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2 - The Battles of Virginia, 1861

from Part I - Major Battles and Campaigns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2019

By
Hunter Lesser
Edited by
Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Aaron Sheehan-Dean
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University
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Summary

As the Southern states cascaded toward secession, Virginia, the “mother of presidents,” stood at the precipice of Civil War. Virginia was the pivotal state. The first battles of the Civil War, after Fort Sumter’s nearly bloodless fall, were fought on the soil of Virginia. Four anguished years would pass before the war ended on her doorstep, at a rural courthouse called Appomattox.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the American Civil War , pp. 11 - 29
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Key Works

Cox, Jacob Dolson. Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, 2 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1900).Google Scholar
Curry, Richard Orr. A House Divided: A Study of Statehood Politics and the Copperhead Movement in West Virginia (Pittsburgh, PA: The University of Pittsburgh Press, 1964).Google Scholar
Davis, William C. Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977).Google Scholar
Davis, William C. and Robertson, James I. Jr. (eds.). Virginia at War: 1861 (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2005).Google Scholar
Freeman, Douglas Southall. R. E. Lee: A Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934).Google Scholar
Hotchkiss, Jedediah. Virginia, vol. iii of Evans, Clement A. (ed.), Confederate Military History (Atlanta, GA: Confederate Publishing Co., 1899).Google Scholar
Johnson, Robert U. and Buel, Clarence C. (eds.). Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (New York: Century, 1884–9; reprint edition New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1956).Google Scholar
Lesser, W. Hunter. Rebels at the Gate: Lee and McClellan on the Front Line of a Nation Divided (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2004).Google Scholar
Moore, George Ellis. A Banner in the Hills: West Virginia Statehood (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1963).Google Scholar
Newell, Clayton R. Lee vs. McClellan: The First Campaign (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 1996).Google Scholar
Poland, Charles P., Jr. The Glories of War: Small Battles and Early Heroes of 1861 (Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006).Google Scholar
Sears, Stephen W. (ed.). The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence, 1860–1865 (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1989).Google Scholar

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