The Battle of the Crater, a novel of the Civil War, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen (Work)

The Battle of the Crater, a novel of the Civil War, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen

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The Battle of the Crater, a novel of the Civil War, Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen

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"Take[s] listeners to the center of a nearly forgotten Civil War confrontation, a battle that was filled with controversy and misinterpretation even before the attack began. June 1864: the Civil War is now into its fourth year of bloody conflict. The armies of the North are stalled in fetid trenches outside of Richmond and Atlanta, and the reelection of Abraham Lincoln to a second term seems doomed to defeat--a defeat that will set off the call for an end to the conflict, dismembering the Union and continuing slavery. Eager for battle, nearly two hundred thousand men of color are being mobilized into regiments known as the USCTs, the United States Colored Troops. General Ambrose Burnside is one of the few generals eager to bring a division of these new troops into his ranks. He has an ingenious plan to break Fort Pegram by tunneling forward from the Union position beneath the fort to explode its defenses. Will Burnside be allowed to proceed or will interference from on high doom his plan to failure? This ... work rewrites our understanding of one of the great battles of the war, and the all-but-forgotten role played by one of the largest formations of African American troops in our nation's history."--Container

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