tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073Wed, 04 Nov 2026 21:46:08 +0000BooknotesBook ReviewsBook NewsReviews - Campaigns and BattlesReviews - Theater - WestReviews - Theater - Trans MississippiReviews - Theater - EastReviews - Civil War SocietyReference Books/Research MaterialsReviews - BiographyReviews - Unit HistoriesReviews - NavalReviews - PoliticsComing SoonBook SnapshotsReviews - Diaries/ Letters/ MemoirsAuthorsReading ListsReviews - Guides and Map StudiesPublishersReviews - Indian ConflictsReviews - Theater - Far WestInterviewsReviews - Essay CollectionMagazines and JournalsReviews - Civil War EconomyFive books on ... seriesReviews - CW MedicineSnapshots from the CollectionTexas Revolution / U.S. - Mexican WarReviews - Photographic StudiesReviews - Archaeology/Material CultureReviews - Environmental HistoryNon-fiction American Civil War book reviews, commentary, industry news, interviews, reading lists, and profiles of upcoming releases.https://cwba.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)Blogger3989125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-2647845501385815860Tue, 03 Nov 2026 15:54:18 +00002026-11-03T13:27:55.075-08:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Confederate Gibraltar: The Vicksburg Campaign from the Fall of New Orleans to the Battles in the Bayou by Matt Atkinson (Savas Beatie, 2026). Some Civil War campaigns are so long in duration, complicated in their dimensions, and full of battles of various sizes that the standard single-volume overview treatment of the kind we've come to expect from the ECW series won't cut it. https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/11/booknotes-confederate-gibraltar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4436298537861541323Mon, 02 Nov 2026 18:06:28 +00002026-11-02T10:06:28.146-08:00Book ReviewsReviews - BiographyReviews - Civil War Society[Civil War Chaos in Texas: The Tumultuous Tenure of Governor Pendleton Murrah by Lori Duran (Arcadia Publishing and The History Press, 2026). Softcover, photos, illustrations, endnotes, bibliography. Pages main/total:142/171. ISBN:978-1-4671-7243-1. $24.99] When Unionist governor Sam Houston was ousted from office after refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to the new Confederacy, Lieutenant https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/11/review-civil-war-chaos-in-texas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-6645219356669998988Sat, 31 Oct 2026 15:28:59 +00002026-10-31T08:28:59.109-07:00Coming Soon Scheduled for NOV 20261: • Hard Women, Hard War: How Southern Women Shaped U.S. Policy During the Civil War by Laura Mammina. • Lincoln's Compass: The Declaration of Independence and the American Idea by Joshua Claybourn. • From the Valley to the Tidewater: The War in Virginia, May 21–June 12, 1862 by Ethan Rafuse. • Louisiana’s Tigers: The Men of Wheat’s Confederate Battalion by Ross Brooks. https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/coming-soon-november-26-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-6986958398908370426Mon, 26 Oct 2026 17:17:33 +00002026-10-26T10:17:33.374-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History by Rachel A. Shelden (UNC Press, 2026). In her new book The Political Supreme Court: A Forgotten History, historian Rachel Shelden argues that the U.S. Supreme Court "was unmistakably a political institution, both by design and in practice." At no time was this more clear than in the nineteenth century. Indeed, "(t)hrough these https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-political-supreme-court.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8478084579874430053Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:12:02 +00002026-10-23T08:12:02.890-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • How Lincoln Won: The 1860 Presidential Election and the Origins of the Civil War by Darin DeWitt and Thomas Schwartz (LSU Press, 2026). Though there has been recent pushback of persuasive nature on a number of counts, the modern literature still generally portrays Abraham Lincoln as a gifted military strategist, through both natural abilities and study. The consensus is even https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-how-lincoln-won.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-2503335500439040555Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:52:08 +00002026-10-22T08:52:08.036-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Managing the Union Army: Scott, McClellan, Halleck, and Grant as General-in-Chief by Earl J. Hess (LSU Press, 2026). Earl Hess strikes again! Only two weeks after I posted a review of his latest book, another one covering a very different, but equally compelling, subject is released. Managing the Union Army: Scott, McClellan, Halleck, and Grant as General-in-Chief is both an https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-managing-union-army.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-5153111629317806643Wed, 21 Oct 2026 16:40:18 +00002026-10-21T09:40:18.886-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Military Honor on Trial: The Saga of Joseph Hooker and George H. Derby by Travis P. Wagner (Sequoia Grove Pr, 2026). Travis Wagner's Military Honor on Trial: The Saga of Joseph Hooker and George H. Derby is "(p)art courtroom drama, part frontier history, and part exploration of a forgotten code of honor." The book "recounts the remarkable true story of two sensational antebellum https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-military-honor-on-trial.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-6297839196026060636Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:41:26 +00002026-10-19T08:41:26.230-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • General George B. McClellan: A Study in Controversy by Maurice G. Daoust (Savas Beatie, 2026). Like many other controversial Civil War generals, George B. McClellan has passionate defenders, but the detractors are still far more numerous. One of the respected scholars who has most persuasively infiltrated aspects of an emerging middle ground is Ethan Rafuse. In more recent times,https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-general-george-b-mcclellan.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8273634201358717752Fri, 16 Oct 2026 14:25:44 +00002026-10-16T07:25:44.794-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Hard Women, Hard War: How Southern Women Shaped U.S. Policy During the Civil War by Laura Mammina (UGA Press, 2026). From the description: Laura Mammina's Hard Women, Hard War: How Southern Women Shaped U.S. Policy During the Civil War "establishes a new interpretation of Southern women’s wartime behavior by examining their interactions with the Federal army. From the very https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-hard-women-hard-war.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-182808260703244898Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:01:17 +00002026-10-14T10:01:17.191-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 3: From the Chattahoochee to Peach Tree Creek, June 28 to July 20, 1864 by David A. Powell (Savas Beatie, 2026). Beginning in 2024, publisher Savas Beatie has been releasing installments of David Powell's planned five-volume 1864 Atlanta Campaign series once per year. The latest is The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 3: From the Chattahoochee to Peach Tree https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-atlanta-campaign-volume-3.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-6912872605336857856Mon, 12 Oct 2026 17:12:54 +00002026-10-12T10:12:54.274-07:00Book Reviews[Grant & Meade: An Uneasy Alliance by Bradley M. Gottfried and Linda I. Gottfried (Seminole Press, 2026). Softcover, maps, photos, illustrations, appendix, endnotes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:170/203. ISBN:979-8-234-03694-0. $19.95] When Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed U.S. Army general-in-chief, George Gordon Meade's position as Army of the https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/review-grant-meade-uneasy-alliance-by.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4583999379748599528Thu, 08 Oct 2026 15:47:27 +00002026-10-09T18:57:06.336-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Treason and Traitors in Texas: Facilitators of the American Civil War by Randolph W. Farmer (Histria Academic, 2026). By their very nature, the size of secret societies and their influence upon history will always be sources of debate and conjecture. The Knights of the Golden Circle was one of the most prominent of such groups that operated during the Civil War era, and it has https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-treason-and-traitors-in-texas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-2637565067172493141Tue, 06 Oct 2026 17:23:39 +00002026-10-06T10:23:39.274-07:00Book ReviewsReviews - CW MedicineReviews - Environmental History[Civil War Camps and Soldier Health: Sanitation and Military Effectiveness in the Union Army by Earl J. Hess (Kent State University Press, 2026). Softcover, photos, tables, illustrations, endnotes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:279/335. ISBN:978-1-60635-505-3. $39.95] History has left us with the general impression that Civil War camps were decidedly unsanitary places that caused untold https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/review-civil-war-camps-and-soldier.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-3196934899424475168Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:42:42 +00002026-10-05T07:42:42.251-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Texas Cotton and Confederate Finance: Blockade Runners, Border Merchants, and Government Agents by L. Tuffly Ellis & Richard B. McCaslin (UNT Press, 2026). With conventional means of exporting Texas cotton gradually cut off by the naval blockade, trade with neutral Mexico assumed vital proportions. Although corruption and political instability south of the border made such https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/booknotes-texas-cotton-and-confederate.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-9046533003635851033Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:38:03 +00002026-10-02T20:53:58.292-07:00AuthorsInterviewsThe site's long-running Q&A feature ends its rather long hiatus with the return of Theodore Savas. Ted wore his publisher's hat for our 2007 interview, but today we will be talking about his newest work on the authorial side of things: The Indispensable Man: George Washington Rains, the Confederate Powder Works, and the Civil War You Never Knew. CWBA: Welcome back, Ted. It has often been https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/10/author-q-theodore-savas-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)61tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-1267306566783940444Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:53:36 +00002026-09-30T08:53:36.490-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Texas and the Civil War: New Perspectives by Carl H. Moneyhon (UNT Press, 2026). This looks like a new survey history of Civil War Texas, a major goal of which is to center the most recent scholarship and highlight the most prominent current trends in research and writing. Carl Moneyhon's Texas and the Civil War: New Perspectives also pushes back against the popular notion that https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/booknotes-texas-and-civil-war.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-991171787002698451Mon, 28 Sep 2026 16:14:51 +00002026-09-28T09:14:51.323-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • John M. Schofield: Soldier–Statesman of the Civil War and Gilded Age by Robert Wooster (OU Press, 2026). Perhaps more than any other Union Army department-level command, the one involving oversight of Missouri required a general with political skills to match his military ones. In addition to trying to suppress a widespread regional guerrilla insurgency, the department commander https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/booknotes-john-m-schofield.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4284955485547823398Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:42:42 +00002026-09-24T08:42:42.756-07:00Coming Soon Scheduled for OCT 20261: • Managing the Union Army: Scott, McClellan, Halleck, and Grant as General-in-Chief by Earl Hess. • General George B. McClellan: A Study in Controversy by Maurice Daoust. • Confederate Gibraltar: The Vicksburg Campaign from the Fall of New Orleans through the Battles in the Bayou by Matt Atkinson. • From Blood to Ink: How the Press Covered the Gettysburg Campaign by https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/coming-soon-october-26-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-7625096153070024224Wed, 23 Sep 2026 16:22:17 +00002026-09-23T09:22:17.818-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Occupied Alexandria: How the Civil War Transformed a Southern City by Madeline Feierstein (Arcadia Pub and The Hist Press, 2026). Stretched along the right bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the city of Alexandria, Virginia had zero chance of escaping Union occupation. Indeed, once Virginia seceded the town was instantly seized by eager U.S. https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/booknotes-occupied-alexandria.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4465797137245921664Tue, 22 Sep 2026 16:23:00 +00002026-09-22T09:23:00.769-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • A Glorious Fate: The Life and Legacy of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw by Kevin M. Levin (UNC Press, 2026). From the description: "Robert Gould Shaw (1837–1863) is best known as the heroic colonel who led the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment—one of the first regiments of Black soldiers in the Civil War—in its famous ill-fated charge against Confederate Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/booknotes-glorious-fate.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-1882843417713305289Mon, 21 Sep 2026 15:14:27 +00002026-09-21T08:14:27.773-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Civil War Chaos in Texas: The Tumultuous Tenure of Governor Pendleton Murrah by Lori Duran (Arcadia Pub and The Hist Press, 2026). After Unionist Texas governor Sam Houston was removed from office in 1861, he was followed by Confederate governors Edward Clark, Francis Lubbock, and Pendleton Murrah. Murrah's involvement in the politics and strife of the period is the main subject https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/booknotes-civil-war-chaos-in-texas.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8077991364291741196Fri, 18 Sep 2026 15:30:39 +00002026-09-18T08:30:39.621-07:00Book ReviewsReviews - Diaries/ Letters/ MemoirsReviews - Indian ConflictsReviews - Theater - Far West["When All Our Troubles Will Be Forgotten": The Civil War Letters and Recollections of Captain George Henry Pettis edited by Jerry D. Thompson (University of New Mexico Press, 2026). Hardcover, 5 maps, photos, illustrations, endnotes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:vii,194/336. ISBN:978-0-8263-6983-3. $34.95] By his own estimate, Union Army captain George H. Pettis (First California https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/review-when-all-our-troubles-will-be.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4306079079066503772Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:58:11 +00002026-09-16T08:58:11.776-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The 54th Pennsylvania Infantry in the Civil War by Christopher A. Baran (McFarland, 2026). It's understandable that publication of Union regimental histories of units that served in the eastern theater is still heavily weighted towards those attached to the Army of the Potomac for most of the war. At the same time, eastern regiments that didn't fit that mold are still fairly wellhttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/booknotes-54th-pennsylvania-infantry-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4827508508917644005Tue, 15 Sep 2026 15:23:33 +00002026-09-15T08:23:33.792-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • And Rest Under The Shade Of The Trees: Essays In Honor of James I. Robertson, Jr. edited by Steven E. Woodworth, Christopher L. Jones, and Christopher J. Smith (Laurel Hill Pub, 2026). Eminent Civil War historian James Irvin "Bud" Robertson Jr. passed away in 2019 at the age of 89. If you're around my age and serious interest in the ACW blossomed during the late-80s and https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/booknotes-and-rest-under-shade-of-trees.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4085643464080918299Mon, 14 Sep 2026 16:59:32 +00002026-09-14T09:59:32.026-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The Civil War in Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks by Matthew Ericson (Arcadia Pub & The Hist Press, 2026). Over their prolific (and, for the latter, ongoing) runs, The History Press's Civil War Sesquicentennial Series and Civil War Series published a number of titles covering various military events in southeastern Virginia and coastal North Carolina during 1861-62. Matthew https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/09/booknotes-civil-war-in-hampton-roads.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0