The Colors of Courage Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle

In the summer of 1863, as Union and Confederate armies converged on southern Pennsylvania, the town of Gettysburg found itself thrust onto the center stage of war. The three days of fighting that ensued turned the tide of the Civil War. In The Colors of Courage, Margaret Creighton narrates the tale of this crucial battle from the viewpoint of three unsung groups-women, immigrants, and African Americans. A historian with a superb flair for storytelling, Creighton draws on memoirs, letters, diaries, and newspapers to bring these individuals to life and to convey their vital contributions to this pivotal moment in American history. A stunningly fluid work of original history, The Colors of Courage fundamentally revises the history of the Civil War's most remarkable battle. Book jacket.

Margaret S. Creighton is Professor of History at Bates College. The author of Rites and Passages: The Experience of American Whaling, and co-editor of Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic World, 1700-1920. She lives in Yarmouth, Maine.