confederates, Richard Wheeler uses the words of participants--both Northern and Southern--to bring one of the Civil War's bloodiest, most pivotal battles to life.

Charles Carleton Coffin (1823-1896) was an American war correspondent for the Boston Journal whose detailed, graphic accounts of the major battles of the Civil War offer an important glimpse into life and death at the battlefront. Includes a biographical essay on Coffin and appendices placing his ac

More than 150 firsthand accounts of the American Civil War, many of them long forgotten and previously unpublished. Includes accounts from Lee, Longstreet, Pickett, Meade, and Hancock. Maps pinpoint each writer's location on the battlefield.

Records the military, political, social, and cultural history of the Civil War through photographs, artifacts, period illustrations, maps, essays by historians, and firsthand accounts.

General Winfield Scott Hancock was perhaps the most influential officer in the federal lines, though he commanded only one of seven Union corps at Gettysburg. On day one, he rallied fleeing troops and placed them in the formidable position the Union army occupied for the remainder of the battle. In a frantic few minutes on day two, he masterfully conducted reinforcements into a yawning gap in his defensive line, securing the position just moments before the Confederates advanced to try to take it. On the third day, he led the successful defense against the massive frontal assault known as Pickett's Charge. Understanding Hancock's pivotal actions at Gettysburg is essential to understanding the battle itself. This book covers his entire life and military career.

In this unique series the Civil War comes vividly to life. Here an eyewitness accounts--many available for the first time in decades--by generals, journalist, and ordinary foot soldiers, both blue and gray, who relive the conflict in all its terrible glory. Each volume brings you a human perspective on the war--its most decisive battles, its most remarkable personalities. Gettysburg: Two Eyewitness Accounts is American history at its finest--and a reading experience you will never forget. In some ways it epitomized the entire war: three hot days in July filled with missed opportunities, great courage, inconsistent leadership, and horrific, relentless carnage. In rare volume we see the battle from both sides, as experienced by two very different combatants, one Union and the other Confederate. From Little Round Top to Devil's Den to Pickett's Charge, Lt. Frank A. Haskell and Col. William C. Oates, one in a meticulous hindsight and the other still feverish with war, re-create three days that changed American history. Here are the momentous decisions of Lee, Longstreet, and Meade. Here are the fatal maneuverings of the forces in the field. And here, in descriptions unmatched in Civil War literature, is all the heartbreak and triumph of Gettysburg.

Thomas Jefferson complains about haggling over the Declaration of Independence ... Jack London guides us through the rubble of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake ... Langston Hughes visits the Scottsboro Boys on death row ... Andy Warhol paints the scene at Studio 54 ... John Seabrook receives e-mail from Bill Gates. Three hundred eyewitnesses -- some famous, some anonymous -- give their personal accounts of the great moments that make up our past, from Columbus to cyberspace, and infuse them with a freshness and urgency no historian can duplicate. David Colbert has brought together a multitude of voices to create a singularly rich American narrative. Here are the vivid impressions of men and women who were witnesses to and participants in these and other dramatic moments: the first colony in Virginia, the Salem witch trials, the Boston Tea Party, the Oklahoma land rush, the Scopes Trial, the bombing of Nagasaki, the lunch-counter sit-ins at the outset of the civil rights movement, New York City's Stonewall Riot, the fall of Saigon, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots. With unparalleled and thrilling immediacy, these excerpts from diaries, private letters, memoirs, and newspapers paint a fascinating picture of the evolving drama of American life.