Books by Earl J. Hess

The Tar Heels were one of the hardest-fighting units in the Army of Northern Virginia, Hess draws on letters, diaries, memoirs and service records to explore the camp life, social backgrounds and political attitudes as well as chronicling their military engagements.

A native of Warren County, Iowa, Cyrus F. Boyd served a year and a half as an orderly sergeant with the Fifteenth Iowa Infantry before becoming first lieutenant in Company B of the Thirty-Fourth Iowa Infantry. His diary offers a full account of soldiering in the Union Army.

Analyses three major Civil War campaigns that were conducted following a series of devastating Confederate defeats at the hands of Ulysses S. Grant in the spring of 1862. Earl J. Hess mixes dramatic narrative and new analysis as he brings these campaigns together in a coherent whole. Previously unpublished historic photographs of the battlefields are included.

Concentrating on ideology and cultural values, this text explores the motivations that caused Northerners to fight America's Civil War. The book addresses the intellectual and social elites of Northern society, but also assesses the opinions of the common man on the subject and ideology of war.

Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, and Prairie Grove were three of the most important battles fought west of the Mississippi River during the Civil War. They influenced that region by shaping Union military efforts while contributing to Confederate defeat. This book provides a detailed guide to these battlefields, and the major sites of each engagement.