Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale review

Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale: The Battle of Chickamauga, September 18-20, 1863. By William Lee White. Illustrated, photos, maps, orders of battle, 192 pp., 2013, Savas Beatie, www.savasbeatie.com, $12.95 softcover.

There has never been a better time to a Western theater enthusiast. There will always be more books on Gettysburg than on any other battle but in recent years the pure volume of books on Western theater battles has steadily increased. The latest offering in this theater comes from a Chickamauga park ranger, and local, William Lee White. This is an excellent book that walks the fine line between being a general overview but gives enough detail for a more knowledgeable audience.

The book’s format is that in each chapter White explains a phase of the battle then has a driving tour that takes you to that spot. Although many of the photos are small there are period and modern photos are on nearly every page to help show the terrain, monuments or the commanders involved. I read it from the comfort of my home a thousand miles from Chickamauga but felt that the directions were easy to follow. Also having been to Chickamauga many times the directions and modern photos helped jog my memory of what is at each tour stop. If you read the book while on the battlefield it would only enhance the experience.

I’m tempted to compare it to the other Chickamauga tour guide, the War College Version, Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga, written by Matt Spruill roughly 16 years ago. The main difference between the two is that Spruill’s version uses the primary sources, mainly the official reports from the commanders to explain the battle while White’s version is a narrative account he distilled from the primary and secondary sources. White’s book is probably an easier read but Spruill’s puts you in the commanders’ shoes more as they make their decisions. I don’t think I could pick owning just one. For someone just entering the study of Chickamauga though White’s book is a more accessible read.

I also enjoyed the appendices, especially the one of the civilians who lived on the battlefield at the time. They are always mentioned in battle histories but for some of them this was the most detail I’ve previously seen, at least in one short chapter.

The one complaint I do have with Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale is that the driving tour stays within the national park. There is a wealth of other sites outside the park but the book does not take you to those. For the times it discusses actions outside the park it would not have been difficult to take the visitor there. This is a relatively minor complaint though for an overall great book.

The Petersburg Campaign: Volume 1 by Edwin C. Bearss

The Petersburg Campaign: Volume 1: The Eastern Front Battles June-August 1864. By Edwin C. Bearss with Bryce A. Suderow. Photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 456 pp., 2012, Savas Beatie, www.savasbeatie.com, $34.95.

            As the title suggests this book covers the early fighting around Petersburg.  Specifically the battles covered are the first two assaults on Petersburg in min-June, the battle of the Jerusalem Plank Road near the end of June, then The Crater a month later, followed in mid-August by the battle of Weldon Railroad and the second battle of Ream’s Station.  As is pointed out in the text although it is commonly referred to as the siege of Petersburg the city was never isolated like a typical siege does, so calling it the Petersburg Campaign is more accurate.

            As explained in the introduction the bulk of the book was completed by Edwin Bearss when he worked on troop movement maps for Petersburg  in the 1960s.  With few exceptions these stayed in-park manuscripts seen by mainly park personnel and researchers.  Decades later Bryce Suderow came across the unpublished manuscripts in the park’s archives and contacted Bearss about having them published.  Suderow then updated and edited Bearss’ manuscripts and in the process created a two volume set on the Petersburg campaign.  It is unclear how much Suderow edited but he begins each chapter with a short introduction.

            As anyone who has had any experience with Bearss, through his tours, appearances on historical television shows or his many books, knows the man is a font of knowledge.  It is not surprising then that this volume offers a ton of information and will be heavily referenced by Petersburg historians.  In fact serious Petersburg historians have already been referencing this information in its original unpublished manuscript form, now a much wider audience of scholars with an interest on Petersburg have access to this wonderful collection.

            My only complaint is that since the book had its genesis in troop movement maps made for the park service in the 1960s it would have been nice to have some of those maps printed here, or provide the collection on a CD-ROM.  There are some very nice maps in the book so that tempers that disappointment significantly, however it still would have been nice to have those original troop movements maps to refer to as well.

            I would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in the Petersburg campaign.

 

The Maps of Antietam by Bradley M. Gottfried

The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of the Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign, Including the Battle of South Mountain, September 2-20, 1862. By Bradley M. Gottfried. Maps, notes, bibliography, index, 360 pp., 2012, Savas Beatie, www.savasbeatie.com, $39.95.

            Civil War readers tend to like maps.  We usually complain we cannot get enough of them.  This is not the case with Maps of Antietam, the newest release in Savas Beatie’s "Maps of ... "series.  Bradley Gottfried has given us another amazing volume of maps to complement his earlier Eastern Theater contributions, First Bull Run and Gettysburg.  There should be enough maps here to satisfy the most devoted student of the battle.

            The basic concept for each book in the series is that the right page has a full page map depicting a snippet of the battle or campaign while the facing page has text explaining the actions covered on the map.  Like the earlier volumes this book is in a large format (7X10) so the maps are nice and big and there is quite a bit of text accompanying each map.  The text is extensive enough, and footnoted, that one would have a good understanding of the battle if they simply read the text and never referred to the maps, but the incredible maps is what sets this book apart from other battle histories.  Of course one of the benefits of this book is paring it with a more detailed history of the battle so that one always has a great map at hand.

            This particular volume, Maps of Antietam, covers the three weeks of actions after the battle of Ox Hill.  Starting on September 2 1862 the two armies begins preparations for the next campaign, the Confederates deciding on crossing the Potomac while the Union withdraws closer to Washington to lick its wounds.  There is nearly a map per day as the armies begin maneuvering in Maryland.  This is then followed by nearly three dozen maps for the battles on South Mountain.  Then there is 10 maps detailing the capture of Harper’s Ferry before another section leads the armies to Sharpsburg.  The battle itself comprises nearly 60 maps, some of them covering as little as 15 minutes of combat.  Finally there are seven maps covering the forgotten action at Shepherdstown to close out the campaign. 

            Another interesting feature of the book is a short interview with the author.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before and while there is no earth shattering news here it is interesting to get a peek at the historian’s mind.  I also liked that the pages seem thicker than a normal book, if it was weatherproof I’m sure that would be listed prominently so I’m sure this is just to make the book a bit more durable for trips to the battlefield or the constant use it should see as one studies the battle.

            This is truly a must have book for anyone studying the battle of Antietam.  Good maps are always integral to a good book.  While the detailed battle histories often offer up many good maps none of them offer up maps this good and in this quantity.  But this is not simply a collection of maps as Gottfried has also written a good history of the battle himself.

The Battle of Pea Ridge by James R. Knight

The Battle of Pea Ridge: The Civil War Fight for the Ozarks. By James R. Knight. Illustrated, photos, maps, notes, appendices, index, 160 pp., 2012, History Press, www.historypress.net, $19.99 softcover.

            If one is looking for a good short history of Pea Ridge this is the book to pick.  It is part of History Press’ sesquicentennial series, the goal of which seems to be to offer well written and illustrated short books.  They are very good at what they intend to do.  If instead you desire a detailed history of the battle, this is not for you.

            Knight’s book on Pea Ridge is no different.  It is peppered with great looking maps and plenty of pictures of leaders and modern views of the battlefield.  Even in a short book Knight does a good job of providing the proper background on how the armies got here, gives a good amount of details of the fighting so that it does not seem overly generalized and then finishes up by placing the battle in its context in the war.

            One slight drawback is that there is not a bibliography to easily see how varied the author’s selections were.  But from reading through the end notes one can see that he relied heavily on the Official Records and Shea and Hess’s Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West, admitting in the preface that he used Shea and Hess as the backbone of the book.  In a book with these space constraints it is expected so it is only a minor drawback to an otherwise fine book.

            This is a good little book on Pea Ridge.  It has great maps and is a quick read.  If you’re new to studying Pea Ridge this book would be a great entry point and will certainly inspire you to learn more about this pivotal battle.

Kentucky's Civil War Battlefields by Randy Bishop

Kentucky's Civil War Battlefields: A Guide to Their History and Preservation.  By Randy Bishop.  Photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 400 pp., 2012, Pelican, www.pelicanpub.com, $25.

            It is hard to study battles without visiting the battlefields.  For those of us a thousand miles away this means making the most of our infrequent trips to the South and relying on detailed books to fill in the gaps for places we have not yet been.  Randy Bishop has provided an excellent resource in this respect for the main battles of Kentucky. 

            He has examined the thirteen battles that the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission deemed as having some significance to the outcome of the war.  This includes well known battles such as Perryville, Richmond, Mill Springs and Wild Cat Mountain, plus other smaller engagements such as Ivy Mountain, Sacramento and Paducah.  As makes sense when dealing with a border state three-fourths of the book covers actions through the fall of 1862 with the final part being raids by Morgan and Forrrest. 

            The general outline of each chapter is a history of the battle followed by information of what one will see there, a map which typically includes some modern touring information along with the troop movements and some pictures, of both personalities and the battlefield itself.

            I thought the histories of the battles were fairly detailed, some of them require a book of their own to explain the battle but Bishop does an admirable job in the space he has.  My favorite part though was the section in each chapter explaining what one will find there today.  In some cases there is not much to see, such as Ivy Mountain, but in others, like Perryville, there is quite a bit preserved.  One of my favorite ways to study a battle is to visit the site and this book will be extremely helpful in that respect.  Bishop even lists phone numbers of places to visit, though I would personally confirm tour info online before I visited.

            I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Kentucky’s battles, either to learn about them individually or with plans to visit them as well.  It will probably spark an interest to read more on a battle and make a visit there soon.

From Western Deserts to Carolina Swamps edited by John P. Wilson

From Western Deserts to Carolina Swamps: A Civil War Soldier’s Journals and Letters Home. Edited by John P. Wilson. Photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 280 pp., 2012, University of New Mexico, www.unmpress.com, $?? hardcover.

            When the Civil War began Lewis Roe was serving in the Western territories in the 7^th US Infantry.  He eventually found his way to Fort Craig where he offers a great first hand account of the battle of Valverde.  After finishing his service out west he enlisted in the 50^th Illinois in February 1864 in time to join it for the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman’s March to the Sea and then through the Carolinas. 

            Editor John Wilson has done a superb job of mixing Roe’s writings with his own and at times adding in Roe’s post war reminisces to the narrative to fill in the gaps between the diaries and letters.  Wilson also adds some brief notes at the end of chapters that come from a soldier who would have experienced something similar to Roe, whether that be someone else from the regiment or corps. 

            The diary entries tend to focus on movements, weather and food, offering a picture of life as a soldier.  When there is a battle or something important to report the letters provide a bit more detail than the diary entries do. 

            There are a ton of books that focus on Sherman’s 1864-5 campaigns, from general histories to soldiers’ reminiscences.  Nothing about Roe’s service in those campaigns will be especially shocking or noteworthy.  It is an interesting diary just that his experiences do not differ greatly from the other diaries already published that cover this campaign.  However one area Roe did see quite unique service was in the Western territories.  One of the best parts of the book are the portions dealing with the battle of Valverde partly because of the clarity of the writing but also because this fills an under reported part of the war. 

            I highly recommend this book because it offers a varied view of the war.  There is something in there to interest a Western theater enthusiast as well as a Western territory enthusiast.  The Western territory writings are not only interesting, but they also help fill a neglected area of Civil War study.

Leaving Home in Dark Blue: Chronicling Ohio's Civil War Experience by Curt Brown

Leaving Home in Dark Blue: Chronicling Ohio's Civil War Experience through Primary Sources & Literature. By Curt Brown. Illustrated, photos, 264 pp., 2012, University of Akron, www.uakron.edu/uapress, $19.95 softcover.

            Leaving Home in Dark Blue is a treasure trove of primary source material.  Curt Brown has compiled roughly 20 different primary sources for each year of the war.  These sources span the breadth of style from artwork, poems, sheet music to narratives and diary entries, of course with the overriding theme that all the events happened to citizens and soldiers from Ohio.  Each source is introduced by a short paragraph from Brown setting the context and reason for its inclusion.  All theaters are covered and people from all walks of life are represented. 

            Battles are discussed but it is far from the focus here, the focus is more on how average people dealt with the war.  Some of the more fascinating articles to me were the ones connected to the home front.  An example is the excerpt “Where O Where is My Joe?” from the story “Ellen,” which was published in Atlantic Monthly during the war.  The editor says the story is based on fact.  In the story Ellen goes into West Virginia looking for her brother Joe, whose regiment is somewhere nearby.  Ellen and Joe are the only ones left in their family.  In her search she is mistaken for a spy, treated roughly and jailed.  She eventually gets out only to find that his regiment is much farther into the state and so no message can reach him.  The narrator says she never found out what happened to Ellen or Joe.  A sad story but one that did happen and was likely repeated in many other situations.  Plus it was interesting to read a fictionalization that average citizens around the country would have read.

            Reminiscences from prisoners also appears quite heavily throughout the book.  One that particularly tugs at the heartstrings is a simple letter from a group of Ohio soldiers in Andersonville to their governor asking him to do something, anything, to help their situation; including the line, “We have stood by the nation in its peril, and now will not our State and government sympathize with its suffering and dying defenders! Will it not lend us a helping hand in our hour of misery and extreme destitution!”  Obviously there was more involved here than the governor could control but he had to feel moved to do something after receiving such a letter from his soldiers, plus knowing even a fraction of the horrors they were suffering in Andersonville.

            I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it for anyone who wants to see varied views of the home front and how soldiers dealt with the war away from the battlefield.

Tenth Minnesota Volunteers by Michael A. Eggleston

The Tenth Minnesota Volunteers, 1862-1865: A History of Action in the Sioux Uprising and the Civil War, with a Regimental Roster. By Michael A. Eggleston.  Photos, maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, index, 238 pp., 2012, McFarland, www.mcfarlandpub.com, $40 softcover.

            While there have been a few recent books on the Sioux uprising of 1862 there is still plenty of room for a new effort.  Michael Eggleston has done an admirable job at filling this gap with this book on the 10^th Minnesota.  In fact the 10^th Minnesota was not fully formed when the uprising began but some of its members would fight with the 5^th Minnesota during this time of panic in Minnesota.

            The next summer the 10^th Minnesota would be involved in a punitive expedition into the Dakotas to deal with the Sioux.  The numbers of casualties was not too much but it offered the 10^th Minnesota its first taste of combat.  Later in the summer they would be sent south to do the job they had volunteered for, fighting Confederates. 

            First they helped defeat Forrest at Tupelo in July 1864, though their part in the battle was small.  Then they next found themselves chasing after Price in Missouri.  They didn’t catch up to him but infantry chasing cavalry never realistically had a chance.  The regiment’s biggest test though was soon approaching as they were transferred back to Tennessee in time for the battle of Nashville.  On the second day they lost 68 killed and wounded out of 301 engaged, including its lieutenant colonel officer wounded and major killed.  But their war was not done as they were again transferred, this time to the Gulf coast to be part of the Mobile campaign.  They were part of the attack on Spanish Fort and arrived at Fort Blakely a little too late to take part in that charge.

            A superb roster of the regiment appears in the appendices.  The appendices also contain a significant amount of extra information on the Sioux uprising.  Included are copies of the treaties that were broken, a history of the trials and subsequent executions as well as Lincoln’s report to Congress on the whole incident.

            While this is not the best book on the Sioux uprising it certainly helps fill in some holes in an area that tends to get forgotten.  The individual battle histories are pretty generalized with not too much detail given so they might only appeal to someone with an interest in the 10^th Minnesota.  Overall though I think this is a worthwhile book primarily because of its coverage of the Sioux uprising and subsequent 1863 punitive expedition.

Letters Home to Sarah edited by Kevin Alderson and Patsy Alderson

Letters Home to Sarah: The Civil War Letters of Guy C. Taylor, 36^th Wisconsin Volunteers. Edited by Kevin Alderson and Patsy Alderson. Photos, maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index, 328 pp., 2012, University of Wisconsin Press, www.uwpress.wisc.edu, $26.95 hardcover.

            Like many collections of letters Letters Home to Sarah is light on battlefield narratives but heavy on how soldiers actually lived the war.  The 36^th Wisconsin was created in the early spring of 1864 and while the regiment as a whole did see some combat before reaching Petersburg Guy Taylor was not one of them.  It seems that he was sick for much of his early service and spent nearly his first three months in the hospital.  He’d eventually join the ranks but then be assigned to duty with a doctor.

            Since he missed most of the combat his regiment was engaged in his letters instead cover the daily life of a soldier far away from his wife.  They discuss how to run the family farm, what she should tell people who ask why he enlisted, things she should send to him in Virginia and of course the common soldier lament of not receiving enough letters from home.  Because it seemed that they were missing letters from each other they quickly started to number them so each would know when one was missing.  This also was important because Taylor used the mail to send his wife home part of his earnings. 

            An example of how personal life was more important than the war going around him is that on April 12 1865 Taylor writes his wife to let her know about Lee’s surrender and its just quickly mentioned at the beginning of the letter before he talks about how they are being fed and that he has not heard a gun fired since the surrender and thinks he’ll be home by July

            A few days later he related a humorous tale of how he visited a local family and bought one of their chickens.  Some other soldiers arrived expecting to steal the chickens but he liked the old man of the house so he told the soldiers they had to buy the chickens, that he was placed as guard over the house.  So the soldiers paid for the chickens but were not too happy about the situation.  He figured they had stolen enough chickens that they could afford to pay for some now too. 

            Taylor was clearly an intelligent soldier as his letters are quite interesting and lengthy.  The spelling leaves a bit to be desired however it is still possible to understand it.  I would recommend this to anyone interested in a soldier’s life during the Petersburg campaign.

Battle of Carthage by Kenneth Burchett

The Battle of Carthage, Missouri: First Trans-Mississippi Conflict of the Civil War. By Kenneth E. Burchett. Photos, maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index, 240 pp., 2013, McFarland, www.mcfarlandpub.com, $35 softcover.

            Kenneth Burchett has done a good job of bringing more attention to one of the war’s first battles, the battle of Carthage.  As a minor battle it may not need many book length treatments but the battle now has its second modern book.  While it does not supplant that book, David Hinze and Karen Farnham's The Battle of Carthage: Border War in Southwest Missouri, July 5, 1861, as the premier book it complements it well and expands our knowledge of the battle a bit more.  Certainly any Western theater student has room for both books on the shelf.

            One way Burchett’s book succeeds is that he focuses on southwestern Missouri rather than give an overall description of the state at the beginning of the war.  Another aspect I found particularly interesting was his description of figuring out how many casualties there were.  There are no muster rolls for the Missouri State Guard troops from this time frame so most reporting of Confederate causalities comes from eyewitness accounts and not hard numbers gained through muster rolls.  He does not give a number he thinks is correct, instead offers up all the conflicting tallies.  He does seem to suggest the figure is around 75 killed and wounded per side, numbers that would be dwarfed by many battles to come.  Carthage’s significance though is in its place in the timeline of war, an early Confederate victory.

            The only problem I had with this book was its lack of maps.  In fact there is only one map, a period piece prepared for General Sweeny’s official report.  It is a very nice map but I personally like many more maps, showing troop movements.  This is a major drawback but it can be overlooked because of the clear writing of the battle.  Do not disregard this book simply for its lack of maps, just be prepared to flip back and forth to the one good map or print your own map off the internet to supplement the book.  Overall I would recommend this book because of what it adds to our understanding of the battle and southwest Missouri at the beginning of the war.  If it had been full of maps it would be a must have.

 

4th Michigan Infantry

The 4th Michigan Infantry in the Civil War. By Martin N. Bertera and Kim Crawford. Photographs, index, 560 pp., 2010, Michigan State University Press, www.msupress.msu.edu, 517-355-9543, $44.95, cloth.

Sometimes our Civil War reading is so focused on battles and commanders that we forget to think about the inner workings of the regiment, which is what nearly every soldier dealt with. The 4th Michigan Infantry in the Civil War puts the focus back on the regiment. The 4th Michigan did not leave a record of bloody battle after bloody battle. Instead it managed through good luck to miss most of the horrible engagements that reduced regiments into company sized skeletons of their former selves.

The 4th Michigan served in the Army of the Potomac from the beginning at First Manassas up until the beginning of the siege of Petersburg. Not enough men had reenlisted for the unit to continue so the veterans were transferred to the 1st Michigan to complete there service at Appomattox. During that time the regiment was engaged in four battles, Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, Gettysburg and the Wilderness. Remarkably they lost their commanding officer killed or mortally wounded in three of those fights. At the other battles of the Army of the Potomac though they missed major combat, sometimes acting as a rear guard, being posted to a quiet portion of the line or being part of an uncommitted reserve.

One area the book excels at is discussing the politics of command. While not all officers were politicians they were generally politically connected. At times members of the officer corps did not get along and tried to get others removed from the regiment. This is a somewhat little looked at aspect of volunteer regiments that this book covers quite well.

One failing of the book though is a lack of maps. Often the regiment’s location would be described in great detail but without a map those details do not mean as much. For some battlefields I know well enough or have books of maps so that I could match the text to the map but I much rather prefer books that include their own maps.

All in all this is a very good book. The authors provide a great amount of detail on all aspects of the regiment, from their time in battle, to the relationships between officers and the governor, and on the common soldiers as well. Normally it seems that the best regimental histories focus on regiments that saw a ton of combat or whose service was unique in other respects like geography. This regiment does not meet either attribute but the quality of the writing made this an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Reviewed for Civil War News

A Rebel’s Recollections

A Rebel’s Recollections. By George Cary Eggleston with a new forward by Randy Bishop. 360 pp., 2010, Pelican Publishing, www.pelicanpub.com, 504-368-1175, $14.95, paper.

A Rebel’s Recollections was originally published in 1875 when George Cary Eggleston compiled a series of essays he had written about his service. Eggleston was a native of Indiana but inherited a plantation in Virginia prior to the war. His service in Virginia allowed him to observe Stonewall Jackson, Robert R. Lee, JEB Stuart among others, and Eggleston provides some insightful commentary of prominent Confederate leaders. The sections that cover the Confederacy’s financial woes and the supply situation are at times humorous but also melancholy.

There is no discussion of battles, nor of marches. Eggleston focused more on what a soldier thought and how he coped with the declining fortunes of the Confederacy than with bullets and gunpowder.

This new reprint is well done, utilizing high quality, clean scans of the original book. The new forward sets the stage for the topics Eggleston will cover, and teases at interesting tidbits that are to come.

Reviewed for Civil War News

A Glorious Army

A Glorious Army: Robert E. Lee's Triumph 1862-1863
by Jeffry D. Wert

In A Glorious Army Wert traces Lee's command of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days through Gettysburg. The time when nearly everything went right (until it came crashing down at Gettysburg) for Lee. This is a good recap of the campaigns the army undertook with Lee during that time frame. Wert does a good job of providing details of battles (even down to the regimental level) without getting bogged down in them, and does it all in just under 300 pages of text.

What I especially liked is how Wert brought other historians in the mix. Of course any writer would use them in a book like this but Wert would offer their interpretations right in the text and not just through a footnote. For example he would say "Gary Gallagher said that ....." Sometimes Wert would then disagree or agree and sometimes he would just leave it out there as an example of an interpretation. Having read most of those books at one time or another it was very helpful to get this little reminder of what that author had said about something.

When I read Eastern Theater stuff I sometimes think in the back of my head, "well that's all very nice but the war was won in the West, so while Lee was having great success it doesn't really matter in the end." And while I do still feel that way Wert gave a very convincing argument that Lee's audacity and aggressiveness was the only way the Confederates could hope to win. And he did win a lot and suffered tremendous losses at the same time, but it was his only hope. One thing I am forced to agree with him on, and it happens to be the last line of the book, is "No American army, against such odds and in less than a year, compiled such a record as that of the Army of Northern Virginia, and none altered the direction of a conflict more." Wert is right on that, so maybe I should give the Eastern Theater a little more respect.

Wert makes a good point in the final summary chapter of reminding us that when Lee took over the army the total war effort for the Confederates looked very bleak. To that point the Confederacy had mostly been on the strategic defensive and was losing the war. Lee's aggressiveness changed the course of the war in the Eastern Theater, which prolonged the contest as a whole because of the political aspect of the war. Later many people, participants and historians alike, would say that Lee should have operated on the strategic defensive but there is reason to believe that his offensives is the reason the Confederacy was able to stay in the war that long.

I really enjoyed this book and it slightly changed my opinion of the value of the Eastern Theater. If you wanted a highly detailed account of regimental actions covering those 12 months this is not the book for you. Truthfully I'm not sure anyone has covered all of that in one volume, so the book you want has not yet been written. But Wert's book gives a good overview of that year and also gives enough tactical information for you to get a good grasp of how Lee's army fought. A fine addition to any Civil War library and especially for Eastern Theater students.

Civil War Day by Day

Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac by EB Long and Barbara Long

I have been reading this classic with my oldest son lately. Every night we settle down and read what happened 150 years ago. By the time we finish my younger son will be joining us for the readings. I got the idea when on the way home from a cub scout meeting on April 5th I decided to tell my son about the battle of Shiloh. But not the detailed minutia of the battle, just a story of farm boys far from home. I told him the story of the night of April 5th, how the Union boys were settled down to sleep, thinking of home, of writing and reading letters, that the next day was Sunday and they'd get a rest from their army "chores." And of the Confederate boys sleeping down the road knowing that their world would change the next day. And both sides wondering if they would be cowards or brave, and that bravery does not mean being scared but sometimes means pushing past what you are afraid of. He really enjoyed the story and when I was done he asked if I had any others. Sure I've got tons. And I also knew there was a book that would keep us informed about every day.

If you don't have this book you have to go get a copy. It is a true classic and you won't be disappointed.

Civil War in the Southwest

Civil War in the Southwest: Recollections of the Sibley Brigade. Edited by Jerry Thompson

This is an interesting collection of remembrances from seven members of the Sibley Brigade. They were originally published in a small East Texas newspaper, the Overton Sharp Shooter. It is also useful in that for some actions, like the battle of Valverde, there will be a few different viewpoints presented. For Valverde there are five different perspectives given.

It is an interesting read but I would not use it to pinpoint locations or time of day on a battlefield. It seems in every battle the Sibley Brigade thought they were heavily outnumbered but in reality they usually fought at pretty similar strengths.

I wish the editor had made the notations footnotes instead of end notes because his notes were more about background info than being bibliographic in nature. For instance for Valverde the common theme is that the Confederates faced roughly 4 to 1 odds, with Union numbers from 7000 to 8000, actually was 3800 and Confederates from 1400 to 2100, with 1800 being about right. One author claims Union losses of nearly 6000, while it really was about 250. Another says the Union recovered 1000 dead and had 1500 missing (which were lost in the river) while the Confederates captured 700 wounded, with more wounded on the other side of the river. That would put the loss around 3200 that this author was sure of plus the ones on the other side of the river he could only see but not count. By the way Confederate losses were around 180. The author who said the Union lost about 3200 said they buried 185 Confederates there, so he wasn't too far off. Other authors put it at 300 and 235, those two authors also claimed the Union loss at around 500-600. But finding out the rest of the story by flipping to the end notes was a little annoying when footnotes would have been much easier for the reader.

I prefer footnotes for annotating recollections because there is so much to clarify or correct in a 125-150 year old source. End notes are fine for scholarly books as they often are just citations. I do always check them just in case an author has left some interesting nuggets of information there. Some authors use their notes to supplement the story and some stick to just straight citations.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about the 1862 New Mexico Campaign. It will be a great supplement to one of the other scholarly campaign histories.

Decisions at Gettysburg

Decisions at Gettysburg: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Campaign by Matt Spruill

Last Thursday at the Rocky Mountain Civil War Roundtable meeting Matt Spruill talked about his newest book, Decisions at Gettysburg. It was a great talk and having read the book since then it is also a great book. To be fair as a friend of Matt's I have read portions of the manuscript as he's worked on it. So I knew from the moment I got the book it was going to be a great book, but this was the first time I had seen it all put together, especially with the illustrations.

The idea for the book is that its one thing to know what happened at Gettysburg, that is what we all learn first. But it is more important to learn why the events happened as they did. There were many decisions made during the campaign and battle that left us with the Gettysburg we know today. Some of those decisions were more important than others, some had more influence on the direction the battle took than others. One thing Spruill stresses early is that changing the decision does not mean Lee could have won, just that the battle and campaign would have unfolded differently. Some of them might have lead Lee to victory but others might have made Meade's victory even more complete.

For example the first decision of the book is that Lee basically has four options in the summer of 1863. He can simply wait for the Union to regroup and attack him, he can maneuver in Virginia to bring on a battle, he can send send men West which would force him to be on the defensive, or he can launch an invasion of the North. Knowing Lee's character the obvious choice is that he will invade the North but it was a critical decision in that the other ones will not lead to a battle in rural Pennsylvania. The summer battle might then be Third Manassas or Second Chancellorsville, etc.

Another example is Sickles moving forward on the second day. His other option is to stay in position along Cemetery Ridge and Little Round Top. In his mind Sickles has valid reasons for moving forward, (the high ground of Hazel Grove at Chancellorsville that he held, was ordered off of and then was hammered by Confederate artillery probably came to mind as he saw the high ground of the Peach Orchard) but he still made the decision. The difference in flow of battle is that combat would have occurred closer to his other position. Also how would the Confederates have attacked this position? Would they have tried to flank it, or come straight at Sickles, or drive up the Emmittsburg Road like originally planned and hope Sickles doesn't come off the ridge to strike the flank. There likely would be zero mention of The Wheatfield or Peach Orchard, they would just be a wheatfield troops marched through or a peach orchard the Confederate artillery fired from.

An example of a decision that was not critical to the course of the battle is Howard leaving troops in reserve on Cemetery Hill when he first enters the fight on July 1. It was a good decision in that it gave the Union a reserve to fall back on. In an odd way its a good decision because it means less troops later trying to force their way through the congested streets on town when the Union had to retreat from its advanced positions. This is all just a commander doing a good job.

The critical decisions can also be strategic, operational, tactical and organizational. Two of the pre-campaign decisions Spruill discusses are Lee's reorganization of his army (going from two corps to three) and how the Army of the Potomac's artillery was reorganized after Chancellorsville. Both will have an impact on how the battle is fought and if the command structures had been left alone the battle probably would have unfolded differently.

I highly recommend the book to anyone who wants to better understand why things happened at Gettysburg like they did.

Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography

Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography by Jack Hurst

The whole reason I read this one is because I so enjoyed Hurst's book on the Donelson campaign. Yes I admire Forrest's battlefield skills. I definitely would not have wanted to get on his bad side and seeing how often his fellow officers and soldiers got there I think I would have never wanted to be around him. There is at least anecdotal evidence of him beating soldiers of his command and there is concrete evidence of him killing one of his lieutenants. Definitely not someone you'd pick to be friends with, but if you remained loyal to each other you'd have a solid supporter forever backing you. But woe if you ever crossed him.

Hurst's biography is a good one. I was somewhat amazed in how pro-Forrest he was. The Fort Pillow massacre is not just dismissed out of hand, Hurst spends time with it, puts it in historical perspective but at the end of all of it pretty much lets Forrest off the hook. There is a somewhat similar approach to Forrest's klan activities. He's acknowledged to be a leader and using it to get ex-Confederates the vote in Tennessee, but then dissolving it afterwards. Hurst says that Forrest was too hands off in the invisible society and too busy with railroad projects to know that his dissolution orders were never followed.

I thought Hurst did a good job of offering a balanced picture. Forrest bios tend to either praise his every move or denigrate everything he did. This one picks a middle ground that edges on the praise side. The book was published in 1994 so I wonder if some of the recent books on Fort Pillow might now sway Hurst to be harsher on that chapter of Forrest's career. [As a side note it seems odd to refer to 1994 as a bit dated in historiography.]

Forrest is a fascinating character who achieved much as a general and whose personal life before and after the war was also interesting. Some of our interesting generals seemingly sprang from nowhere and/or faded into oblivion when the guns went silent. Forrest was active and interesting from the get go.

Men of Fire

Men of Fire: Grant, Forrest, and the Campaign that Decided the Civil War by Jack Hurst

Not all that new, came out in 2007, but I got a copy for Christmas. I was excited to read this as there is not much out on Fort Donelson (that is the campaign Hurst believes decided the war). I think Hurst brings some new interpretations that I'll need to examine in the future.

The biggest is that Halleck was pretty actively trying to replace Grant. And he wasn't being very covert as McClelland discusses one potential replacement with him. Hurst says that Halleck would use his later position as general-in-chief to destroy/hide some of the other evidence. I didn't notice anything new in the tactical aspects but it has been close to a decade since I read Cooling's wonderful book on Fort Donelson. Just a reminder again of how badly the Confederates bungled the breakout attempt and should have been able to escape, but when Floyd and Pillow are your ranking generals its easy to see how things went awry. I'm not sure I'd agree that this campaign was the one that decided the war.

On one hand how does the first major Union effort to invade the heartland become the tipping point for the war? But when the Union is basically able to win battle after battle in the west and hardly ever have a major setback there is no turning point. A turning point is when the war seems to be going one way and then the course changes. That's why Gettysburg is often described as the turning point, which I do not agree with, because Confederate fortunes in the East seem to always be bright and then after Gettysburg they never regain that momentum. They tend to suffer defeat after defeat and lose ground until they are forced to surrender at Appomattox.

But in the West there are only a few times the Confederates gain something positive and its usually followed in quick secession by defeat. They get away from Corinth, slip east to Knoxville and steal a march into Kentucky only to come to grief at Perryville. The campaign as a whole does regain some of Tennessee as the lines eventually end near Murfreesboro but I don't think its a turning point because Union fortunes are about the same post-Perryville. Later Grant is forced to abandon his overland Mississippi campaign but they are soon closer to Vicksburg, just using a different route. Bragg wins at Chickamauga but within a few months his army has been forced farther south again and he has resigned. In that light maybe there is no turning point in the West. The story of the West is pretty much success after success so maybe the opening victory on that path can be called the decisive campaign.

All in all it was a good book, glad I finally was able to add it to my library. If you needed a book on the details of the Donelson campaign I'd probably go with Cooling's but Hurst's book is also a good one to have.

Rise of the Centennial State

The Rise of the Centennial State: Colorado Territory, 1861-76 by Eugene H. Berwanger
232 pages, 2007, University of Illinois Press, $40

Colorado became a territory under Lincoln achieved statehood at the end of Reconstruction. It fits the Civil War era time frame perfectly although its actual involvement was much less. Colorado's involvement in the war does not get as full a treatment here as I would like, the focus is more on the Indian conflict that raged during this time and continued after the war. I thought the author did a good job of putting the entire Indian conflict in perspective, including the Sand Creek fight. He rates it as a massacre but also explains that the residents even a year later were calling for Indian extermination. While Easterners might have thought the Colorado troops went overboard the locals thought they had done right, even with plenty of hindsight to think otherwise.

One story I always hear in connection with Sand Creek is that it cost Colorado the opportunity to be a state in 1864/1865. That the Eastern press and Federal politicians were so horrified that they shot down attempts in 1864-65 to become a state. The territory was being punished. But Berwanger explains that what killed that attempt to be a state was that Colorado citizens would not grant the vote to blacks. They voted down black suffrage in 1864 and continued to oppose it until 1867 when Congress made black suffrage a fact. There were also factions in the territory that did not want to become a state so it was not until 1876 that everything aligned for it to achieve statehood.

Interestingly, and a story I don't remember ever hearing, is that statehood was pushed through hastily in 1876 to the point that there was not a popular vote for presidential electors and instead Colorado's 3 Electoral College voters were determined by the state legislature. While this was common practice previously most states had changed to popular vote nearly 40 years earlier. Colorado went Republican and the disputed election of 1876 eventually went to Hayes 185-184. But if Colorado had not been a state then 184 votes would have been enough to win the Electoral College and Tilden had those 184. We normally think of the disputed votes in Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana being the reason Hayes was allowed to win but its also interesting to think about what if Colorado's entrance had been delayed just a little longer and those three votes had not been cast. Then Hayes would likely not have been awarded the 20 disputed votes and Tilden would have won 204-165. Or maybe there would have been another batch of disputed votes, maybe the fix was always in.

The rest of the book concerns activities of Colorado that would not interest a Civil War audience, such as political power struggles and railroad building. Overall the book was good. I picked my copy up from the library and I don't think I'd pay $40 for it but cheaper ones can be found online.

Turner Ashby

The Memoirs Of General Turner Ashby And His Compeers by James Battle Avirett

Originally published in 1867 this book was interesting for more than just the story of Ashby. It was enjoyable to read a book from an unreconstructed rebel so soon after the war. He still had a lot of anger at how things turned out. One of the funny parts was when he complained about how West Virginia had been taken away from Virginia and he hoped that the wrong would soon be corrected.

Ashby was one of the early heroes of the war. Of course the author, Ashby's chaplain during the war, is going to gloss over the imperfections in his subject. At the end you're left wondering how far Ashby would have risen, and maybe he would have gone far. On the other hand though I know from other books that Ashby was not as great as he sounds here. He spent much of his time doing scouting activities that would have been better left to a man of lesser rank. A colonel should not be leading small squad scouts, that is a job for a sergeant or lieutenant, maybe even a captain. A colonel, and for a short time a brigadier general, should concern himself with the unit as a whole; perfect its training and organization.

And there were stories that Ashby's unit was not very disciplined, even the author addresses that to a small degree. But in 1867 that sort of commentary was not very likely, especially for a deceased hero. And especially by a member of his command. If you accept the fact that were will not be much criticism of the title subject than this biography is interesting.

The author goes into much detail about Ashby's personal life and how he lived a chivalric life. One thing I thought odd is there was no mention of a wife. Ashby was 33 when he died so its not like he was so young as to not have married. Its odd just because we normally don't see too many bachelors among Civil War generals.

If you want a biography of Ashby that will point out his strengths and weaknesses this is not it. That is due to the time frame when written which provides its own interesting aspects. Otherwise this is a good book, not a great one, but interesting enough to warrant reading.