Books by Steven E. Woodworth

The men of the Eighth Georgia Infantry Regiment answered the Confederate call to arms in the spring of 1861. They fought hard in most major battles of the war, including Bull Run and Gettysburg, enduring heartbreaking losses and finally, at Appomattox, witnessing their ultimate defeat. A Scythe of Fire tells the remarkable story of this regiment, which held together through long years of victory, defeat, and despair. The magnificent product of meticulous research, Warren Wilkinson and Steven E. Woodworth's stirring chronicle brings the conflict alive through the eyes of the courageous men who fought and died on the nation's battlefields. Based on personal accounts, diaries, letters, and other primary sources, A Scythe of Fire is the history of the Eighth Georgia as experienced by those who carried its standard into battle: doctors and farmers, landowners and simple folk -- each dedicated to victory, yet proud and unbroken in the face of defeat.

This book analyzes the pivotal battle of Shiloh in 1862, the bloodiest fought by Americans up to that time, in which Albert Sidney Johnston's desperate effort to reverse Confederate fortunes in the heartland fell just short of decisive victory.

Provides an overview of the battles and an on-site tour to help both serious students and casual visitors get the most out of a visit to Chickamauga and Chattanooga. This guide emphasizes how the opposing armies used terrain and how that terrain shaped the course of each battle.

The Civil War not only pitted brother against brother but also Christian against Christian, with soldiers from North and South alike devoutly believing that God was on their side. This is a study of soldiers' religious beliefs and how they influenced the course of that tragic conflict.

By looking closely at Civil War generals who have borne the stigma of failure, this study rejects the view that significant defeats were due simply to poor generalship. The authors examine the reasons these men suffered defeat, whether flaws of character, or circumstances beyond their control.

Of all the places and events in this nation's history, Gettysburg may well be the name best known to Americans. This book offers an overview of the entire battle, its drama, and its meaning. It ranges from Lee's decision to take his successful Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania to the withdrawal of the battle-battered Confederate army.

Noted historian Steven E. Woodworth tells the story of what many regard as the defining event in United States history. Woodworth argues that the Civil War had a distinct purpose that was understood by most of its participants: it was primarily a conflict over the issue of slavery.

Woodworth presents a brief, fast-moving, and colorful account of the Battle of Chickamauga, one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

For decades, serious historians of the Civil War have completed one careful study after another, nearly all tending to indicate the pivotal importance of what people during the war referred to as the West.

The American Civil War was primarily a conflict of cultures, and slavery was the largest single cultural factor separating North and South. This collection of carefully selected memoirs, diaries, letters, and reminiscences of ordinary Northerners and Southerners who experienced the war as soldiers or civilians brings to life the conflict in culture, principles, attitudes, hopes, courage, and suffering of both sides. Woodworth, a Civil War historian, has selected a wide variety of moving first person accounts, each of which tells a story of a life as well as the attitudes of ordinary people and the real conditions of war and homefront. Woodworth presents the war in the words of those who lived it.Contrasting selections will help the reader to see the war through the eyes of Northerners and Southerners as: soldiers prepare for war; women's lives change after the men go to war; soldiers on both sides experience the difficulties of camp life; sweethearts (the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln and her Confederate fiance) exchange heartfelt letters; a husband's letters and his wife's diary recount their love, his death in battle, and her deep loss, countered by her faith; soldiers and civilians recount the carnage of the war's devastating battles; and people on both sides reflect on the outcome of the war and its consequences to their way of life. The accounts contrast the writers' attitudes toward Northern and Southern society, the principles for which those societies stood, and the religious significance of the war. These accounts and the narrative discussion of the difference in culture will help readers to understand the Civil War as a conflict of cultures. Telling the story of the war as personal history makes the experience of the Civil War come alive for readers.

The single most important volume for anyone interested in the Civil War to own and consult. McPherson) The first guide to Civil War literature to appear in nearly 30 years, this book provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and informative survey and analysis of the vast body of Civil War literature.

The verdict is in: the Civil War was won in the West, that is, in the US's heartland. Contrary to much popular literature, serious scholars have determined in one careful study after another the pivotal importance of what was, at the time of the Civil War, the western United States. In this fast-paced overview, Steven E. Woodworth presents his case for the decisiveness of that theatre.

When Vicksburg fell to Union forces under General Grant in July 1863, the balance turned against the Confederacy in the trans-Appalachian theater. The Federal success along the river opened the way for advances into central and eastern Tennessee, which culminated in the bloody battle of Chickamauga and then a struggle for Chattanooga.