"It really matters very little who died last," wrote Civil War historian William Marvel, "but for some reason we seem fascinated with knowing." Drawing on a wide range of sources including correspondence with descendants, this book covers the last living Civil War veterans in each state, providing details of their wartime service as soldiers and sailors and their postwar lives as family men, entrepreneurs, politicians, frontier pioneers and honored veterans.

In the years after the Civil War, black and white Union soldiers who survived the horrific struggle joined the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)--the Union army's largest veterans' organization. In this thoroughly researched and groundbreaking study, Barbara Gannon chronicles black and white veterans' efforts to create and sustain the nation's first interracial organization. According to the conventional view, the freedoms and interests of African American veterans were not defended by white Union veterans after the war, despite the shared tradition of sacrifice among both black and white soldiers. In The Won Cause, however, Gannon challenges this scholarship, arguing that although black veterans still suffered under the contemporary racial mores, the GAR honored its black members in many instances and ascribed them a greater equality than previous studies have shown. Using evidence of integrated posts and veterans' thoughts on their comradeship and the cause, Gannon reveals that white veterans embraced black veterans because their membership in the GAR demonstrated that their wartime suffering created a transcendent bond--comradeship--that overcame even the most pernicious social barrier--race-based separation. By upholding a more inclusive memory of a war fought for liberty as well as union, the GAR's "Won Cause" challenged the Lost Cause version of Civil War memory.

The Civil War Veteran presents a profound but often troubling story of the postwar experiences of Union and Confederate Civil War veterans. Most ex-soldiers and their neighbors readjusted smoothly. However, many arrived home with or developed serious problems; poverty, drug and alcohol addiction, and other manifestations of post traumatic stress syndrome, such as flashbacks and paranoia, plagued these veterans. Black veterans in particular suffered a particularly cruel fate: they fought with distinction and for their freedom, but postwar racism obliterated recognition of their wartime contributions. Despite these hardships, veterans found some help from federal and state governments, through the establishment of a national pension system and soldiers' homes. Yet veterans did not passively accept this assistance—some influenced and created policy in public office, while others joined together in veterans’ organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic to fight for their rights and to shape the collective memory of the Civil War. As the number of veterans from wars in the Middle East rapidly increases, the stories in the pages of The Civil War Veteran give us valuable perspective on the challenges of readjustment for ex-soldiers and American society.

Men of ValorIn the late 1800s, the new state of Washington promised peace and prosperity to new settlers. At least thirty-three African American men who had served during the Civil War answered the call. Paul Barrows, a former legislator from Mississippi, established the Calvary Baptist Church of Spokane. Gideon H. Stump Bailey became the first African American Justice of the Peace in Franklin. Allin Alfred Hawkins, born into slavery, became one of the wealthiest African American farmers in the Yakima Valley.Author Cynthia A. Wilson uncovers the stories of these courageous men.

"THE DISTAFF CIVIL WAR" is an accounting of but a few of the women who lived during the period of the American Civil War and contended with the many problems, North and South. Some of these problems would seem trivial in our day, but in the mid-19th Century, they were almost unsurmountable. The book covers the lives of a diverse number of women who coped with major problems, both physical and emotional, and survived with dignity and bravery. The book provides a chronological narrative of letters and other documents created by these heroic women during the four years of the Civil War. Many of these women were unsung in their time and are little known today. With their accounts, a background is provided of the overall aspect of the war at that period of time which shows the influences of outside forces which affect their actions, be it battle, blockade, or material shortages. The protagonists include a South Carolinian desperate to serve the Confederacy as a nurse; a young Georgian woman who spends the war as a tutor on a southern plantation coping with shortages caused by the blockade; a Maine woman with extensive experience in teaching who becomes a hospital matron in Virginia; a woman from Illinois who devotes nearly four years of her life to serve as nurse, surrogate Mother, and organizer in a grand style for the Union army; women who are driven from their homes in Missouri; former slaves who recall their experiences during slavery; prostitutes who are exiled from Nashville; women who take on the farm work after their men are gone to war; and a myriad of other characters. The common thread throughout their stories is DUTY. Their common goal is to SERVE. The rewards for their service and dedication is the grateful THANKS of thousands of veterans who survived because of their efforts.

Some early issues include the Proceedings of the ... annual encampment of the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

The encyclopedia takes a broad, multidisciplinary approach to the history of the period. It includes general and specific entries on politics and business, labor, industry, agriculture, education and youth, law and legislative affairs, literature, music, the performing and visual arts, health and medicine, science and technology, exploration, life on the Western frontier, family life, slave life, Native American life, women, and more than a hundred influential individuals.