Review: Hallowed Ground

Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg

The Illustrated Edition

By James M. McPherson

In 2003 Crown Publishing released “Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg,” written by James M. McPherson, the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University, and author of the Pulitzer Prize winning “Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era.”

Having over the years led countless tours of Gettysburg National Military Park, Dr. McPherson leads his readers on a tour of the battlefield, stopping at Seminary Ridge, the Peach Orchard, Cemetery Hill and Little Round Top, as well as many other key sites related to the pivotal battle which in conjunction with the surrender of Vicksburg, Mississippi marked a turning point in the American Civil War.  McPherson reflects on the meaning of the battle and sets Battle of Gettysburg in its proper context in American and World history, while describing the action of the battle at each site. He debunks many popular myths about the battle, and relays stories of his own encounters.

Zenith Press has recently given Dr. McPherson’s text a bit of a facelift with its new release of “Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg – The Illustrated Edition,” enhancing it with period photographs, color photographs (many of which are modern photographs of the battlefield and its monuments), maps, paintings and illustrations.  Many of the books photographs and artwork consume an entire page and sometimes even a two-page spread.  Zenith Press transformed McPherson’s 2003 book from its original 144 page, 5.2 x 7.9 x 0.6 inch size to a 9.6 x 11.2 x 0.9 inch coffee table book of 224 pages. The illustrated edition has given more depth to McPherson’s original text, and in the process has made a beautiful book just to sit and thumb through.

McPherson is often accused of resting on the laurels he received for “The Battle Cry of Freedom,” by writing “popular history” books for eager readers who will buy his books; that his books forgo historical detail and new research, to appeal to a wider and more general reading audience.  Even the topic of Gettysburg can set some academically minded reader’s eyes spinning to the back of their heads.  With hundreds of titles dedicated to the three-day battle of July 1st – 3rd, 1863 why do we need yet another book on Gettysburg.  Indeed there is some validity in both arguments, but Dr. McPherson knows his audience, and as long as there are people willing to buy books about the Battle of Gettysburg, there will be people who will write them.  Putting James M. McPherson’s cachet as one of this country’s greatest historians together with Gettysburg as a topic seems like a win-win scenario for publishers, and making an illustrated edition is a brilliant marketing strategy.

ISBN 978-0760347768, Zenith Press, © 2015, Hardcover, 224 glossy pages, Photographs & Illustrations, Maps, & Index. $35.00.  To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.

In The Review Queue: Engineering Victory

Engineering Victory: The Union Siege of Vicksburg

By Justin S. Solonick

On May 25, 1863, after driving the Confederate army into defensive lines surrounding Vicksburg, Mississippi, Union major general Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee laid siege to the fortress city. With no reinforcements and dwindling supplies, the Army of Vicksburg finally surrendered on July 4, yielding command of the Mississippi River to Union forces and effectively severing the Confederacy. In this illuminating volume, Justin S. Solonick offers the first detailed study of how Grant’s midwesterners serving in the Army of the Tennessee engineered the siege of Vicksburg, placing the event within the broader context of U.S. and European military history and nineteenth-century applied science in trench warfare and field fortifications. In doing so, he shatters the Lost Cause myth that Vicksburg’s Confederate garrison surrendered due to lack of provisions. Instead of being starved out, Solonick explains, the Confederates were dug out.

After opening with a sophisticated examination of nineteenth-century military engineering and the history of siege craft, Solonick discusses the stages of the Vicksburg siege and the implements and tactics Grant’s soldiers used to achieve victory. As Solonick shows, though Grant lacked sufficient professional engineers to organize a traditional siege—an offensive tactic characterized by cutting the enemy’s communication lines and digging forward-moving approach trenches—the few engineers available, when possible, gave Union troops a crash course in military engineering. Ingenious midwestern soldiers, in turn, creatively applied engineering maxims to the situation at Vicksburg, demonstrating a remarkable ability to adapt in the face of adversity. When instruction and oversight were not possible, the common soldiers improvised. Solonick concludes with a description of the surrender of Vicksburg, an analysis of the siege’s effect on the outcome of the Civil War, and a discussion of its significance in western military history.

Solonick’s study of the Vicksburg siege focuses on how the American Civil War was a transitional one with its own distinct nature, not the last Napoleonic war or the herald of modern warfare. At Vicksburg, he reveals, a melding of traditional siege craft with the soldiers’ own inventiveness resulted in Union victory during the largest, most successful siege in American history.

About the Author

Justin S. Solonick, PhD, is an adjunct instructor in the Department of History and Geography at Texas Christian University. His most recent publication, “Saving the Army of Tennessee: The Confederate Rear Guard at Ringgold Gap,” appeared in The Chattanooga Campaign, published by SIU Press in 2012.

ISBN 978-0809333912, Southern Illinois University Press; 1st Edition Edition, © 2015, Hardcover, 304 pages, Maps, Photographs & Illustrations, Appendix, Glossary, Bibliographic Essay, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $37.50.  To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.

In The Review Queue: Spring 1865

Spring 1865: The Closing Campaigns of the Civil War

By Perry D. Jamieson

When Gen. Robert E. Lee fled from Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia, in April 1865, many observers did not realize that the Civil War had reached its nadir. A large number of Confederates, from Jefferson Davis down to the rank-and-file, were determined to continue fighting. Though Union successes had nearly extinguished the Confederacy’s hope for an outright victory, the South still believed it could force the Union to grant a negotiated peace that would salvage some of its war aims. As evidence of the Confederacy’s determination, two major Union campaigns, along with a number of smaller engagements, were required to quell the continued organized Confederate military resistance.

In Spring 1865 Perry D. Jamieson juxtaposes for the first time the major campaign against Lee that ended at Appomattox and Gen. William T. Sherman’s march north through the Carolinas, which culminated in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s surrender at Bennett Place. Jamieson also addresses the efforts required to put down armed resistance in the Deep South and the Trans-Mississippi. As both sides fought for political goals following Lee’s surrender, these campaigns had significant consequences for the political-military context that shaped the end of the war as well as Reconstruction.

About the Author

Perry D. Jamieson is senior historian emeritus of the U.S. Air Force. He is the coauthor of Attack and Die: Civil War Military Tactics and the Southern Heritage and the author of Crossing the Deadly Ground: United States Army Tactics, 1865–1899.

ISBN 978-0803225817, University of Nebraska Press, © 2015, Hardcover, 320 pages, Maps, Photograph & Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliographic Essay & Index. $34.95.  To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.

Review: General Grant and the Rewriting of History

General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War

By Frank P. Varney

Just a few days before his death on July 23, 1885, former President, Ulysses S. Grant, penned the final pages of his memoirs.  Published posthumously, consisting of two volumes, the “Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant,” was an instant best seller, and the income derived from its royalties restored the Grant family fortune which he had lost through several bad business decisions.  Mark Twain, Grant’s publisher, lauded the memoir as a “literary masterpiece.”  The memoirs are highly regarded by military historians and literary critics alike, and nearly 140 years after its author’s death it has yet to go out of print.

Ulysses S. Grant parlayed his fame as the victor of the Civil War into a political victory when he was elected the 18th President of the United States in 1868.  Periodically historians tend to rank the Presidents from best to worst, and Grant’s lack luster performance as President, combined with several political scandals of those in his administration, typically leaves him ranked near the bottom, with most historians summarizing Grant as an honest man but a poor judge of character.

In his memoirs Grant makes several negative representations of a few fellow Union Army generals.  If Grant was such a poor judge of character, then why do most historians take what Grant wrote in his memoirs as the gospel truth?  If Grant could be wrong about the character of the men that he appointed to places of high esteem during his administration, couldn’t his negative characterizations in his memoirs be incorrect as well?  Frank P. Varney, Professor of History at Dickenson State University, has asked that very same question and his research has led him to some startling conclusions about what we think we know about the Civil War, and how much of it was shaped by the writings of Ulysses S. Grant.

Citing multiple historians, tracing their sources Dr. Varney uncovered many noted historians have taken Grant at his word, using his memoirs as a single source for various incidents of the war.  Professor Varney, using multiple primary sources, compared them to Grant’s writings to uncover striking differences compared to what his contemporaries wrote.  And in at least one instance it appears that Grant falsified the records of the War Department to the detriment of others.

Though several of Grant’s brothers-in-arms careers were, or were very nearly ruined, by his unflattering assessments of their abilities, Dr. Varney’s book, “General Grant and the Rewriting of History” focuses mainly on William S. Rosecrans, and discusses in some depth the battles of Shiloh, Iuka, Corinth, Stones River and Chickamauga.

Dr. Varney’s chapters are organized much like a geometric proof.  Each starts out with “The Context” where he sets the stage for what is about to be discussed.  “The Controversies” follow, first giving a brief bullet point list of the controversies discussed in the chapter, and then one by one discussing each controversy in depth.  Varney’s “Evaluation” follows, and when appropriate the professor discusses the historiography of the topic discussed.  He compares what both Grant and other historians have said against the primary records, and states his conclusions.

“General Grant and the Rewriting of History” is a stunning example of the craft of history.  Professor Varney may have changed future narrative of the Civil War, and William S. Rosecrans may at long last get credit where credit is due, for both his triumphs and his failures.

Professor Varney’s book is well and convincingly written and exhaustively written.  Though not a book for Civil War novices, students of the war will have their long held views of the war challenged by this thought provoking work.

ISBN 978-1611211184, Savas Beatie, © 2013, Hardcover, 336 Pages, Photographs, Maps, Footnotes, Appendix, Bibliography & Index. $32.95.  To Purchase the book click HERE.  

Review: Smithsonian Civil War, Inside the National Collection

Smithsonian Civil War:
Inside the National Collection

by Smithsonian Institution,
Edited by Neil Kagan,

Photography by Hugh Talman.

Established in 1846, The Smithsonian Institution has often been described as “the nation’s attic.”  Stored within its many museums and research facilities are 137 million items, the treasures of the United States.  Its facilities contain items from every era of American History, including the 1903 Wright Flier, and Archie Bunker’s chair from the television series “All in the Family.”

One Hundred Fifty years have passed since the end of the Civil War, and the Smithsonian’s collection of items related to the war began during the war and continues to grow today.  The very best of the Smithsonian’s collection has been gathered together in a lush “coffee table” book, “Smithsonian Civil War: Inside the National Collection.”

Issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, “Smithsonian Civil War,” contains 150 brief chapters, each dedicated to some aspect of the war, its participants, or items in the Smithsonian’s collections.  Its article by article narrative begins with the antebellum era, works its way through the war and ends with reconstruction.  It also spans the breadth of those who experienced the war, from Secessionist “Fire-Eaters,” abolitionists, The Union, the Confederacy and also African-Americans; men, women and children.

Contained within its covers are hundreds of photographs, sepia toned, black and white, and lush color photographs of the items within the institutions vast collections.  Among the items featured are a slave ship’s cargo manifest, flags of the Confederacy, soldier’s uniforms, weapons and accoutrements, camp equipage, period photographs of many of the war’s participants, letters, drawings and paintings, Major-General Phil Sheridan’s mounted horse “Winchester,” Mary Lincoln’s purple velvet dress and Varina Davis’ jewelery, Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch and stove-pipe hat, the chairs from Wilmer McClean’s parlor in which Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee sat and the table on which Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia was signed, the cuff from Laura Kean’s dress stained with Lincoln’s blood, the hoods that covered the faces of the men accused in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy, just to name but a few.

“Smithsonian Civil War” is a fantastic book, its contents will provide many hours of page turning pleasure for both the Civil War enthusiast, scholar and novice alike.

ISBN 978-1588343895, Smithsonian Books, © 2013, Hardcover, 368 pages, 9.7 x 1.1 x 11.3 inches, 4.4 pounds, Photographs & Illustrations, Object List & Index. $40.00.  To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.

Review: The West Point History of the Civil War

The West Point History of the Civil War

by The United States Military Academy, Edited by
Clifford J. Rogers, Ty Siedule & Samuel J. Watson

The United States Military Academy was established at West Point, New York on March 16 1802.  The Academy, colloquially known as “West Point” has and continues to train its cadets in a rigorous four-year program for future service as officers in The United States Army.  Graduates of the academy have led soldiers into battle in every American conflict since the War of 1812, including the Civil War.

New estimates of the put the casualties of the Civil War at over 700,000, a figure more than all other American wars combined.  Officers trained at “The Point” led armies on both sides of the war, and often classmates found themselves opposing each other on opposite sides of the battlefields of the war.  Therefore it is fitting that the Academy has published “The West Point History of the Civil War.”  Published by Simon & Schuster, it is the first volume in a series “The West Point History of Warfare.”

“The West Point History of the Civil War” is a large book of 448 pages, measuring 10.9 x 8.6 x 1.6 inches, and weighing 4.2 pounds.  Its semi-glossy pages are richly illustrated with maps, photographs and illustrations highlighting the personalities, battles, and places of the Civil War era.  The book is divided into 6 chapters, each covering a period or aspect of the war and each written by some of Americas best and most prominent historians:

• Origins of the Civil War and the Contest for the Borderlands by Mark E. Neely Jr.
• The War in the East: July 1861-September 1862 by Joseph T. Glatthaar.
• Lee’s War in the East, by Joseph T. Glatthaar.
• Grant’s War in the West by Steven E. Woodworth.
• Coordinated Strategy and Hard War by Earl J. Hess.
• The End of the War and Reconstruction by James K. Hogue.

An in dept study of the war it is not, but nor does it claim to be.  It is an excellent survey of the war, its battles and its participants.  The maps alone, many of them 2 or 3 page fold-outs, are worth the price of this book, not only are they large and clear, but also include nearly 360° eyelevel panoramas of battlefield terrains as the participants would have seen them 150 years ago.

In addition to the text short thumbnail biographies of the war’s most notable participants are peppered throughout the book, and not only include their birth and death dates, but also when applicable the class in which they graduated from the Academy.

The books thick semi-glossy pages are a perfect format for duplicating the maps, photographs and works of art featured between its covers.  It is a thoroughly beautiful book, and would be completely enjoyable just to thumb through on a rainy day and peruse its many gorgeous illustrations.

“The West Point History of the Civil War” is a fantastic book, and would be an excellent addition to any history lover’s library.  It serves as a great introduction to the Civil War for novices, and I think even heavily read students of the Civil War would take something away from it.

ISBN 978-1476782621, Simon & Schuster, © 2014, Hardcover, 448 pages, 10.9 x 8.6 x 1.6 inches, Maps, Photographs, Illustrations, End Notes & Index. $55.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Lincoln's Code, The Laws of War in American History

Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History

By John Fabian Witt

The laws of war govern the conduct of nations at war.  They are generally agreed terms that are internationally recognized as to how warfare is to be conducted, and what actions are not sanctioned by it.  Today we familiar with them as the Geneva Conventions.  They are result of hundreds of years of negotiations between nations and adapted to meet the evolving mores of their time.  But how were they developed and who was their author?  John Fabian Witt’s book “Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History” has the answer.

What we recognize today as the rules and laws of war were largely authored by a German-American jurist and political philosopher Frances Lieber.  His laws of war were encoded as Abraham Lincoln’s General Orders, No. 100 issued April 24, 1863 at the height of the American Civil War.  Before that however Professor Witt traces the rules of war from the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 to the Mexican War, The Civil War until the issuance of General Orders No. 100. 

A good deal of time is spent in the discussion of what to do with slaves during a time of war.  Once captured are they to be set free?  Are they to be enlisted by the conquering foe and used as combatants against their former owners?  Or are they to be returned to their owners once the hostilities have ceased?  These questions were debated and argued over from the outbreak of the American  Revolution until slavery was at last abolished at the close of the Civil War.

Professor Witt deftly handles Major-General William T. Sherman’s idea of a harsh and total war against civilians and soldiers alike, employed during his March to the Sea and the Carolina Campaign, and argues it benefitted the Union by lessening the length of the war.  It therefore the “hard hand of war” was the most humane way of bringing hostilities to a close with the least amount of human suffering.  A view later endorsed by German Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke.

Prize Courts and trials of civilians by Military Commissions are also thoroughly discussed, by the author.  Through it all Professor Witt shows how the guiding hand of Francis Lieber shaped the laws of war which are still largely in effect today.

“Lincoln’s Code,” is expertly researched and wonderfully written.  Its title may lead you to think it is exclusively Abraham Lincoln’s military policy during the Civil War, but it is so much more than that.  It is a book that not only belongs on the shelves of every student of the Civil War, but should also be equally shelved in law libraries across the country.

ISBN 978-1416569831, Free Press, © 2012, Hardcover, 512 pages, Photographs & Illustrations,  End Notes, Appendix & Index. $32.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Such Troops As These

Such Troops as These:

The Genius and Leadership of

Confederate General Stonewall Jackson

By Bevin Alexander

When questioned many people may not know who Thomas Jonathan Jackson is, but nearly everyone recognizes the name of the revered Confederate General Stonewall Jackson.  In truth they are one in the same.  Jackson, the man, is himself an enigma, a devout Christian, and highly skilled military man, who wrote tender love letters to his esposita, and who did not shed a tear over the men killed under his command, but openly wept at the death of a little girl.

Stonewall Jackson’s military successes are legendary.  He drove the soldiers who served underneath him hard, and accomplished what many believed was not possible.  How he did this is the subject of Bevin Alexander’s book “Such Troops As These: The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson.”

Though Mr. Alexander does begin his book with Jackson’s early life and ends it with his death, it is far from a cradle to grave biography.  It is really not a biography at all, but rather a study of the military strategy and tactics of Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War.  Battle by battle the author demonstrates Jackson’s superior generalship with his strategy of rapid troop movements and fighting defensively on the enemy’s front while making an attack on his flank.

While correctly pointing out the error of frontal assaults against strongly fortified enemy positions and against the rapidly evolving weaponry of the mid 19th century, Mr. Alexander does come off as somewhat of a Jacksonian sycophant, claiming Jackson’s strategy superior to that of any other Confederate General, including that of Robert E. Lee.  Jackson’s biggest flaw, namely being the secrecy of his plans, is briefly dealt with, but had the author treated Jackson’s flaws with equal weight compared to Jackson’s greatness he would have had a much stronger book.

Mr. Alexander’s linear narrative is clear and easily read.  Thumbing through its bibliography and endnotes, gives one the impression that Mr. Alexander leaned too heavily on 19th century memoirs, and secondary sources, and I am always skeptical when an author sites himself as a source in an end or foot note. “Such Troops As These” is a well written and adequately researched book.  Civil War scholars and students will likely take away from it a greater understanding of Jackson’s strategy and tactics.

ISBN 978-0425271292, Berkley Hardcover, © 2014, Hardcover, 336 pages, Maps,  End Notes, Selected Bibliography & Index. $26.95.  Click HERE to purchase this book.

In The Review Queue: Lincoln and the Power of the Press

Lincoln and the Power of the Press:

The War for Public Opinion

By Harold Holzer

From his earliest days, Lincoln devoured newspapers. As he started out in politics he wrote editorials and letters to argue his case. He spoke to the public directly through the press. He even bought a German-language newspaper to appeal to that growing electorate in his state. Lincoln alternately pampered, battled, and manipulated the three most powerful publishers of the day: Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald, and Henry Raymond of the New York Times.

When war broke out and the nation was tearing itself apart, Lincoln authorized the most widespread censorship in the nation’s history, closing down papers that were “disloyal” and even jailing or exiling editors who opposed enlistment or sympathized with secession. The telegraph, the new invention that made instant reporting possible, was moved to the office of Secretary of War Stanton to deny it to unfriendly newsmen.

Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who covered him from his start through to the night of his assassination—when one reporter ran to the box where Lincoln was shot and emerged to write the story covered with blood. In a wholly original way, Holzer shows us politicized newspaper editors battling for power, and a masterly president using the press to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.

About the Author

Harold Holzer, a leading authority on Lincoln and the Civil War, is Chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation and a Roger Hertog Fellow at the New York Historical Society. Widely honored for his work, Holzer earned a second-place Lincoln Prize for Lincoln at Cooper Union in 2005 and in 2008 was awarded the National Humanities Medal. Holzer is Senior Vice President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and lives in Rye, New York.

ISBN 978-1439192719, Simon & Schuster, © 2014, Hardcover, 768 pages, Photographs & Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $37.50.  To purchase this book click HERE.

In The Review Queue: After Lincoln

After Lincoln:

How the North Won the Civil War and Lost the Peace

by A. J. Langguth

A brilliant evocation of the post-Civil War era by the acclaimed author of Patriots and Union 1812. After Lincoln tells the story of the Reconstruction, which set back black Americans and isolated the South for a century.

With Lincoln’s assassination, his “team of rivals,” in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s phrase, was left adrift. President Andrew Johnson, a former slave owner from Tennessee, was challenged by Northern Congressmen, Radical Republicans led by Thaddeus Stephens and Charles Sumner, who wanted to punish the defeated South. When Johnson’s policies placated the rebels at the expense of the black freed men, radicals in the House impeached him for trying to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Johnson was saved from removal by one vote in the Senate trial, presided over by Salmon Chase. Even William Seward, Lincoln’s closest ally in his cabinet, seemed to waver.

By the 1868 election, united Republicans nominated Ulysses Grant, Lincoln's winning Union general. The night of his victory, Grant lamented to his wife, “I’m afraid I’m elected.” His attempts to reconcile Southerners with the Union and to quash the rising Ku Klux Klan were undercut by post-war greed and corruption during his two terms.

Reconstruction died unofficially in 1887 when Republican Rutherford Hayes joined with the Democrats in a deal that removed the last federal troops from South Carolina and Louisiana. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill with protections first proposed in 1872 by the Radical Senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner.

About the Author

A. J. Langguth is the author of eight books of nonfiction and three novels. After Lincoln marks his fourth book in a series that began in 1988 with Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution. He was Saigon bureau chief for the New York Times and covered the Civil Rights Movement. He taught at the University of Southern California for twenty-seven years and retired in 2003 as emeritus professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.  Mr. Langguth passed away on September 1, 2014 in his Hollywood home at the age of 81. You can read his obituary in the Los Angeles Times HERE.

ISBN 978-1451617320, Simon & Schuster, © 2014, Hardcover, 464 pages, Photographs, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $28.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

In The Review Queue: Rebel Yell

Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion,
and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson

By S. C. Gwynne

From the author of the prizewinning New York Times bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon comes a thrilling account of how Civil War general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became a great and tragic American hero.

Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and romance. As much as any person in the Confederate pantheon, even Robert E. Lee, he embodies the romantic Southern notion of the virtuous lost cause. Jackson is also considered, without argument, one of our country’s greatest military figures. His brilliance at the art of war tied Abraham Lincoln and the Union high command in knots and threatened the ultimate success of the Union armies. Jackson’s strategic innovations shattered the conventional wisdom of how war was waged; he was so far ahead of his time that his techniques would be studied generations into the future.

In April 1862 Jackson was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. By June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the Western world. He had, moreover, given the Confederate cause what it had recently lacked—hope—and struck fear into the hearts of the Union.

Rebel Yell is written with the swiftly vivid narrative that is Gwynne’s hallmark and is rich with battle lore, biographical detail, and intense conflict between historical figures. Gwynne delves deep into Jackson’s private life, including the loss of his young beloved first wife and his regimented personal habits. It traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War, the period that encompasses his rise from obscurity to fame and legend; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a remarkable American hero.

About The Author

Sam Gwynne is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared extensively in Time, for which he worked as bureau chief, national correspondent and senior editor from 1988 to 2000, and in Texas Monthly, where he was executive editor. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Harper's, and California Magazine. His previous book Outlaw Bank (co-authored with Jonathan Beaty) detailed the rise and fall of the corrupt global bank BCCI. He attended Princeton and Johns Hopkins and lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Katie and daughter Maisie.

ISBN 978-1451673289, Scribner, © 2014, Hardcover, 688 pages, Maps, Photographs, Appendix, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $35.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Union Heartland

Union Heartland:

The Midwestern Home Front during the Civil War

Edited by Ginette Aley and Joseph L. Anderson

The American Civil War has often been characterized as the North vs. the South, but neither region was as homogenous as to fit within that brief, and incorrect definition.  The many facets of the Southern war experience have been studied and dissected, from its soldiers and generals, its politicians, the secessionists, the Southern Unionists, the enslaved, its women and the war on the Southern home-front.  The Northern perspective on the war is pales in comparison, and often treated as a single identity.  The Civil War was a vast and complicated event; those for and against the war populated on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line.  The Northern experience of the war, every bit as factious as its Southern counterpart, but remains largely unexplored in the large body of literature produced about the war.

Geographically speaking those states that comprised “The North” can be split into three distinct regions, the Pacific Coast, the Midwest and the East.  Generally speaking the states comprising the Midwest are those to the west and north of Pennsylvania, and includes Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Kansas (Missouri and Kentucky, are often treated separately as “Border States”).

Ginette Aley and J. L. Anderson have consorted together and edited a book which tackles the war from the Midwestern perspective in their book “Union Heartland: The Midwestern Home Front During the Civil War.”  Following a forward by noted Civil War historian William C. Davis, its eight essays cover a wide variety of topics of the war:

Together editors Alley and Anderson present an introduction, “The Great National Struggle in the Heart of the Union.”

In “Captivating Captives: An excursion to Johnson’s Island Civil War Prison” Michael P. Gray discusses Sandusky, Ohio’s entrepreneurial windfall of having a camp for Confederate Prisoners of War just off its shore attracting the curiosity of both the local population and tourists alike.

A group of students at the University of Michigan who took it upon themselves, as their patriotic duty, to stay in school and finish their education instead of enlisting in the Union Army is featured in Julie A. Mujic’s essay “‘Ours is the Harder Lot’: Student Patriotism at the University of Michigan during the Civil War.”

R. Douglas Hart covers “The Agricultural Power of the Midwest during the Civil War.”

Soldiers’ wives left behind often became wards of their in-laws.  Nicole Etcheson delves into theses sometimes troublesome relationships between women and their in-laws in her essay “No Fit Wife: Soldiers’ Wives and Their In-Laws on the Indiana Home Front.”

The theme of the lives of those left behind is continued with Ginette Aley’s essay, “Inescapable Realities: Rural Midwestern Women and Families during the Civil War.”

Many Midwestern farmers who enlisted in the army left their wives at home to run the farm.  J. L. Anderson discusses how women adapted to running their farms, and the changing relationships between them and their soldier husbands in his essay “The Vacant Chair on the Farm: Soldier Husbands, Farm Wives and the Iowa Home Front, 1861-65.”

And lastly Brett Barker presents his essay “Limiting Dissent in the Midwest: Ohio Republicans’ Attacks on the Democratic Press.”

Alone each essay stands on its own merits.  All are well written and easily read.  Endnotes at the end of each essay reveal the depth and breadth of each author’s research, which due to a lack of secondary sources a large percentage of the research was based on primary sources.  Together each essay forms a cohesive portrait of the Midwestern experience of the war.  Is it an in-depth treatment of the Midwestern home-front experience during the war?  No, nor was it meant to be.  It is but a scratch on the ground’s surface of a well waiting to be dug, which when pumped will quench the thirst of those who love to drink from the fountain of Civil War scholarship.

ISBN 978-0809332649, Southern Illinois University Press, © 2013, Hardcover, 224 Pages, Photographs & Illustrations, Chapter End Notes & Index. $39.50.  To Purchase the book click HERE.

Review: The Fall of the House of Dixie

The Fall of the House of Dixie:

The Civil War and the Social Revolution

That Transformed the South

By Bruce Levine

Before the election of Abraham Lincoln as the 16th President of the United States on November 6, 1860 the South was at its apex; within the borders of its vast area a small minority of wealthy slave-owners amassed not only enormous fortunes but also a great power that dominated the United States’ political landscape since the end of the American Revolution.  Five years later, in the wake of the Civil War, the South had lost everything; its great cities lay in ruins, its landscape ravaged, its wealth gone, its slaves freed, and its political power vanished.  Why and how this stunning reversal of the South’s social, political and economic systems happened is the subject of Bruce Levine’s book, “The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution that Transformed the South.”

Levine, the J. G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Illinois, sets the stage nicely in his first two chapters.  He describes the “House of Dixie” as it existed in 1860 and then reaches back through history to describe how it was built from its foundations up.  Having covered this background moves chronologically through the war, and describes events that slowly and gradually disassembled the Southern social, political and economic structure, piece by piece until its collapse.

Though “The Fall of the House of Dixie” is not a book of military history, it does cover it share of battles within the structure of its narrative, Levine’s focus is more on the social and economic impact of the war on the South.  A major component of the South’s economic and social systems was built on a shaky foundation of slavery.  The African-American’s experience, though not primarily dealt with, slavery and the status of slaves is a major focus of Professor Levine’s book. 

Levine demonstrates “The House of Dixie” was not built on a firm footing on bedrock, but rather on quicksand. As the status of the enslaved Blacks of the South changed during the war, the trickle of slaves leaving the plantations before the Emancipation Proclamation and the steady stream after it quickly eroded the foundation of slavery that the Southern social, economic and political system was built upon, and the passage of the 13th amendment destroyed it forever.

“The Fall of the House of Dixie” is very well researched.  Its author has exhumed a treasure trove of primary sources: letters, diaries, newspaper accounts and government documents to tell the tale of the multi-faceted drama of the South’s political, social and economic demise of the 1860s.  It is well written and engages its readers from its first to its last page.

ISBN 978-1400067039, Random House, © 2013, Hardcover, 464 pages, Photographs, Maps Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $30.00.  To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.

Review: 1863, Lincoln’s Pivotal Year

1863: Lincoln's Pivotal Year

Edited by Harold Holzer and Sara Vaughn Gabbard

On January 1, 1863 after spending a few hours welcoming visitors and shaking hundreds of hands, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which declared all enslaved people in areas where an active rebellion against to Government of the United States was in progress would be thence forward and forever free.  It was a momentous beginning for 1863, the second full year of the war, and what would prove to be a pivotal year for Abraham Lincoln and the divided nation.

Lincoln scholars Harold Holzer and Sara Vaughn Gabbard have edited a volume of essays by notable historians and scholars which examine the events during the twelve months between January 1st and December 31st, 1863 and titled it “1863: Lincoln’s Pivotal Year.”

“The Remembrance of a Dream” written by the book’s co-editor, Harold Holzer, introduces the volume is and is followed by ten essays which cover the events, developments and personalities that dominated the headlines in 1863:

In “The Day of Jubilee” Edna Green Medford covers the reactions of Northerners and Southerners, both black and white, to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Frank J. Williams tackles Lincoln’s use of his Constitutional war powers to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and his trying of insurrectionists by a military tribunal in “Under Cover of Liberty.”

As the author of “Lincoln and his Admirals” Craig L. Symonds justifiably handles the joint operations of the Army and Navy during the Vicksburg Campaign, as well as Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont’s failed attempted to shell and capture Charleston, South Carolina in “Lincoln at Sea.”

“Military Drafts, Civilian Riots” is Barnet Schecter’s essay on the first military draft issued by the United States Government and its resulting reaction of the New York City Draft Riots.

The Lincoln family during 1863 is the focus of Catherine Clinton’s essay, “The Fiery Furnace of Affliction.”

In “And the War Goes On” John F. Marzalek and Michael B. Ballard discuss how the twin victories of the Union Forces at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, dealt the hand of ultimate defeat to the Confederates, and yet the war continued on for another two years.

Bob Zeller discusses Civil War photography in his essay, “Picturing the War.”

“The General Tide” by William C. Davis paints the big picture of the war in 1863.

“The Gettysburg Address Revisited” by Orville Vernon Burton, need I say more.

Harold Holzer’s essay “Seldom Twice Alike: The Changing Faces of History” closes out the volume with a discussion about the use of Abraham Lincoln’s image and its effect on his supporters and those who opposed him.

The essays work as stand-alone pieces allowing the reader to easily read an essay in a sitting, and collectively as a whole while relating the events of 1863.  Each essay is well written and easily read with end notes after each chapter.  I’m confident the average Civil War student with a bit more knowledge of the war than the average casual reader would have no problem reading this book.

ISBN 978-0809332465, Southern Illinois University Press, © 2013, Hardcover, 216 pages, Photograph & Illustrations, End Notes at the end of each essay, Appendices & Index. $32.95.  To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.

Review: War on the Waters

War on the Waters:

The Union and Confederate Navies, 1861-1865

By James M. McPherson

Literature on the American Civil War frequently overlooks and/or undervalues the contributions and importance of both the United States’ and the Confederacy’s Navies.  Though the Confederacy’s naval efforts pale to that of the Union’s, both navies contributed to their respective war efforts and changed the course of naval warfare forever.

James M. McPherson, the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University, and the author of Pulitzer Prize-winning “Battle Cry of Freedom,” has resurrected the 150 year old wreckage of the Union and Confederate navies from their murky depths, and brings to the surface the history of Civil War naval warfare in his book “War on the Waters: the Union and Confederate Navies 1861-1865.”

Tracing from the meager beginnings of a nearly nonexistent United States Navy and the complete nonexistence of a Confederate navy Professor McPherson builds his narrative chronologically through the mobilization the opposing naval forces to the victory of the Union and the defeat of the Confederacy, and covers both river and sea operations.  Discussed in detail is the Union Blockade, the capture of New Orleans, the battle between the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor at Hampton Roads, as well as the joint operations between the Union Army and the “Brown Water” Navy, at Forts Henry and Donelson and operations during the Vicksburg Campaign as well as many other lesser known naval actions.

“War on the Waters, is well researched.  A search through Dr. McPherson’s end notes and bibliography reveals a nice balance between his use of primary and secondary sources leaning more toward primary source documents.  The book’s narrative is necessarily tilted to the victor’s side, not because of any perceived bias but rather from the sheer size of the United States Navy as compared to its Confederate counterpart.  It is book well written and easily read, and would appeal to academics and the casual reader alike. 

ISBN 978-0807835883, The University of North Carolina Press, © 2012, Hardcover, 304 pages, Maps, Photographs, Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $35.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: The Long Road To Antietam

The Long Road To Antietam:
How the Civil War Became a Revolution

By Richard Slotkin

September 17, 1862 was the bloodiest day in American history.  Well into the second year of the American Civil War the blue-clad Union Army of the Potomac clashed with the gray and butternut clothed Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, and by the day’s end nearly 23,000 Americans lay dead, wounded, were prisoners of war, or missing.  Tactically the battle ended as a stalemate, but General Robert E. Lee’s decision to withdraw his troops from the field of battle, gave the strategic victory to the Union’s commander, Major-General George B. McClellan.  It was with this slim margin of victory that Abraham Lincoln issued his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and changed the direction of the war from a restrained war against an opposing army to a war not only on the armies of the South, but also on its society and economy.

Richard Slotkin, an emeritus professor at Wesleyan University, covers this shift in Lincoln’s war policy in his book, “The Long Road To Antietam: How the Civil War Became a Revolution.” In it he details the war from its beginning stages until McClellan’s removal as Commander of the Army of the Potomac.  Contrasting the difficult and often antagonistic relationship between Lincoln and McClellan against that of the cooperative one of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, while weaving the political, social and economic motives of both sides Professor Slotkin has set them against the backdrop of the Battle of Antietam, and by doing so gives his readers a nearly panoramic narrative of but a small segment of the war.

When historians write about George B. McClellan, they generally fall into two camps, those who think McClellan was a paranoid and scheming buffoon, and those who think that he did the best with what he had.  Slotkin, clearly falls into the former, and more populous, group rather than the latter. Be that as it may, McClellan certainly gives his critics more than enough ammunition to fire at him, and thus his the wounding of his historical persona is somewhat self-inflicted.

In searching through Slotkin’s end notes, his book is largely based on secondary sources.  Though doing some internet searches of quotes within the text of his book leads one easily to their original primary source materials.  One must wonder why Mr. Slotkin chose not to rely more on primary sources.  His heavy use of secondary sources, may have negatively impacted his view of the Lincoln-McClellan relationship, and McClellan, the man himself.

I would heartily recommend “The Long Road to Antietam” to anyone interested in the American Civil War.  Over all the book is well written and informative, though the narrative is considerably slowed by the blow by blow account of the Battle of Antietam.  Professor Slotkin’s research stands on somewhat shaky ground where primary sources are concerned.  Nonetheless Richard Slotkin, makes his case as to why Antietam and the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation should be considered a turning point in the Civil War, but calling it a “revolution” falls a little flat

ISBN 978-0871404114, Liveright, © 2012, Hardcover, 512 pages, Photographs, 8 Maps, 10 Illustrations, Chronology, Antietam Order of Battle, Endnotes, Selected Bibliography & Index. $32.95.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: The Civil War, The Final Year Told by Those Who Lived It

The Civil War: The Final Year Told by Those Who Lived It

Edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean

Too often the study of the American Civil War is approached as if looking at a review mirror, looking back at events passed and knowing their outcome.  Such a view of an historical event diminishes the experience of those who lived through it.  For instance, we know that Abraham Lincoln handily won the 1864 Presidential Election and defeated Major-General George B. McClellan, but Lincoln was so uncertain of its outcome that on August 23, 1864 wrote a memo to his cabinet, agreeing that they will “co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards,” and had them sign it without showing them its contents.

Though one can never remove the historical knowledge of the outcome of the war, reading the documents, letters and diaries of the people who lived through the Civil War gives one a sense of immediacy of the events depicted and their yet unknown resolutions that you just don’t get in most history text books.

The Library of America, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War has produced a four volume set of books covering the entire span of the war, each one covering one year of the war, and using only the primary source material that other authors often use to write their books. “The Civil War: The Final Year Told By Those Who Lived It,” is the fourth and final volume in the series.

Beginning with the Southern diarist Catherine Edmonston’s entry for March 8, 1864 and ending with Union Major-General Gordon Granger’s General Orders No. 3 of June 19, 1865 announcing to the people of Texas that all slaves are now free, this volume covers the breadth, width and depth of the wars final and tumultuous year.

Notable inclusions in this hefty 1024 page tome include a May 11, 1864, letter from Ulysses S. Grant to Edwin M. Stanton and Henry W. Halleck, proposing that he will “fight it out on this line if it takes all summer;” Abraham Lincoln’s memorandum to his cabinet mentioned above; William T. Sherman’s September 12, 1864 letter to Atlanta’s mayor, James M. Calhoun and others, in which he states, “war is cruelty;” Sherman’s October 9, 1864 message to Grant promising to “make Georgia howl;” the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution forever abolishing slavery; Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address;  Grant’s terms for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia;  and Robert E. Lee’s General Orders No. 9, his farewell message, are all among the many documents in this book which are too numerous to mention.

Aaron Sheehan-Dean has done a wonderful job of collecting and editing this selection of documents.  Each item is prefaced by a brief explanatory paragraph and then the document, in its entirety, follows.  Included at the end of this volume is a narrative chronology, biographical notes, notes on the texts, end notes, and lastly an index.

“The Civil War: The Final Year Told by Those Who Lived It” along with its previous three sister volumes, is an excellent resource for Civil War scholars or novices alike.

ISBN 978-1598532944, Library of America, © 2014, Hardcover, 1024 pages, Maps, Chronology, Biographical Notes, Note on the Texts, Notes & Index. $40.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume 2

So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume 2

by James and Suzanne Gindlesperger

Gettysburg.  What more is there to say?  It is easily one of the most studied battles in all of world history.  So many books have been written about it and its participants that you could fill a good sized room in a library with nothing else but books on the subject.  And just when you think not another word could be written on the battle, out comes a new book, with a new perspective, adding yet another book to the already overcrowded shelves.

“So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume 2” takes a less traveled path than most books on the battle.  It’s not about the battle, but about the battle field, or rather, the monuments that cover the field.  Written by James and Suzanne Gindlesperger, it is their second volume covering the Gettysburg monuments, adding 220 additional park attractions to their first volume.

Their book divides up the massive Gettysburg Battlefield into 11 areas (A-K), each with its own map (and of course an additional map showing where each area on the battlefield is located is included at the front of the book).  Each chapter begins with its representative area map upon which the chapter’s featured monument are located, numbered as you would encounter them as you drive through the battlefield.  Each monument is numbered according to which area it is in, and its order on the tour route, therefore the first monument featured in the book, honoring the 121st Pennsylvania Infantry is numbered A-1.  The numbering is not continuous through the books but restarts with each chapter/area.

Each monument narrative begins with its area map location number such as A-5, and is followed by the name of the monument, Eighth Illinois Cavalry Monument, and its geographic coordinates, 39° 50.147’ N, 77° 14.968’ W.  A narrative follows describing the unit’s action on the field, a description of the monument, its designer, manufacturer or sculptor, and the date of its dedication.

The Gindlespergers include in their book, three appendices: Union Medal of Honor Recipients at Gettysburg, Confederate Medal of Honor Recipients at Gettysburg, and the Sullivan Ballou Letter, which considering Major Ballou of the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry was killed nearly two years earlier during the First Battle of Bull Run seems a little out of place.  Also included at the end of the book is a suggested reading list.

“So You Think You Know Gettysburg? Volume 2” is a treasure trove of seldom discussed information about The Battle of Gettysburg, and it is an indispensible book for those interested in the battle, a great guide book for those touring the battlefield, and is a great book for those who haven’t yet visited the battlefield or those planning their future trip.

ISBN 978-0895876201, John F. Blair, Publisher, © 2014, Paperback, 234 pages, 12 Maps, 225 Color Photographs, Appendices, Further Reading & Index. $19.95.  To Purchase this book click HERE.