Travels to Hallowed Ground: A Historian’s Journey to the American Civil War By Emory M. Thomas (University of South Carolina Press, 1987) Emory Thomas is one of the most revered of academic Civil War historians, and so it is with regret that I rate his musings so low. In fairness, as with all such books … Read more
Rebel Victory at Vicksburg By Edwin Bearss (Pioneer Press, 1963) The legend outlives the man and our memories of Ed Bearss long overshadowed our objectivity, and so picking up a book written before Ed became a legend is both daunting and filled with land mines. What if he was all bluster, a showman who was … Read more
Dee Brown’s Civil War Anthology By Dee Brown, edited by Stan Banah (Clear Light Publishers, Santa Fe, 1998) Like many of you, the name Dee Brown is somewhat familiar to me. If you collect books, you have seen many of his books in a reprint edition by Konecky Press or some other secondary publisher, oftentimes … Read more
The Civil War By Robert Paul Jordan (National Geographic Society, 1969) It has been said a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is so, then Robert Jordan’s book is War and Peace. It was written as a survey reflection on the Civil War amid a country torn apart by antiwar riots, political discourse that … Read more
River of Death, The Chickamauga Campaign By William Glenn Robertson (UNC Press, 2018, Volume 1, The Fall of Chattanooga), $30.97 Nearly 30 years ago I met Glenn Robertson on a tour with the new American Blue and Gray Association of Shiloh. He was accompanied by one of his active duty tour assistants, Lt. Col. Ed … Read more
The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson’s Epic 1863 Civil War Raid Through Mississippi By Timothy Smith (Savas Beatie, 2018 HB, 2020 SB), $19.95 There is perhaps no Civil War operation that is better known but which no one knows anything about than Grierson’s 1863 raid through Mississippi in April–May 1863. Made legendary by John Wayne’s popular … Read more
Besieged, Mobile 1865 by Russell W. Blount, Jr. (Pelican Press, 2015), $26.95 In 1861, Union commanding general Winfield Scott articulated the Anaconda Plan, a strategy that would defeat the nascent Confederacy by closing down all its lines of commerce, thereby depriving it of a commercial base. Closing ports of trade would deny … Read more
The Last Siege, The Mobile Campaign, Alabama 1865 by Paul Brueske (Casemate Press 2018), $32.95 Twenty-three years ago, BGES obtained a ABPP Grant to conduct a Preservation Conference for the Mobile Campaign. Having spent some time to organize, conduct, and write a report, I was fairly familiar with the key sites related to the campaign … Read more
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777 (the Revolution Trilogy) by Rick Atkinson (Henry Holt Press, 2019) $40. I love a single malt scotch and my favorite is GlenFarclas 105. It is hard to come by and I savor every single drink—I could drink it every day, … Read more
[box]by Charles M. Blackford Warwick House Publishing, Lynchburg, Reprint 1994 Reviewed by Len Riedel, Executive Director, BGES Danville, Virginia January 25, 2012[/box] Charles M. Blackford was a distinguished citizen of Lynchburg who served in the Army of Northern Virginia; however, he did not participate in the battle or campaign of Lynchburg. A highly regarded speaker … Read more
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