Hell's Broke Loose in Georgia: Survival in a Civil War Regiment

by Scott Walker

From the publisher:
A new kind of regimental history that reveals soldiers’ inner struggles and longings

"Darling, I never wanted to gow home as bad in my life as I doo now and if they don’t give mee a furlow I am going any how." Written in December 1862 by Private Wright Vinson in Tennessee to his wife, Christiana, in Georgia, these lines go to the heart of why Scott Walker wrote this history of the Fifty-seventh Georgia Infantry, a unit of the famed Mercer’s Brigade.

All but a few members of the Fifty-seventh lived within a close radius of eighty miles from each other. More than just an account of their military engagements, this is a collective biography of a close-knit group. Relatives and neighbors served and died side by side in the Fifty-seventh, and Walker excels at showing how family ties, friendships, and other intimate dynamics played out in wartime settings. Humane but not sentimental, the history abounds in episodes of real feeling: a starving soldier’s theft of a pie; another’s open confession, in a letter to his wife, that he may desert; a slave’s travails as a camp orderly.

Drawing on memoirs and a trove of unpublished letters and diaries, Walker follows the soldiers of the Fifty-seventh as they push far into Unionist Kentucky, starve at the siege of Vicksburg, guard Union prisoners at the Andersonville stockade, defend Atlanta from Sherman, and more. Hardened fighters who would wish hell on an incompetent superior but break down at the sight of a dying Yankee, these are real people, as rarely seen in other Civil War histories.

Scott Walker is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Waco, Texas, the author of nine books, and an adjunct professor at Baylor University.

"The letters, diaries, and other information Scott Walker located and utilized on the soldiers and families of the 57th Georgia infantry are among the finest I've ever encountered. He has done complete justice to these superb primary sources by writing a narrative that is richly descriptive yet focused and restrained. Walker allows the soldiers and their families to speak for themselves while placing their words and deeds in a clear and meaningful context." — T. Michael Parrish, Linden G. Bowers Professor of American History, Baylor University, author of Richard Taylor and editor of Brothers In Gray

"Civil War regimental histories are thick on the ground now, but Hell's Broke Loose in Georgia is a different sort of creature, a penetrating look at the inner world and lives of men who marched, ate, slept, fought, and died together. Not so much a unit history as a 'family' portrait of men bound by the war, Scott Walker's book offers a glimpse of the personality and inner world of almost all Civil War units, North and South alike. This is the part of regimental history that too many regimental historians overlook." —William C. Davis, Director of Programs, Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, Virginia Tech, and author of Look Away! and Jefferson Davis

"Scott Walker has produced history that is at the same time very old and quite new. He relies upon a rich trove of letters and diaries to focus his narrative upon the coming-of-age experiences and vivid observations of men and boys who served in the Fifty-seventh Georgia Infantry Regiment. Walker also offers a species of the 'new' military history—a drama set in blood and mud instead of command posts in which common soldiers instead of generals are the principal characters. This is an excellent book." — Emory M. Thomas, Regent's Professor of History, University of Georgia, and author of Robert E. Lee and The Confederate Nation

Mr. Lincoln Goes to War

by William Marvel

From the publisher:
This exciting work of groundbreaking history investigates the mystery of how the Civil War began, reconsidering the big question: Was it inevitable?

Marvel vividly depicts President Lincoln’s first year in office, from his inauguration through the rising crisis of secession and the first several months of the war. Drawing on original sources and examining previously overlooked factors, Marvel leads the reader inexorably to the conclusion that Lincoln not only missed opportunities to avoid war but actually fanned the flames - and often acted unconstitutionally in prosecuting the war once it had begun.

The story unfolds with Marvel’s keen eye for the telling detail, on the battlefield as well as in the White House. This is revisionist history at its best and necessary reading for Civil War and Lincoln devotees alike.

From Publishers Weekly:
Establishing slavery as the Civil War's central issue has fostered an acceptance of the conflict's inevitability among academic and popular historians alike. Marvel, author of several prize-winning books on the Civil War (Lee's Last Retreat, etc.), combines an iconoclastic approach with extensive research to challenge this conventional wisdom.

Focusing on the North's road to war in 1861, he argues that Abraham Lincoln made armed force a first choice, rather than a last resort, in addressing the Union's breakup. While conceding the complex problems Lincoln faced, and the corresponding limitations on his options, Marvel describes the president's course of action as "destructive and unimaginative." The confrontation at Fort Sumter ended any chance of avoiding conflict, he writes, and the North's amateurish conduct of initial military operations, culminating in the defeats at Bull Run, Wilson's Creek and Ball's Bluff, encouraged an emerging Confederacy's belief that war was its best option. More generally, Lincoln's early and comprehensive infringement of such constitutional rights as habeas corpus set dangerous precedents for future autocratic executives.

Marvel's characterization of Lincoln as a victim of tunnel vision, who launched a war without considering how devastating it might become, incorporates a certain present-mindedness. His willingness to consider the positive prospects of accepting secession is informed by a barely concealed subtext: the existence of the United States as we know it has not been an unmixed blessing. This well-constructed, comprehensively documented revisionist exercise merits consideration and reflection.

From Library Journal:
Historian Marvel (Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox) insists that the positive outcome of the Civil War and the deification of Lincoln as a great war leader have obscured many of the actual facts. He offers an alternate historical view, arguing that Lincoln misread the political situation during the secession winter preceding the attack on Fort Sumter, mishandled the crisis at the fort, abused the power of his office, trampled on civil liberties and democratic processes to keep Maryland and Missouri in the Union, and stumbled through cabinet decisions about how to prosecute the war.

In grim and vivid detail, he recounts the military blundering that made the war more terrible than it might have been were another man in Lincoln's position. Marvel writes with authority and vigor in relating military actions but relies on conjecture in supposing political alignments and peaceful resolutions had Lincoln not been so aggressive and unyielding in insisting the Union not disassemble. Nonetheless, this provocative book will fuel the current raging debates on presidential powers, leadership, the causes and conduct of the Civil War, and the possibilities of peace. Highly recommended.

From Kirkus:
The Railsplitter as tyrant, warmonger and Machiavellian strategist. Did Lincoln cause the Civil War?

Historian Marvel (The Monitor Chronicles, 2000, etc.) says yes, but then adds a qualification or two. Certainly, he writes, Lincoln could have taken the advice of Cabinet members, newspaper editors and plenty of Northern voters by allowing the South to secede, in which case, Marvel ventures, slavery would have at least been a localized problem, likely to disappear in time. Lincoln, however, "eschewed diplomacy" and replied to the capture of Fort Sumter-which, Lincoln's secret agents had already told him, was inevitably to fall to the South-by raising an army and threatening invasion. He had already hinted at such intentions in his inaugural speech, knowing that trouble was on the way; indeed, as Marvel writes, Sumter, which supposedly touched off the war, was but the latest of many federal installations that the secessionists had taken, to which then-President James Buchanan had responded by not doing anything. Any attempt to enforce federal law in the South, Lincoln's advisors told him, "would precipitate war."

By Marvel's account, Lincoln welcomed the prospect, for the Union needed a renewed forging of bonds and federal authority needed to be extended over states' rights-an argument still played out in the Capitol today. In any event, Marvel argues, Lincoln willingly violated the Constitution to preserve the Union by, for one thing, suspending the writ of habeas corpus, and he came very close to establishing a dictatorship (of the Roman, not Nazi, variety). "Lincoln gradually arrogated so much authority to his office that his own dominant party dared not pass that power on to a member ofthe opposition," Marvel notes, so that Republicans raced to strip away presidential powers when Democrat Andrew Johnson took office after Lincoln's assassination. Sure to touch off discussion, if not controversy, in professional circles; readers with a penchant for iconoclasm will want to have a look, too.

From CWBN:
Mr. Lincoln Goes to War represents a swing of the pendulum back to the reigning historiography of a generation ago, an historiography called "The Blundering Generation." Crudely put, this line of thought made the war the result of discrete political choices. Represented by historians such as J. G. Randall, it was overcome by the present-day "Inevitability of War" school represented by such as James McPherson. The Inevitables have been so successful that it is easy to forget that they were the original revisionists, that inevitability is fundamentally non-historic, and that the open question is probably "which decisions caused war" not whether any decisions caused war. Mr. Marvel may not have picked out the right decisions, he may color the decisions in lurid hues, but he is more than welcome to bring political Civil War decisions out of the long-standing "no discussion" zone. In that he joins Edward Ayers.

This is the first paperback edition of this title. The exact day of release for this June title is uknown.

Kill the Devil

by T.K. Marion

From the publisher:
"The President of the United States of America had a terrible headache…” So begins T. K. Marion’s novel, Kill the Devil. The book bridges two embattled minds: the author’s and that of the nation’s sixteenth commander-in-chief. In Lincoln, Marion found a man beset with depression, an illness the author knows only too well, himself a victim of bipolar disorder.

Kill the Devil is a story of ordinary men called upon to perform extraordinary deeds. The time is 1864. The Union objective: end the war! The plan: assassinate Confederate General Robert E. Lee. “If we eliminate him, the South will collapse,” insists the president’s top military advisor. Distraught by the seemingly endless conflict, Abraham Lincoln reluctantly gives his consent. For the handpicked assassin, Captain Jonathan Westmoreland, a roller-coaster ride of daring and intrigue ensues.

T. K. Marion is a native of Tidewater, Virginia, and the proud son of a career naval officer. An alumnus of Penn’s Wharton School, he contributes much of his free time appearing at public forums related to education and mental health. Partial proceeds of Kill the Devil and subsequent novels by T. K. Marion will fund the “Thirteen Stars Scholarship Foundation” for persons afflicted with cystic fibrosis. (The foundation is currently under construction.) Marion’s next novel, East Wind, Rain, is a Cold War espionage thriller and scheduled for release in 2008.

From CWBN:
This title was announced (via press release) yesterday. At the time of posting it was not listed by Amazon or B&N. We have linked here to the book's website, which contains ordering information.

101 Things You Didn't Know About the Civil War: Places, Battles, Generals--Essential Facts About the War That Divided America

by Thomas Turner

From the publisher:
Do you know:

* Which state was the first to secede from the Union?
* Who the Mata Hari of the Civil War was?
* Which Bible passage Southerners most often used to justify slavery?

You'll find the answers to these intriguing questions and more in 101 Things You didn't Know About the Civil War. Packed with fascinating details about the people, places, and events that defined our nation's most contentious conflict, this tell-all guide reveals the inside scoop on the:

* Issue of slavery and its impact on the war
* Great--and not-so-great--leaders and generals
* Battles fought and lost--and fought again
* Particular horrors of this war
* Women, children, and African Americans in the war

Complete with a helpful timeline, 101 Things You Didn't Know About the Civil War is your go-to guide for facts of the war that dramatically altered the course of American history.

Thomas Turner, Ph.D., is a professor of history at Bridgewater State College, in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

From CWBN:
The exact day of release for this June title is unknown.

U. S. Sharpshooters: Berdan's Civil War Elite

by Roy M. Marcot

From the publisher:
This detailed and beautifully illustrated book tells the story of Col. Hiram Berdan's brilliant conception: the U.S. SharpShooters, a specialized 2-regiment unit of marksmen recruited from the farming and backwoods communities of the North. Known for their distinctive green uniforms, Sharps breech-loading rifles, and risky tactics, the SharpShooters fought at battles such as the Peninsula, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness.

The book covers their training, tactics, and weapons and is a must-have for Civil War enthusiasts and anyone interested in the history of special forces. Features paintings by acclaimed Civil War artist Don Troiani.

Roy Marcot has written several books, including Remington: America s Oldest Gunmaker , The History of Remington Firearms, and Hiram Berdan: Chief of SharpShooters. He is a member of the American Society of Arms Collectors.

Desperate Engagement: How a Little-Known Civil War Battle Saved Washington, D.C., and Changed American History

by Marc Leepson

From Publishers Weekly:
How small can a Civil War battle be and still claim the mantle of war-changing decisiveness? That proposition is tested in this engaging account of the 1864 Battle of Monocacy Junction, in which some 16,000 Confederate troops trounced 5,800 bluecoats on a Maryland field. Not a surprising outcome, but Leepson contends that Union Gen. Lew Wallace's doomed stand held up Confederate Gen. Jubal Early's surprise lunge at Washington, D.C.—which was held only by a hapless force of invalids, militia and government clerks—by one crucial day. The result was a photo finish, with Union reinforcements arriving in the nick of time to save the capital from capture (hence the decisiveness).

Leepson lucidly narrates the campaign, adding color commentary about Early's panoply of abhorrent personal traits and the incompetence, apathy and possible drunkenness that prevailed among Union commanders, along with plenty of vignettes of the horror and pathos of war. He also debunks the campaign's premier anecdote, which has Lincoln coming under rebel fire while looking out from Washington's ramparts (true, he finds) and getting chewed out — Get down, you fool — by a young Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (false). Gettysburg it ain't, but it's still a hard-fought, dramatic episode that Leepson brings vividly to life.

100 Things to Know: Battle of Gettysburg

by Sandy Allison

From the publisher:
100 surprising and interesting facts about the Battle of Gettysburg help you become an instant expert. In July 1863, two American armies fought a 3-day battle that would shape the future of the young country. Why the conflict began, how it was won and how it was lost, what the soldiers experienced, who was in command, the aftermath of the horrific fighting—are all described in vivid and poignant detail.

Solid information presented in a fun-to-read format.

From CWBN:
The exact day of release for this June title is uknown.

Civil War Leadership and Mexican War Experience

by Kevin Dougherty

From the publisher:
A great many commanders in the American Civil War (1861-1865) served in the Mexican War (1846-1848). Civil War Leadership and Mexican War Experience explores the influence of the earlier war on those men who would become leaders of Federal and Confederate forces.

Military historian Kevin Dougherty sets the context with a discussion of professional soldiering before both wars. He then depicts the unique experiences of twenty-six men in Mexico, thirteen who would later serve the Confederacy and thirteen who would remain with the Union. He traces how tactics they used and reactions they had to Civil War combat reveal a remarkable connection to what they learned campaigning against Santa Anna and other Mexican generals.

Personalities discussed range from well-known leaders such as Ulysses S. Grant to lesser-known figures such as John Winder; from geniuses such as Robert E. Lee to mediocrities such as Gideon Pillow; and from aged heroes such as Winfield Scott to developing practitioners such as William Sherman. No other volume so exclusively and thoroughly focuses on connections of service in both wars.

Two appendixes in the book list 194 Federal generals and 142 Confederate generals who served in Mexico. The impact of these experiences on major tactical decisions in the Civil War is far-reaching.

A retired U.S. Army officer, Kevin Dougherty teaches history at the University of Southern Mississippi. His books include The Coastal War in North and South Carolina.

From CWBN:
The exact day of release for this June title is uknown.

A Divided Heart: Letters of Sally Baxter Hampton, 1853–1862

by Anna Fripp Hampton, ed.

From the publisher:
Moving among intellectual circles that included Francis Lieber, Charles Francis Adams, Samuel Gridley, and Julia Ward Howe, Sally Baxter (1833–1862) was the beautiful New York belle who captivated William Makepeace Thackeray, personifying his heroine Beatrix Esmond, and who then married Frank Hampton of the famous South Carolina family and became mistress of Woodlands plantation.

Hampton left a small collection of letters to her New York relations that are both informative and entertaining. In a clear and uninhibited style, she tells the poignant story of her short life as she reports on social events and plantation life and records her observations on local politics and the impending Civil War.

"What these letters do . . . is authenticate and corroborate a vertically cut and frozen vision into the past, when neither wealth, nor status, nor will could prevail over events." — Journal of Southern History

"These forty-seven letter are still important because of Sally's particular identity and because they add yet another dimension to the role of women during the Civil War. Best of all, A Divided Heart is delightfully entertaining." — North Carolina Historical Review

"The book will help provide a realistic understanding of Southern society during the Civil War years." — Augusta Chronicle

From CWBN:
The exact day of release for this June title is uknown.

Glory Enough for All: Sheridan's Second Raid and the Battle of Trevilian Station

by Eric J. Wittenberg

From the publisher:
After the ferocious fighting at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June 1864, Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered his cavalry, commanded by Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, to distract the Confederate forces opposing the Army of the Potomac. Glory Enough for All chronicles the battle that resulted when Confederate cavalry pursued and caught their Federal foes at Trevilian Station, Virginia, perhaps the only truly decisive cavalry battle of the American Civil War.

Eric J. Wittenberg tells the stories of the men who fought there, including eight Medal of Honor winners and one Confederate whose death at Trevilian Station made him the third of three brothers to die in the service of Company A of the Fourth Virginia Cavalry. He also addresses the little-known but critical cavalry battle at Samaria (Saint Mary's) Church on June 24, 1864, where Union Brig. Gen. David N. Gregg's division was nearly destroyed.

The only modern strategic analysis of the battle, Glory Enough for All challenges prevailing interpretations of General Sheridan and of the Union cavalry. Wittenberg shows that the outcome of Trevilian Station ultimately prolonged Grant's efforts to end the Civil War.

From Civil War News:
A fast-paced, in-depth narrative that captures the confusion, horror and heroism of battle. . . . Judicious placement of maps, numerous photographs and notes that provide additional detail and documentation are the crowning touch to this volume. Readers interested in cavalry operations and the Eastern Theater will welcome this contribution.

From Booknews:
Wittenberg (a Civil War historian, no university affiliation) provides a detailed strategic analysis of the cavalry battle at Trevilian Station. He chronicles the battle, tells the stories of those who fought in it, re-assesses the performance of Major General Philip H. Sheridan, and discusses the impact of the battle. Appendixes outline the order of battle, as well as the strengths and losses of both sides.

From CWBN:
The hardback edition of this release appeared in 2001; the book therefore predates Wittenberg's full revision of Sheridan's reputation in his 2002 Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of General Philip H. Sheridan. In Little Phil the author spent some time on the analysis of Sheridan's second raid, so these two may be seen as companion volumes.

You can visit Eric Wittenberg's blog by clicking here.

Civil War Sites, 2nd Edition: The Official Guide to the Civil War Discovery Trail

by Civil War Preservation Trust

From the publisher:
This easy-to-use guide, completely revised and updated in clear, concise prose, features more than hundreds of sites in 31 states--solemn battlefields, gracious mansions, state parks, cemeteries, memorials, museums, and more.

Specific directions, hours, and contact information help to plan the trip; evocative description and detailed maps help orient you when you're there. Also, boxed sidebars highlight select people and events of the Civil War.

From CWBN:
As of this posting, there is no news about the new guide on CWPT's web site. We therefore do not know what has changed in this update of the 1998 edition. A description of the 1998 edition (whish updated a 1996 release) appears below:

The Civil War Discovery Trail — more than 400 sites in 24 states — tells the real story of the Civil War & its impact on America. Includes a description & details of every site — battlefields, antebellum plantations, Underground Railroad sites, historic homes, state parks, cemeteries, memorials, museums, & more. An easy-to-use, state-by-state organization that lets you locate the sites quickly & easily. Also contains a brief historical look at a nation divided, plus an overview of each states role in the War. Plus, a complete reenactment & special events calendar. Detailed, accurate orientation maps that help you plan your itinerary.

The Mysterious Private Thompson: The Double Life of Sarah Emma Edmonds, Civil War Soldier

by Laura Leedy Gansler

From the publisher:
Resurrecting a lost hero of the Civil War, The Mysterious Private Thompson tells the remarkable story of Sarah Emma Edmonds (1841–98), who disguised herself as a man and defended her country at a time of war. Drawing on Edmonds's journals and those of the men she served with, Laura Leedy Gansler recreates Edmonds’s experience in some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, including both the First and the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, and the Battle of Fredericksburg, during which she served with distinction in combat as a “male” nurse and braved enemy fire as a mail carrier. Gansler also investigates Edmonds's claim to have been a spy, going behind enemy lines disguised as a slave (by staining her skin with silver nitrate), as a Confederate soldier, and even, ironically, as a peddler woman. After two years of valiant service, the young soldier, who twice rejected medical attention for injuries sustained in the line of duty for fear of being discovered, was struck down with malaria. Rather than risk detection by a military doctor, “Franklin Thompson” disappeared and was marked down as a deserter. Twenty years later, having resumed her female identity, Edmonds emerged from obscurity to fight for her pension and reunite with her surprised former comrades, who had not known their brother-in-arms was a woman. This intimate portrait is, above all, a personal drama about the lengths one daring woman was willing to go to chart her own destiny.

From Booklist:
Gansler chronicles the intriguing life and times of a woman who served as a man during the Civil War. Fleeing from home at age 17 to escape an abusive father and avoid an unwanted marriage, Sarah Edmonds lived as a man for two years before she heeded Lincoln's call for more troops and enlisted in the Second Michigan Infantry. Performing her duties with distinction, she won the respect and admiration of the men she served alongside, even after they discovered, many years later, her astounding secret. Resuming her female identity and marrying after the war, she lived a relatively tranquil life until she decided to seek a military pension 20 years later. Enthusiastically supported by her former comrades-in-arms, she became the only woman to secure a soldier's pension for her Civil War service. Although questions remain whether she also served--as she claimed--as a Union spy, Edmond's -gender--bending Civil War experiences are well worth checking out.

From Publishers Weekly:
This modest but solid biography presents the energetic life of Sarah Edmonds (1841–1898), a Nova Scotia woman and Civil War soldier who served in the Second Michigan Volunteer Infantry under the name Franklin Thompson. Fleeing an abusive father and an unwanted marriage, 17-year old Sarah disguised herself as a man and made a living as a traveling book salesman. When war broke out, she found a place in one of the early volunteer regiments and served for two years. She appears to have had at least two lovers or at least men who knew her true identity, but spent much of her service as a medical orderly, mail courier and (allegedly) Union spy. After the war she settled in Texas, married, raised two adopted children and eventually claimed a pension under her wartime name, with the enthusiastic support of most of her old comrades. Gansler (Class Action) has done her homework on the Civil War with more than average thoroughness, writing clearly and without jargon, and leaves the question of Sarah's spying undecided. Clearly laid down, however, is the portrait of a young woman who made and carried out major life decisions with honor, clarity and ability.

Abolitionists in Northern Courts: The Pamphlet Literature

by Paul Finkelman

From the publisher:
Reprinted from the Garland series Slavery, Race and the American Legal System, 1700-1872, the 13 pamphlets in this collection address cases that led to the abolition of slavery, cases against free blacks and abolitionists and cases dealing with race laws.

"The volumes in this series belong in every library used for research, and in particular at all law school libraries. They will prove valuable to historians, lawyers, law teachers and students, and all persons interested in the problems of slavery and race in American experience." - William M. Wiecek, American Journal of Legal History 33 (1989).

Le Roy Fitch: The Civil War Career of a Union River Gunboat Commander

by Myron J. Smith, Jr.

From the publisher:
This is the first published biography of Lieutenant Commander Le Roy Fitch, U.S. Navy. Fitch saw action on the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers; fought against Morgan, Wheeler and Forrest, as well as irregulars; commanded an ironclad monitor during the Battle of Nashville; and was renowned for his abilities in counterinsurgency and convoy tactics.

Myron J. Smith, Jr., is the library director and a professor of history at Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tennessee. He is the author of The Baseball Bibliography, 2d ed., (2006).

My Brave Mechanics: The First Michigan Engineers and Their Civil War

by Mark Hoffman

From the publisher:
As volunteer engineers for the Union army, the First Michigan Engineers and Mechanics regiment was made up of skilled artisans, craftsmen, railroad men, and engineers whose behind-the-scenes work was crucial to the Union victory. Charged with maintaining the Union supply line in the western theater, the engineers constructed and repaired a staggering number of bridges, blockhouses, fortifications, railroads, and telegraph lines to keep the Union army functioning in the aftermath of battle. My Brave Mechanics traces the history of this little-known unit, revealing their substantial engineering accomplishments as well as their combat experience.

Although they were charged primarily with engineering work, the regiment also saw substantial direct combat action. Confederate guerillas and bushwackers bent on disrupting vital communication and supply lines routinely disregarded the usual rules of warfare to target the engineers. They struck quickly, and sometimes at night, exploiting the isolation and vulnerability of the workmen, who, unlike regular infantrymen, were almost never dug-in and ready for an attack. Yet despite the odds against them, the Michigan engineers are recognized for several key accomplishments, including their work in keeping the railroad open south from Union supply depots in Louisville, the relief of the Union forces in Chattanooga, and destruction of rebel railroads during Sherman’s march through Georgia and the Carolinas. The regiment’s senior officers also held important posts within the Union military organization in the west and were instrumental in developing a coherent policy for the use of captured rebel railroads and infrastructure.

Historian Mark Hoffman offers readers a detailed account of the Michigan engineers from a wealth of sources, including letters, diaries, regimental papers, communications and orders from the military establishment, period newspapers, and postwar accounts. As little has been written about Union volunteer engineers in the western theater, their unique history will undoubtedly be fascinating reading for Civil War buffs, local historians, and those interested in the history of American military engineering.

Mark Hoffman is deputy department director of the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries.

To Honor These Men: A History of the Phillips Georgia Legion Infantry Battalion

by Richard M. Coffman and Kurt D. Graham

From the publisher:
To Honor These Men is a thoroughly researched, comprehensive book that details the organization of a “legion” and its combat odyssey. The authors have followed the trail of the story of the Phillips Georgia legion. The result is a highly readable book that takes the reader on foot and horseback through most of the major battles in the eastern theater of the Civil War. The words of soldiers express the sights, sounds, screams, and odors of the battlefield. The agony of festering wounds, and the misery of typhoid fever and pneumonia grab the reader as does the loneliness and yearning for contact with loved ones.

Coffman and Graham track the legion troops from the mountains of Western Virginia to the tears of Appomattox, pausing only for savage interludes of ten major battles and countless skirmishes. The stink of black powder, the blast of musketry and cannons flood the senses and keep the pages turning. Bravery, cowardice, fatigue, and boredom are documented throughout the text in this first-ever saga of Phillips Georgia legion. Detailed appendices include a capsule history of Macon Light Artillery, the Sharpshooter Battalion, and the band, as well as annotated rosters for each infantry company.

Richard M. Coffman graduated from the Ohio State University and the University of South Carolina. He was a career Air Force officer serving in Europe and Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

Kurt D. Graham retired from IBM in 1996 and lives in historic Vinings, Georgia, with his wife, Mary, and sons Griff and Jack. His lifelong love affair with American history was fueled by a father and grandfather who “had dragged him across every Civil War battlefield by the time he was ten.” Kurt is an enthusiastic supporter of battlefield preservation and a collector of military art and books.

Maryland Voices of the Civil War

by Charles W. Mitchell

From the publisher:
The most contentious event in our nation's history, the Civil War deeply divided families, friends, and communities. Both sides fought to define the conflict on their own terms -- Lincoln and his supporters struggled to preserve the Union and end slavery, while the Confederacy waged a battle for the primacy of local liberty or "states' rights." But the war had its own peculiar effects on the four border slave states that remained loyal to the Union. Internal disputes and shifting allegiances injected uncertainty, apprehension, and violence into the everyday lives of their citizens.

No state better exemplified the vital role of a border state than Maryland -- where the passage of time has not dampened debates over issues such as the alleged right of secession and executive power versus civil liberties in wartime. In Maryland Voices of the Civil War, Charles W. Mitchell draws upon hundreds of letters, diaries, and period newspapers -- many previously unpublished -- to portray the passions of a wide variety of people -- merchants, slaves, soldiers, politicians, freedmen, women, clergy, slave owners, civic leaders, and children -- caught in the emotional vise of war. Mitchell tells the compelling story of how Maryland African Americans escaped from slavery and fought for the Union and their freedom alongside white soldiers and he reinforces the provocative notion that Maryland's Southern sympathies -- while genuine -- never seriously threatened to bring about a Confederate Maryland.

Maryland Voices of the Civil War illuminates the human complexities of the Civil War era and the political realignment that enabled Marylanders to abolish slavery in their state before the end of the war.

Charles W. Mitchell, a Marylander by birth and by choice, is a writer descended from a congressman, a pirate, and two Confederate officers who appear in the pages of this book. The ancestors of his wife, Betsy, include eleven Union soldiers, Pennsylvanians all. Charley and Betsy, and their two children, Abbie and Alec, live in Lutherville, Maryland.

From CWBN:
A book of this sort depends mainly on three elements: sources, "flavoring," and editing.

Editor Charles Mitchell should be given the highest credit for his selection of sources, a rich array of previously unquoted material set in contexts that can, with reasonable ease, be looked up by researchers or just savored by readers as "flavor."

"Flavor" is a matter of taste and trust, of course: is the author leading us with his source selections? Is there an agenda at work? In any case, there is a lot of flavor here, over 400 pages worth, and the endnotes alone span 50 pages.

The editing is good. The broad topical organization is interesting: "Indecision," "Occupation," and (black) "Liberation." The weaving of sources is also good but structurally challnging because of the number of "voices." A long sit with the book will convey a certain "jumpiness" despite the editor's best efforts.

This is undoubtedly a labor of love and Johns Hopkins is backing it with a sturdy binding that will support many readings and look-ups.

Admin note from CWBN:
This blog entry has been updated with comments (above) and redated as June 30 based on information received from the publisher. The publisher's own release date may therefore not match the release dates shown by Amazon or B&N.

Zoar in the Civil War

by Philip E. Webber

From the publisher:
Traces the response of the Zoar community to the Civil War

Zoar Village, located in Ohio’s Tuscarawas Valley, functioned from 1817 to 1898 as a communal society. Formed by German separatists seeking religious freedom, Zoar became one of the most successful experiments in communal living in America’s history.

One cardinal principle in the Zoarite’s faith and practice was the refusal to bear arms. In the 1860s, with the rise of the Civil War, conflict emerged between the community’s pacifist stance and its strong support for the Union cause and for the abolition of slavery. Some Zoarites continued on the path of conscientious objection; others chose the path of conscientious participation in the Union army.

Zoar in the Civil War traces the ways that the Zoar community dealt graciously with the war as a difficult yet inescapable event in its history. Based primarily on unpublished material from archives and collections of the Ohio Historical Society and the Western Reserve Historical Society, this study draws together the largest gathering to date of previously untapped Zoar records. Following a brief and informative introduction, Webber allows these eloquent and fascinating primary sources to tell the story, thereby offering a unique perspective on the American Civil War.

Philip E. Webber is a professor of German at Central College in Pella, Iowa, where he has been a faculty member since 1976. His scholarly and pedagogical projects have enjoyed the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Iowa Humanities Board, the Mellon Exxon Foundations, the American Philosophical Society, and various educational agencies in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Of Love and War: The Civil War Letters and Medicinal Book of Augustus V. Ball

by Carlyn E. Kahl (Editor), Andrew Hillhouse (Editor)

From the publisher:
Of Love and War: The Civil War Letters and Medicinal Book of Augustus V. Ball is not a typical Civil War letter collection.

Ball's circumstances and experiences allowed him to glimpse the war through two sets of eyes, that of a loving husband, and of an increasingly disillusioned physician. The inclusion of Ball's medicinal recipe book is the first of its kind to appear in print completely annotated. Readers will find themselves not only sympathetic to the struggles of one newlywed couple, but educated about the medical and herbal lore of that era.

During the war, Ball and his wife, Argent, managed to stay in contact, not only with each other, but with their various friends and family throughout the South. Ball's letters home give an account of one man's experiences in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the Civil War with the Twenty-third Texas Cavalry, and later with McMahan's Light Artillery Battery. The mail he and his wife received from others gives a cross-section of the Southern experience in general.

ANNE BALL RYALS of Montgomery, Alabama, transcribed the letters with great regard for the principals, Augustus and Argent, her great-grandparents. CARLYN E. KAHL is the Managing Editor of State House Press/McWhiney Foundation Press in Abilene, Texas. ANDREW HILLHOUSE is a graduate student in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.

The 149th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Unit in the Civil War

by Richard E. Matthews

From the publisher:
The 149th Pennsylvania saw its one day of glory on July 1, 1863, when this young and untried regiment staged a magnificent defense at McPherson’s farm. Although this bright promise quickly faded into more typical regimental experience, the story of the regiment’s service under the indomitable Joshua Chamberlain remains worth telling.

Drawing on the service records of more than 800 soldiers as well as diaries, letters, and other primary souces, this book details the 149th’s battles from brigade to company level, from the charges at Gettsyburg to the assault at Petersburg. Focus is on the development, mood and character of a regiment as it undergoes changes in leadership, loss of reliable veterans and the increased individual desire for survival as brutal battles take their toll on mind and body. More than 50 photographs enhance the text.

A retired high school principal, Richard E. Matthews of Slatington, Pennsylvania, has written numerous magazine articles on the Civil War.

“Matthews has done his job well, mining contemporary newspapers, letters, diaries, reports and muster rolls”— Blue & Gray

“A first rate regimental history”— Civil War

“One of the most thorough, most intelligently written regimentals you are likely to encounter”— Military Images

Northborough in the Civil War: Citizen Soldiering and Sacrifice

by Robert P. Ellis

Northborough sent over half of its eligible population into this war. This book attempts to bring to life as many of these people as possible.

The people of Northborough, Massachusetts played an important role in the Civil War. The war began in response to an armed internal rebellion the result of two opposed social systems. At the heart was a dispute over slavery that had been steadily and intensively scrutinized for thirty years particularly in New England. In 1848 in Worcester County, Massachusetts, the Free Soil candidate for the presidency polled more votes than either candidate of the two major parties, Whig and Democrat.

In Northborough, former president Martin Van Buren, the Free Soil nominee, received nearly three times as many votes as the winner, Zachary Taylor. These figures do not prove Northborough was a hotbed of abolitionists, but they do suggest that its vigorous anti-slavery activity demands preliminary attention. The South suspected the later Republican opposition to the extension of slavery as merely a first step against an institution established by the Constitution. Were towns like Northborough welcoming of abolitionists silent advocates for an emancipation that had to be proclaimed mid-war?

Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage: An Illustrated Compendium of the Everyday Language of Soldiers and Civilians

by Webb and Cheryl Garrison

From the publisher:
While there are many encyclopedias and dictionaries of the American Civil War available today, none of them provide a systematic guide to the language used by the generation that fought the war. During the last 150 years language has changed, and as meanings have become obscure or lost, links with the past have dissolved and much of that which had meaning to our forefathers no longer means anything to us.
What did it mean "to cross the bar"? What was a soldier's "big ticket"? What did it mean "to see the elephant" or "to go South"? Why did the armies have so-called ninety-day men and hundred-day men? What were soldiers supposed to do when they heard the commander shout, "Let her go, Gallagher"? How did one "pay tribune to Neptune"? What was a "picket pin"? Could you make a passable meal out of "possum beer" and "secession bread"? How did one "vibrate the lines," and why would one want to attempt such a maneuver?

To address this need, Webb Garrison has pooled his notes from more than thirty years of research and study to produce a dictionary of words and phrases (including nicknames and slang) commonly used during the war. Where appropriate, examples and anecdotes are included to illustrate meanings. Included in this compendium are also the often overlooked naval terms and esoteric formal and informal military expressions that dominate the writing of the Civil War generation. And in what has become a trademark of his work, Garrison profusely illustrates his encyclopedia of word usage with period art and photographs. Completed just weeks before his death in the summer of 2000, The Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage is sure to become a valuable reference work for scholars and laymen alike.

Webb Garrison, formerly the associate dean of Emory University and president of McKendree College, has written more than 55 books, including A Treasury of Civil War Tales, Civil War Curiosities, The Lincoln No One Knows, Amazing Women of the Civil War, Friendly Fire in the Civil War, and Love, Lust, and Longing in the White House.

Jo Shelby's Iron Brigade

by Deryl P. Sellmeyer

From the publisher:
Gen. Joseph Orville Shelby’s involvement in the Civil War began when he raised a cavalry company for Southern service after refusing a commission in the Federal army. Shelby’s company of Rangers became known as the most disciplined company in the pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard.

General Shelby’s reputation as a fierce commander on the battlefield coexisted with his reputation for acts of compassion toward prisoners of war and innocent civilians. His actions were actuated by his principles, and he permitted no dishonorable act. He was relentless in the punishment of crimes against the weak and helpless, showing regard for all civilians. One example illustrating this occurred prior to the war, when he single-handedly faced down a lynch mob in Lexington, Missouri, to rescue a man who had insisted on his right to vote for Abraham Lincoln at the polls. Shelby’s actions set a high standard of courage and honor for his men. While he was not sentimental over fallen comrades, he did not subject his men to dangers that he did not face himself. As a result, the men of Shelby’s Brigade idolized him and followed him without question.

Every march, camp, and battle that could be identified from reliable source material is incorporated here in this thoroughly researched book. Information was obtained from officers’ reports and correspondence from both armies, the National Archives and Records Service, newspapers from that period, articles written by veterans after the war, and the memoirs of Confederate brigadier general M. Jeff Thompson, who temporarily commanded Shelby’s Brigade near the end of the war.

Jo Shelby was motivated by his unselfish belief in the rightness of the cause of Southern independence. He was a true Southern patriot and his accomplishments place him among the top Confederate cavalry generals. After the war he was beloved by the men who had fought for him and even, over time, by his past adversaries. His life is worthy of study and reflection, for his actions embody the best qualities of the American soldier.

While reading Battles and Leaders of the Civil War in 1977, Deryl Sellmeyer stumbled across mention of a cavalry fight at Prairie D’Ane, Arkansas. He recalled the name as a battle mentioned in a brief biography his late grandmother had given him of her grandfather’s life. He realized that her grandfather, a soldier in Shelby’s Brigade, had fought at Prairie D’Ane, and he was hooked. He began researching voraciously, and his interest never waned. In 1983, he self-published his first book, Saline County Soldier, a brief biography of his great-great-grandfather’s service in the Civil War. After retiring in 2003, Mr. Sellmeyer completely devoted his time to completing his manuscript of the history of Shelby’s Brigade.

Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol

by William C. Davis

From the publisher:
"A superbly written and judiciously documented account of one of America's most outstanding and least understood mid-nineteenth-century statesmen." — Pennsylvania History

"Breckinridge is superb biography. The research is definitive....More unusual in scholarly works, the writing is excellent, sometimes brilliant." — Georgia Historical Quarterly

"William C. Davis gives new prominence to a man who served his country as congressman, vice president, and senator before casting his lot with the Confederacy....a first-rate biography." — Journal of Southern History

At the age of thirty-five, John C. Breckinridge was the vice president of the United States. Later he came closest to defeating Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in 1860. In a short time he became secretary of war in the Confederate cabinet. This—the first—comprehensive biography of this remarkable man and his generation covers one of the most turbulent eras of the American past.

Breckinridge was a Kentucky lawyer and veteran of the Mexican War when he was elected to the state legislature in 1849. Soon thereafter he was elected to Congress and in 1865 became James Buchanan's running mate. After his defeat by Lincoln in the 1860 election, he took his seat in the Senate and supported the Union on the question of secession. Because he opposed most of Lincoln's other policies, he was considered dangerous. When Lincoln ordered him arrested, even though no charges had been brought against him, Breckinridge escaped to the South and joined the Confederate army as a brigadier general. Later he was appointed secretary of war by Jefferson Davis.

Prominent in every field he entered, Breckinridge was a leading statesman and soldier. As a moderate and an earnest supporter of compromise, he became the symbol of peaceful reconciliation between the states after the Civil War.

WILLIAM C. DAVIS is the author of many books, including Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War; The Battle of New Market; Duel Between the First Ironclads; The Orphan Brigade: The Kentucky Confederates Who Couldn't Go Home; and Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour. He is a professor of history at Virginia Tech.

The Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 - July 13, 1863

by Bradley Gottfried

From the publisher:
More academic and photographic accounts on the battle of Gettysburg exist than for all other battles of the Civil War combined-and for good reason. The three-days of maneuver, attack, and counterattack consisted of literally scores of encounters, from corps-size actions to small unit engagements. Despite all its coverage, Gettysburg remains one of the most complex and difficult to understand battles of the war. The Maps Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 - July 13, 1863, by Bradley Gottfried offers a unique approach to the study of this multifaceted engagement.

The Maps of Gettysburg plows new ground in the study of the campaign by breaking down the entire campaign in 140 detailed original maps. These cartographic originals bore down to the regimental level, and offer Civil Warriors a unique and fascinating approach to studying the always climactic battle of the war.

The Maps of Gettysburg offers thirty "action-sections" comprising the entire campaign. These include the march to and from the battlefield, and virtually every significant event in between. Gottfried's original maps (from two to as many as twenty) enrich each "action-section." Keyed to each piece of cartography is detailed text that includes hundreds of soldiers' quotes that make the Gettysburg story come alive. This presentation allows readers to easily and quickly find a map and text on virtually any portion of the campaign, from the cavalry drama at Brandy Station on June 9, to the last Confederate withdrawal of troops across the Potomac River on July 15, 1863. Serious students of the battle will appreciate the extensive and authoritative endnotes. They will also want to bring the book along on their trips to the battlefield.

Perfect for the easy chair or for stomping the hallowed ground of Gettysburg, The Maps of Gettysburg promises to be a seminal work that belongs on the bookshelf of every serious and casual student of the battle.

Bradley M. Gottfried holds a Ph.D. in Zoology from Miami University. He has worked in higher education for more than three decades as a faculty member and administrator. He is currently President of the College of Southern Maryland. An avid Civil War historian, Dr. Gottfried is the author of five books: The Battle of Gettysburg: A Guided Tour (1998); Stopping Pickett: The History of the Philadelphia Brigade (1999); Brigades of Gettysburg (2002); Roads to Gettysburg (2002); and Kearny's Own: The History of the First New Jersey Brigade (2005). He is currently working with Theodore P. Savas on a Gettysburg Campaign Encyclopedia.

From CWBN:
This title has gone into a second printing already (as of July 9); please see here and here for availability news.

Memory and Myth: The Civil War in Fiction and Film from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Cold Mountain

by David B. Sachsman, S. Kittrell Rushing, and Roy Morris Jr. (Editors)

From the publisher:
Memory and Myth is an interdisciplinary study of the Civil War and its enduring impact on American writers and filmmakers. Its twenty-five chapters are all concerned, in one way or another, with creative responses to the Civil War, and the ways in which artists have sought to make sense of the war and to convey their findings to succeeding generations of readers and filmgoers. The book also examines the role of movies and television in transmuting the historical memories of the Civil War into durable, ever-changing myths.

David B. Sachsman holds the George R. West, Jr. Chair of Excellence in Communication and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. He is known for his research and scholarly activities in environmental communication and environmental risk reporting. S. Kittrell Rushing is the Frank McDonald Professor of Communication and the head of the Communication Department at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. His current research interests include newspapers of the antebellum and Civil War eras. Roy Morris Jr. is the editor of Military Heritage magazine and the author of four well-received books on the Civil War and post-Civil War eras.

Civil War in New Bern and Fort Macon, North Carolina

by Drew Pullen, photography by Robert V. Drapala

From the publisher:
After capturing Confederate positions on Hatteras Island and Roanoke Island, the loyal Union soldiers directed their attention to the town of New Bern, located on North Carolina's mainland. As a strategically important port of Neuse River, New Bern also served as a railroad center--meaning that its capture could allow the Union forces to control territory near the major supply line for Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

This work shows that New Bern's Confederate forces were understaffed and inadequately prepared to face the Federal assault. The fall of New Bern enabled Union forces to proceed to the small coastal town of Beaufort and lay siege to Fort Macon, thus confirming New Bern's infamous place in history.

Other books in the series include Civil War on the Hatteras Island and Civil War in Roanoke Island.

Florida's Lighthouses in the Civil War

by Neil E. Hurley

From the publisher:
Florida's premier Lighthouse historian sets the record straight in this fascinating account of wartime activities at each of the state's 21 Civil War lighthouses. Both sides fought for possession of the towers and their valuable lenses and lamp oil. Through meticulous research, Neil Hurley has uncovered little-known facts about each lighthouse, including the great care taken by Confederate authorities to protect the lighthouses, lenses and oil.

Neil Hurley's interest in Florida lighthouses started in the mid 1980s while he was serving as a Staff Officer for the Seventh Coast Guard s District Aids to Navigation Branch. One of his jobs there included answering the public's questions about lighthouses in Florida. At that time, there wasn't much information available. Much of the information that did exist was inaccurate.

Taking the matter to heart, Neil decided to make Florida lighthouse history his off-duty hobby. What followed were many hours of research in the National Archives, at local libraries and through correspondence with other historians.

Neil is the author of numerous articles and books on the subject. For more than ten years, his Florida Lighthouse Page on the internet has informed people about the history and status of Florida lights. He has been the historian for the Florida Lighthouse Association since it was founded.

Singing for Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth-Century Culture of Reform

by Scott Gac

From the publisher:
In the two decades prior to the Civil War, the Hutchinson Family Singers of New Hampshire became America’s most popular musical act. Out of a Baptist revival upbringing, John, Asa, Judson, and Abby Hutchinson transformed themselves in the 1840s into national icons, taking up the reform issues of their age and singing out especially for temperance and antislavery reform. This engaging book is the first to tell the full story of the Hutchinsons, how they contributed to the transformation of American culture, and how they originated the marketable American protest song.

Through concerts, writings, sheet music publications, and books of lyrics, the Hutchinson Family Singers established a new space for civic action, a place at the intersection of culture, reform, religion, and politics. The book documents the Hutchinsons’ impact on abolition and other reform projects and offers an original conception of the rising importance of popular culture in antebellum America.

Scott Gac is visiting professor of American studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and an accomplished double bass player.

Men of Fire: The Rise of Forrest and Grant and the Splitting of Dixie

by Jack Hurst

From the publisher:
The epic history of a bloody campaign that determined the course of the Civil War-and forged two of America's greatest military leaders.
Deep in the winter of 1862, on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee, two extraordinary military leaders faced each other in an epic clash that would transform them both and change the course of American history forever.

Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant had no significant military successes to his credit. He was barely clinging to his position within the Union Army-he had been officially charged with chronic drunkenness only days earlier, and his own troops despised him. His opponent was as untested as he was: an obscure lieutenant colonel named Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest was a slaveholder, Grant a closet abolitionist-but the two men held one thing in common: an unrelenting desire for victory at any cost.

After ten days of horrific battle, Grant emerged victorious. He had earned himself the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" for his fierce prosecution of the campaign, and immediately became a hero of the Union Army. Forrest retreated, but he soon re-emerged as a fearsome war machine and guerrilla fighter. His reputation as a brilliant and innovative general survives to this day. But Grant had already changed the course of the Civil War. By opening the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to the Union Army, he had split Dixie in two. The confederacy would never recover.

A riveting account of the making of two great military leaders, and two battles that transformed America forever, Men of Fire is destined to become a classic work of military history.

Jack Hurst is a former journalist who has written for newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Nashville Tennessean. He is the author of Nathan Bedford Forrest: A Biography. A descendant of both Union and Confederate military officers, he currently lives with his wife outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

Splendid Failure: Postwar Reconstruction in the American South

by Michael W. Fitzgerald

From the publisher:
Michael Fitzgerald's new interpretation of Reconstruction shows how the internal dynamics of this first freedom movement played into the hands of white racist reactionaries in the South.

Splendid Failure recounts how postwar financial missteps and other governance problems quickly soured idealistic Northerners on the practical consequences of the Radical Republican plan, and set the stage for the explosion that swept Southern Republicans from power and resulted in Northern acquiescence to the bloody repression of voting rights.

The failed strategy offers a chastening example to present-day proponents of racial equality.

"Fitzgerald...has pulled off the enormously difficult task of writing a short, clear, analytically distinctive history of reconstruction . . . " - Thomas Pegram

Civil War in Tennessee 1862-1863

by Jack H. Lepa

From the publisher:
In 1862, with the outcome of the Civil War far from certain, Union and Confederate leaders began to pinpoint locations vital for their army’s success. Tennessee was one such possession. Although nominally under Confederate control, with Union loyalists in the east, Confederate supporters in the west and a mixture in the central region, the state did not have ironclad loyalty to either cause. For the Union, gaining control of Tennessee meant crippling the transportation options of the Confederacy, giving Union forces access to the rivers and mountain passes which would potentially lead them to the heart of the Confederacy and victory over the South. For the Confederacy, maintaining control of Tennessee was vital not only to protect its southernmost states but also to retain control of the state’s agricultural products and mineral wealth, neither of which it could afford to lose.

Drawing on contemporary sources such as memoirs and official correspondence, this volume details the struggle for control of Tennessee during 1862 and 1863. Beginning with the Union commanders’ initial reluctance to challenge the Confederate army, it describes the fortuitous momentum Ulysses S. Grant’s arrival added to the Federal struggle in the west and, consequently, the Union quest for Tennessee. It follows the movements of Union and Confederate forces through some of the worst battles of the war, including Shiloh, Stones River and Chickamauga. Finally, the Union victory at the battle of Chattanooga—which brought Tennessee definitively under Union control—and its consequences for both sides are discussed in detail.

Jack H. Lepa is also the author of Breaking the Confederacy (2005) and The Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1864 (2003). His articles have been published in Biblio and Renaissance magazines. He lives in Las Vegas.

From CWBN:
We have assigned June 18 as release date for this undated June release.

In the Shadow of the Civil War: Passmore Williamson and the Rescue of Jane Johnson

by Nat and Yanna Kroyt Brandt

From the publisher:
Six years before the onset of the Civil War, two courageous figures - one a free white man and one an enslaved black woman - risked personal liberty to ensure each other's freedom in an explosive episode that captured the attention of a nation on the brink of cataclysmic change. In this deeply researched account of the rescue of the slave Jane Johnson by the Philadelphia Quaker and fervent abolitionist Passmore Williamson, of the federal court case that followed, and of Johnson's selfless efforts to free the jailed Williamson, veteran journalist Nat Brandt and Emmy-winning filmmaker Yanna Kroyt Brandt capture the heroism and humanity at the heart of this important moment in American history.

In July 1855 Williamson and his colleague William Still responded to a written plea from Johnson and rushed to the Camden ferry dock to liberate her and her two children from their master in a daring confrontation. The abolitionists had no idea that Johnson's owner, Col. John Hill Wheeler, was connected to the highest levels of government and was a personal friend of President Franklin Pierce. As a result Wheeler was able to have Williamson arrested and confined to Moyamensing Prison, an institution notorious for harboring Philadelphia's worst criminals.

The case and Williamson's imprisonment became an international cause celebre with famous leaders of the abolitionist movement, black and white, visiting the prisoner. In one of the episode's most dramatic moments, Johnson returned to Philadelphia, at the risk of her own freedom, to testify on Williamson's behalf. There were petitions in many states to impeach Judge John Kintzing Kane, who stubbornly refused to release Williamson. The case became a battle of wills between a man who was unwavering in his defiance of slavery and another determined to defend the so-called rights of the slave owner.

Williamson's martyrdom spotlighted Philadelphia as one northern city where the growing rifts between states' rights, federal mandates, and personal liberties had come to the fore. His case put a vivid, human face on the issue of slavery, helped to strengthen the will of its opponents, and highlighted the increasing inevitability of the Civil War.

Encompassing acts of brazen defiance, heroic self-sacrifice, high courtroom drama, and the rise of a cult of celebrity, the Brandts' brisk narrative takes readers into the lives of the central participants in this complex episode. Passmore Williamson, Jane Johnson, William Still, Colonel Wheeler, and Judge Kane are brought vibrantly to life as fully developed and flawed characters drawn unexpectedly into the annals of history. Enhanced by eleven illustrations, In the Shadow of the Civil War chronicles events that presage the divisive national conflict that followed and that underscore the passionate views on freedom and justice that continue to define the American experience in our own time.

Berry Benson's Civil War Book: Memoirs of a Confederate Scout and Sharpshooter

Edited by Susan Williams Benson

From the publisher:
"An outstanding memoir."—Civil War History

Confederate scout and sharpshooter Berry Greenwood Benson witnessed the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, retreated with Lee's army to its surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, and missed little of the action in between. This classic account of his wartime service is filled with the minutiae of the common soldier's life and paced by a continual succession of battlefield anecdotes. A new biographical introduction by historian Edward J. Cashin adds further depth and detail to Benson's own vivid memories. The introduction also reveals Benson's less widely known early life and his postwar careers, interests, and activities.

At seventeen, after leaving his home near Augusta, Georgia, to join the army, Benson soon distinguished himself as a crack shot, natural leader, and sure judge of human nature-abilities that would serve him well as a scout. Benson's reconnaissance exploits took him within earshot of Union trenches and encampments. On the battlefield he saw firsthand the desperation of a frontal charge and the blind panic of a disorganized retreat. Benson's odyssey as a prisoner of war took him to Elmira Prison in New York, where he joined the only successful tunnel escape in the camp's history.

Benson, who was the model for the figure atop Augusta's Civil War memorial, is most often remembered as a soldier. However, his postwar life defies simple labels. He held such conventional jobs as cotton trader and accountant, yet he also published verse and philosophical writings, supported labor causes, worked tirelessly to exonerate the accused murderer Leo Frank, and earned respect as an amateur cryptologist. Energetic and unconventional to the end, Berry Benson remains a fascinating figure to this day.

Susan Williams Benson was a daughter-in-law of Berry Benson. Edward J. Cashin is Professor Emeritus of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Georgia History at Augusta State University. His many books include Lachlan McGillivray, Indian Trader (Georgia) and Paternalism in a Southern City (Georgia).

"This book showers well-deserved attention on one of the South's truly noble sons. Benson, who served his homeland from Charleston to Appomattox, won even greater glory late in life when he championed the innocence of Jewish factory boss Leo M. Frank, convicted of murder in 1913 in Atlanta and subsequently lynched. Benson was a terrific character and this volume does him justice."
—Steve Oney, author of And the Dead Shall Rise

"Well-told and very captivating." — Civil War Courier

"[Benson] knew how to tell an exciting story. . . . Unusually descriptive; his book contains a host of little details." — Richmond Times-Dispatch

Landsman: A Novel

by Peter Charles Melman

From the publisher:
A stirring, evocative, and unforgettable epic novel of the Civil War in the tradition of Cold Mountain and Widow of the South.

In the summer of 1853, in Lafayette City, Louisiana, eleven-year-old Elias Abrams loses his mother to yellow fever. Grief-stricken and alone, he becomes embroiled in the street life of New Orleans. After Elias is falsely accused of a crime and in order to escape arrest a decade later, he enlists as a private in the Third Louisiana Regiment, where three thousand other Jews will ultimately fight for the Confederacy.

The chaos of life at the front is broken in the form of a letter written by a young woman to "a soldier" in order to lift his spirits. Elias' courtship of sweet Nora Bloom becomes heady with true romance and escapist longings. Before long, though, Elias' past catches up with him, and he realizes that he must face his demons or lose the woman he loves.

Peter Melman has crafted a riveting tale of redemption and romance in the midst of this nation's most bloody and convulsive conflict. Landsman is transfixing and transporting, as well wrought as any classic work of historical fiction.

From Booklist:
A barely literate hard-bitten gambler and petty criminal, Elias Abrams, the 20-year-old cardsharp hero of Melman's solid debut, flees hometown New Orleans (and a bogus murder charge), joins the Confederate Army and realizes "every circumstance of his life now conspires to kill him." He survives the infantry as he had the city—using his wiles, card skills and fists—until his colonel hands over an envelope containing a charming missive from Nora Bloom, a young New Orleans maiden who wrote a support-the-troops letter at the urging of her rabbi. Unexpectedly stirred, Elias begins a correspondence and finds himself obsessively fantasizing about her. A battlefield injury leads to a furlough during which he returns to the city to meet both Nora (he falls in love) and cronies from his seedy past, who use his new flame as leverage to draw him into a sinister plot. Readers will find no fault with the colorful portrait of Civil War–time New Orleans, its squalid underworld and small Jewish enclave, or Melman's portrayal of army life (more hurry-up-and-wait than cannons and sabers). There is certainly no shortage of Civil War fiction; this is one of the better offerings.

From Publishers Weekly:
Can a man expect justice from the world if he has spent his life inflicting injustice? Elias Abrams ponders this quandary while sitting in a Missouri field. Having fled New Orleans in the wake of a murder and seeking refuge in the Confederate army, Abrams begins to analyze the elements leading to his conscription: the Jewish son of an indentured servant roaming the brothels and alleys of Civil War New Orleans fueled by whiskey, gambling, and brawling. This carousing finds him the accomplice to a brutal murder and on the run from the law and his fellow carousers. Throughout the narrative, Melman crafts searing images: the physical degradation of Civil War infantrymen, the underbelly of 1860s New Orleans, burgeoning love, and one man's unplanned introspection. This novel gallops across prairies and battlefields as Elias Abrams writes letters to his Nora Bloom and struggles to make sense of his past, all while trying to carve out the future he desires. At times ribald and always real, Melman creates a rich and authentic story.

The White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas after the Civil War

by Gerald Horne

From the publisher:
“Horne’s book is impressive in its research and compelling in its history and argument. It pieces together a marvelously suggestive story of the African American presence in the Pacific. . . .This is a transnational history at its most ambitious and materially grounded best and includes superb comparative insights.” —David Roediger, Kendrick C. Babcock Professor of History, University of Illinois

Worldwide supplies of sugar and cotton were impacted dramatically as the U.S. Civil War dragged on. New areas of production entered these lucrative markets, particularly in the South Pacific, and plantation agriculture grew substantially in disparate areas such as Australia, Fiji, and Hawaii. The increase in production required an increase in labor; in the rush to fill the vacuum, freebooters and other unsavory characters began a slave trade in Melanesians and Polynesians that continued into the twentieth century.

The White Pacific ranges over the broad expanse of Oceania to reconstruct the history of “blackbirding” (slave trading) in the region. It examines the role of U.S. citizens (many of them ex-slaveholders and ex-confederates) in the trade and its roots in Civil War dislocations. What unfolds is a dramatic tale of unfree labor, conflicts between formal and informal empire, white supremacy, threats to sovereignty in Hawaii, the origins of a White Australian policy, and the rise of Japan as a Pacific power and putative protector. It also pieces together a wonderfully suggestive history of the African American presence in the Pacific.

Based on deft archival research in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, the United States, and Great Britain, The White Pacific uncovers a heretofore hidden story of race, labor, war, and intrigue that contributes significantly to the emerging intersectional histories of race and ethnicity.

Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History and African-American Studies at the University of Houston.

Amalgamation Polka

by Stephen Wright

From the publisher:
Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as "a bright star in the literary sky," Stephen Wright now extends his astonishing accomplishment with a Civil War novel unlike any other.

Born in 1844 in bucolic upstate New York, Liberty Fish is the son of fervent abolitionists as well as the grandson of Carolina slaveholders even more dedicated to their cause. Thus follows a childhood limned with fugitive slaves moving through hidden passageways in the house, his Uncle Potter's free-soil adventure stories whose remarkable violence sets the tone of the mounting national crisis, and the inevitable distress that befalls his mother whenever letters arrive from her parents' a conflict that ultimately costs her life and compels Liberty, in hopes of reconciling the familial disunion, to escape first into the cauldron of war and then into a bedlam more disturbing still.

Rich in characters both heartbreaking and bloodcurdling, comic and horrific, The Amalgamation Polka is shot through with politics and dreams, and it captures great swaths of the American experience, from village to metropolis to plantation, from the Erie Canal to the Bahamas, from Bloody Kansas to the fulfillment of the killing fields. Yet for all the brutality and tragedy, this novel is exuberant in the telling and its wide compassion, brimming with the language, manners, hopes, and fears of its time, all of this so transformed by Stephen Wright's imaginative compass that places and events previously familiar are rendered new and strange, terrifying and stirring. Instantly revelatory, constantly mesmerizing, this is the work of a major writer at the top of his form.

From the Washington Post:
When Wright is sitting firmly in the saddle, The Amalgamation Polka reads like a cross between John Barth and John Waters, and is often entertaining; when he's not, it resembles a Victorian morality play by the over-excitable cult porn director Russ Meyers. My guess is that Wright himself, if asked to account for his excesses, would probably admit to them with pride. To quote a phrase attributed to P. T. Barnum, whose "Hall of Wonders" turns up in the novel: "Let them call me unreasonable if they must, but never, ever, let them call me boring."

From the New York Times:
The perpetual danger in Wright's novels is that the book's forward momentum will be swamped by the trippy fecundity of his prose. He always has time for a detour. Before, say, the former slave living in the Fishes' root cellar can show Liberty his scars, Wright must pause to describe the man's style of shucking peas, "the pods splitting neatly open beneath his broad thumbs like emerald wallets, the peas tumbling into the bucket as noisily as balls of shot." Tantalized with too many such images, a reader can become as disoriented and distractible as someone on hallucinogens. But in The Amalgamation Polka, Wright gets the balance just right, and the rich, droll style he uses here — both tribute to and parody of 19th-century diction — becomes, like the canal water conveying Captain Whelkington's boat, a means of travel as well as an interesting stew in its own right.

The Age of Lincoln

by Orville Vernon Burton

From the publisher:
Stunning in its breadth and conclusions, The Age of Lincoln is a fiercely original history of the five decades that pivoted around the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Abolishing slavery, the age’s most extraordinary accomplishment, was not its most profound. The enduring legacy of the age was inscribing personal liberty into the nation’s millennial aspirations.

America has always perceived providence in its progress, but in the 1840s and 1850s a pessimism accompanied a marked extremism. With all sides claiming God’s blessing, irreconcilable freedoms collided; despite historic political compromises the middle ground collapsed. In a remarkable reappraisal of Lincoln, the distinguished historian Orville Vernon Burton shows how the president’s Southernness empowered him to conduct a civil war that redefined freedom as a personal right protected by the rule of law. In the violent decades that followed, the extent of that freedom would be contested by racism and unregulated capitalism, but not its central place in what defined the country.

Presenting a fresh conceptualization of the opening decades of modern America, The Age of Lincoln is narrative history of the highest order.

Orville Vernon Burton is professor of history and sociology and a University Distinguished Teacher/Scholar at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author or editor of eight previous books, including the Pulitzer prize-nominated In My Father's House Are Many Mansions.

From Library Journal:
Lincoln's real legacy? The idea that personal liberty really matters-and should be protected by law. From history professor and Pulitzer Prize nominee Burton.