Current Reading

Just started Landscape Turned Red. This is Stephen W. Sears description of the Battle of Antietam. It is very good so far. I only started reading about the Civil War ten years ago and now I have turned into a true fan of that era of history.

For battlefield history, you could sure do a lot worse. I enjoyed reading it, and I hope you do too.

I liked it better than Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam. Battle Cry of Freedom was very good but McPherson is inconsistent.

Finished Donnybrook: The Battle of Bull Run, 1861 by David Detzer. Excellent book, well written, marred only by the appalling lack of maps.

>4 jztemple: The Civil War Trust comes to the rescue with excellent maps about Bull Run. Was there ever a big battle decided on so compact a terrain?

Just finished The Siege of Washington . The days following Fort Sumter, Washington City is left undefended. Somewhat suspenseful, but as everyone knows, there was never any direct attack of the city.

Reading Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign (Civil War America)

I just finished The Causes of the Civil War. It is an interesting book of readings grouped in seven topics. I thought it was quite good.

I am reading Gettysburg:The Last Invasion It is a fairly new book about this battle and the author has some interesting insights. He makes a good argument that the battle for Little Round Top was not the deciding engagement on the second day of the battle and that the 20th Maine was not as important in the Union victory on Little Round Top as portrayed by many writers.

I finished Gettysburg:The Last Invasion and recommend it highly. The author provides a fresh look and a lot of new information about a battle that has been written about very often. The level of scholarship and writing skill is exceptional.

#10, ok you talked me into it (so ordered).

The Battle of Pickett's Mill: Along the Dead Line ...good little book.

Roughshod Through Dixie : Grierson's Raid 1863 by Mark Lardas, a very brief but thorough, well-organized, clear, and straightforward account of a brilliant contribution to Grant's victory at Vicksburg. Nicely illustrated, one of the Osprey Raid series.

#13, see also the classic Grierson's Raid by Dee Brown as well as the novel The Horse Soldiers (later a John Wayne movie!)

Currently reading Master of War by Benson Brobrick. So far nothing new except he seems to enjoy building up Thomas (whom I admire greatly) at the expense of Grant and Sherman. It's a constant theme in the book and it's getting a bit tiresome. After that I'm going to read Gettysburg by Stephen Sears in conjunction with The maps of gettysburgby Bradley Gottfried. Bill earlier contacted me about "The Last Invasion" so that's on the wishlist.

#15, always a great mystery to me exactly why Thomas feel afoul of Grant, guess we'll never know. Bill forced me into ordering LAST INVASION, waiting on it now.

My two fav Gettysburg works are Coddington's The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command and Scott Bowden's Last Chance for Victory: Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign; former better on Army of Potomac, latter better on ANV.

>16 Ammianus: I absolutely agree with you on Coddington's book. It gave me a real sense of why things transpired as they did in the campaign. It sometimes seems amazing that they were able to move armies of that size with as little chaos as did occur. I haven't read Bowden's book yet.

#17, concur having watched a motorized unit attempt to merely exit its own motor pool with varying degrees of success.

Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, very enjoyable, better than Sears version to me.

Reread Last Chance for Victory: Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign;rereading: The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command.

I recently finished Sears Gettysburg in advance of our trip there this week. Am now reading The Class of 1846 a sort of dual biography focusing on McClellan and Stonewall Jackson.

Lastly, I'm about 2/3 through Ken Burns documentary. Haven't seen the whole thing in years.

From a woman's perspective, Bitter Tears: Missouri Women and Civil War: Their Stories, ed. Carolyn M. Bartels.
All of the accounts except one are told from the Missouri Confederate women's points-of-view. The stories were taken from accounts of Missouri women on the western side of the state. The only Union story was from the Battle of Pilot Knob. I'm sure there are many more personal accounts from across the state if anyone was ambitious enough to persue them.

Rereading Killer Angels for the 150th.

I'm not a big fan of "historical fiction", but that is one novel that is the exception to that rule. It's really outstanding.

Fighting for the Confederacy...in my top ten favorite ACW memoirs. Great writer!

Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer ...another great ACW memoir!

I recently read Gettysburg: The Last Invasion and really enjoyed it. I am finishing Fateful Lightning also by Guelzo. A one volume history of the war which was not nearly as good as Gettysburg.

Reread Memoirs of a Confederate Staff Officer: From Bethel to Bentonville, quick but very interesting read.

Reading The Battle of Brandy Station by Eric J. Wittenberg.