Price:	$31.50   $35.00
Availability:	In Stock
ISBN#:	1-932399-03-8
Published:	May 2004
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Michigan played a crucial role during the four years of the Civil War (1861-65), as well as in the tumultuous decades leading up to the outbreak of hostilities. The eighth most populous state in the Union when the fighting began, Michigan saw 87,000 of its citizens serve in uniform, with one in six losing their lives. A Distant Thunder: Michigan in the Civil War is the first oversized illustrated book chronicling the experiences and contributions of Michiganians during the Civil War era.

Readers meet a wide range of soldiers, politicians and ordinary citizens--from abolitionist Laura Haviland of Adrian, a Quaker active in the underground railroad that smuggled thousands of escaped slaves to freedom in the North, and Julia Wheelock, “Michigan’s Florence Nightingale,” who nursed thousands of soldiers on battlefields, to the flamboyant “Boy General,” George Armstrong Custer, and drummer boys Johnny Clem (“Johnnny Shiloh”) and Robert Hendershot. Also spotlighted are the men of the 102nd U. S. Colored Infantry, the first regiment of African-American volunteers raised in the state; Sarah Emma Edmonds and “Michigan Annie” Etheridge, two of the few documented cases of women who fought disguised as men; and “boy soldiers” like 16-year-old George Sidman of Owosso, one of 67 Michiganians to receive the Medal of Honor during the war.

The story of the Wolverine State during America’s greatest conflict is a rich one, filled with tales of uncommon sacrifice, epic adventure and heroic service, and it springs to life in this compelling narrative.

Accompanying the text are more than 200 historical and contemporary illustrations culled from public archives and private collections. A bonus is the comprehensive resource guide in the back of the book that lists Civil War round tables, re-enactment groups, and sites of interest throughout Michigan.

Author Richard Bak grew up in Detroit and is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University. He has written 20 books, many of them on midwestern subjects, including biographies of Henry Ford, Joe Louis, Charles Lindbergh, and Ty Cobb, and award-winning histories of Tiger Stadium and the city of Detroit. Bak, a U. S. Marine Corps veteran, has written two previous books about the Civil War, an account of the Lincoln assassination and the story of the Confederate submarine H. L. Hunley.