Results by title
3 books match the query 'Taylor, Robert A.'
A Forgotten Front
Florida during the Civil War EraEdited by Seth A. Weitz and Jonathan C. Sheppard
University of Alabama Press, 2018
In many respects Florida remains the forgotten state of the Confederacy. Journalist Horace Greeley once referred to Florida in the Civil War as the “smallest tadpole in the dirty pool of secession.” Although it was the third state to secede, Florida’s small population and meager industrial resources made the state of little strategic importance. Because it was the site of only one major battle, it has, with a few exceptions, been overlooked within the field of Civil War studies.
During the Civil War, more than fifteen thousand Floridians served the Confederacy, a third of which were lost to combat and disease. The Union also drew the service of another twelve hundred white Floridians and more than a thousand free blacks and escaped slaves. Florida had more than eight thousand miles of coastline to defend, and eventually found itself with Confederates holding the interior and Federals occupying the coasts—a tenuous state of affairs for all. Florida’s substantial Hispanic and Catholic populations shaped wartime history in ways unique from many other states. Florida also served as a valuable supplier of cattle, salt, cotton, and other items to the blockaded South.
A Forgotten Front: Florida during the Civil War Era provides a much-needed overview of the Civil War in Florida. Editors Seth A. Weitz and Jonathan C. Sheppard provide insight into a commonly neglected area of Civil War historiography. The essays in this volume examine the most significant military engagements and the guerrilla warfare necessitated by the occupied coastline. Contributors look at the politics of war, beginning with the decade prior to the outbreak of the war through secession and wartime leadership and examine the period through the lenses of race, slavery, women, religion, ethnicity, and historical memory.
Pacific Airman
The World War II Journal of a B-24 Liberator NavigatorEdward S. Goode, edited by Robert A. Taylor
University of Alabama Press, 2026
A World War II bomber navigator’s diary, documenting perilous missions, survival, sacrifice, and the legendary 90th Bomb Group
Pacific Airman: The World War II Journal of a B-24 Liberator Navigator presents the hand-written pocket diary of US Army Air Forces bomber navigator Edward S. Goode of West Virginia. Goode was a member of the 400th Bomber Squadron (the “Black Pirates”), part of the legendary 90th Bomb Group the “Jolly Rogers.” With approximately seventy-four combat missions to his credit and an Air Medal with six Oak Leaf clusters, Goode experienced the war close-up, with group losses and the horror of grisly deaths in and out of combat.
The journal details costly bombing raids against Japanese targets, as well as the dangers of the Southwest Pacific area with its wild and unpredictable weather and terrain. Editor Robert A. Taylor also documents Goode’s failed postwar attempt to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism for the Peleliu bombing mission in 1944.
Taylor offers detailed historical and other context to the journal. Three appendixes comprise a guide for B-24 navigators’ duties and responsibilities, Goode’s own record of 90th Bomb Group losses for 1944–1945, and a hometown newspaper clipping announcing his return home. This book will appeal to readers interested in World War II history, military aviation, the Pacific theater, and firsthand wartime narratives.
This War So Horrible
The Civil War Diary of Hiram Smith Williams, 40th Alabama Confederate PioneerHiram Smith Williams
University of Alabama Press, 1993
The Civil War diary of Hiram Smith Williams is extremely unusual. A carriage maker and native of New Jersey, Williams only arrived in the Deep South in 1959 and yet enlisted in the Confederate Army. As a middle-class craftsman, he represented neither wealthy Southern planters nor yeoman farmers. Part of the 40th Alabama Volunteer Regiment, he was first in Mobile, where he attempted to transfer to the CSA Navy. Failing that, he went with his regiment to Atlanta to engage in the great battle there.
A careful writer, Williams paid the same attention to his composition as he did to his carriages. Unlike many Civil War veterans, he never revised his diary to embellish his record or heroism. Prized by historians both for providing an unique point of view as well as an exceptionally articulate narrative, Williams' diary is an important addition to any Civil War library.