Sign-In
Cart
The Unbroken Oath
Paperback
Series: Civil War Combat Artists and the Pictures They Drew
Publisher: Jim Stovall
Published: Mar 29 2026
Pages: 134
Weight: 0.31
Height: 0.31 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
The Heroes History Forgot: Southern Officers Who Kept Their Oath to the Constitution
When Virginia seceded in April 1861, Colonel Robert E. Lee faced an agonizing choice: accept command of the Union army or follow his state into rebellion. He chose Virginia and broke his oath to the Constitution. On the same day, another Virginian made a different choice.
Winfield Scott, the 74-year-old commanding general of the Army, remained loyal to the oath he had taken 50 years earlier. I have served my country under the flag of the Union for more than fifty years, Scott said, and so long as God permits me to live, I will defend that flag with my sword.
Scott was not alone. George H. Thomas, a Virginian from a slave-owning family, kept his oath and was disowned by his relatives-they turned his portrait to the wall and never spoke to him again. David Farragut of Tennessee abandoned his Norfolk home and later led the Union fleet to victory at Mobile Bay. John Gibbon, raised in North Carolina, commanded Union troops at Gettysburg while three of his brothers fought for the Confederacy. Hundreds of other Southern officers made the same choice: duty over family, Constitution over state, oath over convenience.
The Unbroken Oath: The Southern Heroes Who Chose the Union tells the forgotten stories of these men-officers who kept their word when it cost them everything.
What History Forgot
For more than a century, the Lost Cause mythology has dominated our understanding of the Civil War. It taught generations that the war was about states' rights, that Confederate leaders were noble defenders of their homeland, and that all true Southerners supported secession. This mythology required one crucial erasure: Southern Unionists had to be forgotten, because their very existence contradicted the entire narrative.
If George Thomas-a Virginian who saved the Union army at Chickamauga and destroyed a Confederate army at Nashville-remained loyal to his oath, then secession was not the inevitable choice of honor. If 100,000 white Southerners fought in Union blue, then the South was never unified. If officers from the most prominent Southern families chose the Constitution over their states, then loyalty to the Union was not incompatible with being Southern.
So these men were erased. Their service went unrecognized in their home states. Their names disappeared from textbooks. Statues rose to celebrate Confederate heroes, but not these men.
Inside This Book
The Unbroken Oath reclaims these remarkable stories:
- George H. Thomas, The Rock of Chickamauga, whose family turned his portrait to the wall and refused to claim his body when he died
- David Farragut, who damned the torpedoes at Mobile Bay after choosing his country over his Tennessee roots
- Winfield Scott, the legendary general who remained loyal when hundreds of younger officers resigned
- John Gibbon, who commanded troops at Gettysburg while his own brothers fought against him in Confederate ranks
These men came from Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and other Confederate states. They attended West Point. They owned slaves or came from slave-owning families. By every measure of background and culture, they should have joined the Confederacy. Instead, they kept their oaths-and helped save the United States.
Also from
Stovall, Jim
Coach for Life: A Parable of Learning How to Play the Game, Live Your Life, and Win
Stovall, Jim
Paperback
The Ultimate Legacy: From the Creators of the Ultimate Gift and the Ultimate Life
Stovall, Jim
Paperback
Vietnam Voices: Stories of East Tennesseans Who Served in Vietnam, 1965-1975
Caudill, Edward
Paperback
Wisdom for Winners Volume Four: An Official Publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation(r)
Stovall, Jim
Napoleon Hill Foundation
Hardcover
Words That Shaped Our World Volume Two: Legendary Voices of History: Quotes That Changes How We Think, What We Do, and Who We Are
Stovall, Jim
Johnson, Kathy
Paperback
Wisdom for Winners Volume Three: An Official Publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation(r)
Napoleon Hill Foundation
Stovall, Jim
Hardcover
Murder Most Criminous: The Cases of William Roughead, Father of Modern True Crime Literature
Stovall, Jim
Paperback
The Art of Communication: Your Competitive Edge [Standard Large Print 16 Pt Edition] (Large Print Edition)
Stovall, Jim
Hull, Ray H.
Paperback
Millionaire Answers: 25 Years of Winners' Wisdom for Building, Managing, and Enjoying Wealth
Stovall, Jim
Paperback
Wisdom for Winners Volume Two: An Official Publication of the Napoleon Hill Foundation(r)
Stovall, Jim
Paperback
The Art of Entrepreneurship: The Proactive Method to Turn the Time, Talent, and Resources You Have Into What You Want
Schneider, Kevin
Stovall, Jim
Paperback
100 Worst Employees: Learning from the Very Worst, How to Be Your Very Best
Stovall, Jim
Sexter, Kristine
Paperback
Words That Shaped Our World: Legendary Voices of History: Quotes That Changed How We Think, What We Do, and Who We Are
Stovall, Jim
Johnson, Kathy
Paperback
Dear Napoleon: The Living Legacy of Napoleon Hill and Think and Grow Rich(r)
Napoleon Hill Foundation
Stovall, Jim
Paperback
Making Your Mark: Finding Forgiveness and a Fresh Start at Mark Twain High School
Stovall, Jim
Paperback
Also in
Civil War Period (1850-1877)
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik
Paperback
America's Founding Son: John Quincy Adams, from President to Political Maverick
Crawford, Bob
Hardcover
The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker: A True Tale of Love, Murder, Treason, and Ordinary Folks Who Saved America
Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe
Hardcover
Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America's Future
Bordewich, Fergus M.
Hardcover
The Confederacy Myth: How an Insurrection of Slaveholders Tried to Destroy the United States
Williams, Connor
Hardcover
Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War
Fields-Black, Edda L.
Hardcover
Getting to Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past
Brown, Dorothy A.
Hardcover
Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
Ellsworth, Scott
Hardcover
If I Can Get Home This Fall: A Story of Love, Loss, and a Cause in the Civil War
Alexander, Tyler
Hardcover
Lincoln's Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War
Willis, Gerri
Hardcover
The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War
Quigley, Paul
Hardcover
The Road Was Full of Thorns: Running Toward Freedom in the American Civil War
Zoellner, Tom
Hardcover
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Baptist, Edward E.
Paperback
A Promise Delivered: Ten American Heroes and the Battle to Rename Our Nation's Military Bases
Seidule, Ty
Williams, Connor
Hardcover
Lincoln on Leadership for Today: Abraham Lincoln's Approach to Twenty-First-Century Issues
Phillips, Donald T.
Paperback
Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
Ambrose, Stephen E.
Paperback
Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America
Nelson, Megan Kate
Hardcover
Lincoln's Road to War: A Day-by-Day Account of the First 60 Days of Abraham Lincoln's Presidency
Johnson, David Alan
Hardcover
The Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman: The Complete Annotated Edition
Sherman, William T.
Hardcover
The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution
Foner, Eric
Paperback
The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West
Nelson, Megan Kate
Paperback
The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896
White, Richard
Paperback
Behind the Scenes: Or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House
Keckley, Elizabeth
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
Sinha, Manisha
Paperback
To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876
Baier, Bret
Whitney, Catherine
Paperback
Maine's Place in History: Joshua Chamberlain's 1876 Address at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition
Chamberlain, Joshua
Hardcover
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (National Book Award Finalist)
Faust, Drew Gilpin
Paperback
Such Troops as These: The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson
Alexander, Bevin
Paperback
We Gather Together: The True Story of Thanksgiving and the Woman Who Fought to Make It an American Holiday
Kiernan, Denise
Paperback
Everything You Were Taught about the Civil War Is Wrong, Ask a Southerner!
Seabrook, Lochlainn
Paperback
Heroes: From Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar to Churchill and de Gaulle
Johnson, Paul
Paperback
Defending Dixie's Land: What Every American Should Know About The South and The Civil War
Bishop, Isaac C.
Hardcover
A Legacy in Brick and Stone: American Coast Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816-1867
Weaver, John R.
Hardcover
Civil War Camps and Soldier Health: Sanitation and Military Effectiveness in the Union Army
Hess, Earl J.
Paperback
Abolitionists of the Northeast: Black Leaders in the Antislavery Movement
MacDonald, Gail Braccidiferro
Paperback
The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights
Wickenden, Dorothy
Paperback
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
Gates, Henry Louis
Paperback
Seeking Freedom in Indian Country: Slavery, Sovereignty, and Resistance Within the Five Tribes, 1790-1861
Oertel, Kristen Tegtmeier
Hardcover
Reminiscences of My Life in Camp: An African American Woman's Civil War Memoir
Taylor, Susie King
Paperback
Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever
O'Reilly, Bill
Dugard, Martin
Paperback
Freedom Was in Sight: A Graphic History of Reconstruction in the Washington, D.C., Region
Masur, Kate
Paperback
Be Free or Die: The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero
Lineberry, Cate
Paperback
Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery
Kreitner, Richard
Hardcover
To Purge This Land with Blood: A Biography of John Brown [Updated Edition]
Oates, Stephen B.
Hardcover
Hell's Half-Acre: The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier
Jonusas, Susan
Paperback
The President and the Freedom Fighter: Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America's Soul
Kilmeade, Brian
Paperback
The Surgeon's Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the Civil War
Privette, Lindsay Rae Smith
Paperback
Abolitionists of the Northeast: Black Leaders in the Antislavery Movement
MacDonald, Gail Braccidiferro
Hardcover
A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin: Presenting the Original Facts and Documents Upon Which the Story Is Founded
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Paperback
Scars on the Land: An Environmental History of Slavery in the American South
Silkenat, David
Hardcover
Civil War Photo Forensics: Investigating Battlefield Photographs Through a Critical Lens
Hippensteel, Scott
Hardcover
Retreat from Victory: The Battle of Malvern Hill and the End of the Seven Days, July 1, 1862
O'Reilly, Francis Augustín
Hardcover
The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation
Wineapple, Brenda
Paperback
Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery
Krauthamer, Barbara
Willis, Deborah
Paperback
Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation
Parten, Bennett
Paperback
No Common Ground, Second Edition: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice
Cox, Karen L.
Paperback
Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation
Parten, Bennett
Hardcover
The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
Delbanco, Andrew
Paperback
A Plausible Man: The True Story of the Escaped Slave Who Inspired Uncle Tom's Cabin
Ashton, Susanna
Hardcover
Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave
Fleischner, Jennifer
Paperback
Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad
Tobin, Jacqueline
Dobard, Raymond G.
Paperback
Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery
Kreitner, Richard
Paperback
Hope Never to See It: A Graphic History of Guerrilla Violence During the American Civil War
Fialka, Andrew
Paperback
The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920
Sinha, Manisha
Hardcover
Requiem for Reconstruction: Black Countermemory and the Legacy of the Lowcountry's Lost Political Generation
Bland, Robert D.
Paperback
Ways and Means: Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War
Lowenstein, Roger
Paperback
Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom: Free People of Color and the Fight for Equal Rights in the Civil War Era
Milteer, Warren Eugene, Jr.
Paperback
Death or Victory: The Louisiana Native Guards and the Black Military's Significance in the Civil War
Cade, A. J.
Hardcover
Lincoln's Last Trial: The Murder Case That Propelled Him to the Presidency
Abrams, Dan
Fisher, David
Paperback