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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