Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War, April-June 1865 - Softcover

Trudeau, Noah Andre

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807120332 ISBN 13: 9780807120330

Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr, 1995

Synopsis

Many people continue to believe that the Civil War ended with Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, yet it took three more months to end the bloodiest of all American wars. Out of the Storm is a remarkable portrait of this turbulent closing phase of the war. Photos.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

National Public Radio producer Trudeau (The Last Citadel, 1991; Bloody Roads South, 1989), completing a fine trilogy of works about the Civil War, recounts the turbulent collapse of the Confederacy in the months following Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. ``General readers are so taken with the simple drama of Appomattox,'' Trudeau writes in his preface, ``that many continue to believe that the Civil War ended with that incident.'' Nothing could be farther from the truth, according to Trudeau: At the time of Lee's surrender, Confederate armies were still in the field in North Carolina, Alabama, and the trans-Mississippi, and it was far from obvious to the leaders of the North that the Confederacy would not continue to fight, even though the Richmond government had fled after the collapse of Lee's army. Trudeau reports events great and small in this three-month period in 1865 that transformed America: the final clashes and the surrender of the remaining Confederate armies, Lincoln's assassination, the capture of Jefferson Davis, the sinking of the steamboat Sultana in the Mississippi (heading north with over 1,500 former Union prisoners on board), and the tragic May 25 magazine explosion in Mobile, Alabama. The last actual battle between Union and Confederate forces was a skirmish at Palmito Ranch, Texas, on May 13; although it was not a resounding Union victory, the combatants themselves recognized that it represented the end of the war. Finally, Trudeau writes about the triumphant march of the Union armies in Washington on May 23, and the setting of the stage for Reconstruction. Superb and important--another ground-breaking achievement in research and narration for Trudeau, covering a period not often examined in depth by Civil War historians. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

In this concluding volume of a trilogy, Trudeau ( Bloody Roads South ; The Last Citadel ) relies on firsthand accounts to tell the compelling story of the Confederacy's death throes. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, marked only the beginning of the end: the Civil War had gone on too long to end in a single stroke. Confederate government was still intact, and large Confederate forces remained in the field. While Union cavalry ravaged northern Alabama, Union infantry stormed the fortress of Mobile. Men continued to die in obscure skirmishes from Texas to South Carolina. Trudeau's richly textured presentation never loses focus in depicting the complex course of events from the final days of the Army of Northern Virginia, through the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, to the growing recognition in the South and the North that the great national tragedy was finally over. This is a major contribution to the field.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0807120332
• ISBN 13: 9780807120330
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496