From the Lowcountry's first recorded duel to old-fashioned summers at the 'hottest spot in town,' these pages will captivate you with stories of people, events and places that have all but vanished from memory. Find out the real history behind some of Charleston's beloved mansions and learn about the early plantations and their owners. Join the authors as they relate the riots and romance, the preservation and politics- and even a ghost story -from...

America's most notorious family feud began in 1865 with the murder of a Union McCoy soldier by a Confederate Hatfield relative of "Devil Anse" Hatfield. More than a decade later, Ranel McCoy accused a Hatfield cousin of stealing one of his hogs, triggering years of violence and retribution, including a Romeo-and-Juliet interlude that eventually led to the death of one of McCoy's daughters. In a drunken brawl, three of McCoy's sons killed Devil Anse...

The European explorers were the first to find the evidence of earlier civilizations who built monumental earthwork mounds, ceremonial complexes and cities in the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys. Speculations went wild about who built these incredible centers. This fascination over the mysterious mound building cultures continues to this very day. This work is the first ever study of the prehistoric mound building cultures in south Florida.

The Battle of Fisher's Hill created a greater opportunity to destroy harvests from the "Breadbasket of the Confederacy" than any other Union victory in the hotly contested Shenandoah Valley. Union major general Philip Sheridan's men forced Confederate lieutenant general Jubal A. Early's smaller force to retreat, leading to the burning of barns and mills across the region. In this first-ever book focused on this engagement, Civil War historian Jonathan...

Until the late 1950s, the major body of water for residents of northeast Alabama was the Coosa River, which wove prominently through the rural landscape of the region. When Alabama Power Company decided to dam the river in order to build a thirty-thousand-acre reservoir, locals were divided about whether to welcome the hydroelectricity and potential prosperity or resist losing their land and proud agrarian heritage. Three years and millions of cubic...

“Mysteries and Legends of Virginia” explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Virginia's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Virginia history.

On the corner of Central Avenue and Monroe Street, in the center of downtown Phoenix, is the historic Hotel San Carlos. Local Native Americans once worshipped a god of learning in this same area, and so early white settlers chose the site for the city's first school, the Little Adobe School, in 1873. After the Little Adobe School, the location served as a ballpark, a brick schoolhouse, the Central School, and finally the Hotel San Carlos, which opened...

Today, James Island is a bustling community seven miles west of Charleston, South Carolina. But the island's past was not always as sunny. Beginning in the eighteenth century, James Island was the destination for hundreds of slaves who were tortured with unimaginable hardships while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. In James Island: Stories From Slave Descendants, Eugene Frazier, Sr. compiles narrative interviews with slaves, slave descendents, and descendents...

The 20th century brought dramatic change to the closely-knit yet independent-minded farming community of Pleasant Garden, North Carolina. Although descendants of the families who migrated from the Eastern Shore of Maryland still lived on the lands of their ancestors and attended Pleasant Garden Methodist Episcopal Church, which was organized in 1788, they welcomed progress. The community became home to one of the first state-supported high schools,...

In the late eighteenth century, in the bustling city streets of Louisville, began a tradition of thoroughbred racing that has transcended centuries. Follow Kimberly Gatto as she chronicles the history of the world's most famous racing venue, which revolutionized the "Sport of Kings" and created the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks and Clark Handicap races. Fans will enjoy the tales of various horses, from the early triumph of Ten Broeck over Mollie McCarthy...