Michael Cobb received a master’s in American Studies from the College of William and Mary, and is the founding curator of the Hampton History Museum. He is the author of Fort Wool: Star Spangled Banner Rising, as well as several published articles about the Civil War, and is the recipient of the Jefferson Davis award from the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Edward B. Hicks worked for more than three decades as a newspaper advertising executive while maintaining an intense interest in the Civil War. He has edited and provided extensive research for several history publications, has accomplished the bulk of the research for this volume, and is currently Assistant to the Curator of the Hampton History Museum.
"""Combatants at Big Bethel shared an understandable desire to document their experiences in a history-making event. The authors of Battle of Big Bethel: Crucial Clash in Early Civil War Virginia have seized the opportunity and produced a comprehensive study of the Civil War's first major battle. It is an admirable view of the American fighting man's experience, well leavened with strategic and political context.""""--Robert E. L. Krick, author of Staff Officers in Gray: A Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia ""With excellent writing and remarkable research, the narrative in Battle of Big Bethel evokes the scene at the beginning of the war in a very convincing way. Complete with powerful battle scenes, the authors do a wonderful job of describing the motivations and mindsets of both the U.S. and Confederate soldiers at the outset of the conflict and handle slavery very effectively throughout.""--Edward L. Ayers, author of In the Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863"