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Book Reviews
New Civil War scholarship read and assessed, so subscribers know what is worth the shelf space.
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What makes a good battle book?
It is safe to say that, aside from President Abraham Lincoln, no other figure from the Civil War era has been the subject of more books and articles than General Robert E. Lee. A quick search of his name on Amazon.com yields over 1,000…
All Book Reviews
33 articles · 2019–2026Civil War Book Reviews
Detailed Account of Thirty-Nine Days of the Atlanta Campaign The Atlanta Campaign: Volume 2: From the Etowah River to Kennesaw Mountain, May 20 – June 27, 1864. B…
Civil War Book Reviews
In-depth account of the 1st and 2nd U.S. Sharpshooters Thunderbolt to the Rebels: The United States Sharpshooters in the Civil War. By Darin Wipperman. Maps, tabl…
Civil War Book Reviews
Extensive Book on Identification of Relics Relics: A Guide to Identification. By William Plummer. Author’s note, forward, acknowledgments, introduction, appendice…
Emerging Civil War The Book of General Stevenson
Icracked the book open carefully, conscious of its old spine. I didn’t know what shape its pages might be in, either. The book, an edition of Dennis Hart Mahan’s…
Civil War Book Reviews
Letters that Deepen Our Understanding of Lincoln and His Era Rescued from Obscurity A Great and Good Man: Rare, First-Hand Accounts and Observations of Abraham Li…
Civil War Book Reviews
Forgotten Kansas Union Soldier and U.S. Senator The Forgotten Senator: The Life and Character of Preston B. Plumb, by Johanna D. Wickman. Forward, acknowledgments…
Civil War Book Reviews
Civil War History of Charleston’s Castle Pinckney Holding Charleston by the Bridle: Castle Pinckney and the Civil War. By W. Clifford Roberts, Jr. and Matthew A.…
Civil War Book Reviews
Excellent Introductory Study Race to the Potomac: Lee and Meade After Gettysburg, July 4-14, 1863. By Bradley M. Gottfried and Linda I. Gottfried. Savas Beatie, s…
Civil War Book Reviews
Demonstrates the Benefits of Comparative History The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism. By Niels Eichhorn & Duncan A. Campbell. Notes, index, 344 pp., 2024. Lou…
Civil War Book Reviews For current events visit CivilWarEvents.com
A Fine Introduction to The Battle of Nashville They Came Only to Die: The Battle of Nashville, December 15-16, 1864. By Sean Michael Chick. Savas Beatie, savasbea…
Civil War Book Reviews For current events visit CivilWarEvents.com
Emerging Civil War Blog Posts in a Single Package War in the Western Theater: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War. E…
Vision and Valor: The War Through Women’s eyes
On February 5, 1864, George Metz of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, noted in his diary that he was reading “the life of Lincoln.” He must have enjoyed it, for he f…
Critic’s Corner
It’s not too much to say that its author, Douglas Southall Freeman, was born in 1886 to write such a book. A Virginian, Freeman was raised and educated in Richmon…
Civil War Book Reviews
Exemplary New History of Fort Sumter Thunder in the Harbor: Fort Sumter and the Civil War. By Robert W. Hatcher III. Maps, images, bibliography, index, 288 pp., D…
Book Reviews — October 2023
Attempts to Redress Weaknesses in Modern Scholarship More Than Just Grit: Civil War Leadership, Logistics, and Teamwork in the West, 1862, by Richard J. Zimmerman…
Book Reviews — September 2023
Redeeming Grant’s Reputation Grant at 200: Reconsidering the Life and Legacy of Ulysses S. Grant. Edited by Chris Mackowski and Frank J. Scaturro. Photos, notes,…
The War Before the War, Part 2: George B. McClellan
The War Before the War, Part 2: George B. McClellan Last month’s “This and That” reviewed the Mexican War experience of an artilleryman, Thomas Jackson. This time…
Ham Chamberlayne Virginian
Ham Chamberlayne Virginian “For the shortest, dullest letter really written in a past age can bring its atmosphere home to you as the most vivid historian of a la…
Book Reviews — August 2023
This first of a planned three volume set telling the story of the Battle of Gettysburg using battle reports, 3-dimensional views, maps, and first- hand accounts.…
Book Reviews — July 2023
Fascinating and Exciting Regimental History The 117th New York Infantry in the Civil War: A History and Roster. By James S. Pula. Photos, maps, notes, indices, bi…
Wert Wins Unprecedented Third Austin Civil War Round Table Book Prize for Bloody Angle Book
Wert Wins Unprecedented Third Austin Civil War Round Table Book Prize for Bloody Angle Book AUSTIN, Texas—Jeffry Wert has won the 2022 Austin Civil War Round Tabl…
Book Reviews — June 2023
XV Corps in Georgia and the Carolinas Soldiers From ExperienceThe Forging of Sherman’s Fifteenth Army Corps 1862– 1863. Eric Michael Burke. Maps, Endnotes, Biblio…
Book Reviews — May 2023
The Confederate Detective Service. By Ransom N. Hundley. Illustrated, bibliography, 258 pp., Knucklesamich Publishing, 2022, softcover, $30.00. And, The Confedera…
Book Reviews — April 2023
The Interracial Fight for Emancipation The Color of Abolition: How a Printer, A Prophet and a Contessa Moved a Nation. By Linda Hirshman. Notes, illustrated, Mari…
Book Reviews — March 2023
First hand Accounts of Iowa Soldiers Iowa and the Civil War; Volume 3: The Longest Year 1864–1865 by Kenneth L. Lyftogt. 2022, Camp Pope Publishing, www.camppope.…
“Cheer, Boys, Cheer”: Sam Watkins in the Winter of ’63-‘64
Columbia Herald, 1881-82.3 The author stitched them together as a volume which at one time he thought he would entitle Sam’s Book.4 Fifteen hundred copies were pr…
Book Reviews — February 2023
A Union Soldier and Abolitionist at War Yours Affectionately, Osgood: Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy’s Letters Home from the Civil War, 1862–1865. Edited by Sarah Trac…
Book Reviews — January 2023
True Blue: White Unionists in the Deep South during the Civil War and Reconstruction (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War). By Clayton J.…
Book Reviews — September 2022
A Different Perspective on a Historic Town Gettysburg 1963: Civil Rights, Cold War Politics, and Historical Memory in America’s Most Famous Small Town. By Jill Og…
Why I Support the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust
By Bradley M. Gottfried, Ph.D. I prepare detailed map atlases of Civil War campaigns—six are in print and a couple are on the way. I visit battlefields multiple t…
Sharpshooter Duels, Buffalo Arms and Wild Bill’s Firearms Heritage
Garry Yee, author of Sharpshooters 1750–1900: The Men, Their Guns, Their Story, a book that has become an instant classic and go-to source on the subject, has a n…
Book Reviews — October 2019
Looking at the Work of Sherman’s Cameraman Significant Civil War Photographs: Atlanta Campaign. By Stephen Davis. Introduction, bibliography, index, 126 pp., 2019…