Secret Lives of the Civil War
What Your Teachers Never Told You about the War Between the States
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Legendary Heroes of U.S. History—As You’ve Never Seen Them Before!
Secret Lives of the Civil War features irreverent and uncensored profiles of men and women from the Union and the Confederacy—complete with hundreds of little-known and downright bizarre facts. You’ll discover that:
• Mary Todd Lincoln claimed to receive valuable military strategies from ghosts in the spirit
world.
• Jefferson Davis once imported camels for soldiers stationed in the American southwest.
• Ulysses S. Grant spent much of the Vicksburg campaign on a horse named “Kangaroo.”
• James Longstreet fought the Battle of Antietam wearing carpet slippers.
• William T. Sherman was the victim of two shipwrecks on the same day.
• Harriet Tubman experienced frequent and bizarre hallucinations.
• Stonewall Jackson was a notorious hypochondriac (he always sat up straight, fearing that
slouching would compress his vital organs).
With chapters on everyone from William Quantrill (a guerilla leader whose skull later ended up in the basement of a fraternity house) to Rose O’Neal Greenhow (perhaps the South’s most glamorous spy), Secret Lives of the Civil War features a mix of famous faces and unsung heroes. American history was never this much fun in school!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
O'Brien's slight but entertaining follow-up to Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents and Secret Lives of the First Ladies is best for those who like their history light. O'Brien profiles 26 figures-13 from each side-who consist mostly of military figures, plus the two Presidents and their first ladies, a few spies and the black leaders Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass; he proves most fascinating in the attendant anecdotes (James Longstreet fighting the Battle of Antietam in his slippers, William T. Sherman's two shipwrecks in a single day). Trivia abounds, including all the nicknames of each subject, astrological signs and characteristic quotes ("The moment a grain of black pepper touches my tongue, I lose all strength in my right leg," said Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, a "notorious hypochondriac"). Unfortunately, the Civil War does not easily lend itself to irreverence or overview; O'Brien has no choice but to slog through battle after battle in order to put the details in context, forsaking in large part such topics as slavery, international relations, munitions and life on the home front. If, in fact, your teachers never told you about these secrets, it's probably because they had bigger fish to fry.
