Chris Mackowski has 6 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators. The most-rated is That Furious Struggle.
Hell Itself
Summary
From the award-winning Emerging Civil War series. Soldiers called it one of the “waste places of nature” and “a region of gloom” - the wilderness of Virginia, 70 square miles of dense second-growth forest known as “the dark, close wood”. “A more unpromising theater of war was never seen,” said another. Yet here, in the spring of 1864, the Civil War escalated to a new level of horror. Ulysses S. Grant, commanding all Federal armies, opened the campaign with a vow to never turn back. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, moved into the wilderness to block Grant’s advance. Immovable object intercepted irresistible force - and the wilderness burst into flame. With the forest itself burning around them, men died by the thousands. The armies bloodied each other without mercy and, at times, without any semblance of order. The brush grew so dense, and the smoke hung so thick, men could not see who stood next to them - or in front of them. “This, viewed as a battleground, was simply infernal,” a Union soldier later said. It was, said another, “hell itself”. Driven by desperation, duty, confusion, and fire, soldiers on both sides marveled that anyone might make it out alive. For more than a decade, Chris Mackowski has guided visitors across the battlefields of the Overland Campaign. Now, in Hell Itself, he invites followers of the Emerging Civil War series to join him in the wilderness - one of the most storied battlefields of the entire Civil War.
©2016 Savs Beatie (P)2019 Savas Beatie
Simply Murder: The Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862
Summary
They melted like snow on the ground, one officer said - wave after wave of Federal soldiers charging uphill across an open muddy plain. Confederates, fortified behind a stone wall along a sunken road, poured a hail of lead into them as they charged...and faltered...and died. “I had never before seen fighting like that, nothing approaching it in terrible uproar and destruction,” said one eyewitness to the slaughter. “It is only murder now.” The battle of Fredericksburg is usually remembered as the most lopsided Union defeat of the Civil War. It is sometimes called “Burnside’s folly”, after Union Commander Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside who led the Army of the Potomac to ruin along the banks of the Rappahannock River. But the battle remains one of the most misunderstood and misremembered engagements of the war. Burnside started with a well-conceived plan and had every reason to expect victory. How did it go so terribly wrong? Authors Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White have worked for years along Fredericksburg’s Sunken Road and Stone Wall, and they’ve escorted thousands of visitors across the battlefield. Simply Murder not only recounts Fredericksburg’s tragic story of slaughter, but includes invaluable information about the battlefield itself and the insights they’ve learned from years of walking the ground. Simply Murder can be enjoyed in the comfort of one’s living room or as a guide on the battlefield itself. It is also the first release in the new Emerging Civil War series, which offers compelling and easy-to-listen-to overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important battles and issues. About the authors: Chris Mackowski is a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, New York, and also works with the National Park Service at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, which includes the Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, and Spotsylvania battlefields. Kristopher D. White is a historian for the Penn-Trafford Recreation Board and a continuing education instructor for the Community College of Allegheny County near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He served for five years as a staff military historian at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park and is a former licensed battlefield guide at Gettysburg. Longtime friends, Mackowski and White have coauthored several books and numerous articles for various Civil War magazines. They also cofounded the blog Emerging Civil War.
©2012, 2013 Savas Beatie (P)2019 Savas Beatie
A Season of Slaughter
Summary
A gripping narrative of one of the Civil War’s most consequential engagements. In the spring of 1864, the newly installed Union commander Ulysses S. Grant did something none of his predecessors had done before: He threw his army against the wily, audacious Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia over and over again. At Spotsylvania Court House, the two armies shifted from stalemate in the Wilderness to slugfest in the mud. Most commonly known for the horrific 22-hour hand-to-hand combat in the pouring rain at the Bloody Angle, the battle of Spotsylvania Court House actually stretched from May 8 to 21, 1864 - 14 long days of battle and maneuver. Grant, the irresistible force, hammering with his overwhelming numbers and unprecedented power, versus Lee, the immovable object, hunkered down behind the most formidable defensive works yet seen on the continent. Spotsylvania Court House represents a chess match of immeasurable stakes between two master opponents. This clash is detailed in A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8 - 21, 1864. A Season of Slaughter is part of the new Emerging Civil War Series offering compelling, easy-to-listen overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important stories. The masterful storytelling is richly enhanced with hundreds of photos, illustrations, and maps.
©2013 Savas Beatie (P)2019 Savas Beatie
The Great Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign, November 26-December 2, 1863
Summary
The stakes for George Gordon Meade could not have been higher. After his stunning victory at Gettysburg in July of 1863, the Union commander spent the following months trying to bring the Army of Northern Virginia to battle once more and finish the job. The Confederate army, robbed of much of its offensive strength, nevertheless parried Meade’s moves time after time. Although the armies remained in constant contact during those long months of cavalry clashes, quick maneuvers, and sudden skirmishes, Lee continued to frustrate Meade’s efforts. Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Meade’s political enemies launched an all-out assault against his reputation and generalship. Even the very credibility of his victory at Gettysburg came under assault. Pressure mounted for the army commander to score a decisive victory and prove himself once more. Smaller victories, like those at Bristoe Station and Rappahannock Station, did little to quell the growing clamor - particularly because out west, in Chattanooga, another Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, was once again reversing Federal misfortunes. Meade needed a comparable victory in the east. And so, on Thanksgiving Day, 1863, the Army of the Potomac rumbled into motion once more, intent on trying again to bring about the great battle that would end the war. The Great Battle Never Fought: The Mine Run Campaign, November 26-December 2 1863 recounts the final chapter of the forgotten fall of 1863 - when George Gordon Meade made one final attempt to save the Union and, in doing so, save himself.
©2018 Savas Beatie (P)2019 Savas Beatie
Fight Like the Devil: The First Day at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863
Summary
“Do not bring on a general engagement”, Confederate General Robert E. Lee warned his commanders. The Army of Northern Virginia, slicing its way through south-central Pennsylvania, was too spread out, too vulnerable, for a full-scale engagement with its old nemesis, the Army of the Potomac. Too much was riding on this latest Confederate invasion of the North. Too much was at stake. As Confederate forces groped their way through the mountain passes, a chance encounter with Federal cavalry on the outskirts of a small Pennsylvania crossroads town triggered a series of events that quickly escalated beyond Lee’s - or anyone’s - control. Waves of soldiers materialized on both sides in a constantly shifting jigsaw of combat. “You will have to fight like the devil...” one Union cavalryman predicted. The costliest battle in the history of the North American continent had begun. July 1, 1863 remains the most overlooked phase of the battle of Gettysburg, yet it set the stage for all the fateful events that followed. Bringing decades of familiarity to the discussion, historians Chris Mackowski, Kristopher D. White, and Daniel T. Davis, in their engaging style, recount the action of that first day of battle and explore the profound implications in Fight Like the Devil. About the Authors: Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White are cofounders of Emerging Civil War and Daniel T. Davis is chief historian. Between them, they have authored more than a dozen books and have penned articles for Civil War Times, America’s Civil War, Hallowed Ground, and Blue & Gray. Chris is a writing professor at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, NY, and historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield. Daniel is a graduate of Longwood University with a B.A. in public history and has worked as a historian at Appomattox Court House National Historic Site. Kris is a historian for the Penn-Trafford Recreation Board and a continuing education instructor for the Community College of Allegheny County near Pittsburgh; he is also a former Licensed Battlefield Guide. All have worked as historians at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. Read their blog at www.emergingcivilwar.com.
©2015 Savas Beatie LLC (P)2019 Savas Beatie LLC
That Furious Struggle
Summary
It has been called Robert E. Lee's supreme moment: riding into the Chancellorsville clearing...the mansion itself aflame in the background...his gunpowder-smeared soldiers crowding around him, hats off, cheering wildly. After one of the most audacious gambits of the war, Lee and his men had defeated a foe more than two and half times their size. The Federal commander, "Fighting Joe" Hooker, had boasted days earlier that his plans were perfect - yet his army had crumbled, and Hooker himself had literally been knocked senseless. History would remember the battle of Chancellorsville as "Lee's Greatest Victory." But Confederate fortunes had reached their high tide. Never again would fortune favor Lee the way it did at Chancellorsville - even though the war continued another two years. That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy recounts the story of the Army of Northern Virginia's last offensive battlefield victory - a tale of triumph and tragedy that includes that second-bloodiest day of the Civil War; the mortal wounding of one of Confederacy's greatest icons, Stonewall Jackson; and the bold leadership of the man known as "audacity itself." Told in the highly readable style that has become the hallmark of the Emerging Civil War Series, That Furious Struggle contains more than 150 modern and historical photos, outstanding maps, and an insider's perspective of the battlefield as told by historians who intimately know the ground and the battle.
©2014 Savas Beatie (P)2019 savas beatie