Commanding the Storm

Civil War Battles in the Words of the Generals Who Fought Them

John Richard Stephens

• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Year: 2012
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9780762790029
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

From Beauregard and Custer to Lee and Sherman, twelve commanders from each side vividly describe what they and their men experienced at twelve of the war's most legendary battles from Fort Sumter to Appomattox Court House in accounts gathered from letters, memoirs, reports, and testimonies. They relate noted incidents and personal triumphs and tragedies while covering strategies and explaining battlefield decisions. Trench warfare at Petersburg and Sherman's scorched earth policy in Georgia foreshadowed the world wars to come, and technological advancements—such as armored steamships, landmines, and machine guns—literally changed the landscape of war. Submarines and a time bomb even came into play. Informative biographies and headnotes for each battle give parallel statistics at a glance and establish context; sidebars cover notable tactics and technologies, including espionage, aerial reconnaissance, and guerilla warfare; and a concise roll-call outline each commander's life in full after the war. Here, from the men who conducted and controlled it, is an invaluable sourcebook of what happened in the War Between the States and why.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• A Note on the Texts
• Introduction: The Rising Storm
• The War Begins
• The Battle of Fort Sumter
• The First Battle of Manassas (First Bull Run)
• The Battle of Shiloh
• The Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg)
• The Battle of Fredericksburg
• The Battle of Chancellorsville
• The Siege of Vicksburg
• The Battle of Gettysburg
• The Battle of Chickamauga
• The Battle of the Crater (at Petersburg)
• Sherman’s March to the Sea
• The Battle of Appomattox Court House
• The War Ends
• Roll Call
• Conclusion: The Storm Clouds Begin to Clear
• Acknowledgments
• Sources