Local History

“May God forgive me for the order”, Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge remarked as he ordered young cadets from Virginia military institute into the battle lines at New Market, just days after calling them from their academic studies to assist in a crucial defense. Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley had seen years of fighting. In the spring of 1864, Union Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel prepared to lead a new invasion force into the Valley, operating on the far right flank of Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign. Breckinridge scrambled to organize the confederate defense.

On a cold day in early January 1864, Robert E. Lee wrote to Confederate president Jefferson Davis "The time is at hand when, if an attempt can be made to capture the enemy's forces at New Berne, it should be done." Over the next few months, Lee's dispatch would precipitate a momentous series of events as the Confederates, threatened by a supply crisis and an emerging peace movement, sought to seize Federal bases in eastern North Carolina.

We all know of Theodore Roosevelt the US president from 1901 to 1909, an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, and naturalist. But few know of him being an acclaimed historian. Roosevelt’s The Winning of the West quickly became a bestseller. The first edition of his book sold out in little more than a month and helped establish Roosevelt as a literary man and scholar, placing him on a path toward future greatness.

Dear Traveler, Welcome to the WanderStories™ tour of the top 3 sights in Istanbul: Topkapi Palace, the Hagia Sophia, and the Blue Mosque. We are now ready to take you on your personal tour of these world famous landmarks. We will also tell you additional stories about Istanbul’s history, Turkish traditions and customs, holidays, Turkish hammam, cuisine, jokes, Islam in Turkey, and traditional Turkish handicrafts. We, at WanderStories™, are storytellers. We don’t tell you where to eat or sleep, we don’t intend to replace a typical travel reference guide. Our mission is to be the ...

William Elliott Hazelgrove provides the exciting and sprawling history behind the 1933 World's Fair, the last of the golden age. He reveals the story of the six millionaire businessmen, dubbed The Secret Six, who beat Al Capone at his own game, ending the gangster era as prohibition was repealed. The story of an intriguing woman, Sally Rand, who embodied the World's Fair with her own rags to riches story and brought sex into the open.

This book includes new heartbreaking stories, such as the seven canyoneers in 2015 who all died in a flash flood in Keyhole Canyon, two separate BASE jumping deaths, rock climbing, and flash flood deaths in the Narrows. Zion National Park is home to majestic and wondrous canyons, cliffs, crags, mesas, rivers, and slot canyons. World travelers remain in awe as they drive, walk, hike, and climb into such a unique place that is filled with vibrant, sacred, and mystical energy.

Here is the story of one of Yorkshire's prettiest villages from the earliest times to the present day. It is also the story of the famous people connected with it.

This new history of Hull traces the story of the city from its beginnings as a haven for the transportation of goods to one of the main medieval harbours of England. The town was a key player in the Civil War of the seventeenth century and grew to become one of the country's major cities and ports following rapid expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Alan Avery was educated in Hull and at King's College, London. He has written widely on the history of Yorkshire and is the author of 'The Story of Bradford ' and 'The Story of York' in this series.

In late September 1919, black sharecroppers met to protest unfair settlements for their cotton crops from white plantation owners. Local law enforcement broke up the union's meeting, and the next day a thousand white men from the Delta - and troops of the US Army itself - converged on Phillips County, Arkansas, to "put down" the black sharecroppers' "insurrection". Writer and Delta native Grif Stockley considers the evidence and tells the full story of this incident for the first time, concluding that black people were murdered in Elaine by white mobs and federal soldiers.

Among the darkest corners of Kentucky's past are the grisly feuds that tore apart the hills of Eastern Kentucky from the late 19th century until well into the 20th. Now, from the tangled threads of conflicting testimony, John Ed Pearce, Kentucky's best-known journalist, weaves engrossing accounts of six of the most notorious accounts to uncover what really happened and why. His story of those days of darkness brings to light new evidence, questions commonly held beliefs about the feuds.

Living Landmarks of Chicago goes beyond the what, when, and where to tell the how and why of 50 Chicago landmarks. More than a book about architecture, these are stories of the people who made Chicago and many of its most popular tourist attractions what they are today.

The Settlers' Empire traces the first federal endeavor to build states wholesale out of the Northwest Territory, a process that relied on overlapping colonial rule over Euro-American settlers and the multiple Indian nations in the territory. In the Northwest Territory, diverse populations of newcomers and natives struggled over the region's geographical and cultural definition in areas such as religion, marriage, family, gender roles, and economy.

In April 1938, Swift River Valley residents held a farewell ball to mark the demise of the quintessential New England town of Enfield and its three smaller neighbors, Greenwich, Dana, and Prescott. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts sacrificed these three towns to build the Quabbin, a massive reservoir of drinking water for residents of Boston. Three prominent residents attended the somber occasion.

After Sir Walter Raleigh failed in his attempt to found a settlement at Roanoke, a colony on the Chesapeake Bay was successfully established. Primary source materials enhance lively text to give students an in-depth look at what led to the formation and success of the colony of Virginia. No other colony - except Massachusetts - was more influential in the formation of America as a nation.

Almost 7,000 fans eagerly packed into the Ringling Brothers big top on July 6, 1944. With a single careless act, an afternoon at the "Greatest Show on Earth" quickly became one of terror and tragedy as the paraffin-coated circus tent caught fire. Panicked crowds rushed for the few exits, but in minutes, the tent collapsed on those still struggling to escape below. A total of 168 lives were lost, many of them children, with many more injured and forever scarred by the events.

This comprehensive account of California’s numerous and perilous natural disasters explores how a unique combination of forces has affected Californians throughout the state's history and carries a sobering message about our short disaster memories. California has more natural hazards per square mile than any other state, but this hasn’t deterred people from moving here. Entire California towns and regions frequently contend with destruction caused by earthquakes, floods, landslides and debris flows, and sea-level rise and coastal erosion.

Thing most terrifying thing about serial killers is that sometimes, they’re just like us, as the interesting facts in this true crime collection reveal. The compilation of trivia in this serial killer true crime anthology goes beyond the familiar stories to give you a glimpse of some of the more horrifying aspects of people who become famous for acts of barbarianism that are unfathomable for most of us.

Filled with hundreds of darkly fascinating tales of murderous mayhem, 50 States of Murder is a chilling work of storytelling and an authoritative survey of the United States’ homicidal history. Master true crime author Harold Schechter explores each state’s most grizzly, gruesome, and notorious murders that have passed into regional lore, from Iowa’s Cornfield Killer to the Texarkana Moonlight Murders to the Beauty School Barbarian of Arizona.

Author and journalist Cody McDevitt tells the story of one of the worst civil rights injustices in Western Pennsylvania history. In 1923, in response to the fatal shooting of four policemen, the mayor of Johnstown ordered every African American and Mexican immigrant who had lived in the city for less than seven years to leave. They were given less than a day to move or would face crippling fines or jail time and were forced out at gunpoint.

In this compelling, informative volume, Jimmie R. Hawkins walks the listener through the many forms of Black protest in American history, from pre-colonial times through the George Floyd protests of 2020, including slave ship mutinies, the abolitionist movement, the different approaches to protest, Black Lives Matter, and protests of today's Black athletes, musicians, and intellectuals. Hawkins also covers the backlash to these protests, including the Jim Crow era, the Red Summer of 1919, and modern-day wars on the Black community in the form of the War on Drugs and voter suppression.