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"A unique recounting of the Confederate use of landmines during the American Civil War. Hess uses multiple archival sources to tell a compelling narrative that stresses not only the tactical and technological challenges but also considers the moral stigma attached to this new weapon of war"--

"The American Civil War saw the creation of the largest, most potent artillery force ever deployed in a conflict fought in the Western Hemisphere. Its size was about as large and powerful as any raised in prior European wars. Moreover, Union and Confederate artillery included the largest number of rifled pieces fielded in any conflict in the world up to that point. Amazingly, Earl Hess's "Civil War Field Artillery" is the first comprehensive general history of the artillery arm that supported infantry and cavalry in the conflict. Hess examines the major factors that affected artillerists and their work, including the hardware (cannons, carriages, limbers, caissons, tubes, and the fuses that exploded ordnance), the organization of artillery power (assembling batteries, battalions, regiments, Union artillery brigades, and Confederate artillery battalions), relationships between artillery officers and infantry/cavalry commanders, environmental factors on the battlefield, and many other influences on effectiveness as well. Hess's study offers numerous new interpretations of Civil War artillery based on deep and expansive research, especially in available statistical data. For example, in terms of organizing and managing the artillery arm, officers of the era and subsequent historians alike decried the early war practice of dispersing the guns and assigning them to infantry brigades or divisions where infantry officers completely commanded them. They also praised the concentration system most major field armies put into place during the latter half of the war. However, based on the evidence, Hess suggests that the dispersal system of the early part of the war did not inhibit the concentration of artillery power on the battlefield and that the concentration system of the latter half of the conflict failed to produce more concentration of guns. Another example relates to the effectiveness of fuses to explode long-range ordnance. Previous historians have praised those fuses, admitting they had initial problems early in the war, which each side fixed. Hess's research clearly shows that was not the case. Battery commanders continued to report bad fuses to the very end of the war. Cumulative data on what type of projectiles commanders fired in battle shows that they lessened their use of the new long-range exploding ordnance due to bad fuses while increasing their use of solid shot, the oldest artillery projectile in history. Hess's wide-ranging study argues that Civil War field artillery failed to live up to its promise, especially rifled pieces. As a general history, it also covers all aspects of the history of field artillery in the conflict, including the life of the artilleryman, the use of artillery horses, manpower replacement practices, the effect of widespread use of field fortifications on artillery performance, and the problems of resupplying batteries in the field. His comprehensive coverage and new interpretations bring the history of field artillery up to date and will contribute to a re-envisioning of the military history of the Civil War"--

They are upon us: May 17 -- On the war-path for Vicksburg: May 18 -- A long dreadful day: Fifteenth Corps, May 19 -- I hope every man will follow me: Seventeenth and Thirteenth Corps, May 19 -- This will be a hard place to take: May 20-21 -- Dismay and bewilderment: Blair, May 22 -- Now, boys, you must do your duty: McPherson, May 22 -- The horror of the thing bore me down like an avalanche: McClernand and Osterhaus, May 22 -- Boys, you have just fifteen minutes to live: 2nd Texas Lunette, May 22 -- A thousand bayonets glistened in the sunlight: railroad redoubt, May 22 -- I don't believe a word of it: Grant, Sherman, and McClernand, May 22 -- Am holding position but suffering awfully: Blair, Ransom, and Tuttle, May 22 -- It made the tears come to my eyes: Steele, May 22 -- Boys, don't charge those works: Logan and Quinby, May 22 -- It is absolutely necessary that they be dislodged: reclaiming railroad redoubt, May 22 -- An ardent desire to participate in the capture of Vicksburg: Grant, Pemberton, Porter, and McArthur, May 22 -- I feel sad but not discouraged: making sense of May 22 -- I am surfeited, sick, and tired of witnessing bloodshed: casualties, wounded, prisoners -- No one would have supposed that we were mortal enemies: burial, mourning -- They ought to be remembered: honors, infamy, life stories -- Eventful on the page of history: commemoration.

"As a leading Confederate general, Braxton Bragg (1817-1876) earned a reputation for incompetence, for wantonly shooting his own soldiers, and for losing battles. This public image established him not only as a scapegoat for the South's military failures but also as the chief whipping boy of the Confederacy. The strongly negative opinions of Bragg's contemporaries have continued to color assessments of the general's military career and character by generations of historians. Rather than take these assessments at face value, Earl J. Hess's biography offers a much more balanced account of Bragg, the man and the officer."--Dust jacket flap

Introduction -- Repression, ignorance, and undone science -- The epistemic dimension of the political opportunity structure -- The politics of meaning: from frames to design conflicts -- The organizational forms of counterpublic knowledge -- Institutional change, industrial transitions, and regime resistance politics -- Contemporary change: liberalization and epistemic modernization -- Conclusion

After describing federal green energy initiatives in the first two years of the Obama administration, Hess turns his attention to the state and local levels, examining demand-side and supply-side support for green industry and local small business. He analyzes the successes and failures of green coalitions and the partisan patterns of support for green energy reform. This new piecemeal green industrial policy, Hess argues, signals a fundamental challenge to anti-interventionist beliefs about the relationship between the government and the economy."--Publisher description.

Global problems and localist solutions -- Economic development and localist knowledge -- Can localism be just and sustainable? -- The politics of local retailing -- The challenges of urban agriculture -- Local energy and the public sector -- Localism and the media -- Policies for an alternative economy.

Engineer assets in the Overland Campaign -- The Wilderness -- Spotsylvania, May 8-11 -- The Mule Shoe Salient at Spotsylvania, May 12 -- Spotsylvania, May 13-20 -- Bermuda Hundred -- North Anna -- Cold Harbor, May 27-June 2 -- Attack and siege--Cold Harbor, June 3-7 -- Holding the trenches at Cold Harbor, June 7-12 -- Conclusion -- Appendix: The design and construction of field fortifications in the Overland Campaign

Introduction -- Retheorizing scientific change -- Science in an era of globalization -- The transformation of technological fields -- Industrial opposition movements -- Technology- and product-oriented movements -- The localization of activism and innovation -- Conclusion