After the Civil War: The Heroes, Villains, Soldiers, and Civilians Who Changed America

Description

In the chaotic days following Abraham Lincoln's assassination, Washington and the world struggled to come to terms with the loss of the figure who symbolized America's Union. Best-selling author James Robertson brings readers back to 1865, exploring the critical years following the Civil War, and focusing on 75 key figures who would come to shape America during Reconstruction and beyond. We meet Edwin Stanton, the dour secretary of war who would attempt to seize political power amid the chaos of post-assassination Washington and avenge the Union with harsh punishments for Confederate president Jefferson Davis. We meet the "Old Soldiers" such as Winfield Scott, the general who was older than the city of Washington, D.C. when he took command of the Union Army in 1861, and William Tecumseh Sherman, an enigma of a man who would revolutionize modern warfare. And we meet the people whose lives marked shifts in everyday life in the United States, from Edwin Holmes, who would revolutionize the funeral industry, to Clara Barton, who would found the modern Red Cross. Together their stories tell the complex and fast-paced history of America as the country struggled to reunite and adapt to the inevitable changes wrought by war. The Greatest Generation of their day, the 75 figures in this book would forever change--and be changed by--the Civil War.

One of the most distinguished names in Civil War history, James Robertson was executive director of the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission and worked with Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson in marking the war's 100th anniversary. His Civil War Era course at Virginia Tech was the largest of its kind in the nation. Robertson is the author or editor of more than 20 books that include such award-winning studies as Civil War! America Becomes One Nation, General A.P. Hill, and Soldiers Blue and Gray. His biography of Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson won eight national awards and was used as the basis for the Ted Turner/Warner Bros. mega-movie Gods and Generals. Robertson was chief historical consultant for the film.