United States History - 19th Century - Civil War, United States History - Southern Region
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Overview
Using the vast mass of eyewitness accounts with his usual deftness, popular historian Richard Wheeler takes the reader from the secession of South Carolina through the firing on Fort Sumter, the wave of further secessions, the Union loss of the naval base at Norfolk, and the efforts of both sides to cobble together armies. Using contemporary diaries, newspapers, speeches, and articles, Wheeler captures the gradual development of the crisis between North and South over the half-century before the war and ends the book with the First Battle of Bull Run, in which those armies clashed, and the Confederacy won a large but ultimately fruitless victory.Editorials
Booknews
As in ten previous works of this genre, Wheeler skillfully melds narrative and eyewitness reports to create an engaging account for the general reader that stands up to scholarly perusal. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Roland Green
The latest Civil War volume from a gifted popular historian who has never forgotten that historians, like novelists, are descendants of the fireside storyteller. Using the vast mass of eyewitness accounts with his usual deftness, Wheeler takes the reader from the secession of South Carolina through the firing on Fort Sumter, the wave of further secessions, the Union loss of the naval base at Norfolk, and the efforts of both sides to cobble together armies. He ends the book with the First Battle of Bull Run, in which those armies (more accurately, armed mobs) clashed and the Confederacy won a large but ultimately fruitless victory. Accessible and readable, drawing upon a host of resources that only the largest Civil War collection would include, this is a fine narrative of the first steps on the long road to Gettysburg.Book Details
Published
June 8, 1994
Publisher
New York, N.Y : HarperCollins, c1994
Pages
413
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780060169923