Bull's-eyes and Misfires 50 People Whose Obscure Efforts Shaped the American Civil War

You don't have to know much about the Civil War to be familiar with Robert E.Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson, or William Tecumseh Sherman. Bull's-Eyes and Misfires, however, tells the fascinating stories of fifty largelyunknown people who dramatically changed the course of the Civil War by theirheroic efforts or bungling mistakes. Here are the stories of:

Col. George Rains who used his skill as a businessman to build agunpowder factory in Augusta, Georgia that was impressive in its efficiency even by modern standards and manufactured nearly three million pounds of powder. TheConfederacy lacked many things, but gunpowder was not one of them.

Confederate Maj. John Barry ordered the volley that wounded (and eventually killed) Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville. One can only speculatehow the outcome of the War might have been different had Barry not accidentally shot his own general.

Julia Grant, the wife of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, kept her husband soberand focused by just showing up and living near him before and after nearly every major battle. When she was not around, he drank out of loneliness. When she wasaround, his Army won battles.

Gen. James Wolfe Ripley hated waste so much that he refused to buymodern repeating weapons for the Union Army. He believed soldiers would firewithout taking aim. His decision not to distribute superior weapons for at leasta year delayed the end of the war.