Uses excerpts from the letters, diaries, and memoirs of the combatants to recreate the Tennessee battle, and assesses its influence on the outcome of the Civil War

No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River

History

Cozzens, Peter

Americas

University of Illinois Press

When North and South met among the desolate mountains of northwestern Georgia in 1863, they began one of the bloodiest and most decisive campaigns of the Civil War. The climactic Battle of Chickamauga lasted just two days, yet it was nearly as costly as Gettysburg, with casualties among the highest in the war. In this study of the campaign, the first to appear in over thirty years and the most comprehensive account ever written on Chickamauga, Peter Cozzens presents a vivid narrative about an engagement that was crucial to the outcome of the war in the West. Drawing upon a wealth of previously untapped sources, Cozzens offers startling new interpretations that challenge the conventional wisdom on key moments of the battle, such as Rosecrans's fateful order to General Wood and Thomas's historic defense of Horseshoe Ridge. Chickamauga was a battle of missed opportunities, stupendous tactical blunders, and savage fighting by the men in ranks. Cozzens writes movingly of both the heroism and suffering of the common soldiers and of the strengths and tragic flaws of their commanders. Enhanced by the detailed battle maps and original sketches by the noted artist Keith Rocco, this book will appeal to all Civil War enthusiasts and students of military history.

This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga (Civil War Trilogy)

One of the great military men of American history is sensitively but candidly portrayed here, from his famous defeat at the Battle of Bull Run to his subsequent successful campaigns in the West and his advocacy for the humane treatment of Indians.

General John Pope: A Life for the Nation

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River (Civil War Trilogy)

Renders the furious ebb and flow of the two-day battle, capturing both the evolving strategies of each side and the horrendous experience of the fight. This book draws from hundreds of diaries, letters, memoirs, interviews, official reports, and regimental histories.

Civil War enthusiasts will welcome this concluding volume of Peter Cozzens's highly praised trilogy on the Civil War in the West. The battles around Chattanooga in the late fall of 1863 were among the most decisive of the Civil War, opening the Deep South to the Union and setting the stage for the Atlanta campaign and the March to the Sea. After Chattanooga, the principal Confederate army in the West fought without spirit or hope of victory. Cozzens's comprehensive account details movements of individual regiments, even as it reveals the larger impact of the campaign on the outcome of the war. In The Shipwreck of Their Hopes, Cozzens draws on his acclaimed storytelling skills and exhaustive research efforts to fully chronicle one of the South's most humiliating defeats. As in his earlier books, he brings to life the officers and enlisted men who fought the war.

The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga (Civil War Trilogy)

Ambitious and outspoken, John Pope was one of the most controversial figures to hold high command during the Civil War, Reconstruction, and in the American West. General John Pope: A Life for the Nation is the first full biography of this much maligned figure who played crucial roles in both the Eastern and the Western Theaters of the Civil War.   Renowned Civil War scholar Peter Cozzens has mined Pope's own memoirs and a wealth of other primary sources to provide a complete picture of this gifted strategist. Uncovering new information about Pope's pre- and postwar career and his path to power, Cozzens delineates the political environment that surrounded Pope and provided the context for his actions.   Cozzens examines Pope's early career first as commander of the Army of the Mississippi and then as leader of a hastily formed Army of Virginia against Robert E. Lee. After his famous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Pope was sent to the frontier. There he held important commands on the western plains over the next twenty-four years, all the while struggling to clear his reputation of the events at Second Bull Run. A principal architect of the Red River War, which broke the resistance of the Southern Plains Indians, Pope espoused humanitarian treatment of subjugated tribes and was recognized as one of the army's leading authorities on Indian affairs.   In place of the simplistic caricature that has satisfied most historians, Cozzens has crafted an accurate, humane, balanced portrait of a complex man involved with the most complex issues of his day. A monumental work on a long-neglected figure, General John Pope offers a fresh look at a key nineteenth-century military leader as well as the most detailed analysis available of Federal leadership during the Second Bull Run campaign.  

General John Pope: A LIFE FOR THE NATION

Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History Winner of the 2017 Caroline Bancroft History Prize Shortlisted for the Military History Magazine Book of the Year Award After the Civil War the Indian Wars would last more than three decades, permanently altering the physical and political landscape of America. Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail. He illuminates the intertribal strife over whether to fight or make peace; explores the dreary, squalid lives of frontier soldiers and the imperatives of the Indian warrior culture; and describes the ethical quandaries faced by generals who often sympathized with their native enemies. In dramatically relating bloody and tragic events as varied as Wounded Knee, the Nez Perce War, the Sierra Madre campaign, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn, we encounter a pageant of fascinating characters, including Custer, Sherman, Grant, and a host of officers, soldiers, and Indian agents, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Red Cloud and the warriors they led. The Earth Is Weeping is a sweeping, definitive history of the battles and negotiations that destroyed the Indian way of life even as they paved the way for the emergence of the United States we know today. A Smithsonian Top History Book of 2016 A Times (UK) Book of the Year Finalist for the Western Writers of America 2017 Spur Award in Best Western Historical Nonfiction

The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West

Vintage

"Sets a new standard for Western Indian Wars history." —Stuart Rosebrook, True West Magazine *Winner of the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History and the 2017 Caroline Bancroft History Prize *Finalist for the Western Writers of America’s 2017 Spur Award in Best Western Historical Nonfiction Bringing together a pageant of fascinating characters including Custer, Sherman, Grant, and a host of other military and political figures, as well as great native leaders such as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Red Cloud, The Earth is Weeping—lauded by Booklist as “a beautifully written work of understanding and compassion”—is the fullest account to date of how the West was won…and lost. With the end of the Civil War, the nation recommenced its expansion onto traditional Indian tribal lands, setting off a wide-ranging conflict that would last more than three decades. In an exploration of the wars and negotiations that destroyed tribal ways of life even as they made possible the emergence of the modern United States, Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail. He illuminates the encroachment experienced by the tribes and the tribal conflicts over whether to fight or make peace, and explores the squalid lives of soldiers posted to the frontier and the ethical quandaries faced by generals who often sympathized with their native enemies. *A Times "History Book of the Year" and A Smithsonian "Top History Book of 2016" *Shortlisted for Military History Magazine's Book of the Year Award

KNOPF

Product Description 
"An insightful, unflinching portrayal of the remarkable siblings who came closer to altering the course of American history than any other Indian leaders."⁠ —H.W. Brands, author of The Zealot and the EmancipatorThe first biography of the great Shawnee leader to make clear that his misunderstood younger brother, Tenskwatawa, was an equal partner in the last great pan-Indian alliance against the United States. \nUntil the Americans killed Tecumseh in 1813, he and his brother Tenskwatawa were the co-architects of the broadest pan-Indian confederation in United States history. In previous accounts of Tecumseh's life, Tenskwatawa has been dismissed as a talentless charlatan and a drunk. But award-winning historian Peter Cozzens now shows us that while Tecumseh was a brilliant diplomat and war leader--admired by the same white Americans he opposed--it was Tenskwatawa, called the "Shawnee Prophet," who created a vital doctrine of religious and cultural revitalization that unified the disparate tribes of the Old Northwest. Detailed research of Native American society and customs provides a window into a world often erased from history books and reveals how both men came to power in different but no less important ways.\nCozzens brings us to the forefront of the chaos and violence that characterized the young American Republic, when settlers spilled across the Appalachians to bloody effect in their haste to exploit lands won from the British in the War of Independence, disregarding their rightful Indian owners. 
Tecumseh and the Prophet presents the untold story of the Shawnee brothers who retaliated against this threat--the two most significant siblings in Native American history, who, Cozzens helps us understand, should be writ large in the annals of America. 
 Review 
Winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best BiographyA Washington Independent Review Favorite BookA Cowboys and Indians Editor's Pick\n"Cozzens expertly mines the surprisingly varied array of sources for the brothers’ early lives; he presents the fullest picture yet of who these men were before they achieved national fame. His book balances them more than any previous retelling of the story ever has. 
Tecumseh and the Prophet is as close to a fully realized popular biography of Tenkswatawa as is ever likely to be written … 
Tecumseh and the Prophet paints in vivid colors the grandest effort of Native Americans to retain their independence – and the political and spiritual leaders who tried to make it happen.”\n⁠—Steve Donoghue, Christian Science Monitor"This... is no sentimental paean to an innocent martyr, no simplistic homage to a “noble savage”... Cozzens is a master storyteller; his books weave a wealth of intricate detail into gripping historical narrative... In this book descriptions of battles are especially enthralling; one can almost smell the gunpowder, the blood and the loamy forest floor."\n⁠—Gerard DeGroot, The Times (UK)\n" 
Tecumseh and the Prophet is a thorough profile of the notable Tecumseh and his Brother. Author Peter Cozzens sculpts his narrative deftly and compellingly. In relating the barbarity of the frontier wars, the author remains objective yet empathetic. Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa are fascinating figures, capable of greatness and leadership, yet destined for tragedy. A+ work."\n⁠—Philip Zozzaro, San Francisco Book Review\n"The strength of Cozzens’ book is his ability to bring to life the thrilling adventures of Tecumseh and his people. Many a war yarn gets bogged down in minutiae, but the author animates these battles by sharing the human stories behind the fighting. By ably piecing together a history that is equal parts engaging and amply sourced, Cozzens has crafted a satisfying work that leads us to sympathize with his subjects without putting his finger on the scale to prove his point."\n⁠—Chris Rutledge, Washington Independent Review of Books\n"Cozzens has a gift for depicting the intricaci

Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Heroic Struggle for America's Heartland

Community & Culture

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cozzens, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cozzens, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cozzens, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River

This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga (Civil War Trilogy)

General John Pope: A Life for the Nation

No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River (Civil War Trilogy)

This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga (Civil War Trilogy)

The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga (Civil War Trilogy)

General John Pope: A LIFE FOR THE NATION

The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West

The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West

Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Heroic Struggle for America's Heartland