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The History of the Civil War
- The Causes, Battles, and Generals of the War Between the States
- Narrated by: Chris Abell
- Length: 24 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would last four years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought. Since it was, however, historians and history buffs alike have been studying and analyzing the biggest battles ever since. Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the battles have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves.
The secession of the South was one of the seminal events in American history, but it also remains one of the most controversial. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the impetus for secession, but that was merely one of many events that led up to the formation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War.
The Confederacy's hope of being let go in peace ended at 4:30 a.m. on the morning of April 12, 1861, when Confederate Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the first shots to be fired at the federal garrison defending Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, effectively igniting the Civil War.
Today, First Bull Run is remembered as the first important land battle of the Civil War, but with over 350 killed on each side, it was also the deadliest battle in American history to date, and both the Confederacy and the Union were quickly served notice that the war would be much more costly than either side had believed.
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Overall
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
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OUTSTANDING! I'M PROUD TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN!!
- By The Louligan on 08-22-13
By: Shelby Foote
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Ulysses S. Grant: A Victor, Not a Butcher
- The Military Genius of the Man Who Won the Civil War
- By: Edward H. Bonekemper III
- Narrated by: E. Roy Worley
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Ulysses S. Grant is often accused of being a cold-hearted butcher of his troops. In Ulysses S. Grant: A Victor, Not a Butcher, historian Edward H. Bonekemper III proves that Grant's casualty rates actually compared favorably with those of other Civil War generals. His perseverance, decisiveness, moral courage, and political acumen place him among the greatest generals of the Civil War - indeed, of all military history.
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Very interesting history
- By Katherine on 08-21-15
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Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
- By: Ulysses S. Grant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 29 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Among the autobiographies of great military figures, Ulysses S. Grant’s is certainly one of the finest, and it is arguably the most notable literary achievement of any American president: a lucid, compelling, and brutally honest chronicle of triumph and failure. From his frontier boyhood, to his heroics in battle, to the grinding poverty from which the Civil War ironically rescued him, these memoirs are a mesmerizing, deeply moving account of a brilliant man told with great courage.
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Surprisingly funny and very informative.
- By Trent on 08-20-12
By: Ulysses S. Grant
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Chancellorsville
- By: Stephen Sears
- Narrated by: Richard Davidson
- Length: 23 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A former editor of American Heritage, Stephen W. Sears has collected a wealth of new sources for this definitive portrait of one of the most dramatic battles of the Civil War. Using scores of letters and diaries written by soldiers from both Union and Confederate armies, Sears’ narrative history seeks to strip away the gloss of later commentary and restore the battle of Chancellorsville to its original voices.
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It's a Wonderful Tool
- By Drake M. Davis on 08-23-14
By: Stephen Sears
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On to Petersburg
- Grant and Lee, June 4-15, 1864
- By: Gordon C. Rhea
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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On to Petersburg follows the Union army's movement to the James River, the military response from the Confederates, and the initial assault on Petersburg, which Rhea suggests marked the true end of the Overland Campaign. Beginning his account in the immediate aftermath of Grant's three-day attack on Confederate troops at Cold Harbor, Rhea argues that the Union general's primary goal was not - as often supposed - to take Richmond, but rather to destroy Lee's army by closing off its retreat routes and disrupting its supply chain.
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Important to understanding the Overland Campaign
- By Jimbo on 12-29-19
By: Gordon C. Rhea
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Born to Battle
- Grant and Forrest: Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga: The Campaigns that Doomed the Confederacy
- By: Jack Hurst
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Born to Battle examines the Civil War’s complex and decisive western theater through the exploits of its greatest figures: Ulysses S. Grant and Nathan Bedford Forrest. These two opposing giants squared off in some of the most epic campaigns of the war, starting at Shiloh and continuing through Perryville, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga - battles in which the Union would slowly but surely divide the western Confederacy, setting the stage for the final showdowns of this bloody and protracted conflict.
By: Jack Hurst
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Shiloh
- In Hell before Night
- By: James Lee Mcdonough
- Narrated by: Gary D. MacFadden
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Colorful, dramatic, blundering, and tragic - these are some of the adjectives that have been applied to the two-day engagement at Shiloh. This battle, which bears the biblical name meaning “place of peace,” was one of the bloodiest encounters of the Civil War. The Union colonel, whose words give the present book its title, foretold the losses when he told his men: “Fill your canteens Boys! Some of you will be in hell before night….” Fought in the early spring of 1862 on the west bank of the Mississippi state line, Shiloh was, up to that time, the biggest battle of American history.
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Great book poorly read
- By M. O'Steen on 06-08-24
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The 10 Biggest Civil War Blunders
- By: Edward H. Bonekemper III
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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What makes the Civil War so fascinating is that it presents an endless number of "what if" scenarios - moments when the outcome of the war (and therefore world history) hinged on a single small mistake or omission. In this audiobook, Civil War historian Edward Bonekemper highlights the 10 biggest Civil War blunders, focusing in on intimate moments of military indecision and inaction involving great generals like Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and William T. Sherman as well as less effective generals such as George B. McClellan and Benjamin Butler.
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Mistakes or Missed Opportunities a Better Title
- By Anonymous User on 05-10-21
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Kennesaw Mountain
- Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign
- By: Earl J. Hess
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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While fighting his way toward Atlanta, William T. Sherman encountered his biggest roadblock at Kennesaw Mountain, where Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee held a heavily fortified position. The opposing armies confronted each other from June 19 to July 3, 1864, and Sherman initially tried to outflank the Confederates. His men endured heavy rains, artillery duels, sniping, and a fierce battle at Kolb’s Farm before Sherman decided to attack Johnston’s position directly on June 27.
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Thorough and detailed.
- By MAC24211 on 09-06-20
By: Earl J. Hess
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Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle
- By: Kenneth W. Noe
- Narrated by: Tom Sleeker
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 8, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Perryville, Kentucky, in what would be the largest battle ever fought on Kentucky soil. The climax of a campaign that began two months before in Northern Mississippi, Perryville came to be recognized as the high water mark of the western Confederacy. Some said the hard-fought battle, forever remembered by participants for its sheer savagery and for their commanders' confusion, was the worst battle of the war, losing the last chance to bring the Commonwealth into the Confederacy.
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Pitiful narration
- By Charles on 10-22-17
By: Kenneth W. Noe
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A Savage War
- A Military History of the Civil War
- By: Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, Williamson Murray
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 24 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The Civil War represented a momentous change in the character of war. It combined the projection of military might across a continent on a scale never before seen with an unprecedented mass mobilization of peoples. Yet despite the revolutionizing aspects of the Civil War, its leaders faced the same uncertainties that have vexed combatants since the days of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War.
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A Book about Conclusions
- By Terry Masters on 10-18-17
By: Wayne Wei-siang Hsieh, and others
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Bloody Spring
- Forty Days That Sealed the Confederacy's Fate
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 1864, Robert E. Lee faced a new adversary: Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. Named commander of all Union armies in March, Grant quickly went on the offensive against Lee in Virginia. On May 4th, Grant's army struck hard across the Rapidan River into north central Virginia, with Lee's army contesting every mile. They fought for 40 days until, finally, the Union army crossed the James River and began the siege of Petersburg. The campaign cost 90,000 men - the largest loss the war had seen.
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Skip this! Get Catton's Stillness at Appomattox
- By BVerité on 10-19-14
By: Joseph Wheelan
What listeners say about The History of the Civil War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bruce W. Martin
- 08-06-15
Lots of info, lots of redundancy
What did you like best about The History of the Civil War? What did you like least?
Detail on causes that I have never heard before.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Chris Abell?
Probably. Hard to tell if it is the narrator or producer/director or the script.
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- challruss
- 04-12-16
Too much minutiae, awful narration
I love reading everything I can on this war because it is politically and sociologically fascinating. I really wanted to like this book. However, the extraordinarily boring narrator, coupled with such tedious detail down to which window, what caliber bullet hit, finally wore me down. I've gotten through a 3rd of it but each time end up shouting 'No mas!' So disappointing.
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1 person found this helpful