Richmond National Battlefield Park, Virginia

Richmond was the heart of the Confederacy, its political capital and symbolic center, and the battles that raged around it in pursuit of that prize would help determine the fate of the nation. Joseph P. Cullen guides readers through the military campaigns that convulsed the ground around Virginia's former capital, from the desperate defense of the Drewry's Bluff to the brutal attrition of the Bermuda Hundred campaign and the final, agonizing approach on the city itself. The book illuminates the strategies of Lee and his commanders, the movements of troops across terrain that still bears the scars of earthworks and trenches, and the human toll of campaigns that saw hundreds of thousands of men converge on a region already scarred by years of war. Originally published in the early 1960s, this volume remains a valuable introduction to battles that history has sometimes overshadowed, grounding the reader in the tactical realities while acknowledging the profound weight of what these fields once held. For those who walk the preserved grounds of Richmond National Battlefield Park today, or who study from afar, Cullen offers a pathway into understanding how the war was fought and why it mattered.