A Fierce Glory: Antietam—The Desperate Battle that Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery

The bloodiest single day in American military history, the Battle of Antietam was also a pivotal moment in the Civil War that is nonetheless often overshadowed by more infamous battles such as Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg. Still, a number of good full-length accounts do exist. Among them are James Murphin’s The Gleam of Bayonets (1965), John Michael Priest’s Antietam: The Soldier’s Battle (1989), Stephen Sears’ Landscape Turned Red (1993), and James McPherson’s Crossroads of Freedom (2002). Besides the staggering numbers of casualties, perhaps what most attracts scholars and Civil War enthusiasts to this particular battle is the fame (or infamy) of its participants—Robert E. Lee, George B. McClellan, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Ambrose Burnside—as well as the battle’s role as a catalyst for Lincoln’s issuing the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. In fact, it is this later facet of the Civil War that Justin Martin seeks to highlight in his newest book, A Fierce Glory: Antietam—The Desperate Battle that Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery

The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation

Impeachment has been receiving much attention these days. I speak not of current events, however. As the United States continues its commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the Reconstruction Era, and as new scholarly works appear on all manner of subjects from that era, it is to be expected that impeachment would get a much needed reexamination. To that end, Brenda Wineapple’s The Impeachers is a welcome—and one might say timely—addition to the emerging scholarship on this dark period in our nation’s past

Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant

Civil War enthusiasts and scholars alike, Ulysses S. Grant is one of the most interesting figures of the era. His name is as recognizable as that of military icons Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, and William Tecumseh Sherman. What is more, of all of the great leading figures of the war, only Grant managed to rise to the same office as that of Abraham Lincoln—a man recognized in recent studies as among the most significant figures in World History. Yet Grant is also the least understood of the above-mentioned persons. Historians often view his military career in a positive light

Gathering To Save A Nation: Lincoln And The Union\u27s War Governors

Mobilizing a Country, Saving a Nation: Lincoln and the War Governors In his manuscript Lincoln and the Union Governors (2013), part of the Concise Lincoln Library with SIU Press, William C. Harris observed that little has been written about President Abraham Lincoln\u27s working relationship wi...

Fast analysis of decabrominated diphenyl ether using low-pressure gas chromatography electron-capture negative ionization mass spectrometry

Peer reviewe

Si/SiGe bound-to-continuum quantum cascade emitters

Si/SiGe bound-to-continuum quantum cascade emitters designed by self-consistent 6-band k.p modeling and grown by low energy plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition are presented demonstrating electroluminescence between 1.5 and 3 THz. The electroluminescence is Stark shifted by an electric field and demonstrates polarized emission consistent with the design. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction are also presented to characterize the thick heterolayer structure

Dithiinmaleimide Functionalized ET Derivatives: Syntheses, Characterization and X-ray Structure

Dithiinmaleimide (ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (1) and N-phenyldithiinmaleimide (ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (2) have been synthesized from bis(tetraethylammonium)bis(ethylenedithiotetrathiafulvalenyldithiolato)-zincate (3) in high yields. Their electrochemical properties were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements which show two reversible redox potentials of the tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) moiety and an irreversible reduction potential of the maleimide ring. The X-ray structure of 1 shows close S···S contacts in the range of the van der Waals radii (3.6 Å) and hydrogen bonds between the maleimide unite

Structure and Magnetic Properties of the Radical Cation Salt of a TTF-based NiII Complex

Chemical oxidation of a TTF-based NiII complex with I2 produces the corresponding radical cation salt 1, [Ni2Cl2(L)2](I3)2(I5)2(I2)(H2O)2(C4H8O)3, (L=4,5-bis(2-pyridylmethylsulfanyl)-4',5'-ethylenedithiotetrathiafulvalene). The results of magnetic susceptibility measurements show the occurrence of intramolecular magnetic exchange interactions in 1. The lack of close S···S contacts, confirmed by crystal structure analysis, results in an insulating behavio

Occurrence and profiles of PCBs and PBDEs in harbour seals and harbour porpoises from the southern North Sea

Harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoen) and harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), two representative top coastal pollution. Concentrations of sum PCBs were 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than concentrations of sum PBDEs (with median values of 23.1 μg.g- lw (lipid weight) and 12.4 μ.g-1 lw for sum PCBs and 0.33 μ.g- lw and 0.76 μ.g-1 lw for sum PBDEs in harbour seals and harbour porpoises respectively) and were highly dependent of age group and gender. For both species, the highest PCB concentrations were observed in adult males as the result of accumulation for years and years, while the highest PBDE concentrations were measured in juveniles probably due to better developed metabolic capacities for these congeners with age in adults. Results for PCBs were higher than observations in harbour seals and porpoises from other areas, while results for PBDEs were comparable indicating that the North Sea is a highly contaminated area. Relative PCB and PBDE profiles were constructed to compare metabolic capacities between harbour seals and porpoises. A higher contribution of lower chlorinated and nonpersistent congeners, such as CB 52, CB 95, CB 101, CB 118 and CB 149 indicated that harbour porpoises are unable to metabolize these compounds. Similar to PCBs, higher contributions of other PBDEs than BDE 47 were observed in harbour porpoises, suggesting that this species has difficulties to metabolize these congeners. In contrast, harbour seals showed a higher ability to metabolize PCBs and PBDEs