The author of Yankee Women: Gender Battles in the Civil War utilizes archives, memoirs, and histories to tell the fascinating stories of women who became spies, soldiers, or daughters of regiments to play their heroic part in the Civil War. Reprint.

All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies

History

Leonard, Elizabeth D.

Americas

Penguin??Books

Describing the stories of a frontline nurse, a committee organizer for troop supplies, and a female doctor for the Union forces, a historian presents the Civil War struggles of three women outside of the traditional roles of the time.

Yankee Women: Gender Battles in the Civil War

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

The fascinating stories of the women who worked as spies, as daughters of the regiments, or who disguised themselves as male soldiers to play their heroic part in the Civil War. Historian Elizabeth Leonard has combed archives, memoirs, and histories to unearth the stories of the hidden and forgotten women who risked their lives for the blue or the gray. These women spied for their cause, remained on the front lines as daughters of the regiments, and even dressed as men and enlisted under aliases to take up arms and fight as soldiers. Here are the stories of Belle Boyd, a proud Confederate loyalist and key player in Stonewall Jackson's struggle to hold the Shenandoah Valley; army woman Annie Etheridge, whose four long years of courageous work on the field earned her a Kearney Cross for bravery; Sarah Emma Edmonds, who enlisted as "Franklin Thompson," remained with her regiment as a much-respected soldier for two years, fighting at Fredricksburg and elsewhere; and many other courageous women. Leonard investigates why these women chose unconventional ways to help their cause. In doing so, she gives us a striking portrait of the lives women led in the nineteenth century and of their ability to break through the traditional barriers of Victorian womanhood.

Leonard, Elizabeth

W.W.Norton&Company

A fascinating reconstruction of the two assassination trials that convulsed the nation in 1965 surveys the evidence presented in the investigation of conspiracy in the shooting of Abraham Lincoln and the stabbing of John Wilkes Booth, including suggestions that Jefferson Davis may have been implicated. 13,000 first printing.

Lincoln's Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion After the Civil War

In 1863, at the height of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass promised African Americans that serving in the military offered a sure path to freedom. More than 180,000 black men heeded his call to defend the Union, only to find that the path to equality would not be so straightforward. Drawing on eye-opening firsthand accounts, Elizabeth D. Leonard restores black soldiers to their place in the arc of American history, from the Civil War and its promise of freedom up to the dawn of the twentieth century and the full retrenchment of Jim Crow. Along the way, Leonard offers a nuanced account of black soldiers’ involvement in the Indian wars, their attempts to desegregate West Point and gain proper recognition for their service, and their experiences during Reconstruction, as blacks worked to secure their place in an ever-changing nation. With abundant primary research, enlivened by memorable characters and vivid descriptions of army life, Men of Color to Arms! is an illuminating portrait of a group of men whose contributions to American history, as this book abundantly demonstrates, merit a more thorough examination.

Men of Color to Arms!: Black Soldiers, Indian Wars, and the Quest for Equality

Bison Books

Joseph Holt, the stern, brilliant, and deeply committed Unionist from Kentucky, spent the first several months of the American Civil War successfully laboring to maintain Kentucky's loyalty to the Union and then went on to serve as President Lincoln's judge advocate general. In Lincoln's Forgotten Ally, Elizabeth Leonard offers the first full-scale biography of Holt, who has long been overlooked and misunderstood by historians and students of the war. In his capacity as the administration's chief arbiter and enforcer of military law, Holt strove tenaciously, often against strong resistance, to implement Lincoln's wartime policies, including emancipation. After Lincoln's assassination, Holt accepted responsibility for pursuing and bringing to justice everyone involved in John Wilkes Booth's conspiracy. It was because of this role, in which he is often portrayed as a brutal prosecutor, and because of his hard position toward the South, Leonard contends, that Holt's reputation suffered. Leonard argues, however, that Holt should not be defined by what Southern sympathizers and proponents of the Lost Cause came to think of him. Lincoln's Forgotten Ally seeks to restore Holt, who dedicated both his energy and his influence to ensuring that the Federal victory would bring about lasting positive change for the nation, to his rightful place in American memory.

Lincoln's Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky (Civil War America)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

The University of North Carolina Press

Countless lives were transformed by the war that split the nation, and many stories are yet to be revealed about how the Civil War and the Reconstruction era affected Kentuckians. One such narrative is that of Sandy Holt, who, in the summer of 1864, joined tens of thousands of former slaves and enlisted in the United States Colored Troops. He put his life on the line to secure the Union's survival and the end of slavery. Hundreds of miles away in a federal office, Sandy Holt's former owner, Joseph Holt, worked to achieve the same goals. No one could have predicted before the Civil War that these two very different but interconnected Kentuckians would be crucial participants in the Union war effort. Joseph Holt's radical transformation and the contributions of black Kentuckians in the United States Colored Troops have long been underestimated. InSlaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle toward Freedom, author Elizabeth D. Leonard examines a community of black and white Kentuckians whose lives were intertwined throughout the Civil War era. Bringing new insights into the life and legacy of Breckinridge County native Joseph Holt, Leonard exposes the origins of Holt's evolution from slave owner to member of Lincoln's War Department, where he became a powerful advocate for the abolition of slavery and the enlistment of former bondsmen. Digging deep into Holt's past, Leonard explores the lives of Holt's extended family members and also traces the experiences and efforts of Sandy Holt and other slaves-turned-soldiers from Breckinridge County and its periphery. Many ran from bondage to fight for freedom in the Union army and returned, hoping to claim the promises of Emancipation. The interwoven stories of Joseph and Sandy Holt, and their shared Kentucky community during and after the war, show how a small corner of this border state experienced one of the most defining conflicts in American history.

Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle Toward Freedom

Community & Culture

University Press of Kentucky

Review\nPrize-winning historian Leonard brings her considerable skill in research and writing to this biography—the fullest and most balanced one yet—of the controversial Civil War–era military and political leader Benjamin Butler...Leonard sets the record straight on Butler and provides an object lesson on the ways his personality and principles combined to effect public good."—Library Journal\nBenjamin Franklin Butler was one of the most important and controversial military and political leaders of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Remembered most often for his uncompromising administration of the Federal occupation of New Orleans during the war, Butler reemerges in this lively narrative as a man whose journey took him from childhood destitution to wealth and profound influence in state and national halls of power. Prize-winning biographer Elizabeth D. Leonard chronicles Butler's successful career in the law defending the rights of the Lowell Mill girls and other workers, his achievements as one of Abraham Lincoln's premier civilian generals, and his role in developing wartime policy in support of slavery's fugitives as the nation advanced toward emancipation. Leonard also highlights Butler's personal and political evolution, revealing how his limited understanding of racism and the horrors of slavery transformed over time, leading him into a postwar role as one of the nation's foremost advocates for Black freedom and civil rights, and one of its notable opponents of white supremacy and neo-Confederate resurgence.\nButler himself claimed he was "always with the underdog in the fight." Leonard's nuanced portrait will help readers assess such claims, peeling away generations of previous assumptions and characterizations to provide a definitive life of a consequential man.

Benjamin Franklin Butler: A Noisy, Fearless Life (Civil War America)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Leonard, Elizabeth D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Leonard, Elizabeth D.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Leonard, Elizabeth D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies

Yankee Women: Gender Battles in the Civil War

All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies

Lincoln's Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion After the Civil War

Men of Color to Arms!: Black Soldiers, Indian Wars, and the Quest for Equality

Lincoln's Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky (Civil War America)

Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle Toward Freedom

Lincoln's Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky (Civil War America)

Benjamin Franklin Butler: A Noisy, Fearless Life (Civil War America)