Historian-in-Residence Chris Mackowski has a new book coming out this spring that touches on one of the area’s most notorious battles. Hell Itself: The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864, covers the opening engagement of what became the 1864 Overland Campaign. (The battle of Spotsylvania Court House, where Stevenson Ridge is located, followed on May 8-21, 1864.)

Chris has written books about Spotsylvania, as well as the next phase of the campaign, at the North Anna River, and …