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In this reexamination of Confederate war aims, Joseph L. Harsh analyzes the military policy and grand strategy adopted by Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis in the first two years of the Civil War. Recent critics of Lee have depicted him as a general of tactical brilliance, but one who lacked strategic vision.

Most Civil War Generals commanded an "Escort" or "Bodyguard" (usually 100 men)which provided personal protection, acted as messengers and scouts, etc. Fortunately William R. Dyer, a member of Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort, kept a diary as he rode through Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi with The Wizard of the Saddle. Dyer's diary gives insight into duty at Forrest's side describing events from his unique perspective. Like so many young men of the era, Dyer experienced war on the front line. Terror, boredom, illness, and fun all make appearances in the narrative. ...

In 1868, celebrated Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner traveled to Fort Laramie to document the federal government's treaty negotiations with the Lakota and other tribes of the northern Plains. Gardner, known for his iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln and his visceral pictures of the Confederate dead at Antietam, posed six federal peace commissioners with a young Native girl wrapped in a blanket. The hand-labeled prints carefully name each of the men, but the girl is never identified. .

Slavery is a sad part of history that a lot of people would rather not want to talk about, they wish it was swept under the rug as the stories are so distressing & so heart wrenching that it would be better if no one ever spoke about this dark past at all. Debates on such topics have created so much division in the society, social tensions are back on the rise. Descendants of those slaves want these issues to be discussed in public squares, they want this history to be fully taught in school curriculums so as not to repeat itself, many still harbor the grievances and pain they inherited ...

As the Civil War neared its end, Judah Benjamin of Louisiana stood accused of high crimes against the Federal Government. A leader in the Confederate Cabinet, Benjamin was often called the "brain of the Confederacy." He was a loyal friend of President Jefferson Davis and an enemy of the Union. To evade certain imprisonment and possible execution for his crimes, Benjamin embarked on a great escape from the fallen Confederate capital at Richmond. Benjamin's goal was to go as far away from the United States as he could—if need be, to "the middle of China," he told friends. Along the way, ...