The Battle of Fort Donelson: No Terms but Unconditional Surrender

by James R. Knight

2011 · History Press

In February 1862, after defeats at Bull Run and at Wilson's Creek in Missouri, the Union army was desperate for victory on the eve of its first offensive of the Civil War. The strategy was to penetrate the Southern heartland with support from a new "Brown Water"? navy. In a two-week campaign plagued by rising floodwaters and brutal winter weather, two armies collided in rural Tennessee to fight over two forts that controlled the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Those intense days set the course of the war in the Western Theater for eighteen months and determined the fates of Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew H. Foote and Albert Sidney Johnston. Historian James R. Knight paints a picture of this crucial but often neglected and misunderstood turning point.

The Fourth of July Encyclopedia

by James R. Heintze

2013 · McFarland

This is the first comprehensive reference work on America's Independence Day. Bringing attention to persons, places, and events of historical significance, the book focuses on the Fourth of July as it has been commemorated over the span of more than two centuries, starting with the first celebrations: public readings of the Declaration of Independence that occurred within days of its signing. Biographical sketches feature presidents (and how each celebrated the Fourth) and other politicians, famous soldiers, educators, engineers, scientists, athletes, musicians, and literary figures. Other topics include parks, monuments and statues dedicated on the Fourth; famous speeches and the personalities behind their stories; and general subjects of interest including education, abolition, temperance, African Americans, Native Americans, wars, transportation and holiday catastrophes.