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Product Details
Simon & Schuster, August 2002
Trade Paperback, 992 pages
ISBN-10: 0684849453
ISBN-13: 9780684849454
Description
In this compelling new account of the American Civil War, noted historian David Eicher gives us an authoritative history of battle from the first shots at Fort Sumter to Lee's surrender at Appomattox. As a strictly military history, The Longest Night covers hundreds of engagements, both well known and obscure, including the oft-neglected Western theater and naval actions along the coasts and rivers. The result is a gripping popular history that will fascinate anyone just learning about the Civil War while offering more than a few surprises for longtime students.
Drawing on hundreds of sources and excerpts from correspondence by those who fought the war, The Longest Night conveys a real sense of life -- and death -- on the battlefield. In addition, Eicher analyzes each side's evolving strategy; examines the tactics of Lee, Grant, Johnston, and Sherman; and discusses significant topics such as prisons, railroads, shipbuilding, clandestine operations, and the role of African-Americans in the war. This is an indispensable chronicle of the war that James M. McPherson, in the Foreword, calls "the most dramatic, violent, and fateful experience in American history."
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Table of ContentsJames M. McPherson from the Foreword The story of campaigns and battles -- and of the commanders, strategy, technology, and other matters necessary to understand those campaigns and battles -- that David J. Eicher presents in the following pages is an essential starting point for anyone who wants to know how and why the Civil War came out as it did. The Longest Night is almost unique among Civil War books: it is both a narrative and a reference work. Here the reader will find engrossing accounts of all the battles, large and small, linked together in a manner so lucid and logical that the cause-effect relationships among events taking place in several theaters of war in chronological succession -- sometimes even simultaneously -- emerge with new clarity. The reader will also find detailed descriptions and analyses of many technical aspects of Civil War armies, navies, and armaments: artillery, the Signal Corps, codes and ciphers, intelligence, cavalry, shoulder weapons, and many, many more....No matter what you are looking for regarding the military history of the Civil War, you are likely to find it in this book
-- and you will enjoy a good read at the same time.
Jeffry D. Wert Author of Gettysburg: Day Three The Longest Night is a remarkable blend of scholarship and writing. It should stand for a long time as the best and most complete single-volume military history of the Civil War. A splendid achievement.
Frank J. Williams Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and Chair of the Lincoln Forum An extremely well-written and comprehensive story of the battle history of the Civil War that is destined to become a classic.
Mark DunkelmanProvidence Journal-BulletinEicher gives us the entire broad sweep of Civil War military history. No other one-volume history of the war presents as comprehensive and close an account of the campaigns and battles...A laudable accomplishment.
James M. McPherson's Books
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The Library of Congress Civil War Desk ReferenceThe authoritative, illustrated single-volume reference work on the Civil War, arranged thematically and sponsored by the country's national library.Read More
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Fields of FuryPulitzer Prize award-winning historian James M. McPherson has written for young readers a stirring account of the greatest conflict to happen on our...Read More
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