Big Byte Books: 141 books

One of the most delightful and important works in the body of American Civil War memoirs, George Eggleston's account is funny, informative, bitter, and sad. Written ten years after the end of the war, he extends a hand to his former Union foes, not to excuse or define the war from the Confederate...

William Phil Clark's classic work on Native American signs and culture is still considered a monumental achievement. Published posthumously after the young Clark died in 1884, it covers the words and phrases of many tribes. Clark was with General George Crook in late summer of 1876 during the Sioux...

Among the many captive narratives of the nineteenth century, Nelson Lee's stands out as one of the most thrilling and authentic. A longtime Texas Ranger, Lee was captured by Comanches and held for three long, grueling years before making his escape. Once free, he nearly lost his mind and his life...

No less authority than Hiram Chittenden wrote this marvelous history of the early days of one of America's most important waterways. A West Point engineer, namesake of the Hiram Chittenden locks in Seattle, Chittenden was a respected historian of early western America. There was no railroad system...

This rare and long-out-of-print collection of papers and addresses by some of America's early railroad movers and shakers provides a fascinating look into the birth of an industry. They helped change the American landscape, economy, and culture and here is the beginning in their own words. Grenville...

"The purpose of this book is to record woman’s part in working out the plan of our Western civilization; no other civilization, perhaps, bearing so conspicuously the imprint of her hand and her brain." So wrote Mary Douthit, herself a pioneer woman. She continued: "In patience, courage, and endurance,...

From service in the Civil War to presiding over the trial of Wild Bill Hickok's killer to raising sheep, Judge W.L. Kuykendall lived a frontier life full of real adventure and close calls. When elected judge by the citizens of Deadwood for the trial of Hickok's killer, Kuykendall told the town..."While...

For fifty-four years in the 19th century, Benjamin Armstrong spent his life with Native American tribes, learning their customs and languages, and becoming the adopted son of a Chippewa chief. Armstrong sat before Presidents Filmore and Lincoln on separate occasions as interpreter and advocate for...

In this true story, Mary Matilda McNair Mathews tells the tale of going west for no other reason than to get the facts on her brother's murder. With her small son, she braves what was in 1869, a wild and lawless country. For ten years she made her way as a businesswoman and investor. Observing all...

A hero of the Battle of Gettysburg and a veteran of many other American Civil War battles, Washington Roebling assumed the duties of Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge only a few short years after the war ended. This report was written by Roebling and his staff six years before the completion...

This edition contains  Vol. I & II, Abridged, Annotated By any account, Edward Henry Harriman was a fascinating individual and a titan of the railroad industry. What Rockefeller was to oil, Harriman was to railroads. By his death Harriman controlled the Union Pacific, the...

In the early days of the American Civil War, the want of adequate combat medicine was a constant complaint by officers in the field. Englishman Thomas Ellis already had experience serving the British Army in South Africa when he was appointed Post Surgeon and later Medical Director. Ellis' account...

Did Samuel Mudd have prior knowledge of the impending assassination of Abraham Lincoln and willingly provide aid to John Wilkes Booth after Lincoln's murder? Historians are still divided over this issue nearly 140 years later. In 1906, Nettie Mudd published this passionate plea for her father's innocence....

The world knows the name of William Tecumseh Sherman but few Americans remember his brother John. Both men were powerful players in American history from the mid to late 19th century. Both were supported and protected by their relationship with General Sherman's foster father, Thomas Ewing. As a...