Three Days in the Shenandoah: Stonewall Jackson at Front Royal and Winchester

by Gary Ecelbarger

From the publisher:
The battles of Front Royal and Winchester are the stuff of Civil War legend. Stonewall Jackson swept away an isolated Union division under the command of Nathaniel Banks and made his presence in the northern Shenandoah Valley so frightful a prospect that it triggered an overreaction from President Lincoln, yielding huge benefits for the Confederacy. Gary Ecelbarger has undertaken a comprehensive reassessment of those battles to show their influence on both war strategy and the continuation of the conflict. Three Days in the Shenandoah answers questions that have perplexed historians for generations.

Gary Ecelbarger, an independent scholar, is the author of Black Jack Logan: An Extraordinary Life in Peace and War and "We Are in for It!": The First Battle of Kernstown, March 23, 1862.

Ninth Vermont Infantry: A History and Roster

by Paul G. Zeller

From the publisher:
This work follows the Ninth Vermont from the horrors of its first combat and humiliating capture at Harpers Ferry in September 1862 to its triumphal march into Richmond in April 1865. Through diaries and letters written by members of the unit, one relives the riveting day-by-day account of the men as they were in battle, on the march, and in camp. With seldom seen photos of many of the regiment’s members, detailed maps, and a complete regimental roster, this book tells a compelling story.

Paul G. Zeller is also the author of The Second Vermont Volunteer Infantry Regiment, 1861–1865 (2002). A retired United States Army Reserve colonel, he lives in Williamstown, Vermont.

Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters

by Elizabeth Brown Pryor

From the publisher:
Robert E. Lee’s war correspondence is well known, and here and there personal letters have found their way into print, but the great majority of his most intimate messages have never been made public. These letters reveal a far more complex and contradictory man than the one who comes most readily to the imagination, for it is with his family and his friends that Lee is at his most candid, most engaging, and most vulnerable. Over the past several years historian Elizabeth Brown Pryor has uncovered a rich trove of unpublished Lee materials that had been held in both private and public collections.

Her new book, a unique blend of analysis, narrative, and historiography, presents dozens of these letters in their entirety, most by Lee but a few by family members. Each letter becomes a departure point for an essay that shows what the letter uniquely reveals about Lee’s time or character. The material covers all aspects of Lee’s life—his early years, West Point, his work as an engineer, his relationships with his children and his slaves, his decision to join the South, his thoughts on military strategy, and his disappointments after defeat in the Civil War. The result is perhaps the most intimate picture to date of Lee, one that deftly analyzes the meaning of his actions within the context of his personality, his relationships, and the social tenor of his times.

"... his letters and Pryor's analysis reinforce our appreciation of Lee's best qualities, including his personal warmth, devotion to friends and family, and sense of fairness." - Booklist

"Pryor moves onto important historical and interpretive terrain with a far more discerning and critical eye than most of her scholarly or popular predecessors." - New Republic

From CWBN:
This is the first softcover edition of a previously released hardback.

Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War

by Gary W. Gallagher

From the publisher:
More than 60,000 books have been published on the Civil War. Most Americans, though, get their ideas about the war—why it was fought, what was won, what was lost—not from books but from movies, television, and other popular media. In an engaging and accessible survey, renowned Civil War historian Gary Gallagher guides readers through the stories told in recent film and art, showing how they have both reflected and influenced the political, social, and racial currents of their times. Too often these popular portrayals overlook many of the very ideas that motivated the generation that fought the war. The most influential perspective for the Civil War generation, says Gallagher, is almost entirely absent from the Civil War stories being told today.

Gallagher argues that popular understandings of the war have been shaped by four traditions that arose in the nineteenth century and continue to the present: the Lost Cause, in which Confederates are seen as having waged an admirable struggle against hopeless odds; the Union Cause, which frames the war as an effort to maintain a viable republic in the face of secessionist actions; the Emancipation Cause, in which the war is viewed as a struggle to liberate 4 million slaves and eliminate a cancerous influence on American society; and the Reconciliation Cause, which represents attempts by northern and southern whites to extol "American" virtues and mute the role of African Americans.

Gallagher traces an arc of cinematic interpretation from one once dominated by the Lost Cause to one now celebrating Emancipation and, to a lesser degree, Reconciliation. In contrast, the market for art among contemporary Civil War enthusiasts reflects an overwhelming Lost Cause bent. Neither film nor art provides sympathetic representations of the Union Cause, which, Gallagher argues, carried the most weight in the Civil War era.

This lively investigation into what popular entertainment teaches us and what it reflects about us will prompt readers to consider how we form opinions on current matters of debate, such as the use of the military, the freedom of dissent, and the flying of the Confederate flag.

Gary W. Gallagher is John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author or editor of numerous books, including Lee and His Army in Confederate History and The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864.

Slavery and the Peculiar Solution: A History of the American Colonization Society

by Eric Burin

From the publisher:
"An exceptional work that will stand for years as the best study of the African colonization movement. Burin's insights into this often misunderstood idea will be appreciated by all historians of the early national era. The research, both archival and secondary, is excellent."--Douglas Egerton, Le Moyne College

"Burin adds significantly to our understanding of the world view of slaveholding colonizationists, of their negotiations with prospectively freed people, and of their struggle with proslavery critics of colonization. . . . Historians of proslavery thought will find new ideas and information here."--Torrey Stephen Whitman, Mount St. Mary’s College

From the early 1700s through the late 1800s, many whites advocated removing blacks from America. The American Colonization Society (ACS) epitomized this desire to deport black people. Founded in 1816, the ACS championed the repatriation of black Americans to Liberia in West Africa. Supported by James Madison, James Monroe, Henry Clay, and other notables, the ACS sent thousands of black emigrants to Liberia. In examining the ACS’s activities in America and Africa, Eric Burin assesses the organization’s impact on slavery and race relations.

Burin focuses on ACS manumissions—that is, instances wherein slaves were freed on the condition that they go to Liberia. In doing so, he provides the first account of the ACS that covers the entire South throughout the antebellum era. He investigates everyone involved in the society’s affairs, from the emancipators and freedpersons at the center to the colonization agents, free blacks, southern jurists, newspaper editors, neighboring whites, proslavery ideologues, northern colonizationists, and abolitionists on the periphery. In mixing a panoramic view of ACS operations with close-ups on individual participants, Burin presents a unique, bifocal perspective on the ACS.

Although colonization leaders initially envisioned their program as a pacific enterprise, in reality the push-and-pull among emancipators, freedpersons, and others rendered ACS manumissions logistically complex, financially troublesome, legally complicated, and at times socially disruptive enterprises. Like pebbles dropped in water, ACS manumissions rippled outward, destabilizing slavery in their wake. Based on extensive archival research and a database of 11,000 ACS emigrants, Burin’s study offers new insights concerning the origins, intentions, activities, and fate of the colonization movement.

Eric Burin is assistant professor of history at the University of North Dakota.

The Stonewall Brigade in the Civil War

by Steve Smith

From the publisher:
This book describes the First Virginia--Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jacksons Brigade--in combat from first mustering to bitter end, when only 210 ragged and footsore soldiers remained of the 6,000 who'd served through the Civil War.

Included are detailed order of battle charts, tables of organization and equipment, technical specifications of the brigades weapons, and special sidebars on the units commanders.

Color maps illustrate the brigades major battles; and a combination of vintage photographs, new images of contemporary re-enactors, and Civil War-era paintings and drawings helps to bring the Stonewall Brigade to life.

Steve Smith started out in military publishing more than 20 years ago and his career has included work as author, editor, and publisher. He founded the military history publishing company Sarpedon, and has written many books on 20th century military topics under his own name—most recently 2nd Armored Division: Hell on Wheels—and Civil War titles under a pseudonym. He is currently managing editor for a military history publishing company.

Immortal Captives: The Story of Six Hundred Confederate Officers and the United States Prisoner of War Policy

by Mauriel Phillips Joslyn

From the publisher:
“Some of the boys had no blankets, and we all slept on bare boards. It was so cold that the boys who had no blankets had to walk all night to keep from freezing . . . It seems to me that I can hear those poor fellows yet—walking, walking up and down on that brick floor.” — Maj. David B. Coulter, Twelfth Arkansas Infantry

Through the private letters, written testimonies, and journal entries of hundreds of Confederate officers, Mauriel Phillips Joslyn provides a moving and heartbreaking account of the six hundred Confederate soldiers who suffered in Union custody. After Lincoln and his war council dissolved the prisoner exchange program in 1864, the North used captured officers from all states in the seceded South to set an example to the remaining Confederacy.

Malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies took a terrible toll, and the officers, who were denied medical care, slowly starved during the hard winter months. After a rumor that Yankee soldiers were shot by their own army, the Union deliberately placed fifty Confederate prisoners in a stockade at Charleston Harbor. Forced under the artillery fire of their own comrades, these Southern heroes suffered mercilessly and unjustly in Northern hands. The last of the surviving six hundred Confederate officers were not released until several months after the end of the Civil War.

Mauriel Phillips Joslyn was born in Manchester, Georgia, and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in history. While living in Virginia, Joslyn and her family participated in numerous Civil War reenactments. She also lectures and gives presentations on military history while dressed in full Confederate costume. Joslyn is the author of Confederate Women, published by Pelican, and has been published in Gettysburg Magazine, Military Heritage, Georgia Journal, and Irish Sword. She lives in Sparta, Georgia, where she and her family restored their 182-year-old home.

John Washington's Civil War: A Slave Narrative

by Crandall Shifflett

From the publisher:
In 1872, just seven years after his emancipation, a thirty-four-year-old former slave named John Washington penned the story of his life, calling it "Memorys of the Past." One hundred and twenty years later, in the early 1990s, historian Crandall Shifflett stumbled upon Washington's forgotten manuscript at the Library of Congress while researching Civil War Fredericksburg. Over the ensuing decade, Shifflett sought to learn more about this Virginia slave and the people and events he so vividly portrays. John Washington's Civil War presents this remarkable slave narrative in its entirety, together with Shifflett's detailed annotations on the life-changing events Washington records.

While joining the canon of better-known slave narratives by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Solomon Northup, Washington's account illuminates a far different world. The son of a slave woman and an unknown white man, Washington never lived outside the seventy-five-mile radius that included Richmond and Fredericksburg, until his emancipation. His narrative spans his experiences as a household slave, a laborer in the Fredericksburg tobacco factory, and a hotel servant on the eve of the Civil War. He also tells of his bold venture across Union lines and his experiences as a slave under Union officers.

Washington's recollections allow for a singular look at the more personal aspects of slave life. Forced attendance at the slaveowner's church, much-anticipated gatherings of neighboring slaves at harvesttime, even a brief episode of courtship among slaves are among the events described in this remarkable narrative. On a broader scale, Washington was a witness to key moments of the Civil War, and his chronicle includes his thoughts about the wider political turmoil surrounding him, including his dramatic account of watching the Union Army mass around Fredericksburg as it prepared to invade the town. An excellent introduction and expert annotations by Shifflett reconstruct Washington's life through his death in 1918 and provide informative historical background and context to Washington's recollections.

An unprecedented window into the life of a Virginia bondsman, John Washington's Civil War communicates with real urgency what it meant to be a slave during a period of extreme crisis that sounded the notes of freedom for some and the end of a way of life for others.

Crandall Shifflett is a professor of history at Virginia Tech University. He is also the author of Patronage and Poverty in the Tobacco South: Louisa County, Virginia, 1860-1900, Coal Towns: Life, Work, and Culture in Company Towns of Southern Appalachia, 1880-1960, and Victorian America, 1876 to 1913.

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

A Confederate Legend: Berry Benson in War and Peace

by Edward J. Cashin

From the publisher:
If anyone can be said to have lived his life as a legend, it was Berry Benson. As a lad growing up in Hamburg, South Carolina, and Augusta, Georgia., he loved the nearby ponds and woods, and read stories of adventure. Part poet, part warrior, he viewed the Civil War as the supreme adventure. He measured himself against men who seemed to him to personify the chivalric ideals he had read about. His exploits became the stuff of legend.

On a night scout behind enemy lines, he stole a colonel’s horse from in front of the colonel’s tent. Captured twice on these scouting forays, he escaped twice, the second time by an impossibly long and meandering tunnel out of the infamous Elmira Prison. On his return through enemy lines, he climbed atop a cattle train and chatted companionably with a Union soldier. He declined to surrender at Appomattox,and brought his rifle home with him.

Because he lived up to his highest ideals during the war,he devoted his post-war career to worthy causes. He tried to save the besieged black militiamen from being killed by an angry white crowd. He sided with the textile strikers, even though he worked for the local mills as an accountant. He braved intense anti-Semitism in an attempt to save the life of Jewish Leo Frank.

When the Ladies Memorial Association needed a model for the Confederate soldier atop the lofty monument on Augusta’s main thoroughfare, they chose Berry Benson. His image, like those of the four Confederate generals below him, represent another legend, that of the Lost Cause.

EDWARD J. CASHIN†, a native of Augusta and a graduate of Fordham University, focused most of his research on topics relating to Georgia and the Southeast. His twenty-some books include The Kings Ranger: Thomas Brown and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier, Lachlan McGillivray, Indian Trader, and the Shaping of the Southern Colonial Frontier, and William Bartram and the American Revolution on the SouthernFrontier. He retired as chairman of the History department at Augusta State University in 1996 to become director of the Center for the Study of Georgia History until his death in 2007.

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

The Class of 1861: Custer, Ames, and Their Classmates after West Point

by Ralph Kirshner

From the publisher:
Ralph Kirshner has provided a richly illustrated forum to enable the West Point class of 1861 to write its own autobiography. Through letters, journals, and published accounts, George Armstrong Custer, Adelbert Ames, and their classmates tell in their own words of their Civil War battles and varied careers after the war.

“Ralph Kirshner captures the exciting and thought-provoking stories of selected classmates as their character is tested in the fiery crucible of the Civil War. Equally important is the attention given to certain of the classmates’ postwar careers as politicians, soldiers, explorers, diplomats, and engineers.” — Edwin Bearss, Historian Emeritus, National Park Service

From CWBN:
This is the first paperback edition of a hardcover book. We were not aware of it in February when it was released.

Fire in the Cane Field: The Federal Invasion of Louisiana and Texas, January 1861-January 1863

by Donald S. Frazer

From the publisher:
Helen Dupuy, a French-speaking teenager living at the Sleepy Hollow Plantation on Bayou Lafourche, Louisiana, noted with horror the coming of invaders. "The first Yankee gunboats passed Donaldsonville May 4 at 11 A.M.," she wrote in her diary. Her home lay just a few miles from the Mississippi River, and word quickly arrived that Union sailors were confiscating sugar, cotton, and other contraband of war. The realities of her new situation soon became apparent—and ominous: "Then began the most awful pillaging."

Award-winning author Donald S. Frazier returns to the field of Civil War history with keen turn of phrase and enthralling story-telling with the release of Fire in the Cane Field: The Federal Invasion of Louisiana and Texas, January 1861-January 1863. Beginning with the spasms of secession in the Pelican State, Frazier weaves a stirring tale of bravado, reaction, and war as he describes the consequences of disunion for the hapless citizens of Louisiana. The army and navy campaigns he portrays weave a tale of the Federal Government's determination to suppress the newborn Confederacy—and nearly succeeding—by putting ever-increasing pressure on its adherents from New Orleans to Galveston. The surprising triumph of Texan troops on their home soil in early 1863 proved to be a decisive reverse to Union ambitions and doomed the region to even bloodier destruction to come.

This bracing new work, ten years in the making, will usher in a chronological string of four books on the Civil War in Louisiana and Texas as Frazier presents fresh sources on new topics in a series of captivating narratives. Titles to follow in his innovative Louisiana quadrille include Thunder Across the Swamp: The Fight for the Lower Mississippi, February 1863-May 1863; Blood on the Bayou: The Campaigns of Tom Green's Texans, June 1863-February 1864; and Death at the Landing: The Contest for the Red River and the Collapse of Confederate Louisiana, March 1864-June 1865.

Donald S. Frazier is Professor of History at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, and author of Blood and Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest, published by Texas A&M University Press. His other works include Cottonclads: The Battle of Galveston and the Defense of the Texas Coast, an edited work, The U.S. and Mexico at War: Nineteenth Century Expansionism and Conflict, and as co-author Frontier Texas: History of a Borderland 1780–1880 and The Texas You Expect: The Story of the Buffalo Gap Historic Village.

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

A note to readers

As you will have noticed, the last and first days of the month are crowded with releases. There is, however, an odd gap of 10 days before the next ACW title comes out. In that time, we will be posting information about books scheduled for April release with no day specified; we will also catch up with a few titles we missed in January and February.

The Disagreement: A Novel

by Nick Taylor

From the publisher:
It is April 17, 1861 -- the day that Virginia secedes from the Union and the sixteenth birthday of John Alan Muro. As the Commonwealth erupts in celebration, young Muro sees his dream of attending medical school in Philadelphia shattered by the sudden reality of war.

Muro's father, believing that the Disagreement will pass, sends his son instead to Charlottesville. Jefferson's forty-year-old University of Virginia has become a haven of rogues and dilettantes, among them Muro's roommate, Braxton Baucom III, a planter's son who attempts to strike a resemblance to General "Stonewall" Jackson. Though the pair toasts lightheartedly "To our studies!" with a local corn whiskey known as "The Bumbler," the war effort soon exerts a sobering influence. Medical students like Muro are pressed into service at the Charlottesville General Hospital, where the inexperienced Dr. Muro saves the life of a Northern lieutenant, earning the scorn of his peers.

As the war progresses, Muro takes up yet another cause -- winning the affections of the beguiling Miss Lorrie Wigfall. Here, too, Muro faces a cunning adversary. Just as the fighting is closing in, Muro is forced to make a choice that will shape the rest of his life. In this story of love, loyalty, and unimaginable sacrifice, a doctor struggles to balance the passions of youth with the weight of responsibility.

"Nick Taylor's vivid characters and powerful descriptions tell a compelling story that captures the voices, beauty, and tumult at the University of Virginia during the Civil War." -- John T. Casteen, III, president, University of Virginia

"I loved Nick Taylor's gutsy prose; even at its most lyrical, it never fails to offer a particularly evocative glimpse of a troubling time. Here is a story about our soul-destroying fratricidal war that uses the narrowest of prisms to offer a wider vision. A genuine accomplishment." -- Beverly Swerling, author of City of Dreams and City of Glory

"At its best, historical fiction reveals the truth or reality of the past. Nick Taylor has achieved this in his very fine book. Taylor has chosen to see the Civil War's human wreckage through the eyes of a young Confederate surgeon at a hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia. The result is a compelling and moving novel." -- Jeffry D. Wert, Civil War historian

Guide to Missouri Confederate Units

by James E. McGh

From the publisher:
Tracing the origins and history of Missouri Confederate units that served during the Civil War is nearly as difficult as comprehending the diverse politics that produced them.

Deeply torn by the issues that caused the conflict, some Missourians chose sides enthusiastically, others reluctantly, while a number had to choose out of sheer necessity, for fence straddling held no sway in the state after the fighting began.

The several thousand that sided with the Confederacy formed a variety of military organizations, some earning reputations for hard fighting exceeded by few other states, North or South. Unfortunately, the records of Missouri's Confederate units have not been adequately preserved--officially or otherwise--until now.

James E. McGhee is a highly respected and widely published authority on the Civil War in Missouri; the scope of this book is startling, the depth of detail gratifying, its reliability undeniable, and the unit narratives highly readable.

McGhee presents accounts of the sixty-nine artillery, cavalry, and infantry units in the state, as well as their precedent units, and those that failed to complete their organization. Relying heavily on primary sources, such as rosters, official reports, order books, letters, diaries, and memoirs, he weaves diverse materials into concise narratives of each of Missouri's Confederate organizations. He lists the field-grade officers for battalions and regiments, companies and company commanders, and places of origin for each company when known.

In addition to listing all the commanding officers in each unit, he includes a bibliography germane to the unit, while a supplemental bibliography provides the other sources used in preparing this unique and comprehensive resource.

African-American Activism before the Civil War: A Reader on the Freedom Struggle in the Antebellum North

by Patrick Rael

From the publisher:
Historians have long understood that racial oppression in American history was about more than slavery. On the eve of the Civil War, over five per cent of the nation's 4.5 million African Americans lived outside of bondage in the nominally 'free' states of the Union. These African Americans exercised a power in national discussions over slavery that far outstripped their number in the population. Their efforts at community building and radical protest were one force that helped bring the nation to the brink of Civil War, and ultimately led to the extinction of slavery.

African-American Activism before the Civil War is the first to gather together scholarly essays published from 1965 to the present on the role of African Americans and race in the struggle for equality in the northern states before the Civil War. Many of these essays are already known as classics in the field, and others are well on their way to becoming definitive in a still evolving field. Here, in one place, anchored by a comprehensive, analytical introduction discussing the historiography of antebellum black activism, the best scholarship on this crucial minority of African American activists can now be studied together.

Devil's Game: The Civil War Intrigues of Charles A. Dunham

by Carman Cumming

From the publisher:
Devil's Game traces the amazing career of Charles A. Dunham, Civil War spy, forger, journalist, and master of dirty tricks. Writing for a variety of New York papers under alternate names, Dunham routinely faked stories, created new identities, and later boldly cast himself to play those roles. He achieved his greatest infamy when he was called to testify in Washington concerning Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Many parts of Dunham's career remain shadowy, but Cumming offers the first detailed tour of Dunham's convoluted, high-stakes, international deceits, including his effort to sell Lincoln on plans for a raid to capture Jefferson Davis.

Exhaustively researched and unprecedented in depth, this carefully crafted assessment of Dunham's motives, personality, and the complex effects of his schemes changes assumptions about covert operations during the Civil War.

Carman Cumming worked as a reporter and editor in Canada and the United States before becoming a journalism professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. His publications include Secret Craft: The Journalism of Edward Farrer and Sketches from a Young Country: The Images of Grip Magazine.

Fear in North Carolina: The Civil War Journals and Letters of the Henry Family

by Karen L. Clinard and Richard Russell (compilers)

From the publisher:
Cornelia Henry's three journals, written between 1860 and 1868, offer an excellent source for daily information on western North Carolina during the Civil War period.

Karen L. Clinard, a lifelong resident of southeastern Michigan, now concentrates her energies on genealogy research and historical studies. Richard Russell, a native of Watervliet, Michigan, now resides in Asheville, North Carolina. After 30 years in the pharmacy profession, Russell built on his passion for historical research and documentation when he established Reminiscing Books in 2006.

1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and the War They Failed to See

by Bruce Chadwick

From the publisher:
1858 explores the events and personalities of the year that would send the Americas North and South on a collision course culminating in the slaughter of 630,000 of the nations young men, a greater number than died in any other American conflict. The record of that year is told in seven separate stories, each participant, though unaware, is linked to the oncoming tragedy by the central, though ineffective, figure of that time, the man in the White House, President James Buchanan.

The seven figures who suddenly leap onto historys stage and shape the great moments to come are: Jefferson Davis, who lived a life out of a Romantic novel, and who almost died from herpes simplex of the eye; the disgruntled Col. Robert E. Lee, who had to decide whether he would stay in the military or return to Virginia to run his familys plantation; William Tecumseh Sherman, one of the great Union generals, who had been reduced to running a roadside food stand in Kansas; the uprising of eight abolitionists in Oberlin, Ohio, who freed a slave apprehended by slave catchers, and set off a fiery debate across America; a dramatic speech by New York Senator William Seward in Rochester, which foreshadowed the civil war and which seemed to solidify his hold on the 1860 Republican Presidential nomination; John Browns raid on a plantation in Missouri, where he freed several slaves, and marched them eleven hundred miles to Canada, to be followed a year later by his catastrophic attack on Harpers Ferry; and finally, Illinois Senator Steven Douglas seven historic debates with little-known Abraham Lincoln in the Illinois Senate race, that would help bring the ambitious and determined Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States.

As these stories unfold, the reader learns how the country reluctantly stumbled towards that moment in April 1861 when the Southern army opened fire on Fort Sumter.

Former journalist Chadwick (The General and Mrs. Washington) deals with much more than the previously underappreciated year of 1858 in this engagingly written book. By focusing on the men who drove crucial historical events, Chadwick provides plenty of pre-1858 background to make his case that the events of that year changed the lives of dozens of important people and within a few short years, the history of the nation. - Publishers Weekly

Civil War in New Bern & Fort Macon, North Carolina

by Drew Pullen

From the publisher:
This book describes the period after capturing Confederate positions on Hatteras Island and Roanoke Island, when 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 centre -- 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. 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.

From CWBN:
This book is carried in Britain, Canada and New Zealand with a publication date of November 2007 and given an "out of stock" status. Stateside, Amazon shows it being published on 30 March 2008 while Barnes & Noble do not list it at all. The title appears in a picture-oriented North Carolina series.

The Civil War in Arizona: The Story of the California Volunteers, 1861-1865

by Andrew E. Masich

From the publisher:
Bull Run, Gettysburg, Appomattox. For Americans, these battlegrounds, all located in the eastern United States, will forever be associated with the Civil War. But few realize that the Civil War was also fought far to the west of these sites. The westernmost battle of the war took place in the remote deserts of the future state of Arizona.

In this first book-length account of the Civil War in Arizona, Andrew E. Masich chronicles the all-but-forgotten story of the California Column, volunteer soldiers who served in the U.S. Army from 1861 to 1866 and played a key role in creating and shaping Arizona Territory.

The Civil War in Arizona is divided into two parts: a lively narrative history of the California Column in wartime Arizona, followed by a rare compilation of letters - originally published in the popular newspaper Alta California - written by the volunteer soldiers themselves. Enriched by Masich's meticulous annotation, these letters provide firsthand testimony of the grueling desert conditions the soldiers endured as they fought on many fronts, not the least of which was an uncaring army command structure preoccupied with war in the East.

Traitors: The Secession Period November 1860 - July 1861

by Edward S. Cooper

From the publisher:
A myth has grown that there were no traitors during the period leading up to the American Civil War. Edward S. Cooper debunks that myth in this book.

He provides documentation that officers on active duty in the army and navy of the United States secretly negotiated for positions in the Confederacy, surrendered their ships, forts, and posts to state authorities, conspired in the seizure of other forts, deserted their posts and advised their subordinates to join them, and wrote letters detailing how the Confederacy could defeat the very army and navy in which they were serving.

Members of the president's cabinet ensured southern arsenals were stocked with northern weapons, posted southern sympathizers to forts and arsenals in the south, and sold weapons to agents for states that had announced their intention to secede. Other cabinet members urged states to secede and gave southern states advance notice of United States troop movements. Members of the United States Congress, collectively and individually, used their positions to warn southern states of Federal troop movements, obtain plans of arsenals and forts and how they were manned, and acquire lists of military officers along with their pay in order to seduce them into Confederate service. The governors of some slave-holding states had men seize forts and arsenals, burned bridges to impede the movement of Federal troops, and allowed Confederate troops into their states before they had seceded or even called conventions to consider secession.

George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter: A Biography

by P. H. Carder

From the publisher:
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, “The Battle Cry of Freedom” became perhaps the most common patriotic song echoing throughout the North. The author of that famous tune was George F. Root, and his many other patriotic songs established him as “the musician of the people.”

Beginning with his earliest days as a child prodigy, this biography follows Root closely through his prewar career as a popular composer, his wartime role as a patriotic songwriter, and his postwar songwriting endeavors. His later songs document such events as the settling of the West, the assassination of President Lincoln, the literature and humor of his day, and the many reform movements that defined the values of that era. His biography reveals how he became the musician of the people and how his critics responded nationally.

P.H. Carder is retired from the music department of Silver Burdett Company. She lives in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Causes of the Civil War: The Political, Cultural, Economic and Territorial Disputes Between the North and South

by Paul Calore

From the publisher:
While South Carolina's preemptive strike on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's subsequent call to arms started the Civil War, South Carolina's secession and Lincoln's military actions were simply the last in a line of volatile events which began as early as 1619.

Increasing moral conflicts over the issue of slavery and constant political debates regarding its existence—exacerbated by the inequities inherent between an established agricultural society and a growing industrial one—led to a fierce sectionalism which manifested itself through cultural, economic, political and territorial disputes.

This volume reduces sectionalism to its most fundamental form, examining the underlying source of this antagonistic climate. From protective tariffs to the expansionist agenda, it illustrates the ways in which the foremost issues of the time influenced relations between the North and the South. State sovereignty and the interpretation of congressional and constitutional powers play major parts in this concise narrative on the antebellum politics that inadvertently nurtured the growth of sectional conflicts and contributed to the inevitability of war.

Paul Calore was an operations branch chief with the Defense Logistics Agency of the Department of Defense before retiring. In addition to writing on the causes of the Civil War, he has written books about its naval and land campaigns. He is a supporting member of the U.S. Civil War Center and the Civil War Preservation Trust, and lives in Seekonk, Massachusetts.

Beneath a Northern Sky: A Short History of the Gettysburg Campaign

by Steven Woodworth

From the publisher:
Of all the places and events in this nation's history, Gettysburg may well be the name best known to Americans. In Beneath a Northern Sky, eminent Civil War historian Steven E. Woodworth offers a balanced and thorough overview of the entire battle, its drama, and its meaning. From Lee's decision to take his heretofore successful Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac and into Pennsylvania to the withdrawal of the battle-battered Confederate's back across the river into Virginia, Woodworth paints a vivid picture of this pivotal campaign. Instead of focusing on only one aspect of the Gettysburg Campaign as most other books do, Beneath a Northern Sky tells the tale of the entire battle in a richly detailed but swiftly moving narrative. This new approach to a defining battle is sure to fascinate Civil War buffs and all those interested in the rich history of the United States.

The volume is illustrated with b&w photographs and diagrams of the battle. Woodworth teaches history at Texas Christian University.

For those with time to read only one book about Gettysburg, this is the one.
- James M. McPherson

From CWBN:
This is the first paperback edition of a hardcover book.

West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War

by Heather Cox Richardson

From the publisher:
The story of Reconstruction is not simply about the rebuilding of the South after the Civil War. Instead, the late nineteenth century defined modern America, as Southerners, Northerners, and Westerners gradually hammered out a national identity that united three regions into a country that could become a world power. Ultimately, the story of Reconstruction is about how a middle class formed in America and how its members defined what the nation would stand for, both at home and abroad, for the next century and beyond.

A sweeping history of the United States from the era of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, this engaging book stretches the boundaries of our understanding of Reconstruction. Historian Heather Cox Richardson ties the North and West into the post–Civil War story that usually focuses narrowly on the South, encompassing the significant people and events of this profoundly important era.

By weaving together the experiences of real individuals—from a plantation mistress, a Native American warrior, and a labor organizer to Andrew Carnegie, Julia Ward Howe, Booker T. Washington, and Sitting Bull—who lived during the decades following the Civil War and who left records in their own words, Richardson tells a story about the creation of modern America.

This thoughtful, engaging examination of the Reconstruction Era began as a way for author and historian Richardson to understand the deep divide-over issues like taxes, size of government and the influence of special interests-that still separate "red states" from "blue states." Richardson's persuasive thesis is that the Reconstruction, rather than the Civil War itself, is the place to look for guidance through these thorny problems. - Publishers Weekly

Heather Cox Richardson is professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the author of The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post–Civil War North. She lives in Winchester, MA.

The Maryland Campaign by Carman and Pierro

From CWBN:
The winding road to publication for Joseph Pierro's Ezra Carman manuscript has not passed its last bend yet (see previous posts here, here, and here).

Publisher Routledge lists the tome as out on March 18; Joseph Pierro writes to say he has had his copies for two weeks; meanhwile, Amazon is stuck in pre-order mode as if the book is yet to be released.

On the silver lining side, Amazon adds a further 5% discount to pre-ordered books, so "pre-ordering" from their site now will compound the discounts to produce the cheapest opportunity to buy what might otherwise be book beyond many budgets.

We had posted the publisher's information on this title earlier; please see links at top of post.

Cross-posted to Civil War Bookshelf.

Unfurl Those Colors: McClellan, Sumner, and the Second Army Corps in the Antietam Campaign

by Marion V. Armstrong Jr.

From the publisher:
A detailed account of the battle of Antietam that clarifies the epic struggle

Unfurl Those Colors! examines the operational fabric of leadership and command in the Army of the Potomac during one of the most critical campaigns and battles of the Civil War. The Battle of Antietam remains "the bloodiest single day of combat in American history" with over 5,000 killed, 20,000 wounded, and 3,000 missing. Many eminent Civil War historians consider it the turning point of the war. As a result of the perceived Federal success at Antietam, Abraham Lincoln was able to issue the Emancipation Proclamation to make the war about ending slavery and terminating any hope of European recognition for the South.

This book constitutes an operational study of the Army of the Potomac during this campaign and battle, carefully documenting the command decisions of army commander George B. McClellan and following the execution of those decisions through the corps level of command and down to the ordinary soldier in the Second Army Corps. It reappraises the leadership and decisions of Edwin V. Sumner during the battle of Antietam as the one federal corps commander who was steadfast in carrying out McClellan's plan of battle and effectively directed the battle on the Federal right. It details as no previous account has the fighting of the Second Army Corps at Antietam to include Sedgwick's division in the West Woods and French's and Richardson's divisions at Bloody Land.

"Unfurl Those Colors! is a very important contribution to the field of Civil War and military history. While a number of significant books have been written on the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign, none have narrowed down a particular phase as this book does." — Ted Alexander, Chief Historian at Antietam National Battlefield Park and a Smithsonian Associates tour guide specializing in Civil War sites

"Marion Armstrong has a done a good job examining the generalship at Antietam. This is a terrific book." — John Michael Priest, noted author of books on Antietam and teacher at South Hagerstown High School in Boonsboro, Maryland

Marion V. Armstrong Jr. is a retired U.S. Army reserve officer and teaches history at colleges in middle Tennessee.

Weary of War: Life on the Confederate Home Front

by Joe A. Mobley

From CWBN:
Providing a fresh look at a crucial aspect of the American Civil War, this new study explores the day-to-day life of people in the Confederate States of America as they struggled to cope with a crisis that spared no one, military or civilian. Mobley touches on the experiences of everyone on the home front-white and black, male and female, rich and poor, young and old, native and foreign born. He looks at health, agriculture, industry, transportation, refugees city life, religion, education, culture families, personal relationships, and public welfare. In so doing, he offers his perspective on how much the "will of the people" contributed to the final defeat of the Southern cause. Although no single experience was common to all Southerners, a great many suffered poverty, dislocation, and heartbreak. For African Americans, however, the war brought liberation from slavery and the promise of a new life. White women, too, saw their lives transformed as wartime challenges gave them new responsibilities and experiences. Mobley explains how the Confederate military draft, heavy taxes, and restrictions on personal freedoms led to widespread dissatisfaction and cries for peace among Southern folk. He describes the Confederacy as a region of divided loyalties, where pro-Union and pro-Confederate neighbors sometimes clashed violently. This readable, one-volume account of life "behind the lines" will prove particularly useful for students of the conflict.

JOE A. MOBLEY is a former historian and administrator with the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. He currently teaches in the Department of History at North Carolina State University, Raleigh. He is the author of a number of books, articles, and book reviews.

From CWBN:
We missed the release of this date on February 28.

Saddle Bag and Spinning Wheel: Being the Civil War Letters of George W. Peddy, MD, Surgeon, 56th Georgia Volunteer Regiment, CSA

by George P. Cuttino

From the publisher:
Much ink and paper have been expended on the Civil War. But most of it has been for the professional observer’s recollections or research results. Even most memoirs are after-the-facts, studied writings, self consciously edited. Here is something different—the as-it-was-happening chronicle of two persons caught up in the events themselves.

Here are 216 letters, the personal correspondence between George Washington Peddy, surgeon, 56th Georgia Volunteer Regiment, CSA., and his wife Kate. More of his letters (166) than hers (50) survived. Nevertheless the chronicle is complete (October 1861–April 1865). The letters were edited by a grandson of the letter writers, Georgie Peddy Cuttino. Cuttino, a professional historian himself, recognized the value of these documents in their original form. The spontaneous intimacy, the grammatical and spelling idiosyncrasies, all in the vernacular of the times, it is all here, unchanged. What results is an unstudied, and consequently genuine and believable, portrayal of life during those trying times. This is the stuff of which real history is made—a chronicle of the unfamous about whom the historian knows so little but would liketo know so much.

GEORGE P. CUTTINO† was a distinguished medieval historian in the department of History at Emory University for thirty two years.

From CWBN:
The publisher describes this new release as "back in print." Amazon shows the release date as March, with no day specified, and the publisher shows it as Spring 2008.

Gettysburg Heroes: Perfect Soldiers, Hallowed Ground

by Glenn W. LaFantasie

From the publisher:
How Gettysburg shaped the lives of the Civil War generation

"We continually hear that the Gettysburg subject has been exhausted. Glenn LaFantasie proves this wrong. Beautifully written and splendidly researched Gettysburg Heroes is a delight to read." —D. Scott Hartwig

"Gettysburg is more than a pivotal battlefield for Americans. It has also, in its way, become something of a national Pantheon. For American heroes have trod that ground, both those who fought there, and those who came after to learn and remember. Warriors like Generals James Longstreet and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, share that field with Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower, and Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery. In a stimulating series of essays, Glenn LaFantasie looks at all of them in Gettysburg Heroes, examining not only why they came and what they did, but also the impact this hallowed ground had upon them and all Americans." — William C. Davis, author of An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government and The Union that Shaped the Confederacy

"Glenn LaFantasie is one of the finest writers in the field of Civil War history. His prose is accessible, pleasurable to read, and always insightful and provocative . . . this book should excite a lot of interest." —Joan Waugh, co-editor of The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture

The Civil War generation saw its world in ways startlingly different from our own. In these essays, Glenn W. LaFantasie examines the lives and experiences of several key personalities who gained fame during the war and after. The battle of Gettysburg is the thread that ties these Civil War lives together. Gettysburg was a personal turning point, though each person was affected differently. Largely biographical in its approach, the book captures the human drama of the war and shows how this group of individuals—including Abraham Lincoln, James Longstreet, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, William C. Oates, and others—endured or succumbed to the war and, willingly or unwillingly, influenced its outcome. At the same time, it shows how the war shaped the lives of these individuals, putting them through ordeals they never dreamed they would face or survive.

Glenn W. LaFantasie is Richard Frockt Family Professor of Civil War History at Western Kentucky University. He is author of Twilight at Little Round Top and Gettysburg Requiem: The Life of William C. Oates. He lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

From CWBN:
The publisher shows this title as released in January; Barnes & Noble show it still to be released in May; and Amazon shows it released this month with no date specified.

America's Civil War: The Operational Battlefield, 1861-1863

by Brian Holden Reid

From the publisher:
In 1861, when the Confederate States of America seceded from the Union and Civil War broke out between the North and the South, few people had much idea of the scale, intensity, and duration of the conflict they were about to enter. Politicians, generals, and common folk on both sides blithely assumed that the conflict would be over quickly and were naively convinced of the superiority of the leadership and the forces at their disposal. Three years later, after many horrendous battles and huge loss of life, the tragic realities of this war had begun to sink in. Stalemate had led to great frustration and suggested a protracted conflict with no end in sight.
In this successor volume to his acclaimed Origins of the American Civil War (1996), Civil War historian Brian Holden Reid examines in depth the operational military history during the first three years of America's Civil War. In particular, he focuses on generalship, command decisions, strategy, and tactics, as well as the experiences of ordinary soldiers.

Besides lack of experience among generals, Holden Reid reveals that for the first few years of the war there was considerable indecisiveness in the North, a hesitancy to punish the South, and a fruitless hope that the Confederacy would agree to some form of reconciliation. He highlights certain important political and social developments during the course of the war that had an effect on Union soldiers and shows how their views became a catalyst in hardening the attitudes in the North toward the South.

This important analysis makes a major contribution to Civil War military history within the larger context of a turbulent political and social climate. It will be followed by another work covering the final eighteen months of the conflict.

Brian Holden Reid (London, England) is professor of American history and military institutions and head of the Department of War Studies at King's College, London. Since 1993, he has been a member of the Council of the Society for Army Historical Research and from 1998 to 2004 served as chairman. In 2004-2005, he was the first non-American to serve as a member of the Lincoln Prize jury panel, which awards the most important literary prize in the field of Civil War history. His many books include The Origins of the American Civil War, The Civil War and the Wars of the Nineteenth Century, and Robert E. Lee: Icon for a Nation.

Military Records, Pensions Applications, Heirs at Law and Civil War Military Records From the Fauquier County, Virginia Court Minute Books 1840-1904

by Joan W. Peters

From the publisher:
This book presents some of the many types of records that are found in the court minutes. This volume contains those concerned with military affairs of the county, which includes data on men who served in the military.

From CWBN:
This book originally appeared in 1999.

Campaign for Wilson's Creek: The Fight for Missouri Begins

by Jeffrey L. Patrick

From the publisher:
In early 1861, most Missourians hoped they could remain neutral in the upcoming conflict between North and South. In fact, a popularly elected state convention voted in March of that year that "no adequate cause" existed to compel Missouri to leave the Union. Instead, Missourians saw themselves as ideologically centered between the radical notions of abolition and secession.

By that summer, however, the situation had deteriorated dramatically. Due to the actions of politicians and soldiers such as Missouri Gov. Claiborne Jackson and Union Gen. Nathaniel Lyon, Missourians found themselves forced to take sides.

Campaign for Wilson's Creek is a fascinating story of high-stakes military gambles, aggressive leadership and lost opportunities. It is also a tale of unique military units, untried but determined commanders, colorful volunteers and professional soldiers. The first major campaign of the Civil War west of the Mississippi River guaranteed that Missourians would be engaged in a long, cruel civil war within the larger, national struggle.

Jeffrey L. Patrick is the National Park Service librarian at Wilson's Creek National Battlefield. He is the author of numerous articles on various aspects of American military history, and is the editor/coeditor of two Civil War diaries. He lives in Republic, Missouri.

Nevada Civil War Claims: Legislative Reports, 1888-1900

by Diane E Greene

From the publisher:
This excellent resource book contains facsimile reprints of legislative reports submitted to the Senate and the House of Representatives for Nevada Civil War claims between April 16, 1888 and May 16, 1900. The reports are a goldmine of information, liberally peppered with the names of persons and places. Reports are written in a narrative style and offer a richly detailed explanation of conditions and events related to "the suppression of the rebellion." Reports concern: persons reimbursed for money expended during "the Indian war in 1860 in what was then western Utah, now Nevada;" claims of the state of Nevada "for the general defense and in furnishing troops to the United States during the suppression of the war of the rebellion, and for guarding the overland mail and emigrant route between the Missouri River and California, and for suppressing Indian hostilities;" money expended by California, Oregon, and Nevada "to assist in guarding the overland mail and emigrant routes, in preventing Indian outbreaks in the States, and to aid the United States in various ways during the war of the rebellion;" and war claims of California, Oregon, and Nevada-"the larger portions of the claims of these States are for extra pay and bounty paid by them during the war of the rebellion." Numerous tables and lists are included in these reports.

On Sherman's Trail: The Civil War's North Carolina Climax

by Jim Wise

From the publisher:
Join journalist and historian Jim Wise as he follows Sherman's last march through the Tar Heel State from Wilson's Store to the surrender at Bennett Place. Retrace the steps of the soldiers at Averasboro and Bentonville. Learn about what the civilians faced as the Northern army approached and view the modern landscape through their eyes. Whether you are on the road or in a comfortable armchair, you will enjoy this memorable, well-researched account of General Sherman's North Carolina campaign and the brave men and women who stood in his path.

The Civil War in Loudoun County, Virginia: A History of Hard Times

by Stevan F. Meserve

From the publisher:
In this look at Loudoun County's role in the Civil War, historian Stevan Meserve narrates not only the large-scale fighting at Ball's Bluff in 1861 and in the Loudoun Valley cavalry battles of 1863, but also the lives of the citizens who sacrificed their crops and livestock, cared for the wounded and buried the dead of storied regiments such as White's Comanches, Cole's Potomac Home Brigade, Mosby's Rangers and the Independent Loudoun Rangers.

Drawing upon military accounts and other historical documents, The Civil War in Loudoun County celebrates their eventual triumph and the vibrant communities that exist today.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858

by James L. Huston (Author), Robert W. Johannsen (Editor)

2008 marks the 150th Anniversary of the most famous political debate in U.S. history. Oxford is pleased to present Robert W. Johannsen's newly revised and thoroughly edited transcript of The Lincoln-Douglas Debates. Framed by a timely and relevant new introduction by James L. Huston, this series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas communicates the eloquence, urgency, and immediacy of its historical moment. As Lincoln and Douglas fiercely competed for the Illinois seat in the U.S. Senate, they debated many of the crucial and controversial issues--including slavery--that would later come to define Lincoln's political career. This invaluable resource also includes Douglas's Chicago speech and Lincoln's "House Divided" speech. With updated notes and suggestions for further reading, the new edition of The Lincoln-Douglas Debates continues to be the authoritative presentation of these lively, landmark orations.

Robert W. Johannsen is J. G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Illinois. He is the author of Stephen A. Douglas (OUP, 1973; Francis Parkman Prize); To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination (OUP, 1985); The Frontier, the Union, and Stephen A. Douglas; and Lincoln, the South, and Slavery: The Political Dimension.

What This Cruel War Was over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil War

by Chandra Manning

From the publisher:
A vivid, unprecedented account of why Union and Confederate soldiers identified slavery as the root of the war, how the conflict changed troops’ ideas about slavery, and what those changing ideas meant for the war and the nation.

Using soldiers’ letters, diaries, and regimental newspapers, Chandra Manning allows us to accompany soldiers—black and white, northern and southern—into camps and hospitals and on marches and battlefields to better understand their thoughts about what they were doing and why. Manning’s work reveals that Union soldiers, though evincing little sympathy for abolitionism before the war, were calling for emancipation by the second half of 1861, ahead of civilians, political leaders, and officers, and a full year before the Emancipation Proclamation. She recognizes Confederate soldiers’ primary focus on their own families, and explores how their beliefs about abolition—that it would endanger their loved ones, erase the privileges of white manhood, and destroy the very fabric of southern society—motivated even non-slaveholding Confederates to fight and compelled them to persevere through military catastrophes like Gettysburg and Atlanta, long after they grew to despise the Confederate government and disdain the southern citizenry. She makes clear that while white Union troops viewed preservation of the Union as essential to the legacy of the Revolution, over the course of the war many also came to think that in order to gain God’s favor, they and other white northerners must confront the racial prejudices that made them complicit in the sin of slavery. We see how the eventual consideration of theenlistment of black soldiers by the Confederacy eliminated any reason for many Confederate soldiers to fight; how, by 1865, black Union soldiers believed the forward racial strides made during the war would continue; and how white Union troops’ commitment to racial change, fluctuating with the progress of the war, created undreamt-of potential for change but failed to fulfill it.

An important and eye-opening addition to our understanding of the Civil War.

Chandra Manning, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, received an M.Phil from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and took her Ph.D. at Harvard in 2002. She has lectured in history at Harvard and taught at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Currently, she is assistant professor of history at Georgetown University and lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband and son. This is her first book.

From the critics:
For this impressively researched Civil War social history, Georgetown assistant history professor Manning visited more than two dozen states to comb though archives and libraries for primary source material, mostly diaries and letters of men who fought on both sides in the Civil War, along with more than 100 regimental newspapers. The result is an engagingly written, convincingly argued social history with a point—that those who did the fighting in the Union and Confederate armies "plainly identified slavery as the root of the Civil War." - Publisher's Weekly

From CWBN:
This is the first paperback edition of a hardcover book.

Jewel of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln's Re-election and the End of Slavery

by David E. Long

From the publisher:
The Jewel of Liberty marks a milestone in Civil War and Lincoln history, combining in-depth research with challenging new arguments to present the case for the election of 1864--which returned Lincoln to office to continue the war and cemented emancipation--as the most important in American history. Had Lincoln lost, the Confederacy might have achieved its two main goals: independence as a nation and the perpetuation of slavery. Never in our past has the nature and future of the nation depended so much on the ballot box.

David E. Long holds J.D. and Ph.D. degrees and is a professor of history at East Carolina University. His articles have appeared in Civil War Times Illustrated, Journal of Southern History, and other publications. In 2001 he provided commentary for the PBS miniseries Abraham and Mary Lincoln.

From the publisher:
This splendid book is the best account of Northern politics during the Civil War to hae appeared in years. -- James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Day of Freedom

The Jewel of Liberty is the most important study of Lincoln and the Civil War to appear in more than a decade. -- Stephen B. Oates, author of Abraham Lincoln

Roll Call to Destiny: The Soldier's Eye View of Civil War Battles

by Brent Nosworthy

From CWBN:
Roll Call to Destiny puts readers on the frontlines of the Civil War by providing the point of view of small bands of men who braved unique combat situations. Acclaimed military historian Brent Nosworthy answers such questions as what it was like for artillery to beat back an aggressive infantry assault or to take part in a fast-paced cavalry charge, and how Civil War infantry conflict was waged in thick, forest foliage. From firsthand accounts, Nosworthy has pieced together Burnside's infantry at Bull Run (infantry-versus-infantry on the open field), the Fifty-Seventh New York at Fair Oaks (fighting in the woods), Daniel Webster's section at Arkansas Post (artillery attacking a fort), the third day at Gettysburg (cavalry-versus-cavalry), plus much more.

A must-read for anyone who wants to know what Confederate and Union soldiers saw, heard, and felt, as well as how they acted at critical moments of the Civil War.

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

The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine

by Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein

From the publisher:
The story of Civil War medicine--the staggering challenge of treating wounds and disease on both sides of the conflict--is one of the most compelling aspects of the war. Written for general readers and scholars alike, this first-of-its kind encyclopedia will help all Civil War enthusiasts to better understand this amazing medical saga.

Clearly organized, authoritative, and readable, The Encyclopedia of Civil War Medicine covers both traditional historical subjects and medical details. It offers clear explanations of unfamiliar medical terms, diseases, wounds, and treatments. The encyclopedia depicts notable medical personalities, generals with notorious wounds, soldiers' aid societies, medical department structure, and hospital design and function. It highlights the battles with the greatest medical significance, women's medical roles, period sanitation issues, and much more.

Presented in A-Z format with more than 200 entries, the encyclopedia treats both Union and Confederate material in a balanced way. Its many user-friendly features include a chronology, a glossary, cross-references, and a bibliography for further study.

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

Lincoln and the Speeds

by Bryan S. Bush

From the publisher:
This book is a dual biography of Joshua and James Speed and tells the story of how closely the friendship between Joshua Speed and Abraham Lincoln continued to affect not only Joshua Speed’s life, but also the life of his brother James Speed. Both Joshua and James were dedicated to the Union, even though they followed different paths. James was a Unionist, emancipationist, abolitionist, and Radical Republican. He entered politics, becoming a state representative and later Attorney-General under Abraham Lincoln and later Andrew Johnson.

Joshua Speed lived his life as a businessman. He differed from his brother and Lincoln on the subject of emancipation, but felt that the issue should not hinder his support of the Union. In April of 1861 after the attack on Fort Sumter, the citizens of Kentucky debated the issue of whether to join the Union or Confederacy. Because of Joshua and James Speed’s loyalty to the Union, Lincoln depended on the brothers to help secure Kentucky for the Union. With their help, Lincoln managed to transport thousands of weapons into Kentucky for distribution among the loyal Union Home Guard.

During the war Lincoln needed trustworthy friends to help him deal with the delicate situation in Kentucky. James and Joshua Speed kept him informed on both the political and the civilian affairs. After Lincoln’s death, James and Joshua helped to preserve his legacy in their individual ways. James became a Radical Republican and fought to gain equality under the law for blacks, even though most of Kentucky did not want to follow the Radial Republican stance on reconstruction. Joshua helped to maintain Lincoln’s legacy by contributing to Lincoln’s memorial and speaking and writing about him.

With the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth, the story of Joshua and James Speed can give the reader another window into his friendships. The story of Joshua and James Speed can also reveal information about Kentucky politics during the Civil War; the struggle between Union loyalists and Confederate sympathizers, and the struggle for emancipation, abolition, and those who opposed equal rights for blacks in Kentucky.

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

The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction

by Charles Lane

From the publisher:
The untold story of the slaying of a Southern town’s ex-slaves and a white lawyer’s historic battle to bring the perpretators to justice

Following the Civil War, Colfax, Louisiana, was a town, like many, where African Americans and whites mingled uneasily. But on April 13, 1873, a small army of white ex–Confederate soldiers, enraged after attempts by freedmen to assert their new rights, killed more than sixty African Americans who had occupied a courthouse. With skill and tenacity, The Washington Post’s Charles Lane transforms this nearly forgotten incident into a riveting historical saga.

Seeking justice for the slain, one brave U.S. attorney, James Beckwith, risked his life and career to investigate and punish the perpetrators—but they all went free. What followed was a series of courtroom dramas that culminated at the Supreme Court, where the justices’ verdict compromised the victories of the Civil War and left Southern blacks at the mercy of violent whites for generations. The Day Freedom Died is an electrifying piece of historical detective work that captures a gallery of characters from presidents to townspeople, and re-creates the bloody days of Reconstruction, when the often brutal struggle for equality moved from the battlefield into communities across the nation.

“One of the most memorable opening lines in English literature, from Ford Maddox Ford's novel The Good Soldier, is: ‘This is the saddest story I have ever heard.’ That could be the epigraph for Charles Lane's shattering account of the post-Civil War betrayal of African Americans and the bloody collapse of Reconstruction.” — George F. Will

"A highly impressive, deeply researched, engagingly written account of one of the lowest chapters in U.S. Supreme Court history." — David J. Garrow, author of Bearing the Cross

The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield

by Timothy B. Smith

From the publisher:
At the mention of Shiloh, most tend to think of two particularly bloody and crucial days in April 1862. The complete story, however, encompasses much more history than that of the battle itself. While several accounts have taken a comprehensive approach to Shiloh, significant gaps still remain in the collective understanding of the battle and battlefield.

In The Untold Story of Shiloh, Timothy B. Smith fills in those gaps, looking beyond two days of battle and offering unique insight into the history of unexplored periods and topics concerning the Battle of Shiloh and the Shiloh National Military Park.

This collection of essays, some previously unpublished, tackles a diverse range of subjects, including Shiloh's historiography, the myths about the battle that were created, and the mindsets that were established after the battle. The book reveals neglected military aspects of the battle, such as the naval contribution, the climax of the Shiloh campaign at Corinth, and the soldiers' views of the battle. The essays also focus on the Shiloh National Military Park's establishment and continuation with particular emphasis on those who played key roles in its creation.

Taken together, the essays tell the overall story of Shiloh in greater detail than ever before. General readers and historians alike will discover that The Untold Story of Shiloh is an important contribution to their understanding of this crucial episode in the Civil War.

Timothy B. Smith is on staff at the Shiloh National Military Park. He is author of Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg and This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park.

Pensacola during the Civil War: A Thorn in the Side of the Confederacy

by George F. Pearce

From the publisher:
"A pathbreaking study of one of the forgotten enclaves of the Civil War. . . . [It] opens new understanding of the role of Fort Pickens and Pensacola and the onset of the Civil War." -- B. F. Cooling, author of Forts Henry and Donelson: Key to the Confederate Heartland

Well before the outbreak of the Civil War, both North and South recognized the strategic importance of Pensacola, Florida’s largest city in 1861. Bruce Catton has characterized nearby Fort Pickens, on the northwestern Gulf Coast, as "a case that was fully as explosive as that of Fort Sumter." Until this new work by George Pearce, however, historians have neglected Pensacola’s role in the secession crisis and the conflict that ensued.

This straightforward narrative account begins with the secession movement and the Fort Pickens truce, then follows the course of events in this forgotten corner of the war. From the secessionist capture of Pensacola's navy yard and hospital and Forts Barrancas and McRee in February 1861, to Bragg’s failed raid on Fort Pickens, to the operations of the East and West Gulf Blockading Squadrons creating unrest along the coast, Pearce follows the actions by which the Union denied Confederate resupply by sea and tied down a considerable Confederate force that was increasingly needed elsewhere. He details Union cavalry raids as far north as Alabama, which disrupted vital rail transportation between Mississippi and Georgia, and the defeat of the Confederates at Blakely, which forced the surrender of Mobile.

Pearce also follows the impact of the war on Pensacola itself. Coping with white refugees, freed slaves, scorched-earth evacuations, raiding and foraging by the military, and the constant presence of Union and Confederate troops led to the abandonment of the city. By July 1863, a once vibrant population had dwindled to 72 whites and 10 blacks, and the scars of conflict gave this antebellum metropolis a ghostly appearance.

Illustrated with maps and period photos and drawings, this first examination of Pensacola's forgotten role in the Civil War will appeal to both Civil War buffs and those interested in the history of the Gulf Coast from Pensacola to the Rio Grande.

George F. Pearce, professor emeritus of history at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, is the author of The U.S. Navy in Pensacola: From Sailing Ships to Naval Aviation, 1825-1930 (UPF, 1980).

Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa

by Barry Popchock

From the publisher:
Blood and anger, bragging and pain, are all part of this young Iowa soldier's vigorous words about war and soldiering. A twenty-year-old farmer from Council Bluffs, Charles O. Musser was one of the 76,000 Iowans who enlisted to wear the blue uniform. He was a prolific writer, penning at least 130 letters home during his term of service with the 29th Iowa Volunteer Infantry.

Soldier Boy makes a significant contribution to the literature of the common soldier in the Civil War. Moreover, it takes a rare look at the Trans-Mississippi theater, which has traditionally been undervalued by historians.

Always Musser dutifully wrote and mailed his letters home. With a commendable eye for historical detail, he told of battles and marches, guerrilla and siege warfare, camp life and garrison soldiering, morale and patriotism, Copperheads and contraband, and Lincoln's reelection and assassination, creating a remarkable account of activities in this almost forgotten backwater of the war.

Raising Freedom's Child: Black Children and Visions of the Future After Slavery

by Mary Mitchell

From CWBN:
”Mitchell's sophisticated, nuanced reading of a wealth of previously untapped documents and period photographs casts a dazzling fresh light on the way that abolitionists, educators, missionaries, planters, politicians, and free children of color envisioned the status of African Americans after emancipation.” — Steven Mintz, University of Houston

“Raising Freedom’s Child demonstrates the importance of childhood studies for understanding the nation’s political, economic, and social history. In this carefully researched book, Mitchell keeps the black child at the center of the struggle to define freedom in the aftermath of Civil War and emancipation.” — Marie Jenkins Schwartz, University of Rhode Island

The end of slavery in the United States inspired conflicting visions of the future for all Americans in the nineteenth century, black and white, slave and free. The black child became a figure upon which people projected their hopes and fears about slavery’s abolition. As a member of the first generation of African Americans to grow up in freedom, the black child — freedom’s child — connoted a future where African Americans might enjoy the same privileges as whites: landownership, equality, autonomy. Yet this image was a nightmare for most white southerners. Even many northerners expressed doubts about the consequences of abolition for the nation and its identity as a “white” republic.

From the 1850s and the Civil War to emancipation and the official end of Reconstruction in 1877, Raising Freedom’s Child examines slave emancipation and opposition to it as a far-reaching, national event with profound social, political, and cultural consequences. Mary Niall Mitchell analyzes a dizzying array of representations of the black child—letters, photographs, newspaper columns, court cases, and more—to illustrate how Americans contested and defended slavery, tracing sharp debates over black children’s education, labor, racial classification, and citizenship. Only with the triumph of segregation in public schools in 1877 did the black child lose its public role in the national struggle over civil rights, a role it would not play again until the 1950s.