Hearts Touched by Fire

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. Now, 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 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 Sulivane 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 that 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. Title Info. Dedication. Introduction by Harold Holzer.
1861. Introduction by Craig L. Symonds
Chapter 1. Inside Sumter in '61 by James Chester
Chapter 2. The First Step in the War by Stephen D. Lee
Chapter 3. War Preparations in the North by Jacob D. Cox
Chapter 4. The Confederate Government at Montgomery by R. Barnwell Rhett
Chapter 5. Going to the Front: Recollections of a Private by Warren Lee Goss
Chapter 6. The First Battle of Bull Run by P.G.T. Beauregard
Chapter 7. Responsibilities of the First Bull Run by Joseph E. Johnston
Chapter 8. Arkansas Troops in the Battle of Wilson's Creek by N. B. Pearce
Chapter 9. The Flanking Column at Wilson's Creek by Franz Sigel
1862. Introduction by Stephen W. Sears
Chapter 1. The Gun- boats at Belmont and Fort Henry by Henry Walke
Chapter 2. The Western Flotilla at Donelson, Island Number Ten Fort Pillow and Memphis, by Henry Walke
Chapter 3. The Capture of Fort Donelson by Lew Wallace
Chapter 4. The Battle of Shiloh by Ulysses S. Grant
Chapter 5. Surprise and Withdrawal at Shiloh by S. H. Lockett
Chapter 6. The Shiloh Battle- Order and the Withdrawal Sunday Evening by Alexander Robert Chisolm
Chapter 7. The Plan and Construction of the "Merrimac" by John M. Brooke and John L. Porter
Chapter 8. The Building of the "Monitor" by John Ericsson
Chapter 9. The First Fight of Iron- clads by John Taylor Wood
Chapter 10. Farragut's Capture of New Orleans
Chapter 11. Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah by John D. Imboden
Chapter 12. The Peninsular Campaign by George B. McClellan
Chapter 13. The Second Battle of Bull Run by John Pope
Chapter 14. The Invasion of Maryland by James Longstreet
Chapter 15. The Battle of Antietam by Jacob D. Cox
Chapter 16. The Battle of Fredericksburg by James Longstreet
1863. Introduction by James M. McPherson
Chapter 1. The Chancellorsville Campaign by Darius N. Couch
Chapter 2. Stonewall Jackson's Last Battle by James Power Smith
Chapter 3. Lee's Invasion of Pennsylvania by James Longstr