"The essays approach the period through the expansive lens of military history, grounded in both traditional and pioneering methodologies. By offering fresh areas of inquiry and demonstrating the potential of military history to provide invaluable insights, the collection seeks to realign military scholarship on the American Civil War with other scholarly avenues of inquiry"-- Provided by publisher.

Military history and the American Civil War / Andrew S. Bledsoe and Andrew F. Lang -- Revitalizing traditional military history in the current age of Civil War studies / Earl J. Hess -- "I am completely checked by the weather" : George B. McClellan, weather, and the Peninsula Campaign / Kenneth W. Noe -- "Your golden opportunity is gone" : George Gordon Meade, the expectations of decisive battle, and the road to Williamsport / Jennifer M. Murray -- "The farce was complete" : Braxton Bragg, field orders, and the language of command at McLemore's Cove / Andrew S. Bledsoe -- The looting and bombardment of Fredericksburg : "vile spirits" or war transformed? / John J. Hennessy -- Guerrilla warfare as social stimulus / Brian D. McKnight -- The limits of American exceptionalism : military occupation, emancipation, and the preservation of union / Andrew F. Lang -- "They met their fate without a sigh" : an analysis of Confederate military executions / Kevin M. Levin -- McClellan's men : Union Army Democrats in 1864 / Keith Altavilla -- The hour that lasted fifty years : the 107th Ohio and the human longitude of Gettysburg / Brian Matthew Jordan -- "His death may have lost the South her independence" : Albert Sidney Johnston and Civil War memory / Robert L. Glaze.