The Battle of the Crater is one of the lesser known yet most interesting battles of the Civil War. This book, detailing the onset of brutal trench warfare at Petersburg, Virginia, digs deeply into the military and political background of the battle. Beginning by tracing the rival armies through the bitter conflicts of the Overland Campaign and culminating with the siege of Petersburg and the battle intended to lift that siege, this book offers a candid look at the perception of the campaign by both sides.

African American History was always interesting because an important part of it happened in the Civil War. My book will try and clarify many areas that will assist with a better understanding of what actually happened to the USCT. The writer will try and give a complete explanation of what made the USCT unique. This subject was made popular because of the Emancipation Proclamation, which created the United States Colored Troops. Even though it was created by President Lincoln, there were many obstacles to succeed and to fight as soldier. They were to be commanded by a white commanding officer and could not arise above the rank of sergeant. There are several Medal of Honor recipients from the USCT and the US Navy and a list of African American women that made a tremendous contribution to the Union Army. The Civil War couldnt have been won without the infusion of two hundred thousand enlistees of African descent.

This provocative study proves the existence of a de facto Confederate policy of giving no quarter to captured black combatants during the Civil War—killing them instead of treating them as prisoners of war. Rather than looking at the massacres as a series of discrete and random events, this work examines each as part of a ruthless but standard practice. Author George S. Burkhardt details a fascinating case that the Confederates followed a consistent pattern of murder against the black soldiers who served in Northern armies after Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. He shows subsequent retaliation by black soldiers and further escalation by the Confederates, including the execution of some captured white Federal soldiers, those proscribed as cavalry raiders, foragers, or house-burners, and even some captured in traditional battles. Further disproving the notion of Confederates as victims who were merely trying to defend their homes, Burkhardt explores the motivations behind the soldiers’ actions and shows the Confederates’ rage at the sight of former slaves—still considered property, not men—fighting them as equals on the battlefield. Burkhardt’s narrative approach recovers important dimensions of the war that until now have not been fully explored by historians, effectively describing the systemic pattern that pushed the conflict toward a black flag, take-no-prisoners struggle.