tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073Wed, 10 Jun 2026 01:55:26 +0000BooknotesBook ReviewsBook NewsReviews - Campaigns and BattlesReviews - Theater - WestReviews - Theater - Trans MississippiReviews - Theater - EastReference Books/Research MaterialsReviews - Civil War SocietyReviews - 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)Blogger3928125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-1699508236088420849Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:08:31 +00002026-06-08T08:08:31.427-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Rebels and Regimes: The Nature of Violent Resistance in the Nineteenth Century edited by Andrew Fialka & Aaron Sheehan-Dean (LSU Press, 2026). From the description: Rebels and Regimes "presents a global view of the nature of violent resistance throughout the nineteenth century. The volume’s breadth and scope reveal commonalities and differences among regimes and insurgents https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/booknotes-rebels-and-regimes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-80378310278902277Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:25:54 +00002026-06-05T10:25:54.434-07:00Book ReviewsReviews - Campaigns and BattlesReviews - NavalReviews - Theater - West[Decisions on Western Waters: The Twenty-Seven Critical Decisions That Defined the Battles by Michael D. Becker (University of Tennessee Press, 2026). Softcover, 10 maps, photos, illustrations, driving tour, orders of battle, glossary, notes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xv,142/290. ISBN:979-8-89527-045-5. $24.95] Naturally enough, the major land campaigns and battles fought in the https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/review-decisions-on-western-waters.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-5294181942531224549Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:06:01 +00002026-06-03T08:06:01.883-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom: Free People of Color and the Fight for Equal Rights in the Civil War Era by Warren Eugene Milteer, Jr. (UNC Press, 2026). In the introduction to his book Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom: Free People of Color and the Fight for Equal Rights in the Civil War Era Warren Eugene Milteer argues that his fellow historians "have done little to https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/new-arrival-out-of-this-strife-will.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-9081611502460533163Mon, 01 Jun 2026 16:15:19 +00002026-06-01T09:15:19.470-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Henry Eustace McCulloch: Texas Ranger, Legislator, Civil War General by David Paul Smith (LSU Press, 2026). Parlaying his considerable antebellum frontier military service into a position in the Confederate high command typically reserved for West Pointers, Texan and brigadier general Ben McCulloch led southern armies in the two most prominent early-war battles fought west of thehttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/booknotes-henry-eustace-mcculloch.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-2957515995868747734Sun, 31 May 2026 15:09:17 +00002026-05-31T08:09:17.688-07:00Coming Soon Scheduled for JUN 20261: • Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville: A Battlefield Guide by Brian Burton. • Emancipation War: The Fall of Slavery and the Coming of the Thirteenth Amendment by Damon Root. • The Forts Henry and Donelson Campaign: February 6–16, 1862 by Woodworth & Grear, eds. • The Federal Signal Service at Antietam: Stations, Officers and Battlefield Intelligence on America's https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/coming-soon-june-26-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-2604216114659800410Thu, 28 May 2026 10:30:00 +00002026-05-28T07:20:27.142-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Emancipation War: The Fall of Slavery and the Coming of the Thirteenth Amendment by Damon Root (Potomac Bks, 2026). From the description: "Speaking to a fractured country for the first time as president, Abraham Lincoln endorsed a constitutional amendment designed to permanently safeguard slavery in every state in which the institution already existed. If that proslavery https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/booknotes-emancipation-war.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8506809324190610287Tue, 26 May 2026 18:40:03 +00002026-05-26T11:40:03.859-07:00Book ReviewsReviews - Civil War Society[Shattered Courage: Soldiers Who Refused to Fight in the American Civil War by Earl J. Hess (University Press of Kansas, 2026). Hardcover, photos, illustrations, endnotes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:ix,202/265. ISBN:978-0-7006-4095-9. $39.99] With a vast body of firsthand accounts and other primary sources readily available for writers to consider, exploring Civil War battlefield https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/review-shattered-courage-soldiers-who.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-7648853856588642863Sat, 23 May 2026 16:54:07 +00002026-05-23T09:54:07.351-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Ulysses’s Odyssey: Ulysses S. Grant’s World Tour at the Dawn of American Empire by Louis L. Picone (Savas Beatie, 2026). From the description: "In May 1877, Ulysses S. Grant, newly departed from two terms in the White House, embarked on an extraordinary three-year journey that defined a pivotal moment in the Gilded Age. Driven by a lifelong passion for travel and unburdened by a https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/booknotes-ulyssess-odyssey.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-6446034457282391208Wed, 20 May 2026 20:50:01 +00002026-05-20T13:50:02.064-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • From the Center of America: Steamboats and Shipyards Along the Lower Ohio River by Robert H. Swenson (SIU Press, 2026). From the description: "In the heart of America, four major rivers converge―the Cumberland and Tennessee with the Ohio; then the Ohio with the Mississippi. These three confluences, which author Robert Swenson christens the Four Rivers Reach, played a unique rolehttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/booknotes-from-center-of-america.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8898458382560109675Mon, 18 May 2026 16:01:30 +00002026-05-18T09:01:31.105-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Haunted by Memory: Ghost Stories of the American Civil War edited by John R. Neff and Amy Laurel Fluker (U Tenn Press, 2026). Since this site's inception, a number of Civil War book series published by university presses have sadly either scaled back their offerings or disappeared entirely. On a happier note, though, others have broadened their horizons. One of those is the https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/booknotes-haunted-by-memory-with-excerpt.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-6183985905850208771Fri, 15 May 2026 16:25:24 +00002026-05-15T09:27:59.372-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville: A Battlefield Guide by Brian K. Burton (Univ of Neb Press, 2026). University of Nebraska Press's This Hallowed Ground series of Civil War campaign and battlefield guidebooks debuted in 1999. Over the next decade and a half, a total of seven volumes sampling battles from all three major theaters of operation were published. Time between https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/booknotes-fredericksburg-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-7981907979322357428Wed, 13 May 2026 18:03:36 +00002026-05-13T11:03:36.993-07:00Book ReviewsReviews - BiographyReviews - Civil War EconomyReviews - Naval[William Watson and the Rob Roy: The Adventures of a Civil War Blockade Runner by Walter E. Wilson (McFarland, 2026). Softcover, maps, tables, photos, illustrations, appendix section, endnotes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:vi,157/250. ISBN:978-1-4766-9903-5. $39.95] A British citizen but long-term resident of Louisiana, Scotland's William Bryant Watson joined many other foreign https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/review-william-watson-and-rob-roy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-303312878756977797Tue, 12 May 2026 20:30:20 +00002026-05-12T13:30:20.809-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Crisis at Antietam: The Cornfield and West Woods, September 17, 1862 by Steven Eden (Savas Beatie, 2026). Steven Eden's Crisis at Antietam: The Cornfield and West Woods, September 17, 1862 "provides a meticulous tactical analysis of the opening brutal hours of the Civil War’s bloodiest single day." As most Civil War readers already know, the sustained fighting on the northernhttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/booknotes-crisis-at-antietam.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-7213530905290383519Fri, 08 May 2026 03:48:13 +00002026-05-07T20:48:13.271-07:00Book ReviewsReviews - Campaigns and BattlesReviews - Theater - East[Stonewall Jackson’s Winter Operations: The Raids Against the C&O Canal and the Bath-Romney Campaign, December 1861 to February 1862 by Timothy R. Snyder (Savas Beatie, 2026). Hardcover, 6 maps, photos, illustrations, footnotes, appendix section, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xxii,253/315. ISBN:978-1-61121-771-1. $32.95] While he had justly earned his immortalizing nickname months https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/review-stonewall-jacksons-winter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-6157040651236917339Tue, 05 May 2026 16:56:56 +00002026-05-05T09:56:56.257-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Reasons We Fight: Tejanos and American Wars, 1836-1972 by Alex Mendoza (OU Press, 2026). Starting with the Texas Revolution and ending with the exit of U.S. forces from Vietnam, Alex Mendoza's Reasons We Fight: Tejanos and American Wars, 1836-1972 examines what motivated Texans of Mexican descent to fight for the United States. In the process, Mendoza "discovers a complex https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/05/booknotes-reasons-we-fight.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-915478751083783624Thu, 30 Apr 2026 07:00:00 +00002026-04-30T00:00:00.116-07:00Coming Soon Scheduled for MAY 20261: • Many a Hand: Michigan and the Civil War by Roger Rosentreter. • The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War by Paul Quigley. • Henry Eustace McCulloch: Texas Ranger, Legislator, Civil War General by David Paul Smith. • Retreat from Victory: The Battle of Malvern Hill and the End of the Seven Days, July 1, 1862 by Francishttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/coming-soon-may-26-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4960483363782931856Mon, 27 Apr 2026 17:11:03 +00002026-04-27T10:11:03.499-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The Battle of Fort Stedman: Lee's Forlorn Hope, March 25, 1865 by Edward B. McCaul, Jr. (McFarland, 2026). Given the advanced nature of the Union siege lines on the Petersburg front in 1864-65, it often seemed like Grant and Meade were overcautious in retaining so many men in the trenches during their series of offensives south and west of the city. Clearly, they feared a https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/booknotes-battle-of-fort-stedman.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8862498919368901674Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:26:00 +00002026-04-24T09:27:51.044-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Deserter Declarations: Letters from North Carolinians Who Abandoned Their Confederate Units edited by Judkin Browning (UGA Press, 2026). It's easy to see why Judkin Browning selected North Carolina for his study of deserter appeals. In addition to his earlier published work on the Civil War in the state, North Carolina was a natural choice given that, among the Confederate stateshttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/booknotes-deserter-declarations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-7730190852406468203Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:24:27 +00002026-04-22T09:24:27.161-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • This Great Contest Afloat: The Civil War on the Seas, Coastline, Rivers, and Oceans by Neil P. Chatelain (Savas Beatie, 2026). From the description: During the Civil War, "(t)housands of ships took part, fighting battles alongside the armies and patrolling the globe. The actions of more than 100,000 sailors on both sides impacted military, naval, economic, and diplomatic aspectshttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/booknotes-this-great-contest-afloat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-1151679474438232398Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:11:00 +00002026-04-20T08:11:19.735-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The First Pariah State: How the Proslavery Confederacy Menaced the World by Robert E. Bonner (Princeton UP, 2026) From the description: "In 1861, proslavery secessionists severed ties with the United States, launched the Confederacy, and readied their new government to join the international community as a sovereign nation." In The First Pariah State, historian Robert Bonner "https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/booknotes-first-pariah-state.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8110365548233318912Sat, 18 Apr 2026 15:29:00 +00002026-04-18T08:29:17.245-07:00Book NewsWithout a doubt, the influence of Napoleon Bonaparte was felt in both popular and military circles for a good chunk of the nineteenth century following the French emperor's final defeat and exile. His impact on American officers is mentioned countless times in Civil War biographies and military history books and articles, yet writers only rarely delve into particular examples or analyze the https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/book-news-napoleons-long-shadow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-1513329073042409190Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:03:00 +00002026-04-16T11:03:45.024-07:00Book ReviewsReviews - Civil War Society[A Desperate Fight: The Lives of Louisiana's Confederate Soldiers by Henry B. Motty (Louisiana State University Press, 2026). Hardcover, endnotes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:x,183/272. ISBN:978-0-8071-8615-2. $50] Themes associated with the military, social, and psychological ties cemented between the Civil War home and fighting fronts, both North and South, have been heavily https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/review-desperate-fight-lives-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8751533122527562554Wed, 15 Apr 2026 16:01:00 +00002026-04-15T21:41:41.335-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Stonewall Jackson’s Winter Operations: The Raids Against the C&O Canal and the Bath-Romney Campaign, December 1861 to February 1862 by Timothy R. Snyder (Savas Beatie, 2026). Timothy Snyder’s Stonewall Jackson’s Winter Operations is the second major study of Jackson's Romney Expedition. It comes more than three decades after Thomas Rankin's Stonewall Jackson's Romney https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/booknotes-stonewall-jacksons-winter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-1930771913744283263Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:16:00 +00002026-04-14T09:16:51.539-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Civil War Photo Forensics: Investigating Battlefield Photographs Through a Critical Lens by Scott Hippensteel (U Tenn Press, 2026). Of the new Civil War book authors who have emerged in recent times, Scott Hippensteel is one of my favorites. He always selects topics that are far from ordinary [his previous works examine Civil War battlefield geology, sand's impact on military https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/booknotes-civil-war-photo-forensics.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-1428866603100262923Mon, 13 Apr 2026 14:45:00 +00002026-04-13T07:45:23.067-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Mercy in Disaster: Abby Hopper Gibbons’s Journals and Letters from Four Years of Civil War Nursing edited by Angela G. Schear (UGA Press, 2026). From the description: Edited by Angela Schear, Mercy in Disaster "is about the forgotten nurse in America’s signature, iconic photograph of Civil War wounded: abolitionist Abby Hopper Gibbons. Hung in museums large and small, pictured https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/04/booknotes-mercy-in-disaster.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0