A War to Petrify the Heart The Civil War Letters of a Dutchess County N.Y. Volunteer Richard T. Van Wyck Edited, chapter introductions, "The effect of war is to petrify the heart," wrote 24-year-old Hudson Valley farmer-turned-soldier, Richard T. Van Wyck, who had joined hundreds of his neighbors from throughout Dutchess County, NY, to form the 150th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. After nine months encamped in war-divided Baltimore, the "Dutchess County Regiment" was thrust into the maelstrom of Gettysburg. "We did terrible execution, literally piling the...

Printer's Devil to Publisher Adolph S. Ochs of The New York Times Doris Faber Published as part of the Times's centennial celebration, and written by a former Times reporter, Printer's Devil tells the dramatic and little-known story of how a struggling young man from Tennessee bought the nearly bankrupt New York Times in 1896 and transformed it into the best and most powerful newspaper in the world. A lively, readable biography of a barefoot boy who rose through the ranks of the newspaper business--from printer's errand boy, to printer, to publisher of a small Tennesee daily,...