The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War

Every time Union armies invaded Southern territory there were unintended consequences. Military campaigns always affected the local population -- devastating farms and towns, making refugees of the inhabitants, undermining slavery. Local conditions in turn altered the course of military events. The social effects of military campaigns resonated throughout geographic regions and across time. Campaigns and battles often had a serious impact on national politics and international affairs. Not all campaigns in the Civil War had a dramatic impact on the country, but every campaign, no matter how small, had dramatic and traumatic effects on local communities. Civil War military operations did not occur in a vacuum; there was a price to be paid on many levels of society in both North and South.The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War assembles the contributions of thirty-nine leading scholars of the Civil War, each chapter advancing the central thesis that operational military history is decisively linked to the social and political history of Civil War America. The chapters cover all three major theaters of the war and include discussions of Bleeding Kansas, the Union naval blockade, the South West, American Indians, and Reconstruction. Each essay offers a particular interpretation of how one of the war's campaigns resonated in the larger world of the North and South. Taken together, these chapters illuminate how key transformations operated across national, regional, and local spheres, covering key topics such as politics, race, slavery, emancipation, gender, loyalty, and guerrilla warfare.

IntroductionLorien Foote and Earl J. Hess1. ?From Border War to Civil War?: Bleeding Kansas as a Call to ArmsKristen T. Oertel2. A Slow Asphyxiation: The Cumulative Impact of the Union BlockadeCraig L. Symonds3. ?We will fight, and hope for the best?: The Outbreak of Civil War and Missouri Identity 1861Ethan S. Rafuse4. First Bull Run/Manassas: Southern Victory, Union Defeat, and Antebellum Military CultureBarbara A. Gannon5. Drawing a Line in Appalachia: The Influence of Terrain and Loyalty on Community Level Warfare in Eastern Kentucky and Northwestern Virginia, 1861-1862Brian D. McKnight6. The Material War: Battling for Resources during the Campaign for Forts Henry and DonelsonJason Phillips7. The Union Occupation of Coastal North Carolina: Foundations for FreedomDavid Silkenat8. Symbol of Secession, Symbol of Freedom: Military Science, Emancipation, and Social Collapse in the Campaign for CharlestonLorien Foote9. The Civil War in Arkansas, 1862: Confederate Neglect, Divided Loyalties, and Partisan WarfareThomas W. Cutrer10. Testing U.S. Authority in the Far West: The New Mexico Campaign and the War for the Central PlainsStacey L. Smith11. Torn by War: The Social and Political Unraveling of Indian TerritoryClarissa W. Confer12. Shiloh and Corinth: The Campaigns that Changed the Civil WarStephen Engle13. The Collapse of Confederate Resistance in the Mississippi Valley in 1862 and the Politics of RecruitmentMichael D. Pierson14. Toward Hard War: The Peninsula Campaign and Jackson in the Valley, 1862Christopher S. Stowe15. ?The Nation's Disappointment?: The Seven Days' Battles and Public OpinionTimothy J. Orr16. ?The Most Terrible March?: Drought and the Kentucky CampaignKenneth W. Noe17. Western Republicans Confront Eastern Democrats: Second Manassas as a Partisan Flashpoint of Regional IdeologiesJohn H. Matsui18. The Maryland Campaign: Carnage and EmancipationD. Scott Hartwig19. The Battle of Fredericksburg: Military Occupation, Urban Conflict, and the Defeat of Ambrose Burnside's Army of the PotomacBarton A. Myers20. Opening the Deep South: Grant's North Mississippi Campaign, Chickasaw Bayou, and Exploitation of the BottomlandsEarl J. Hess21. Stones River: Making Emancipation WorkEarl J. Hess22. The Fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson: Opening the Mississippi and Fracturing the Deep SouthEarl J. Hess23. The Chancellorsville Campaign: Strategic Contingency PointChristian B. Keller24. War Comes to Free Soil: The Gettysburg Campaign of June-July 1863Carol Reardon25. The Battle of Helena, the Little Rock Campaign, and the Capture of Fort Smith: Emancipation, Loyalty, and Social-Economic Change in ArkansasCarl Moneyhan26. The Tullahoma and Chickamauga Campaigns: Discord, Disruption, and DefeatAndrew S. Bledsoe27. War in the Switzerland of America: Chattanooga and Knoxville CampaignsAaron Astor28. The Overland Campaign, Spring 1864: Securing Freedom and the Union in VirginiaLisa Tendrich Frank and Brooks D. Simpson29. The Campaign for Atlanta: Displacing Civilians and Tearing Up GeorgiaEarl J. Hess30. Petersburg, Virginia June-August 1864: Confederate City in the Crisis of WarA. Wilson Greene31. The Red River Campaign, 1864: The Union's Effort to Conquer, Pacify, and Reconstruct Louisiana and TexasT. Michael Parrish32. The 1864 Invasion of Missouri: Sterling Price, Guerrilla Warfare, and the Fundamental Failure of the Confederate MilitaryJoseph M. Beilein, Jr.33. Home Front Becomes Battlefront: Sherman's March to the SeaAnne J. Bailey34. Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville: Battle, Insurgency, and Freed People on the Road to Emancipation in the HeartlandB.F. Cooling35. Petersburg Besieged and the Valley on Fire: The Beginning of the End in VirginiaJames Marten36. ?Judgments of the Lord?: The Carolinas as a Campaign of ReckoningChristopher Phillips37. The Fall of Petersburg and Flight to Appomattox in the Spring of 1865: Victory, Defeat, and the Demise of SlaveryElizabeth R. Varon38. International Repercussions: Texas, Mobile, and Wilson's RaidEarl J. Hess39. Occupation, 1865-1877Andrew F. Lang