Author Brian Jordans Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War Announced Finalist for Pulitzer Prize in History

2026-08-24 12:42:55 Art & Entertainment

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EL DORADO HILLS, CA: April 22, 2016 Author Brian Matthew Jordans Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War, has just been announced as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History.

Finalists are selected from about one thousand submitted titles for being the most distinguished and appropriately documented books on the history of the United States first published in the U.S. in the preceding year.

Marching Home is a groundbreaking new narrative that challenges the traditional stereotypes of Union soldiers returning triumphantly home after a hard-earned victory. In this landmark work, Civil War historian Brian Matthew Jordan reveals the plight of the common soldier dealing with physical and psychological scars and a populace unable to grasp the reality of combat and eager to mask the consequences of war. Marching Home brings their previously untold stories to light, illuminating intense, deeply personal struggles that are still critically relevant today.

This news came as a complete surprise, said Jordan, but I am pleased that the Pulitzer committee found merit in the book and the voices of Union veterans.

Jordans previous book, Unholy Sabbath: The Battle of South Mountain in History and Memory, September 14, 1862, published by Savas Beatie LLC, was another groundbreaking work that offered a fresh interpretation of a previously overlooked, yet crucial battle in the Maryland Campaign.

Many readers of Civil War history have been led to believe the battle of South Mountain (September 14, 1862) was but a trifling skirmish, a preliminary engagement of little strategic or tactical consequence overshadowed by Antietams horrific carnage just three days later. In fact, the fight was a decisive Federal victory and important turning point in the campaign. Unholy Sabbath proposes a new rubric for evaluating this important combat by examining not only the minute military aspects of the battle, but how soldiers remembered the fighting and why South Mountain faded from public memory. This richly detailed study, complete with outstanding maps, photographs, a complete order of battle with losses, and an in-depth interview with the author, is modern Civil War history at its finest.

About the Author: Brian Matthew Jordan graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Civil War Era Studies from Gettysburg College and earned his Ph.D. from Yale University in 2013. A native of northeastern Ohio, Brian discovered a passion for history at an early age. He is a popular speaker at Civil War roundtables nationwide, has delivered tours for Gettysburg Colleges Civil War Institute and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and has conducted seminars for various Teaching American History grant recipients. His published work has appeared in multiple journals including Civil War History.

About Savas Beatie LLC: Savas Beatie LLC is a leading military and general history publishing company. Read more about Unholy Sabbath, including excerpts and an interview with the author: http://tinyurl.com/3tme26b.

Contact: Michele Sams, Savas Beatie LLC
Email: michele@savasbeatie.com
Phone: 916-941-6896, Fax: 916-941-6895