Review: The Civil War Generals

The Civil War Generals:

Comrades, Peers, Rivals-In Their Own Words

By Robert I. Girardi

Do you ever wonder what your friends, peers, rivals or your sworn enemies think about you?  It is not an uncommon question of curiosity.  Sometimes it can take years or even decades to find out such information.  More often than not we go to our graves not knowing what many people thought of us.

Through contemporary newspaper articles, post-war memoirs and journal articles many generals who survived the fiery trial of the American Civil War discovered how great or poor their reputations were, but these public writings are only the tip of the humility iceberg.  Most would die before collections of correspondence and diaries would be published with the whole unvarnished truth of what their friends and enemies said about them.

Do you think Major Daniel E. Sickles would care if he learned that Alpheus Williams said that he was “a hero without an heroic deed?”  How would Confederate General John Bell Hood have done if he had known that Union Major General William T. Sherman thought “he is reckless of the lives of his men?”  Would Major General George B. McClellan’s head swell with pride if he learned that George Armstrong Custer said he “would forsake everything and follow him to ends of the earth?”

Nearly one hundred and fifty years have passed since the guns fell silent over the battlefields of the Civil War.  Both academically trained and amateur historians are still sifting through the voluminous detritus of the war in archives and libraries all across the country to reconstitute and reshape our historical past.

Historian, Robert I. Girardi, earned his Masters of Arts degree in Public History at Loyola University of Chicago in 1991, and has authored or edited ten books.  His latest work, “The Civil War Generals: Comrades, Peers, Rivals in their own Words,” has given the idea of a biographical dictionary of Civil War era personalities a little bit of a twist.  Each entry includes a photograph of its subject, when available, his rank, year when graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point (if applicable), prior military experience (i.e. Mexican War Veteran), and commands held. The remainder of each entry provides quotes of what other notable historical figures of the era had to say about the subject.  Each quote is sourced, with its author, work and page number.

Though “The Civil War Generals” has chapter an opening chapter with quotes “On Generalship,” a chapter of “Composite Quotes,” and three appendices of Maps, The Contributors, and The Battles, the bulk of the book is devoted to the Generals of the North and South.  With 167 pages devoted to the Union generals and 66 to the generals of the Confederacy, there is a bit of a disparity.  Considering more memoirs, collections of correspondence and diaries were published from the War’s participants who were clad in blue rather than those who wore the gray, and coupled with the fact The North had more man-power and therefore more generals that The South, that disparity can easily be explained.

“The Civil War Generals” is a fantastic addition to the libraries of Civil War scholars and casual readers alike.  It offers an easy, one-volume, cross reference guide of the reputations, warts and all, of the generals who waged war with and against each other from 1861 to 1865.

ISBN 978-0760345160, Zenith Press, © 2013, Hardcover, 304 pages, Maps, Photographs, Appendices, Bibliography & Index. $28.00.  To Purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Grant vs. Lee, The Graphic History of the Civil War’s Greatest Rivals During the Last Year of the War

Grant vs. Lee: The Graphic History of the Civil War’s

Greatest Rivals During the Last Year of the War

by Wayne Vansant

On Wednesday, May 4, 1864 the Army of the Potomac, crossed the Rapidan River in north-central Virginia.  It was the last year of the war and the beginning of its end.  Newly installed General-in-Chief of the Union Army, Ulysses S. Grant determined the only way to win the war was to make it a war of attrition, to outlast and outwit his Confederate opponent commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee.  No longer would the Army of the Potomac retreat after a defeat, it would now only move southward.  The war’s final eleven months would prove to be its bloodiest and most destructive.

Wayne Vansant’s graphic novel, “Grant vs. Lee: The Graphic History of the Civil War’s Greatest Rivals During the Last Year of the War,” is an excellent tutorial on the war’s final year.  It follows Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign and covers the battles of The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor, to the trenches around Petersburg, Virginia.  The Petersburg Campaign is neatly folded in, and includes the Battle of the Crater, The Beefsteak Raid, and the Confederate breakout attempt at Fort Steadman.  After the fall of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia the book concludes with the Appomattox Campaign and the Battle of Five Forks, and the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House.

“Grant vs. Lee” is told from both the Northern and Southern perspectives, and is just as much about the slow and steady retreat of the Army of Northern Virginia and how General Robert E. Lee tried to blunt Grant’s advances, as it is about the southward trek of the Army of the Potomac.

At 104 pages, it does not by any means encompass all of the events and personalities portrayed between its covers, but rather serves as a small sampler of each of its topics.  It can be easily read in an afternoon, and because of its graphic novel format it is a perfect starting place for younger readers interested in the war as well as older readers who are unschooled on the war.

ISBN 978-0760345313, Zenith Graphic Histories, © 2013, Paperback, Illustrated, 104 pages, $19.99.  To purchase this book please click HERE.

Review: Gettysburg, The Graphic History of America's Most Famous Battle and the Turning Point of The Civil War

Gettysburg: The Graphic History of America's Most

Famous Battle and the Turning Point of The Civil War

by Wayne Vansant

One hundred and fifty years have passed since the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1-3, 1863.  It was the largest and bloodiest battle to have ever taken place in the Western Hemisphere.  Volume upon volume has been written about what transpired in the small hamlet of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania during those three days in July.  So much has been written about the battle that for those who are just beginning to study it may find the question “Where do I begin?” a bit daunting to answer.

Fortunately Wayne Vansant has written and illustrated a graphic novel which contains much of the basic, need to know, information about the battle and its participants, “Gettysburg: The Graphic History of America's Most Famous Battle and the Turning Point of The Civil War.”

Vansant provides accurate and detailed information about the battle in an easily read compact book which can easily be read during an afternoon.  Breaking his graphic novel into five parts Mr. Vansant’s prologue follows the events leading up to the three day battle.  Each day of the battle gets its own chapter, which is in turn followed by an Afterward, that contains Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

“Gettysburg: The Graphic History of . . .” is appropriate for young and older readers alike, though many current students of the battle and the American Civil War, may find it trivial, it is a great place to start for the young and old who wish to begin their study of the largest battle in America’s greatest conflict.

ISBN 978-0760344064, Zenith Graphic Histories, © 2013, Paperback, Illustrated, 96 pages, $19.99.  To purchase this book please click HERE.

Review: Hell or Richmond

Hell or Richmond By Ralph Peters 

In a series of battles between May 4 & June 24, 1864 the Army of the Potomac directed by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and commanded by Major General George G. Meade clashed with the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, in what would later become known as The Overland Campaign.  The ferocity and near daily combat during those two months shocked the divided and warring nation. The combined casualties of both armies totaled over 88,000 men killed, wounded, captured or missing.  It was the last year of the war, a baptism of fire that lasted four long years, the beginning of its cataclysmic end, that would forge a new, united nation from its warring factions.

Best-selling author, Ralph Peters, uses the backdrop of The Overland Campaign for his novel, “Hell or Richmond.”  From the battles at The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House to The Battle of Cold Harbor Peters graphically covers much of The Overland Campaign.

Officers such as Ulysses S Grant, General-in-Chief of the United States Army; Major General George G. Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac; and Francis Channing Barlow, the Union’s Harvard-valedictorian “boy general,” as well as Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Major General John Brown Gordon, and William C. Oates, Colonel of the 15th Alabama Infantry take their places in Mr. Peters’ narrative beside the enlisted men of both armies.

Historical fiction fills the gaps where its counterpart, nonfiction, cannot go.  Peters’ narrative breathes life into his the men of our historical past, and viscerally reveals the life of a civil war soldier before, during and after a battle; the hunger, the dirt and grime, the smell, the blood and gore.  Where more often than not historical fiction authors fail, Peters excels and does not hold back with his bloody and gory descriptions of wounds received by 18th century projectiles.  His dialogue is sometimes salty and profane, but nevertheless rings true of combat veterans.

Ralph Peters’ “Hell or Richmond” masterfully combines descriptive narrative and coarse dialogue which doesn’t sound as if had been vetted for a prime-time television viewing audience, and successfully transports his 21st century readers to the unpleasantness of the summer of 1864 Virginia.

ISBN 978-0765330482, Forge Books, © 2013, Hardcover, 544 pages, Maps, $25.99.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: All The Great Prizes

All the Great Prizes:

The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt

By John Taliaferro

If you were anyone in the United States during the last half of the 19th Century, you most likely knew John Hay.  His list of personal friends and acquaintances is a who’s who of America from the Civil War to the Gilded Age.  He was Abraham Lincoln’s personal secretary, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and served as Secretary of State in the McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt administrations.  He was a lawyer, journalist, author and historian.

John Taliaferro has written an extensively researched biography of Hay, “All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt.”  It is a richly detailed narrative of the life and loves of John Hay, and the times in which he lived.  Hay was both a witness to and the author of much history from the Civil War until his death in 1905.  Unfortunately, unlike his first benefactor, Abraham Lincoln, I found the more I read about Hay, the more I disliked him.  This of course is not the author’s fault, but rather the fault of his subject.

“All the Great Prizes” is a cradle to grave biography, its linear narrative covers the entirety of Hay’s life chronologically. From his early years in Illinois and his schooling, to living in the White House during the Civil War; from London and Paris and back to Washington D. C.  Its author’s meticulous research has culled a treasure trove of Hay related correspondence which illuminates many personal and intimate details of his life that should Hay find himself alive today I am sure he would be mortified to find had become public knowledge.  His marriage to Clara Stone to Taliaferro’s readers takes a back seat to his infatuation with Elizabeth Sherman Cameron, niece of General William T. Sherman, wife of J. Donald Cameron and daughter-in-law of Simon Cameron.  Hay may or may not have been guilty of adultery, but his relationship with “Lizzie” was definitely an affair of the heart, be it an unconsummated one.

Taliaferro makes short work of the Lincoln years, this is well covered ground, volumes have already and will continue to be written about those four tumultuous years of Hay’s life.  The author spends a fair amount of pages on Hay’s literary and journalistic career, as well as his friendships with the literary giants of his age Mark Twain, Horace Greeley, Henry Adams, Henry James to name but just a few.

Politically speaking Hay rubbed elbows with nearly every president, sovereign, power broker, and robber baron of the Gilded Age.  And through these connections Hay’s political career soared.  Taliaferro aptly and adroitly shows many of Hay’s fingerprints on much of the United States’ foreign policy during the late 19th Century most notably the Open Door with China, the Boxer Rebellion, and the building of the Panama Canal.

John Hay was a deeply flawed man, but John Taliaferro’s “All the Great Prizes” is a tour de force biography which brings the full breadth and depth of the life of John Hay from out of the shadows of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt of and into the light of history.

ISBN 978-1416597308, Simon & Schuster, © 2013, Hardcover, 688 pages, Photographs, Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $35.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Wisdom from the Oval Office

Wisdom from the Oval Office:

Words from George Washington to the Present

By Pierce Word

A few weeks ago my cousin, who is an elementary school teacher shared a few pictures of her classroom after she had prepared it for her new class.  On the wall, above the whiteboard was the following quote from Theodore Roosevelt: “Believe you can & you are halfway there.”  Being the investigative type that I am, I wanted to track back the source of the quote, and its original context.  I did countless internet searches, and all agreed that Theodore Roosevelt said it, but nowhere could I find a speech or letter which contained to quote.  In a final act of desperation I turned to Pierce Word’s “Wisdom from the Oval Office: Words for George Washington to the Present.”

Within the pages of Mr. Word’s book, touted on the cover as being “The Ultimate Presidential Quote Book,” is collected quotations from each of the forty-two men to have been fortunate enough to hold the office of President of the United States.  The author has grouped the quotes into forty categories: America, Belief, Business, Change, Constitution, Country, Democracy, Economy, Education, Error, Freedom, Friendship, God, Government, Happiness, History, Honor, Hope, Law, Leadership, Liberty, Life, Love, Mind, Money, Office, Peace, Politics, Power, Presidency, Religion, Rights, Success, Time, Trust, Truth, War, Wisdom, Wish, and World.  Within each category the quotations are arranged chronologically by President.  Below each quote Mr. Word has noted its source, and each categorical chapter concludes with its own end notes.

Flipping through its pages, I hunt for the Theodore Roosevelt quote that started my quest.  Closing in on my prey I flip to the section on “Belief.”  There on page 20 I spied “Believe you can & you are halfway there,” and below it was the object of my desire, a source citation: “U. S. Congress, Congressional Record, October 9, 2007⁴.”  What?!  2007???  How can that be, Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919!  I then flip to the chapter’s end notes, where Mr. Word included the following note: “4 Vol. 153, pt. 19, U. S. Congress, Congressional Record, October 9, 2007.”

I’ve come too far now to give up.  A search of the Congressional Record, for October 9, 2007 brings me to the speech of Congressman Harold Rogers of Kentucky, “Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Pride – Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment,” in which he states “Theodore Roosevelt understood the need to protect our natural resources and a short sentence he once said sums up so well the spirit of PRIDE today: ‘Believe you can and you're halfway there.’”  So I’m back to where I started.  Everyone agrees that Theodore Roosevelt said it, but even Mr. Word could not track down the origins of the quote.

Every other quote in “Wisdom from the Oval Office” that I have checked tracks back to its original source material, I just happened to pick the one that didn’t, and I suspect with this particular quote Mr. Word was as frustrated as I.

Nevertheless, “Wisdom from the Oval Office” is a fantastic resource for Presidential quotations.  Whether or not it is the “Ultimate Presidential Quote Book” I will leave for you to decide.

ISBN 978-1933909493, History Pub Co LLC, © 2013, Paperback, 323 Pages, Chapter Notes, & Index. $18.95.  To Purchase the book click HERE.

Review: Of Blood and Brothers, Book One

Of Blood and Brothers: Book One

By E. Michael Helms 

“Brother against brother” is a frequent theme often used in literature about the American Civil War.  So prevalent is this theme that there is quote from a movie, the title of which I cannot seem to recall, that states, to the best of my recollection, “The worst fights I ever saw were between brothers.”  There are documented cases in the Civil War of brothers choosing opposing sides, though considering the number of men who would eventually fight in the war which spanned across four years,  such occurrences are relatively rare and increase in numbers the closer you get to the border states separating the North from the South.  The war did tear families apart, fathers and sons, uncles and nephews, and cousins often found themselves fighting on opposite sides.  The soldiers who came back from the war came back with not only the physical scars on their bodies, but emotional scars as well.  After the war it was left to its survivors to bind up their physical and emotional wounds, and not only heal a war torn country, but their broken personal relationships as well.  Some were more successful at it than others.  E. Michael Helms’ novel, “Of Blood and Brothers,” is on such tale of brothers, who by a quirk of fate found themselves fighting on opposite sides of the war.

It is May 28, 1927 and Calvin Hogue, a cub reporter on the staff of his uncle’s newspaper, the St. Andrew Pilot, finds himself assigned to write a feature article the Malburn Family Reunion at Econfina on Florida panhandle.  He first speaks with Alma Hutchins nee Malburn who points out her uncle, Daniel Malburn, a veteran of the 6th Florida Infantry, Calvin quickly introduces himself and thus begins the first of many sessions with the Malburn brothers.

Elijah Malburn, Daniel’s brother, while working at the salt works along St. Andrew Bay is taken prisoner by Union forces. Faced with imprisonment, he reluctantly chooses to join the 2nd US Florida Cavalry.

“Of Blood and Brothers” is the first of two books covering the story of the Malburn brothers as they tell their stories to Calvin. Book One follows the exploits of Daniel Malburn and the 6th Forida Infantry through the battles of Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain/Missionary Ridge, meanwhile Elijah learns to his horror must lead a destructive raid on the Econfina Valley — his lifelong home.

Mr. Helms’ novel is a well written and engaging and easy read.  My only criticism of it comes on its last page with the words “To Be Continued.”  For it is in reality only half of a novel.  Book Two, the sequel to Of Blood and Brothers, will be released in March of 2014. The story of the Malburn brothers, Daniel and Elijah, picks up where Book One in the series ends.

ISBN 978-1938467516, Koehler Books, © 2013, Paperback, 282 pages, $16.95.  To purchase click HERE.

Review: The Reckoning

The Reckoning

By Bob Larranaga

A veteran of the Mexican-American War, Ed Canfield is a man with a secret and a dark past.  A sufferer of “soldier’s heart’ (what we know today as post traumatic stress disorder), he must battle with the demons of his past as the American Civil War breaks out around him.

Mr. Larranaga’s novel is set in the Florida Keys and centers around a trio of characters: the afore mentioned Ed Canfield; his estranged teenaged son, Jesse Beecham; and Maureen Foster, Ed’s love interest.  Abraham Lincoln has already been elected as President at the opening of the book; it is Secession Winter and both North and South are raising opposing armies for a war that both sides think will be short and victorious.  Jesse wants desperately to join the Confederate Army his mother, the former Mrs. Ed Canfield, sends him to Cedar Keys to live with his father.  When Ed picks him up he is seeing is son for the very first time; immediately the father-son conflict begins.

Ed owns a gum patch at Cedar Keys and manufactures turpentine among other nautical stores that could be of military value to either side of the war.  Caleb Foster is one of Ed’s more recently hired employees, and thus Ed becomes associated with his sister, Maureen.  Ed joins the local church choir just to get nearer to her, but as their relationship grows, hostilities erupt; Fort Sumter has fallen and the War is on.

While Ed and Jesse are fishing on their boat the “Dead Reckoning,” Cedar Keys is shelled by a gunboat, destroying the gum patch, Ed’s livelihood, and scattering its residents to the four winds.  Ed and Jesse discover a mysterious stow-away aboard the boat, and together the three of them set sail with what remains of Ed’s naval stores in search of Maureen and her family, during which time Ed must decide where his loyalties lie.  Ed and Jesse get more than what they bargained for when the real identity of their passenger is revealed and they find themselves in a race against time to save Maureen and some of the other residents of Cedar Keys from what is sure to be a certain death.

“The Reckoning,” is inspired by the pocket-sized journal that Mr. Larranaga’ great grandfather kept during the Civil War.  It is one part historical fiction and one part historical romance, but a bodice ripper it is not.  The old adage “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” holds true here.  In a glaring miscalculation of art design, book’s cover features a trio of a middle aged man, an bare-chested younger man, both wearing cowboy hats, and a young woman, all who appear in modern 20th/21st century clothing, and gives the casual book store browser the impression that this book is a western “horse opera.”  The novel is written in the first person, as Ed’s memoir of the tumultuous first year first year of the war in Florida’s Key Islands.  Readers of historical fiction will most assuredly enjoy Mr. Larranaga’s tale of love and war.

ISBN 978-1478177296, CreateSpace, © 2012, Paperback, 290 pages.  $13.49.  To Purchase click the book click HERE.

Review: America’s Great Debate

America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union

By Fergus M. Bordewich

Since its establishment by the Constitution in 1787 the Federal Government was dominated by the Southern States.  The steadily disproportionate population growth in the Northern States as opposed to their Southern sisters gradually chipped away at the Southern dominance in the United States House of Representatives.  By 1850 the Southerners were outnumbered in that institution.  With fifteen Free States in the North and fifteen Slave States in the South, through the guarantee of equal representation of each State in the United States Senate granted by the Constitution, the South still held power and sway in the Senate.

The discovery of gold in California and its application for statehood threatened to upset the delicate balance of power and give the Northern States the majority in both Houses in Congress for the first time in its history.  In his book, “America’s Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union,” Fergus M. Bordewich, tackles the following ten month debate over California, Slavery and the Constitution in the Senate.

Mr. Bordewich’s narrative begins by setting the stage.  He points to “Manifest Destiny” as being the idea responsible for the Mexican War.  He further explains the possibility of the spread of slavery into that territory so recently acquired from Mexico, and how that territory would be formed in the new states fueled the fire of sectional discourse.  The discovery of gold in California and the resulting exponential increase of its population due to the gold rush only exacerbated the situation. The lack of any form of organized government made it imperative that something be done to establish government and order in California or she would quickly descend into anarchy.  If California came into the Union as a new state it was a virtual certainty that she would enter as a Free State and thus upset the balance of power between the Northern and Southern States in the Federal Government.  Sensing the impending diminishment of its political power, secession was openly discussed in the Southern States.

The vagueness of Texas’ unresloved western border complicated issues even further when she claimed the Rio Grande as her western border, laying claim to half of what would eventually become the state of New Mexico.  Texas, a slave state, was readying an army to invade the New Mexico Territory and assert her claim.

Henry Clay had an answer.  Despite his self imposed retirement Clay was once again elected to the Senate by the Kentucky Legislature.  “The Great Compromiser” would return to Washington in December with a plan that he hoped would resolve the issues and heal the ever widening chasm between the country’s Northern and Southern sections.  His plan would become known to history as The Compromise of 1850.  Thereby he appealed to Congress to:

• Form Territorial Governments in New Mexico and “Deseret” (later to become Utah) without regard to slavery.
• Set Texas’ western border, and if she released her claim to the New Mexico Territory the United States would pay off its sizable public debt.
• Abolish the slave trade in the District of Columbia.
• Toughen the Fugitive Slave Law.
• Forbid the passage of any law prohibiting or obstructing trade in slaves between the slaveholding states.

Mr. Bordewich’s narrative quickly summarizes the web of tangled issues, explains each of Clay’s proposals and demonstrates why each was necessary and relevant to the situation at hand.  Once Clay introduces his compromise the author closely follows the machinations of the debate, and the ever shifting political alliances in Congress.  Speech after speech is delivered on the floor of the Senate by the great orators of the day; Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, William H. Seward and Stephen Douglas. Mr. Bordewich does admirable job summarizing these lengthy speeches, both for and against, the compromise,

Much to Clay’s dismay when the Compromise finally reached the floor for a vote it was in the guise of an omnibus bill.  All of Clay’s proposals were packed into one single pill designed to cure the nation of all its various political illnesses.  It was too big a pill for Congress to swallow as a whole, and it fell to defeat.

After the demise of the Omnibus Bill, the torch passed from Henry Clay to Stephen A. Douglas, the Senator from Illinois, who worked tirelessly to pass each of Clay’s proposals as single, standalone pieces of legislation.  One by one, by various combinations of different factions within the congress pass each bill, each a pill designed to cure the particular ill for which it was designed.

Clay’s medications and Douglas’ doctoring did not cure, but only postponed the malignancy of the secession cancer that threatened to cause the death of their patient.  North was not ready for war, Bordewich points out, in 1850 and further states that had it broken out the South would have in all likelihood secured her independence, by doing so the precedence of secession would be established, and the resulting probability that other sections would follow the example.  Without the Compromise of 1850 a map of the North American continent would look vastly different than it does today.

“America’s Great Debate” is exhaustively researched well written.  It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of antebellum America.

ISBN 978-1439124604, Simon & Schuster, © 2012, Hardcover, 496 pages, Photographs & Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $30.00.  To Purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Civil War Battlegrounds

Civil War Battlegrounds: The Illustrated History

of the War's Pivotal Battles and Campaigns

By Richard Sauers

There is no better way to learn about the Civil War than by visiting the numerous battlefields throughout the south and east on which it was fought.  However, in these tough economic times travel can be expensive, and sometimes prohibitively so.  Thankfully over the years several battlefield guidebooks have been published.  Some are better than others, but all of them offer a low cost way to explore America’s Civil War battlefields; and the only travel needed to do so is a trip to your local bookstore or library.

Richard Sauers’ “Civil War Battlegrounds: The Illustrated History of the War's Pivotal Battles and Campaigns” is a recent addition to the battlefield guidebook genre.  From the war’s beginning at Fort Sumter to its conclusion at Appomattox, Sauers visits a total of eighteen of the war’s most significant battlefields.  Each battlefield sketch is accompanied by useful information for tourists: phone numbers, websites, hours of operation, admission fees, parking details and available tours and programs.  Many sidebars appear throughout the book cover a variety of topics and trivia about the battles and their participants.

To call Sauers’ book a guidebook is a bit of an overstatement.  The heavy use of modern and historic photographs, illustrations and works of art overpowers his sparse text, and the maps which are often too small to be accurately read only give the reader an impression of the action at large.  To subtitle the book as “The Illustrated History of the War's Pivotal Battles and Campaigns” is also an overextension.  A thumbnail sketch of each battle (in a relatively large font) gives a general overview of the action, but it is hardly would I would call a history of each battle.

 “Civil War Battlegrounds” is not a book for serious students of the American Civil War, but it is a good tool to use when planning a battlefield visit.  However, if a visit to a Civil War battlefield isn’t in your budget this year, it is a perfect book for those who are just beginning to explore this turbulent period in American History.  And with its heavy use of photographs and illustrations it would also appeal to younger readers interested in history as well.

ISBN 978-0760344538, Zenith Press, © 2013, Paperback, 9.5 x 10 x 0.6 inches, 160 pages, Maps, Photographs and Illustrations & Index. $26.99.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Copperhead

Brother against brother is a frequent theme of Civil War literature, be it fiction, nonfiction, or in film.  But that oft over used theme is a little too simplistic.  The hard hand of war touched in some way everyone who lived through its fiery trial, whether in uniform or not; civilian or soldier, North or South, east or west.  No one was left untouched.  Not only did brother turn against brother, but also children against their parents, and neighbor against neighbor.

Neither is the theme of North vs. South, entirely correct.  The battle lines of the war were not drawn strictly on a map.  Within each warring section of the country were its dissenters.  There were Southern Unionists in the Confederacy, and in the North, those who did not support the war were derisively labeled “Copperheads.”

There have been tens of thousands of books written about the Civil War, most are about the battles, many are biographies about the military and political leaders of the opposing sides, some have been memoirs, a few have taken on the epic task of condensing the war into a single volume, and still fewer cover the war on the home front and when they do most often they focus attention on the South.  The war at home in the North is largely forgotten.

When it comes to film, nearly all films set during those cataclysmic years between 1861 and 1865 have at least one battle scene in them.  The battlefield is often the scene of the dramatic conflict, and those back at home are briefly seen in montages clutching photographs of, or letters from, their men in uniform.  Seldom is there a motion picture that focuses its subject solely on the Northern home front during the war.  “Copperhead,” produced and directed by Ron Maxwell and written by Bill Kauffman does just that.

Adapted by Kauffman from Harold Frederic’s 1893 novel “The Copperhead,” the film is set in upstate New York in 1862.  Its protagonist, Abner Beech (Billy Campbell), opposes the war, but is neither a Yankee nor a Rebel.  He is a strict Constitutional constructionists and believes the Constitution does not empower the President with the ability to emancipate the slaves by proclamation.  Things get infinitely more complicated for Abner when his son, Jeff, falls in love with Esther, the daughter of Abner’s abolitionist, scripture quoting antagonist, Jee Hagadorn (Angus MacFadyen).

The story takes an unexpected turn when Jeff (Casey Brown), against his father’s wishes, enlists in the Union army, while Hagadorn’s own son, Ni (August Prew), chooses not to enlist.  The sins of their fathers are soon laid upon the children.  Jeff is captured at the Battle of Antietam, and his fate is unknown to those at home.  Seeing, but not believing, Abner’s ambivalence to his son’s fate, Ni sets off on his own journey South to find Jeff.

Tensions in the community mount as Hagadorn spreads a rumor that Abner is watering his milk and prompts local store owners to boycott of dairy products from the Beech’s farm.  Adding tender upon the smoldering embers of distrust in the community, rumors also circulate of a conspiracy by the Copperheads to spread small pox.  The Democrats sweeping victory in the State elections adds the spark to set the community aflame.

Esther (Lucy Boynton), no longer able to hold the warring factions apart, rushes to the Beech home to warn Abner and his family that a torch bearing mob lead by her father is on their way with intentions of burning them out.  The fiery clash that follows deeply transforms those who survive it.

“Copperhead” is a cautionary tale warning us of the evils of demonizing those who hold views that differ from our own.  Through the lens of this intimate story can be seen the consequences of our intolerance of political dissent, and hatred of those who believe differently than the community at large.

Through cinematic story telling Ron Maxwell shows us the validity of Abraham Lincoln famous quote “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”  But the film, much like the Civil War itself, ends with a note of redemption and forgiveness as the community attempts to rebuild what has been destroyed.

Maxwell’s subtle direction allows the story to slowly build, as the tensions between Abner and the town’s residents slowly rise.  The fact that never once does he cut away to a gratuitous battle scene is testament to his belief in the strength of the human story he presents.

Kauffman’s screenplay is as much about what remains unsaid as it is about what is said, the themes or tolerance, rebellion, forgiveness and rebirth run subtly from the beginning of his script to its end.

As the film’s composer, Laurent Eyquem, has given his gentle score an understated air of quietness and contemplativeness.  It is intimate and pastoral and contrasts nicely with the escalating drama of the film.

The strength of “Copperhead” however lies in its performances.  Billy Campbell’s portrayal of Abner’s steely resolve and smoldering resistance to the government’s prosecution of the war is a tour de force performance.  Angus MacFadyen’s villainous performance as Hagadorn, however, is slightly over-the top and veers toward the melodramatic.  Casey Brown gives an air of youthful innocence to Jeff before leaving for the war, and is transformed not only physically but also emotionally by his experience in the war.  As Esther, Lucy Boynton, with both fragility and strength, is the emotional center of the film, as she is pulled back and forth between the ideologies of her own father and that of the man she hopes to be her future father-in-law.  Augustus Prew’s transformation as Ni Hagadorn from a youthful innocent to the condemner provides the film’s moral authority.  And two time Academy Award nominee, Peter Fonda, rounds out the cast as Avery, the Beech’s soft spoken neighbor who through rational debate with Abner articulates the Union counter point to Abner’s anti-war views.

Copperhead opens in theaters nationwide on June 28th, 2013.

Links:

•          The Official Copperhead Website
•          Copperhead’s Facebook Page
•          Copperhead’s Twitter Feed

Review: Giant In The Shadows

Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln

By Jason Emerson

He is known to history as Robert Todd Lincoln, the oldest of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln’s four sons, and the only one to survive to adulthood.  Never preferring to use his full name during his lifetime he was known as Robert T. Lincoln.  To those who knew and loved him, he was simply Bob.

From his birth to his death, and since, Robert T. Lincoln has remained hidden in the shadows of his martyred father and controversial mother.  With  “Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln,” journalist and an independent historian, Jason Emerson has delivered Robert T. Lincoln from the shadows of his famous parents and given him his own well deserved place in history.

Comprehensive in its scope, “Giant In the Shadows,” details the life of Robert T. Lincoln from his birth on August 1st, 1843 in a rented from of Springfield, Illinois’ Globe Tavern to his death on July 28, 1926 at Hildene, his private estate in Manchester, Vermont.  During his nearly 83 year lifespan, Robert would be present at Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House; he would be the only person in American History to be closely associated with three presidential assassinations (those of his father, James Garfield and William McKinley); he would become the 35th Secretary of War, serving under Presidents James Garfield and Chester Arthur; United States Minister to the United Kingdom during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison; President of the Pullman Palace Car Company; but most notably Robert was the keeper of the historical legacy of Abraham Lincoln.

Much of “Giant in the Shadows” explores the dynamics of the Lincoln family and their personal relationships with one another.  Mr. Emerson demonstrates that Abraham Lincoln’s relationship with his son, Bob, was a warm and intimate one, rather than cold and distant as it has often been portrayed.  Robert’s often tumultuous relationship with his mother, Mary Todd Lincoln is thoroughly examined.  During his childhood Robert shared a close relationship with his mother, but the cumulative effect of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in combination with the deaths of three of her four children took its psychological on Mary Lincoln.  As his mother’s mental health deteriorated Robert and Mary Todd Lincoln’s roles were reversed; the son became his mother’s protector.  With few options and a fear for his mother’s safety, Robert had his Mother declared insane and placed her in an institution, causing a deep family rift that never fully healed.

Biographers often fall in love with their subjects, and Mr. Emerson is not immune.  In the book’s only major shortcoming Robert Lincoln’s role in the Pullman strike of 1894 is not fully examined and murky at best.

With all of the tragedy in his life, it is easy to feel sympathetic toward Robert T. Lincoln, and that is completely understandable.  Emerson demonstrates time and again, that Robert Lincoln is not a man to be pitied.  It is true, his name opened many doors for him, but time and again Robert shut those doors, opened other doors of opportunity of his own choosing, and never once used his father’s memory and legacy to his own advantage while rising to his own prominence.  Much like his father Robert T. Lincoln was in many ways a self made man.

ISBN 978-0809330553, Southern Illinois University Press, © 2012, Hardcover, 640 pages, Photographs & Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography & Index. $39.95.  To purchase click HERE.

Review: Gettysburg, Turning Point Of The Civil War

Gettysburg: The Turning Point of the War

150th Anniversary Tribute

Edited by Kelly Knauer

In his introduction “Why Gettysburg Matters,” James M. McPherson explains Robert E. Lee and the leaders of the Confederacy believed a Confederate victory on Northern soil would force Ulysses S. Grant to loosen his strangle-hold on Vicksburg, Mississippi, the tide of Northern sentiment would turn against the war, and Abraham Lincoln would be forced to sue for peace or be defeated in the following year’s election.  If the Republican Party was defeated in large numbers in the 1864 elections, Lee believed the newly installed President of the United States would have no other option than to capitulate and give the Confederacy her freedom.  In short, Lee’s second invasion of the North was a vital component of the Southern campaign to win the war.

Having established the importance of the July 1863 battle, the book’s creators take a step back in time and to look at the bigger picture.  In the chapter, “The Road to Gettysburg,” the divisive issue of slavery is cited as the primary cause of the regional divisions in the United States.  After decades of debates and compromises, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, was the match that lit the fuse, and the election of Abraham Lincoln was the explosive detonation that caused the Union to fracture as one Southern state seceded after another.

Moving forward in time to the summer of 1863 the next chapter, “Lee Invades the North” follows what is now known as the Gettysburg Campaign: the Army of Virginia’s northward movement through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and into Pennsylvania with the Army of the Potomac at it heels.

The battle took place over three days, July 1-3, 1863, and each day of the battle is covered in one chapter of the book.  Each of these chapters includes a “Battlefield Guide,” giving its readers a reference point for information which follows in the chapter’s successive pages, namely a glossary of military terms and a timeline of day’s events; annotations about time, and the organization of infantry and artillery units are also included.  On the opposing page is a map detailing the day’s action.

Interspersed throughout the book are articles covering Abraham Lincoln’s search for a general able to defeat Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Civil War Medicine, the Gettysburg Cyclorama, Death and the Civil War, and Lee’s escape south after the battle.

The final chapter “Gettysburg in Memory,” brings us from the immediate aftermath of the battle to the conclusion of the war up to the present day.  It delves into the realm of recent of study, the Civil War in Memory; with articles covering Civil War photographers and photography, Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, and the Civil War in movies.

Many of the officers who lead troops on both sides of the conflict have become historical icons.  “Gettysburg, The turning Pont of the War” features lengthy biographical sketches of some of the battle’s notable participants: Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, George G. Meade, Joshua L. Chamberlain and James Longstreet.  Also included are shorter biographical sketches of those commanding of the opposing armies: for the Confederacy A. P. Hill, Jubal Early, Henry Heth, Richard S. Ewell, John Bell Hood, Richard H. Anderson, Edward “Allegheny” Johnson, William Barksdale, George E. Pickett, Lewis A. Armistead, Isaac H. Trimble and J. Johnston Pettigrew; and their Federal counterparts Francis C. Barlow, Solomon Meredith, Winfield Scott Hancock, John C. Caldwell, William J. Colville, Alfred Pleasonton, Henry Hunt, John Buford and John F. Reynolds

First person accounts of the battle are also included in the book from civilians Elizabeth Masser Thorn and Tillie Pierce; Confederates Colonel William C. Oates of the 15th Alabama Infantry, Sergeant Valerius C. Giles of the 4th Texas Infantry and Captain Henry T. Owen, of the 18th Virginia Infantry; and Federal troops, Lieutenant Charles A. Fuller of the 61st New York Infantry, Captain Edward R. Bowen of the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry and Lieutenant George G. Benedict of the 12th Vermont Infantry

Using its linear narrative of each day’s action in combination with first person accounts and a liberal use of photographs, artworks and maps, “Gettysburg, The Turning Point of the War” gives its readers a panoramic view of the largest battle ever to take place in the Western Hemisphere, sets it into its proper historical context, and explores how we choose to remember the battle and the Civil War.

ISBN 978-1618930538, Time, © 2013, Hardcover, Dimensions 10.5 x 1 x 11.5 inches, 192 pages, Maps, Photographs, Illustrations, Picture Credits & Index. $29.95.  To Purchase the book click HERE.

Review: Rebel

“Rebel”

Airing Friday, May 24, 2013 at 10:00 p.m. ET on PBS

When The Woman In Battle was published in 1876 it caused a sensation.  Its author, Loreta Janeta Velazquez, was one of an estimated 1,000 women who secretly served as soldiers during the American Civil War.  Many, including former Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early, worked to prove it and its author a hoax and a fraud.  How could a Latina woman, an immigrant from New Orleans, and the daughter of a wealthy Cuban planter, masquerade herself as Harry T. Buford, a Confederate soldier, and later become a Union spy?  To many in the 19th century it was simply a tale too fantastic to be believed.

Dismissed as a fraud, Loreta and her service to both the Confederate Army and the Union cause, have nearly been erased from the history of the greatest conflict to ever take place on American soil; that is until now.  “Rebel,” a new episode of the Latino Public Broadcasting documentary series Voces, premiers Friday May 24, 2013 at 10:00 p.m. ET, on PBS.

Based largely on Loreta’s 600-page memoir, “Rebel” was written and directed by Maria Augui Carter and produced by herself and Calvin Lindsay, Jr.  It uses dramatic reenactment (most notably featuring Romi Dias as Loreta), archival material and historical commentary by such noted historians and scholars as Catherine Clinton, Renee Sentilles, Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Christina Vella, Jesse Aleman, Vicki L. Ruiz, DeAnne Blanton, Elizabeth D. Leonard, Richard Hall, Carman Cumming and Gary W. Gallagher, to weave together a captivating hour long documentary that successfully lifts the veil of mystery that has shrouded its subject for nearly 150 years and rightfully restores her place in history alongside her sisters in uniform.

Review: Here Is Where

Here Is Where:

Discovering America's Great Forgotten History

By Andrew Carroll

Part history book, part travel log, Andrew Carroll’s “Here is Where: Discovering America’s Great Forgotten History” crisscrosses the country from Florida to Alaska, from Maine to Hawaii, and spans four centuries of American history.  All but forgotten the incidents and places featured in Mr. Carroll’s delightful tome are little known and all are unmarked.

For instance, SS Sultana could legally carry 376 passengers and crew.  When it left Vicksburg Mississippi it carried an estimated 2,400 passengers, a large number of which had recently been released from the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia.  When it exploded and sank near Mound City, Arkansas on April 27, 1865 the official death toll was 1,547, and it is still the greatest maritime disaster in American history, surpassing even the sinking of RMS Titanic, which had 33 fewer deaths.  Overshadowed by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth, it remains today largely forgotten.  Though there are monuments dedicated to the victims and survivors of the Sultana, no monument or plaque marks the spot where remains of the ship were found in 1982.

Would you be surprised to learn Al Capone had a brother that changed his name to Richard James Hart who lived in the tiny town of Homer, Nebraska and became a Federal Prohibition Agent?

Or how about this?  Madison Grant, one of a trio of what we could call today, conservationists, responsible for founding the “Save the Redwoods League” would also write a book on eugenics that Adolph Hitler praised as his new “bible.”

Or that a fourteen year old Philo T. Farnsworth had brainstorm while plowing a field on his father’s Idaho farm that would eventually lead him to develop the first fully functional television system.

These are but a few of the stories found in Andrew Carroll’s book.  Though I would love to see a breakdown of his itinerary and budget for his cross-country journey into forgotten history, Mr. Carroll did not organize his book in the chronological sequence of his travels, but rather he has divided his book into themes:

• Where To Begin: Starting Points
• The World Before Us: Coming to, Exploring and Conserving America
• This Land Is My Land: The Dark Side of Expansion and Growth
• Landmark Cases: Crimes and Lawsuits that Changed the Nation
• Sparks: Invention and Technological Advancements
• Bitter Pills And Miracle Cures: Medical Pioneers and Discoveries
• Burial Plots: Forgotten Graves, Cemeteries and Stories about the Dead
• All Is Not Lost: Finding and Preserving History

Each of Mr. Carroll’s themed chapters are subsequently divided into their individual stories, many of which interconnect in some way, shape or form.  Histories coincidences never cease to amaze.

“Here Is Where” is well written, in a conversational style, that is at once educational, entertaining and amusing to read.  It is easily one of the most enjoyable books I have read in quite some time, and would make a great addition to anyone’s home library whether they are a self-proclaimed “history nut” or not.

ISBN 978-0307463975, Crown Archetype, © 2013, Hardcover, 512 pages, “Acknowledgements and Sources,” $25.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: The Civil War, The Third Year Told By Those Who Lived it

The Civil War:

The Third Year Told By Those Who Lived It

Edited by Brooks D. Simpson

“The Civil War: The Third Year Told By Those Who Lived It,” is the third volume in The Library of America’s four volume series of first person accounts of the American Civil War.  Spanning from January 20, 1863 to March 10, 1864 this volume covers the third year of the war.  Like its preceding volumes, its multiple viewpoints cover the war’s third year from nearly every conceivable angle: Union and Confederate; from the home front to the front lines; soldiers, civilians and politicians.

Editor Brooks D. Simpson has culled from thousands of newspaper articles, diaries and journals, letters, memoirs and official documents, collected the richest of these historical documents and presented them chronologically.  One hundred and fifty years after the guns fell silent, readers of this book know how the it all will end.  But those who lived through it did not, and that gives an immediacy to these documents, the lives of their authors and the war itself, that one does not often get from reading biographies, histories of the war, or about the battles themselves.

Reading through its Table of Contents is like reading a “Who Was Who” of notable Civil War personalities from 1863, from Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, George G. Meade and Robert E. Lee.  Official documents as well as private correspondence help to illuminate the war’s most tumultuous year.  Also included in this collection are many unfamiliar names, who wrote letters and diaries.  These entries, the war at home as well as the news from the front lines, give this collection a deeper, more intimate and personal meaning.

One of the highlights of this collection are items dealing with the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, featured in the movie Glory, from its formation to the burning of Darien, Georgia and its defeat at Battery Wagner.  Of cource,1863 being the watershed year of the war, the Battle of Chancellorsville and the death of Stonewall Jackson also receive treatment, as well as the Gettysburg Campaign, The Vicksburg Campaign, and the Battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Mr. Simpson has prefaced each document with a short introductory paragraph, placing the document that follows in its proper historical context, and giving additional information wherever warranted.  The documents, however, speak for themselves, separately and collectively as a whole.

The Library of America’s “The Civil War: Told By Those Who Lived It” is an indispensible work not only for serious students of the Civil War, but also for those with a casual interest in the war as well.

ISBN 978-1598531978, Library of America, © 2013, Hardcover, 936 pages, Maps, Chronology, Biographical Notes, Note on the Texts, Notes & Index. $40.00.  To purchase this book click HERE.