Biography of Civil War Cavalry General Receives 2016 North Carolina Society of Historians Book Award

EL DORADO HILLS, CA: November 10, 2016 – Sheridan R. 
Barringer was recently honored by the North Carolina Society of Historians (NCSH) at their Diamond Jubilee with the 2016 Historical Book Award for his biography of relative Rufus Barringer, Fighting for General Lee: Confederate General Rufus Barringer and the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade. This is the book’s second award since its recent publication in February of this year. In May, Fighting for General Lee was chosen by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars to receive their 2016 Douglas Southall Freeman Award.

“This is a wonderful book that has been beautifully produced, contains some marvelous vintage maps, photographs, and a reader-friendly text about an interesting subject—the War Between the States,” explained the NCSH judges. “A helpful bibliography section is included, along with lists of primary and secondary sources referred to by this author, and ending with a researcher's delight...a comprehensive index! Due to the many details offered it is virtually impossible to pick and chose what important points to mention with regard to Mr. Barringer’s subject matter. It all seemed important to our panel…That being said, anybody interested in the War Between the States would be thrilled with this edition. It is educational, interesting and difficult to put down. It is definitely a book one would want in their library!”

“I was completely surprised when I received a letter from the North Carolina Society of Historians (NCSH) notifying me that the General Rufus Barringer biography had been selected as a 2016 NCSH History Book Award winner,” said author Barringer. “I love North Carolina’s rich history. The NCSH promotes scholarly research of North Carolina’s history and supports published works to enrich the historiography of the state. I have read and know some of the folks who have been honored with this award in past years. It is indeed an honor to now be included as one of them.”

“It is wonderful to see author Sheridan ‘Butch’ Barringer’s work recognized with a second prestigious award,” explained publisher Savas Beatie’s Managing Director Theodore P. Savas. “His original work on General Barringer’s life and military service fills a large gap in the cavalry literature, and will stand the test of time. We deeply appreciate the honor.”

About the Book: Rufus Barringer fought on horseback through most of the Civil War with General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and rose to lead the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade in some of the war’s most difficult combats. Fighting for General Lee: Confederate General Rufus Barringer and the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade details his entire history for the first time. Drawing upon a wide array of newspapers, diaries, letters, and previously unpublished family documents and photographs, as well as other firsthand accounts, author Sheridan Barringer paints a broad, deep, and colorful portrait of an overlooked Southern cavalry commander. Despite its subject matter, the book provides a balanced account that concludes Barringer was a dependable, hard-hitting warrior increasingly called upon to lead attacks against superior Union forces.

About the Author: Sheridan R. “Butch” Barringer lives with his wife, Pam, in Newport News, Virginia. He graduated from Virginia Tech and worked as a mechanical engineer and project manager for nearly four decades with NASA. Butch’s interests include studying Civil War history, with an emphasis on the cavalry, and physics and cosmology. Butch has two other books under contract with Savas Beatie: a biography of General Thomas L. Rosser, and an edited memoir written by Rosser. He is currently at work on a biography of Colonel Thomas T. Munford.

About Savas Beatie LLC: Savas Beatie LLC is a leading military and general history publishing company. Read more about Fighting for General Lee, including excerpts and an interview with the author: http://tinyurl.com/zshso5t.

Contact: Michele Sams, Savas Beatie LLC
Email: michele@savasbeatie.com

Phone: 916-941-6896

Fax: 916-941-6895

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Steven Smith Joins Savas Beatie as Editorial Director

EL DORADO HILLS, CA: November 1, 2016 – California-based Savas Beatie, a prominent independent U.S. military history publisher, has announced that Steven Smith will be joining the firm as Editorial Director, beginning November 1, 2016. Savas Beatie is renowned for its award-winning Americana line, and especially its dominant presence in the field of American Civil War studies.

“We are very excited to welcome Steve aboard,” said Theodore P. Savas, the company’s Publisher and Managing Director. “I have known Steve personally and professionally for nearly two decades, and the opportunity to work closely with him to build our line and expand our visibility is very exciting.”

“Savas Beatie publishes a lot of exciting titles in a variety of areas, and is widely respected in the publishing world,” explained Smith. “I am excited to join this dynamic organization and hopefully help take it to the next level.”

Smith, who was the founder of New York-based Sarpedon Publishers, one of the most respected military history houses of the 1990s, has most recently been the editorial director of Philadelphia’s Casemate Publishers, where he guided nearly 200 works to fruition. He is also the author or co-author of 10 works of his own (sometimes under the pseudonym Stephen Tanner). Throughout his long career Smith has demonstrated a knack for achieving national acclaim for military-related titles from ancient history through Americana to studies of current military operations.

Smith will work from his office in Rockville Centre, NY, which, combined with SB’s main office near Sacramento, CA, will give the house a truly transcontinental reach. Meantime, both Savas and Smith agree: never has the military history field been more important to keep vibrant—not just for readers but for the public at large.

About Savas Beatie LLC: Savas Beatie is a leading independent military and general history publishing company with distribution worldwide. Read more about the company and all of their books at www.SavasBeatie.com

Contact: Sarah Keeney, Savas Beatie LLC
Email: sarahs@savasbeatie.com
Phone: 916-941-6896

Fax: 916-941-6895

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Savas Beatie Author To Be Presented with Civil War Round Table of Chicago’s 2016 Nevins-Freeman Award

EL DORADO HILLS, CA: October 7, 2016 – Savas Beatie author Lance J. Herdegen was recently selected to receive the Civil War Round Table of Chicago’s prestigious Nevins-Freeman Award for 2016.

“Named after famed historians Allen Nevins and Douglas Southall Freeman, the Nevins-Freeman Award is the highest honor the Civil War Round Table of Chicago can bestow,” states the Round Table on their website. “It is awarded for an individual’s contributions to Civil War scholarship, and their dedication to the Round Table movement. Past award winners include Bruce Catton, James McPherson. This year we are proud to give this award to a distinguished author and long-time friend of this Round Table, Lance Herdegen.”

“Mr. Herdegen…has demonstrated his scholarship through his published works and his teaching career,” said Round Table president Jonathan Sebastian. “He has also been an active member of the Milwaukee Civil War Round Table…[and] a great friend to the Chicago Round Table. Additionally, he has worked closely with the staff of the Kenosha Civil War Museum sharing both his knowledge and his time contributing to that excellent museum.”

“Lance’s body of work stands on its own,” said Savas Beatie’s Managing Director Theodore P. Savas. “It is wonderful to see this respected organization bestowing this award on him, which he so greatly deserves.”

Herdegen will be receiving the award at the Round Table’s October meeting on Friday the 14 at the Holiday Inn O'Hare (5615 N. Cumberland, Chicago, IL 60631), where he will be delivering the Nevins-Freeman Address. Anyone with an interest in the topic or the era is welcome to attend. For more information: http://www.chicagocwrt.org/index.html.

About the Author: Award-winning author and journalist Lance J. Herdegen is the former director of the Institute of Civil War Studies at Carroll University. He previously worked as a reporter and editor for United Press International (UPI), covering national politics and civil rights, and presently serves as historical consultant for the Civil War Museum of the Upper Middle West. Herdegen is the author of many articles and is regarded around the world as the authority on the Iron Brigade. His many book credits include The Iron Brigade in Civil War and Memory: The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter; Those Damned Black Hats!: The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign (winner of the Army Historical Foundation's Distinguished Writing Award for Battle/Operational History); Four Years with the Iron Brigade: The Civil War Journal of William R. Ray, Seventh Wisconsin Volunteers; and In the Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg (recently reprinted in paperback by Savas Beatie).

About Savas Beatie LLC: Savas Beatie LLC is a leading military and general history publishing company. Read more about Lance Herdegen and all of his books, including excerpts and interviews with the author: http://tinyurl.com/6r5sega.

Contact: Renee Morehouse, Savas Beatie LLC
Email: renee@savasbeatie.com

Phone: 916-941-6896, Fax: 916-941-6895

New Book Seeks Out True Story of Joshua Chamberlain’s Famous Charge at Petersburg

EL DORADO HILLS, CA: October 5, 2016 – Savas Beatie recently announced the release of author Dennis A. Rasbach’s first book, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and thePetersburg Campaign: His Supposed Charge from Fort Hell, his Near-Mortal Wound,and a Civil War Myth Reconsidered, which thoroughly reviews all of the primary evidence to learn the true story surrounding Chamberlain’s famous charge.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain earned the sobriquet “Lion of the Round Top” for his tactical brilliance leading his 20th Maine Infantry on the rocky wooded slopes of Little Round Top at Gettysburg on the evening of July 2, 1863. Promoted to brigade command, he was presumed mortally wounded during an assault at Petersburg on June 18, 1864, and bestowed a rare “on the spot” battlefield promotion to brigadier general. He survived, returned to the command in 1865, and participated in the surrender of Lee’s veterans at Appomattox.

Chamberlain went to his grave a half-century later believing he was wounded while advancing alone from the future site of “Fort Hell,” against the permanent fortifications of the Dimmock Line at Rives’ Salient, near the Jerusalem Plank Road, through a murderous flank fire from what was soon to become Confederate-held Fort Mahone. In fact, author Rasbach argues, a careful review of the primary evidence left by Chamberlain and his contemporaries suggests that Chamberlain was mistaken regarding the larger context of the engagement in which he fought and fell. An overwhelming body of evidence, much of it derived from Chamberlain himself, demonstrates he actually attacked a different part of the Confederate line in the vicinity of an entirely different road. This part of the Petersburg campaign must now be rewritten to properly understand this important battle, and Chamberlain’s role in it.

Richly illustrated with photos and original maps, and documented with extensive primary accounts, Rasbach’s Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Petersburg Campaign dispels a well-established Civil War myth and sets the historical record straight.

“Dennis Rasbach’s work is a masterful example of what can be accomplished in Civil War studies when all possible primary sources are joined with serious terrain analysis. The site of Joshua Chamberlain’s charge at Petersburg on 18 June, 1864, has finally been established definitively and the historical record corrected. Rasbach’s work represents a strong addition to the growing literature on the Petersburg Campaign,” said William Glenn Robertson, author of The First Battle for Petersburg: The Attack and Defense of the Cockade City, June 9, 1864.

“Researching, writing, and publishing Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Petersburg Campaign has been a surprising and rewarding adventure from start to finish,” said Rasbach. “The many little ‘discoveries’ that eventually helped to unlock the historical puzzle turned out to be as thrilling as any diagnostic triumph in my own field of medicine. The network of supportive collaborators and contributors that made the project possible, and the lasting friendships that grew out of it, are priceless. I would not trade the experience for anything.”

About the Author: Dennis A. Rasbach, MD, a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is a practicing surgeon and a member of the Civil War Round Table of Southwest Michigan. The father of two sons, he resides with his wife Ellen in St. Joseph, Michigan.

About Savas Beatie LLC: Savas Beatie LLC is a leading military and general history publishing company. Read more about Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, and all of their books, at http://tinyurl.com/h3a3au2.

Contact: Michele Sams, Savas Beatie LLC
Email: michele@savasbeatie.com
Phone: 916-941-6896, Fax: 916-941-6895

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Much-anticipated Final Volume in Award-winning Author’s Chickamauga Campaign Trilogy Recently Released

EL DORADO HILLS, CA: October 4, 2016 – Savas Beatie recently announced the release of the third and final volume in David A. Powell’s magnificent Chickamauga trilogy, The Chickamauga Campaign—Barren Victory: The Retreat into Chattanooga, the Confederate Pursuit, and the Aftermath of the Battle, September 21 to October 20, 1863, which concludes this comprehensive examination, more than a decade in the making, of one of the most important and complex military operations of the Civil War.

The first installment, A Mad Irregular Battle, introduced readers to the major characters of this sweeping drama and carried them from the Union crossing of the Tennessee River up through the bloody but inconclusive combat of the first and second days of the battle. Glory or the Grave, the trilogy’s second volume, which recently won the Atlanta Civil War Round Table’s Richard B. Harwell Award for 2016, focused on the decisive third day of fighting that included the Confederate breakthrough and the desperate Union final stand on Horseshoe Ridge.

Barren Victory, Powell’s final installment, examines the immediate aftermath of this great battle with unprecedented clarity and detail. The narrative opens at dawn on Monday, September 21, 1863, with Union commander William S. Rosecrans in Chattanooga and most of the rest of his Federal army in Rossville, Georgia. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg has won the signal victory of his career, but has yet to fully grasp his success. Unfortunately for the South, three grueling days of combat have broken down the Army of Tennessee and made a vigorous pursuit nearly impossible. In addition to carefully examining the decisions made by each army commander and their consequences, Powell sets forth the dreadful costs of the fighting in terms of the human suffering involved. Barren Victory concludes with the most detailed order of battle for Chickamauga ever compiled and a comprehensive bibliography. The award-winning Chickamauga Campaign trilogy is now complete.

“I will not mince words. Dave Powell’s three-volume work on the Chickamauga Campaign represents the most significant Western Campaign contribution since Albert Castel’s Decision in the West. The bibliography in Barren Victory, Volume 3 of his trilogy, reveals the breadth and scope of his research. Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. In this third volume, the reader discovers how this epic story concludes. Must reading!” said Larry J. Daniel, author of Days of Glory: The Army of the Cumberland.

“With the publication of Barren Victory, the three volumes of The Chickamauga Campaign are at last complete,” said Powell. “I began this work in 1999 as research for a different project, little dreaming that someday those three volumes would sit on my shelf, complete and superbly produced. I am delighted with the end result.”

About the Author: David A. Powell is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (1983) with a BA in history. He has published numerous articles in various magazines, and more than fifteen historical simulations of different battles. For the past decade David’s focus has been on the epic battle of Chickamauga, and he is nationally recognized for his tours of that important battlefield. He is also the author of The Maps of Chickamauga (2009), the award-winning Failure in the Saddle (2010), and the first two volumes of the Chickamauga trilogy, A Mad Irregular Battle (2014) and Glory or the Grave (2015). David and his wife Anne live and work in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. He is Vice President of Airsped, Inc., a specialized delivery firm.

About Savas Beatie LLC: Savas Beatie LLC is a leading military and general history publishing company. Read more about The Chickamauga Campaign—Barren Victory and all of David’s great books at http://tinyurl.com/ja5gcsp.

Contact: Michele Sams, Savas Beatie LLC
Email: michele@savasbeatie.com, 

Phone: 916-941-6896, Fax: 916-941-6895

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