tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073Mon, 29 Jun 2026 03:10:02 +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)Blogger3936125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-5497849877167871090Sat, 27 Jun 2026 18:29:42 +00002026-06-27T11:29:42.597-07:00Coming Soon Scheduled for JULY 20261: • Forward to Richmond: The Virginia Campaign of 1862 by Brian Burton. • Civil War Chaos in Texas: The Tumultuous Tenure of Governor Pendleton Murrah by Lori Duran. • An Officer of Six Navies: The Life of Confederate Commander Hunter Davidson by Coski & Jacobs. • Unparalleled Horror: The Battles of Jerusalem Plank Road and the Crater, June 19-July 31, 1864 by Chickhttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/coming-soon-july-26-edition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-4711400687182117457Thu, 25 Jun 2026 19:33:51 +00002026-06-25T13:58:44.918-07:00Book ReviewsReviews - Biography[Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend: Reconsidering Lincoln as Commander in Chief by Kenneth W. Noe (Louisiana State University Press, 2026). Hardcover, 7 maps, photos, notes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xix,278/420. ISBN:978-0-8071-8521-6. $49.95] Civil War readers raised on the vast body of post-Centennial publications can be forgiven for assuming that profound admiration for https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/review-abraham-lincoln-and-heroic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-8880734560794821103Mon, 22 Jun 2026 16:07:18 +00002026-06-22T09:07:18.277-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Through the Civil War with the 14th Ohio Infantry: Horatio Quiggle’s Memoir of Service, 1861-1865 edited by Joanna R. Hagopian & David A. Powell (Savas Beatie, 2026). Ohioan Horatio Quiggle was as dedicated a Union soldier as one could be. "He initially joined the 14th Ohio Infantry, a three-month militia unit from northwestern Ohio, in April 1861. After its term expired thathttps://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/booknotes-through-civil-war-with-14th.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-3941196002791952069Fri, 19 Jun 2026 14:43:08 +00002026-06-19T07:43:08.899-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The Fenian Empire: A Hemispheric History of Irish Republican Nationalism by Patrick J. Mahoney (NYU Press, 2026). Most visitors to this site have at least some notion, vague as it might be, of the impact of those involved in the Fenian Movement and their activities in North America during the Civil War era. The war itself produced a large body of experienced fighters, but where https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/booknotes-fenian-empire.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-875008716161302411Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:25:06 +00002026-06-18T08:34:42.872-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • Retreat from Victory: The Battle of Malvern Hill and the End of the Seven Days, July 1, 1862 by Francis Augustín O’Reilly (Savas Beatie, 2026). With book-length popular and scholarly histories detailing Civil War battles of all sizes and significance released in great numbers over the years, one might have expected that all of the big fights of the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, and https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/booknotes-retreat-from-victory.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-328516490981799796Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:33:11 +00002026-06-17T14:17:45.230-07:00Book NewsIt's that time of year again when the university presses roll out their upcoming seasonal catalogs. Overall numbers aren't terribly high (they would be higher if we include Civil War-adjacent stuff), but I am really liking the range of topics spread out across the board. LSU: • How Lincoln Won: The 1860 Presidential Election and the Origins of the Civil War by DeWitt & Schwartz. • https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/fallwinter-university-press-catalogs-26.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-3226955442114731525Fri, 12 Jun 2026 14:58:02 +00002026-06-12T07:58:02.812-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The U.S. Navy Medical Department in the Civil War by Guy R. Hasegawa (McFarland, 2026). During the Civil War, the United States Navy sustained active operations in some of continent's most dangerously unhealthy climes, those extreme challenges to personnel fitness under extended periods of close confinement being one of the more understudied aspects of the service. From the https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/booknotes-us-navy-medical-department-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16471073.post-2357346059578737039Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:53:18 +00002026-06-10T09:53:18.252-07:00BooknotesNew Arrival: • The Forts Henry and Donelson Campaign: February 6–16, 1862 edited by Steven E. Woodworth and Charles D. Grear (SIU Press, 2026). Southern Illinois University Press's Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland essay anthology series, edited by Steven Woodworth, opened its doors in 2009 with the publication of The Shiloh Campaign. From the start, planning was very ambitious (see series https://cwba.blogspot.com/2026/06/booknotes-forts-henry-and-donelson.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (DW@CWBA)0tag: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)1tag: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)2tag: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)0