1863: The Rebirth of a Nation [Hardcover]

Joseph E. Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 1999

American history has never seen a more tumultuous or more significant year than 1863. During this crucial time the tide of the Civil War turned inexorably from the Confederacy to the Union, with momentous consequences that are still being felt today. It was a year of upheaval unparalleled in our national experience: twelve months of searing brutality and ennobling sacrifice, 365 stirring, dramatic days that changed our country forever.

Integrating the events of this epochal year into a panoramic narrative, Joseph E. Stevens presents a grand portrait of the Union and Confederacy at war. He captures two nations struggling to define the American experiment and create a new understanding of freedom on the bloody battlefields of Stones River, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. He also traces the astonishing political, economic, and social transformations that marked 1863 as a watershed.

1863 features a remarkable cast of characters: larger-than-life leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis; charismatic and controversial military commanders like Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, James Longstreet, Joseph Hooker, Stonewall Jackson, George Armstrong Custer, and Nathan Bedford Forrest; avaricious young capitalists like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan; war-haunted writers like Herman Melville, Louisa May Alcott, and Walt Whitman; war-inspired painters like Winslow Homer and Conrad Wise Chapman.

Here, too, is a host of less well known but no less fascinating personalities: soldiers and civilians, slaves and slave owners, farmers and city dwellers, politicians and profiteers, artistocrats and refugees. Their stories--humorous and harrowing, inspiring and appalling--make 1863 not just a sweeping re-creation of events but a gripping human tale as well.

1863 is popular history at its best--vivid, vibrant, and immensely readable. Written with dramatic intensity and impassioned humanity, it is a thrilling account of the pivotal year of the war that remains the central historical event in the life of our nation.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For the United States, embroiled in a civil war against the Confederacy, 1863 began with Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation and ended with the completion of the Capitol's dome. In between were crucial battles at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg. Despite the uninspired title, 1863 is a well-written chronicle, a biography of 12 months that one North Carolina diarist described as "a year of calamity and distress." Although this is largely a military history, author Joseph E. Stevens populates his pages with characters from all walks of life. He conveys a powerful sense of the time, and his rich, anecdote-laden prose is absorbing. Several dozen pictures and maps enrich the text, allowing readers to examine photographs of the book's main figures and follow the course of the battles.

The story is also full of dramatic tension, as the Union struggles to put down the Confederate rebellion; the North wins important contests, and while they never seem to be able to deliver the fatal blow, there is a sense of inevitability. By December, it is hard to disagree with the assessment of New Yorker John Templeton Strong: "[1863] has proved a far better year for the country than it promised at its birth." War would rage throughout the following year and into 1865, as well--leaving us reason to hope Stevens will write a couple of sequels. --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

On the first day of 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation took effect. At that time, the Union was pondering the very real possibility of gloomy defeat in the wake of successive Confederate battlefield victories. But by year's end, Grant and Sherman had won resounding victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga, and the North, its industrial superiority clearly evident, was increasingly confident of victory. In this fast-paced, episodic account of the pivotal year, Stevens (Hoover Dam) paints engaging portraits of the major personalities who either drove or symbolized events. In addition to political and military leaders such as Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Lee and Grant, he devotes time to lesser figures: Robert Gould Shaw (the white commander of the 54th Massachusetts, the first all-black regiment) and other idealistic aristocrats of both the North and the South; cynical young capitalists such as Andrew Carnegie ("too busy looking after his own financial affairs to pay much attention to the war," he took advantage of a common practice available to the wealthy and paid a substitute to answer his draft notice); and great writers and moral leaders such as Whitman, Louisa May Alcott and Emerson. Making good use of personal letters, official documents and dramatic photographs, Stevens moves quickly from one person to another, from the North to the South, from the trenches to the home front. The result is an energetic, gripping popular history from which readers will gain a panoramic view of this historical turning point. Illustrations.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1st ptg. edition (April 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553103148
• ISBN-13: 978-0553103144
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,249,484 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for the casual reader or Civil War buff!, November 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 1863: The Rebirth of a Nation (Hardcover)

It was 1863 - some might say the best of times, or the worst of times. In his progression from January to December of that year, Joseph E. Stevens has gone above and beyond the call of duty in this gripping, fascinating historical book. While most authors concentrate on the wide view of events that may span a whole conflict, touching briefly on each point along the way, Stevens has chosen to discuss only one year - 1863. In doing so, he is able to give the in-depth examinationg of not only the events, but more interestingly, the people of the war. There was Grant and his "drinking problem", the insubordinate Longstreet, "retreat is my middle name" Pemberton, and so on. Through this display of not only the events, but the people that went through them, Stevens has managed to create a book that actually holds your interest for hundreds of pages on one year! Go ahead and set some time aside, because once you buy this book, you'll never put it down....

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, July 18, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 1863: The Rebirth of a Nation (Hardcover)

Whether you're a Civil War buff or don't know anything about it, you will love this book. Not all military and battlefield stuff; we also get a good look at businessmen, poets, nurses, etc. Fascinating and well written. Everything a good history book ought to be. Hope the author continues to write.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The way history should read, April 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: 1863: The Rebirth of a Nation (Hardcover)

It is unfair to review a "Kirkus Review" of a book one hasn't even read. This book deserves a wide and lasting readership. It makes the history come to life and illuminates the lives of many famous people (Whitman, Rockefeller, Louisa Mae Alcott, etc.) who are not necessarily known for their connection to the Civil War. More for just Civil War buffs, this is an excellent and elegant introduction to the Civil War.