This vividly written history of North Carolina's Bethel Regiment recounts the epic struggles of a distinguished but tragic volunteer unit that fought on the first battlefield of the Civil War and figured prominently in many of its most famous campaigns until the war's end at Appomattox. It is a unit-focused tour of the war's Eastern Theater, with a fine storyteller as your guide. The Bethel Regiment was named for its defense of Bethel Church during the Confederacy's early victory near Yorktown, Virginia. It was there that one of the regiment's men became the first Confederate soldier to die in a battle. This compelling new regimental history puts you into the thick of the action where you can see the fighting through the eyes of the individual combatant. You will gain fresh insights into the enigmatic character of the Southern soldier, getting to know him as a man who fought valiantly, suffered horribly, and ultimately lost a war that just could not be won. The Bethel Regiment's sorrowful journey through years of combat, disease, and controversy shed light on some of the Confederacy's internal tensions and on the attitudes and makeup of the Tar Heel soldier. Offering new perspectives on Gettysburg (in particular, a lasting debate about Pickett's Charge), the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Appomattox, and numerous other battles from the beginning of the war until its end, More Terrible Than Victory is a poignant account of a first-class fighting unit.Craig S. Chapman draws on his experience as an infantry officer and his skill as a researcher to narrate past military actions in a way that sheds new light on the challenges, triumphs and miscalculations of armed conflicts, never losing sight of the human experience of war. He has followed up his highly regarded Civil War history, More Terrible Than Victory, with a deeply personal account of his father’s combat journey in World War II. Chapman pulls together the details from source documents to relate military actions at the ground level and give the reader an honest and critical appraisal of how battles are won and lost.