Secret Lives Of The Civil War

Download or read book Secret Lives of the Civil War written by Cormac O'Brien and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Legendary Heroes of U.S. History—As You’ve Never Seen Them Before! Secret Lives of the Civil War features irreverent and uncensored profiles of men and women from the Union and the Confederacy—complete with hundreds of little-known and downright bizarre facts. You’ll discover that: • Mary Todd Lincoln claimed to receive valuable military strategies from ghosts in the spirit world. • Jefferson Davis once imported camels for soldiers stationed in the American southwest. • Ulysses S. Grant spent much of the Vicksburg campaign on a horse named “Kangaroo.” • James Longstreet fought the Battle of Antietam wearing carpet slippers. • William T. Sherman was the victim of two shipwrecks on the same day. • Harriet Tubman experienced frequent and bizarre hallucinations. • Stonewall Jackson was a notorious hypochondriac (he always sat up straight, fearing that slouching would compress his vital organs). With chapters on everyone from William Quantrill (a guerilla leader whose skull later ended up in the basement of a fraternity house) to Rose O’Neal Greenhow (perhaps the South’s most glamorous spy), Secret Lives of the Civil War features a mix of famous faces and unsung heroes. American history was never this much fun in school!

Download or read book Secret Lives of the First Ladies written by Cormac O'Brien and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These collected biographies on the wacky secrets and scandals of the first ladies of the United States casts American history in a whole new light Whether she’s a leading lady, loyal spouse, or lightning rod for scandal, the First Lady of the United States has always been in the spotlight—and in 2017 that was truer than ever. This revised and expanded edition from Quirk’s best-selling Secret Lives series features outrageous and uncensored profiles of the women of the White House, from Martha Washington to Melania Trump, it comes complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright wacko facts. Did you know that: • Dolley Madison loved to chew tobacco • Mary Todd Lincoln conducted séances on a regular basis • Eleanor Roosevelt and Ellen Wilson both carried guns • Jacqueline Kennedy spent $121,000 on her wardrobe in a single year • Betty Ford liked to chat on CB radios—her handle was “First Mama” With chapters on every woman who’s ever made it to the White House, Secret Lives of the First Ladies tackles all the tough questions that other history books are afraid to ask: How many of these women owned slaves? Which ones were cheating on their husbands? And why was Eleanor Roosevelt serving hot dogs to the King and Queen of England? American history was never this much fun in school!

Download or read book Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents written by Cormac O'Brien and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2004 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What your teachers never told you about the men of the white house.

Download or read book Secret Missions of the Civil War written by Philip Van Doren Stern and published by Garrett County Press. This book was released on 2012-07-30 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civil War historian and celebrated author Philip Van Doren Stern presents an underground history woven from first hand accounts of Civil War spies, scouts, detectives and double agents. Secret Missions of the Civil War gives an inside look into the birth of modern spy warfare: secret codes, Allen Pinkerton, assassinations, McClellan's personal spy, European arms dealing, the Secret Service, Morgan and Mosby, the stunning Mrs. Rose O’Neal, privateers, the New York draft riots and torpedoes. Through astute and carefully documented commentary, Stern shows how seemingly random acts of underground warfare dramatically influenced the course of the war and American history.

Download or read book Lincoln's Secret Spy written by Jane Singer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A month after Lincoln’s assassination, William Alvin Lloyd arrived in Washington, DC, to press a claim against the federal government for money due him for serving as the president’s spy in the Confederacy. Lloyd claimed that Lincoln personally had issued papers of transit for him to cross into the South, a salary of $200 a month, and a secret commission as Lincoln’s own top-secret spy. The claim convinced Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt—but was it true? Before the war, Lloyd hawked his Southern Steamboat and Railroad Guide wherever he could, including the South, which would have made him a perfect operative for the Union. By 1861, though, he needed cash, so he crossed enemy lines to collect debts owed by advertising clients in Dixie. Officials arrested and jailed him, after just a few days in Memphis, for bigamy. But Lloyd later claimed it was for being a suspected Yankee spy. After bribing his way out, he crisscrossed the Confederacy, trying to collect enough money to stay alive. Between riding the rails he found time to marry plenty of unsuspecting young women only ditch them a few days later. His behavior drew the attention of Confederate detectives, who nabbed him in Savannah and charged him as a suspected spy. But after nine months, they couldn’t find any incriminating evidence or anyone to testify against him, so they let him go. A free but broken man, Lloyd continued roaming the South, making money however he could. In May 1865, he went to Washington with an extraordinary claim and little else: a few coached witnesses, a pass to cross the lines signed “A. Lincoln” (the most forged signature in American history), and his own testimony. So was he really Lincoln’s secret agent or nothing more than a notorious con man? Find out in this completely irresistible, high-spirited historical caper.

Download or read book Secret Lives of Great Artists written by Elizabeth Lunday and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a tour through the wilder side of art history, and discover true tales of murder, forgery, and trickery—featuring jaw-dropping profiles over 30 iconic artists like Leonardo Da Vinci and Salvadori Dalí. With outrageous anecdotes about everyone from Leonardo Da Vinci to Caravaggio to Edward Hopper, Secret Lives of Great Artists recounts the seamy, steamy and gritty history behind the great masters of international art. Here, you’ll learn that Michelangelo’s body odor was so bad, his assistants couldn’t stand working for him; that Vincent van Gogh sometimes ate paint directly from the tube; and Georgia O’Keeffe loved to paint in the nude. This is one art history lesson you’ll never forget!

Download or read book Secret Lives of Great Authors written by Robert Schnakenberg and published by Quirk Books. This book was released on 2014-03-18 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The strange-but-true tales of the rumors, idiosyncrasies, and feuds of literary legends—including Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespeare, and more This fascinating—and shocking!—tour through the lives of classic literature icons is the perfect stocking stuffer for book lovers and fans of little-known history. With outrageous and uncensored profiles of everyone from William Shakespeare to Thomas Pynchon, Secret Lives of Great Authors tackles all the tough questions your high school teachers were afraid to ask: What’s the deal with Lewis Carroll and little girls? Is it true that J. D. Salinger drank his own urine? How many women—and men—did Lord Byron actually sleep with? And why was Ayn Rand such a big fan of Charlie’s Angels? Classic literature was never this much fun in school! Authors included: William Shakespeare Lord Byron Honoré de Balzac Edgar Allan Poe Charles Dickens The Brontë Sisters Henry David Thoreau Walt Whitman Leo Tolstoy Emily Dickinson Lewis Carroll Louisa May Alcott Mark Twain Oscar Wilde Arthur Conan Doyle W.B. Yeats H.G. Wells Gertrude Stein Jack London Virginia Woolf James Joyce Franz Kafka T.S. Eliot Agatha Christie J.R.R. Tolkien F. Scott Fitzgerald William Faulkner Ernest Hemingway Ayn Rand Jean-Paul Sartre Richard Wright William Burroughs Carson McCullers J.D. Salinger Jack Kerouac Kurt Vonnegut Toni Morrison Sylvia Plath Thomas Pynchon