The Civil War interrupted the area around Cleveland, Ohio, in the middle of its great leap into prosperity, redirecting its men into military camps and its industrial strength into munitions and provisions. Dale Thomas roots his story in the letters that kept the ordinary soldiers from Cuyahoga County tethered to their families and friends on the home front, even as they moved from battlefield to battlefield, through sickness and captivity. For many, these letters were the only part of them to make it back--their final legacy to a community they had helped to build.

Though removed from the frontlines, Cleveland played an active role in national events before, during, and after the Civil War. President Lincoln visited this abolitionist hotbed after his 1860 election. Following his assassination five years later, his funeral train made a stop there. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County sent over 9,000 troops to war. More than 1,700 never returned. Born just outside Cleveland, James Garfield emerged from the war to become President of the United States. Most vitally, the economic prosperity of the war years began the transformation of this small but thriving village into a future manufacturing powerhouse. Author W. Dennis Keating, member and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable, creates a panoramic view of the city through one of the nation's most troubled times.

master historian gives readers a fresh new picture of the Civil War as it really was. Buell examines three pairs of commanders from the North and South, who met each other in battle. Following each pair through the entire war, the author reveals the human dimensions of the drama and brings the battles to life. 38 b&w photos.

As near Hell as I ever expect to be is the biography of a Civil War soldier from Ohio. In September 1861 twenty-seven-year-old John Vanetton Patterson left his young wife and two babies on their farm near Pemberville. Patterson and thousands of other Ohioans answered Lincoln's call to save the Union. In November Victoria Patterson received a letter, she opened it, and read the inside address, "As near Hell as I ever expect to be". Over the next four years this soldier husband was sick, wounded, captured, and imprisoned. He escaped... Based on letters to his wife, this is his story of trial and yearning.

The Civil War Soldier and the Press examines how the press powerfully shaped the nation’s understanding and memory of the common soldier, setting the stage for today’s continuing debates about the Civil War and its legacy. The history of the Civil War is typically one of military strategies, famous generals, and bloody battles, but to Americans of the era, the most important story of the war was the fate of the soldier. In this edited collection, new research in journalism history and archival images provide an interdisciplinary study of citizenship, representation, race and ethnicity, gender, disability, death, and national identity. Together, these chapters follow the story of Civil War soldiers, from enlistment through battle and beyond, as they were represented in hometown and national newspapers of the time. In discussing the same pages that were read by soldiers’ families, friends, and loved ones during America’s greatest conflict, the book provides a window into the experience of historical readers as they grappled with the meaning and cost of patriotism and shared sacrifice. Both scholarly and approachable, this book is an enriching resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in Civil War history, American history, journalism, and mass communication history.