Pickett's Charge in History and Memory

Pickett's Charge in History and Memory PDF

Author: Carol Reardon

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0807873543

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If, as many have argued, the Civil War is the most crucial moment in our national life and Gettysburg its turning point, then the climax of the climax, the central moment of our history, must be Pickett's Charge. But as Carol Reardon notes, the Civil War saw many other daring assaults and stout defenses. Why, then, is it Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg--and not, for example, Richardson's Charge at Antietam or Humphreys's Assault at Fredericksburg--that looms so large in the popular imagination? As this innovative study reveals, by examining the events of 3 July 1863 through the selective and evocative lens of 'memory' we can learn much about why Pickett's Charge endures so strongly in the American imagination. Over the years, soldiers, journalists, veterans, politicians, orators, artists, poets, and educators, Northerners and Southerners alike, shaped, revised, and even sacrificed the 'history' of the charge to create 'memories' that met ever-shifting needs and deeply felt values. Reardon shows that the story told today of Pickett's Charge is really an amalgam of history and memory. The evolution of that mix, she concludes, tells us much about how we come to understand our nation's past.

Pickett's Charge in History and Memory

Pickett's Charge in History and Memory PDF

Author: Carol Reardon

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2003-02-01

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9780807854617

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A telling assessment of the myths and facts surrounding the most famous single military event of the Civil War.

Pickett's Charge in History and Memory

Pickett's Charge in History and Memory PDF

Author: Carol Reardon

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13:

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Shows how soldiers, journalists, politicians, artists, and educators from North and South alike manipulated the history of Pickett's Charge at the battle of Gettysburg into an enduring myth that answered the needs and values of the public. UP.

On Pickett’s Charge

On Pickett’s Charge PDF

Author: Carol Reardon

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-01-01

Total Pages: 98

ISBN-13: 9780807836200

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If, as many have argued, the Civil War is the most crucial moment in our national life and Gettysburg its turning point, then the climax of the climax, and a central moment in our nation's history, is Pickett's Charge of 3 July 1863. This Civil War Short presents Carol Reardon's stirring narrative of the charge itself, drawn from Pickett's Charge in History and Memory, which demonstrates that the story of Pickett's Charge told today is really an amalgam of history and memory and that the evolution of that mix tells us much about how we come to understand our nation's past. UNC Press Civil War Shorts excerpt rousing narratives from distinguished books published by the University of North Carolina Press on the military, political, social, and cultural history of the Civil War era. Produced exclusively in ebook format, they focus on pivotal moments and figures and are intended to provide a concise introduction, stir the imagination, and encourage further exploration of the topic. For in-depth analysis, contextualization, and perspective, we invite readers to consider the original publications from which these works are drawn.

Stories of Civil War in El Salvador

Stories of Civil War in El Salvador PDF

Author: Erik Ching

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2016-08-26

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1469628678

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El Salvador's civil war began in 1980 and ended twelve bloody years later. It saw extreme violence on both sides, including the terrorizing and targeting of civilians by death squads, recruitment of child soldiers, and the death and disappearance of more than 75,000 people. Examining El Salvador's vibrant life-story literature written in the aftermath of this terrible conflict--including memoirs and testimonials--Erik Ching seeks to understand how the war has come to be remembered and rebattled by Salvadorans and what that means for their society today. Ching identifies four memory communities that dominate national postwar views: civilian elites, military officers, guerrilla commanders, and working class and poor testimonialists. Pushing distinct and divergent stories, these groups are today engaged in what Ching terms a "narrative battle" for control over the memory of the war. Their ongoing publications in the marketplace of ideas tend to direct Salvadorans' attempts to negotiate the war's meaning and legacy, and Ching suggests that a more open, coordinated reconciliation process is needed in this postconflict society. In the meantime, El Salvador, fractured by conflicting interpretations of its national trauma, is hindered in dealing with the immediate problems posed by the nexus of neoliberalism, gang violence, and outmigration.

Pickett’s Charge, July 3 and Beyond, Omnibus E-book

Pickett’s Charge, July 3 and Beyond, Omnibus E-book PDF

Author: Earl J. Hess

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2012-06-01

Total Pages: 818

ISBN-13: 9781469606415

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Pickett's Charge, the assault on the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge ordered by Robert E. Lee on 3 July 1863, the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg, holds a central place in the nation's collective memory of the Civil War. Available for the first time as an Omnibus E-book Edition, this two-volume set provides readers with an integrated view of the Charge, from the battlefield to the American imagination. The Omnibus comprises Earl J. Hess's Pickett's Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg, a detailed and authoritative account of the Charge itself, and Carol Reardon's Pickett's Charge in History and Memory, which provides the rest of the story: how, and why, Pickett's Charge became so singularly important to our national memory of the Civil War. In Pickett's Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg, Hess offers the definitive history of the most famous military action of the Civil War. He transforms exhaustive research into a moving narrative account of the assault from both Union and Confederate perspectives, analyzing its planning, execution, aftermath, and legacy. most famous military action of the Civil War. He transforms exhaustive research into a moving narrative account of the assault from both Union and Confederate perspectives, analyzing its planning, execution, aftermath, and legacy. In Pickett's Charge in History and Memory, Reardon examines the events of 3 July 1863 through the selective and evocative lens of 'memory' and reveals that we can learn much about why it endures so strongly in the American imagination. Over the years, soldiers, journalists, veterans, politicians, orators, artists, poets, and educators, Northerners and Southerners alike, shaped, revised, and even sacrificed the 'history' of the charge to create 'memories' that met ever-shifting needs and deeply felt values. Reardon shows that the story told today of Pickett's Charge is really an amalgam of history and memory. The evolution of that mix, she concludes, tells us much about how we come to understand our nation's past.

General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend

General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend PDF

Author: Lesley J. Gordon

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2000-11-09

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0807866733

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The man who gave his name to the greatest failed frontal attack in American military history, George E. Pickett is among the most famous Confederate generals of the Civil War. But even today he remains imperfectly understood, a figure shrouded in Lost Cause mythology. In this carefully researched biography, Lesley Gordon moves beyond earlier studies of Pickett. By investigating the central role played by his wife LaSalle in controlling his historical image, Gordon illuminates Pickett's legend as well as his life. After exploring Pickett's prewar life as a professional army officer trained at West Point, battle-tested in Mexico, and seasoned on the western frontier, Gordon traces his return to the South in 1861 to fight for the Confederacy. She examines his experiences during the Civil War, including the famed, but failed, charge at the battle of Gettysburg, and charts the decline in his career that followed. Gordon also looks at Pickett's marriage in 1863 to LaSalle Corbell, like him a child of the Virginia planter elite. Though their life together lasted only twelve years, LaSalle spent her five decades of widowhood writing and speaking about her husband and his military career. Appointing herself Pickett's official biographer, she became a self-proclaimed authority on the war and the Old South. In fact, says Gordon, LaSalle carefully and deliberately created a favorable image of her husband that was at odds with the man she had married.

Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond

Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond PDF

Author: Gary W. Gallagher

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 1998-08-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9780807847534

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The six essays in this volume testify to the enduring impact of the Civil War on our national consciousness. Covering subjects as diverse as tactics, the uses of autobiography, and the power of myth-making in the southern tradition, they illustrate the re

The Legacy of the Civil War

The Legacy of the Civil War PDF

Author: Robert Penn Warren

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2015-11

Total Pages: 83

ISBN-13: 0803299273

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In this elegant book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer explores the manifold ways in which the Civil War changed the United States forever. He confronts its costs, not only human (six hundred thousand men killed) and economic (beyond reckoning) but social and psychological. He touches on popular misconceptions, including some concerning Abraham Lincoln and the issue of slavery. The war in all its facets "grows in our consciousness," arousing complex emotions and leaving "a gallery of great human images for our contemplation."

With a Sword in One Hand and Jomini in the Other

With a Sword in One Hand and Jomini in the Other PDF

Author: Carol Reardon

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2012-05-21

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 0807882577

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When the Civil War began, Northern soldiers and civilians alike sought a framework to help make sense of the chaos that confronted them. Many turned first to the classic European military texts from the Napoleonic era, especially Antoine Henri Jomini's Summary of the Art of War. As Carol Reardon shows, Jomini's work was only one voice in what ultimately became a lively and contentious national discourse about how the North should conduct war at a time when warfare itself was rapidly changing. She argues that the absence of a strong intellectual foundation for the conduct of war at its start--or, indeed, any consensus on the need for such a foundation--ultimately contributed to the length and cost of the conflict. Reardon examines the great profusion of new or newly translated military texts of the Civil War years intended to fill that intellectual void and draws as well on the views of the soldiers and civilians who turned to them in the search for a winning strategy. In examining how debates over principles of military thought entered into the question of qualifications of officers entrusted to command the armies of Northern citizen soldiers, she explores the limitations of nineteenth-century military thought in dealing with the human elements of combat.