The Bleeding, Volume 3 of Bloodstains, An Epic History of the Politics that Produced the American Civil War

The Bleeding is the third volume of a four-volume history of what became the United States of America, the four volumes being presented under the title: Bloodstains, An Epic History of the Politics the Produced the American Civil War. The objective of this readable narrative is to enable the reader to gain his or her understanding of what caused the War Between the States, an understanding few present-day Americans have achieved.

Volume 3 covers from April 1861 to May 1865, the months of the War Between the States. The focus is on political actions, with only essential military content interspersed for meaning. Much of the story is told in a chronolgical and narrative manner through parallel biographies of Abe Lincoln, Jeff Davis, Thad Stevens and Charles Sumner, which are continued from Volume 2,The Demagogues.

Volume 3 begins where Volume 2, The Demagogues, concluded. Volume 2 had covered America's political history from March 1848 to April 1861, having told much of the history through the parallel biographies of the political leaders already mentioned, plus Stephen Douglas. Volume 2 had continued the history from Volume 1, The Nation Builders, which had began in the ancient British Isles, presented related history of that region, moved on to the Colonial period in North America, then to the American Revolution, then to the formation of the Federal Government, then to the westward expansion of new States, then the War Against Mexico and the taking of land out to California. Overall, much of the history in volumes one, two and three is told through parallel biographies of political leaders aleady mentioned, plus Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston.

The work is exceptionally narrative and chronological in style. Historian Howard Ray White, a retired Chemical Engineer, Vanderbilt 1960, presents for your enjoyment and enlightment an epic history, full of biography, which enables you, the reader, to Live the events as if you were there. Avoiding analysis and interpretation, and shunning any attempt to be politically correct by today's standards, White takes you back to those years so that you may live them yourself, because he wants you to personally experience those times and draw your own conclusions about the political causes of The War Between the States, about the politics that produced such horrific fighting, suffering and death.

Unlike the vast majority of historians, White is not the product of American Academia, which he finds most refreshing; you will as well. White tells the history and relates the parallel biographies with measured feelings of passionate involvement, for his grandfather's farmhouse was a Federal field hospital at the Battle of Murfreesboro (Stones River). He explains: As a child, the bloodstains on the floors cried out to me to someday tell them 'Why'. The result, the four volumes of Bloodstains, presents the history as White organized it for personal study and for maximum understanding. After reading the first three volumes of Bloodstains, you will know Why more surely than if he had told you in summary fashion, and with far more conviction, for he will be allowing you to have Lived It.

Howard Ray White invites you to read Bloodstains, either as a paper book or as a Kindle e-book. The history continues with Volume 4, The Struggle for Healing, with is still being researched and written. It will be the last volume is this series.