Frank Carlson Library

A dramatization of the confrontations between Robert E. Lee, Lawrence Chamberlain, and Ulysses S. Grant during the last two years of the Civil War.

"In May 1863, after months of hard and bitter combat, Union troops under the command of Major General Ulysses S. Grant at long last successfully cross the Mississippi River. They force the remnants of Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton's army to retreat to Vicksburg, burning the bridges over the Big Black River in its path. But after sustaining heavy casualties in two failed assaults against the rebels, Union soldiers are losing confidence...

Shenandoah is the eighth book in a series of historical novels spanning the Civil War and describing its effects on one Southern family. The last half of 1863 has taken a toll on the Brannon family, but a Christmas lull in the fighting brings home Mac and Will as well as Titus, the son believed to have been killed in the war. Though his return is joyous news, Titus is devastated when he finds his wife remarried and pregnant. In his bitterness, he...

While Gettysburg is better known, Vicksburg was the more important battle from a strategic point of view according to the author, Winston Groom. Here he details the struggle by the Union to gain control of the Mississippi River valley and to divide the Confederacy in two. We see Grant's determination, the feistiness of William Tecumseh Sherman, and the pride and intransigence of Confederate leaders from Jefferson Davis and General Joseph E. Johnston...

Follows the life of the Civil War general and president from birth to death, examining his childhood, education, employment, and political career.