Hearts Touched by Fire: The Best of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (Modern Library)

In July 1883, just a few days after the twentieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, a group of editors at The Century Magazine engaged in a lively argument: Which Civil War battle was the bloodiest battle of them all' One claimed it was Chickamauga, another Cold Harbor. The argument inspired a brainstorm: Why not let the magazine's 125,000 readers in on the conversation by offering "a series of papers on some of the great battles of the war to be written by officers in command on both sides." The articles would be written by generals, Union and Confederate alike, who had commanded the engagements two decades earlier'"or, if he were not living," by "the person most entitled to speak for him or in his place." The pieces would present both sides of each major battle, and would be fair and free of politics. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the most enduring entries from the classic four-volume series Battles and Leaders of the Civil War have now been edited and merged into one definitive volume. Here are the best of the immortal first-person accounts of the Civil War originally published in the pages of The Century Magazine more than a hundred years ago. Hearts Touched by Fire offers stunning accounts of the war's great battles written by the men who planned, fought, and witnessed them, from leaders such as General Ulysses S. Grant, General George McClellan, and Confederate captain Clement Sullivane to men of lesser rank. This collection also features new year-by-year introductions by esteemed historians, including James M. McPherson, Craig L. Symonds, and James I. Robertson, Jr., who cast wise modern eyes on the cataclysm that changed America and would go down as the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history. No one interested in our country's past will want to be without this collection of the most popular and influential first-person Civil War memoirs ever published. From the Hardcover edition 1861. Introduction -- Craig L. Symonds Inside Sumter in '61 -- James Chester The first step in the war -- Stephen D. Lee War preparations in the North -- Jacob D. Cox The Confederate Government at Montgomery -- R. Barnwell Rhett Going to the front: recollections of a private -- Warren Lee Goss The first Battle of Bull Run -- P. G. T. Beauregard Responsibilities of the First Bull Run -- Joseph E. Johnston Arkansas troops in the Battle of Wilson's Creek -- N. B. Pearce The flanking column at Wilson's Creek -- Franz Sigel -- 1862. Introduction -- Stephen W. Sears The gun-boats at Belmont and Fort Henry -- Henry Walke The Western Flotilla at Fort Donelson, Island Number Ten, Fort Pillow and Memphis -- Henry Walke The capture of Fort Donelson -- Lew Wallace The Battle of Shiloh -- Ulysses S. Grant Surprise and withdrawal at Shiloh -- S. H. Lockett The Shiloh Battle-order and the withdrawal Sunday evening -- Alexander Robert Chisolm The plan and construction of the "Merrimac" -- John M. Brooke and John L. Porter The building of the "Monitor" -- John Ericsson The first fight of iron-clads [ironclads] -- John Taylor Wood Farragut's capture of New Orleans -- William T. Meredith Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah -- John D. Imboden The peninsular campaign -- George B. McClellan The second Battle of Bull Run -- John Pope The invasion of Maryland -- James Longstreet The Battle of Antietam -- Jacob D. Cox The Battle of Fredericksburg -- James Longstreet -- 1863. Introduction -- James M. McPherson The Chancellorsville campaign -- Darius N. Couch Stonewall Jackson's last battle -- James Power Smith Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania -- James Longstreet The first day at Gettysburg -- Henry J. Hunt The second day at Gettysburg -- Henry J. Hunt The third day at Gettysburg -- Henry J. Hunt The Confederate retreat from Gettysburg -- John D. Imboden The Vicksburg campaign -- Ulysses S. Grant Naval operations in the Vicksburg Campaign -- James Russell Soley The capture of Port Hudson -- Richard B. Irwin Chickamauga: the great battle of the West -- Daniel H. Hill Chattanooga -- Ulysses S. Grant -- 1864. Introduction -- Joan Waugh From the wilderness to Cold Harbor -- E. M. Law Hand-to-hand fighting at Spotsylvania -- G. Norton Galloway Sheridan's Richmond raid -- Theo. F. Rodenbough General Lee in the wilderness campaign -- Charles S. Venable The battle of the Petersburg Crater -- William H. Powell The duel between the "Alabama" and the "Kearsarge" -- John M. Browne The colored troops at Petersburg -- Henry Goddard Thomas Preparing for the campaigns of '64 -- Ulysses S. Grant The struggle for Atlanta -- Oliver O. Howard Farragut at Mobile Bay -- John Coddington Kinney The invasion of Tennessee -- J. B. Hood Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley -- Wesley Merritt Repelling Hood's invasion of Tennessee -- Henry Stone Early's march to Washington in 1864 -- Jubal A. Early Sherman's advance from Atlanta -- Oliver O. Howard Marching through Georgia and the Carolinas -- Daniel Oakey -- 1865. Introduction -- James I. Robertson, Jr. Sherman's march from Savannah to Bentonville -- Henry W. Slocum The navy at Fort Fisher -- Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr. The recapture of Fort Stedman -- John F. Hartranft Five forks and the pursuit of Lee -- Horace Porter The fall of Richmond: I. The evacuation -- Clement Sulivane II. The occupation -- Thomas Thatcher Graves The surrender at Appomattox court house -- Horace Porter General Lee's farewell address to his army -- Charles Marshall Final operations of Sherman's army -- H. W. Slocum Last days of the Confederacy -- Basil W. Duke, with notes on the Union and Confederate armies. An anthology of excerpts from the four-volume classic "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" features first-hand recollections by the Civil War's commanders and subordinates on both sides, with commentary by such leading scholars as James McPherson and Joan Waugh.