No comments about Quantrill's Raiders in Texas.

2 comments about Life in Dixie During the War (Civil War Georgia).

1. This is a very well written account of Miss Gay's experiences living near Atlanta during the war, specifically 1864-1865. It is a very different account of the war in that it does not review battles or troop movements. It does give an insight into the common Southern attitudes concerning the North, slavery, the War and Sherman. If you "read between the lines", you gain an understanding of prevailing attitudes from many things she does not say. An example of this is her brother whom she writes extensively and very affectionately. What she never plainly states or even casually refers, is that he is a half-brother. Family is extremely important to her and the fact that she does not share the same father with her siblings has no bearing on her affection towards them. Miss Gay was in her mid-thirties during the war. This is an adult civilian perspective of the war between the States.



2. A very touching account of life, by a woman who lived in Atlanta, during the Civil War. The book is historically accurate, but it does reflect the Southern attitude of the period. A very good book for a serious student of Southern History. Not for everyone.

5 comments about Leaders of the Lost Cause: New Perspectives on the Confederate High Command.

1. Excellent analysis of not the best generals of the Civil War, outside of General Lee, but the early leaders of the armies in the field. Lee is oddly out of place in this collection as Braxton Bragg, Beareguard, Joeseph E. Johnson, Hood and Smith seem to have such negative images compared to Lee. Albert Sidney Johnson's early death at Shiloh allows him to stand apart as his intial success at Shiloh to a degree limits a longterm look. The most interesting essays, as one familar with the Civil War's generals would gather, are on Bragg, Beareguard and Johnson. Robertson writes a fascinating bio on Bragg who is the most puzzling general in the Confederacy. A gifted organizer but he lacked the ability to be a leader and inspire his men and generals. Bragg had an often nasty disposition and was often argumentive, allegedly even with himself when in dual roles. But Robertson points out that Bragg was, outside of R. E. Lee, the most offensive minded general of a major Army in the Confederacy. Beaureguard is pictured as having grand battle designs but also suffering from an inflated ego and like Joe Johnson, a total inability to get along with Davis. Johnson is looked upon rather severly by author Krick who notes Johnson's life long preoccupation with rank existed in the old army long before he festered over it as a Confederate General. Krick well details Johnson's passion for retreat and no plan that does extend the joke that his eastern line in the sand would have eventually been the Mississippi had he not been wounded at Seven Pines. These eassys on these three are rather negative (Krick gives a broad hint with his title on Johnson, "Snarl, Sneer and Quarrel" )though Beareguard gets high marks for saving Petersburg in 1864. Hood is also quite interesting as his career is meteor like in spite of his woundings and his intrigues in the western army help promote him to commanding general. He suffers from his weakened physical condition and the peter principal demonstrated by frequent attacks around Atlanta to destroying his army at Franklin. Smith and Cooper are less intersting but important. Smith because he becomes the Trans Mississippi commander after serving an odd satelite command in Kentucky co-existing with Bragg. Cooper is necessary as he was the senior ranking General in the Confederacy and William Davis tells the who and the why very well. William Davis is right when he called Cooper a great Civil War trivia question. The only negative, is that the majority of these characters have such major flaws described by the authors that you have to wonder how they reached such high command, but maybe the answer is simple, Davis picked them. Or perhaps, the authors are a little too critical. But these are all great essays by legendary Civil War historians James I. Robertson, Jr., Wlliam C. Davis, Robert Krick along with Gary Gallagher, Charles Roland, Stephen Engle, Joseph Glatthaar and Keith Bohannon. With historians like these, it's a full house.



2. "Leaders of the Lost Cause" offers interesting biographical sketches of the eight men who became full general officers in the CSA. This book seems designed for the casual reader who may be suprised that the likes of Stonewall Jackson and James Longstreet are not included. Nonetheless, both serious students of the war and casual ones will profit from the book.
   
   The essays are generally of the highest quality. Gary Gallagher offers an excellent concise biography on Robert E. Lee and attempts to explain why he could remain popular in the army and with civilians despite high casualites. Charles Roland provides a solid look at the enigmatic P.G.T Beauregard and finds that the Creole general's character often undermined his leadership. William Davis offers a readable essay on the obscure Samuel Cooper and one is left with the conclusion that Cooper was the Confederate Halleck, a somewhat disagreeable, though competent, paper pusher. Stephen Engle concludes that Albert Sidney Johnson, who entered the war with high hopes and simply could not live up to them (and didn't based on his handling of the West), by dying at Shiloh, saw his reputation restored as one of the great "what ifs" of the war. Robert Krick takes Joe Johnston to task in his essay and one is forced to agree that Johnston undermined his reputation by his own comments and the book he wrote. Joseph Glatthaar agrees with Robert Kerby, the magistarial historian of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi South, that Edmund Kirby Smith was a competent young officer who was handed a task that nobody could have done in leading that isolated region during the second half of the war. At the same time, Glatthaar crushes the idea that Tom Connelly expressed of Kirby Smith having a messianic complex. The essay would have been a bit stronger if it went into Kirby Smith's rivalry with Richard Taylor and how he was able to juggle friendships with Jeff Davis and his archrival Joe Johnston. Keith Bohannon adds to the conventional wisdom that John Bell Hood, while a solid divisional commander and an agressive leader, had no business leading an army.
   
   James Robertson contributes perhaps the best essay in the collection, a look at Braxton Bragg. Robertson maintains that no "better organizer and disciplinarian exsisted in the Confederate armies" than Bragg (p. 72) and reminds readers that, with the exception of Lee, he was also the most agressive army commander. At the same time, Robertson does not overlook Bragg's many flaws as a man and as a commander. This is an interesting essay; it does not descend into the hagiographic praise for the subject that seems to plague Civil War biographers. At the same time, Robertson is challenging a great deal of conventional wisdom by showing Bragg as a better leader than most historians believe. That does not mean that Robertson has a positive view of his subject but he does indicate that Bragg had more talent than is commonly believed. One is forced to ponder his point, even if not fully accepting it.
   
   There is little that is new here on the leading generals though a good deal of insight on the more obscure Cooper and Kirby Smith as well as Robertson's new take on Bragg. This combination of new insights and familiar biographical details make this a book that can appeal to both the casual and serious reader. In an age of dry books aimed for specialists, "Leaders of the Lost Cause" is a bit of a pleasant suprise and, unlike many books on the subject, does not fall for the old "moonlight and magnolias" worship of Confederate leaders. None of these leaders comes off unscathed and some come off rather badly.
   
   This is a readable and fair book that offers a great deal to scholars as well as readers with only a passing interest in the subject. I can not think of higher praise for a work of non-fiction.



3. Gary Gallagher and Joseph T. Glaathaar are two of our most eminent Civil War scholars! In this new volume they have asked several Civil War scholars to write brief essays on the eight men who were full generals of the Confederate States of America.
   All of the articles are of high quality:.
   1 P.G.T. Beauregard by Charles Roland. The doughty Creole was
   the hero of Ft. Sumter and served well during the siege of Petersburg. His service during First Bull Run was exemplary.
   He was not up to the top notch of battlefield leadership, coming up with some chimerical strategic ideas during the last months of the war. His service
   was good not great.
   2. Braxton Bragg by the eminent Jackson biographer Bud Robertson
   shows this grouchy and inept commander at his worst.
   3. Samuel Cooper is little known today but William C. Davis gives him a passing grade as the administrative leader of the
   Confederate government. Cooper was born in 1798, was northern born and never held a field command for the South.
   4. Albert Sidney Johnson is dubbed the Hamlet of the South by Stephen D. Engle. Johnston died at Shiloh. He was a close friend of Jefferson Davis. What might have been had he lived to fight further battles is pure conjecture.
   5. Snarl, Sneer and Quarrel is the opinion of Robert K. Krick the acerbic writer of the article on Joseph E. Johnston. Johnston's Fabian tactics of retreat in the Georgia campaign was a failed stategy. Krick is a great historian and his article is
   worth the price of the book!
   6. It was the dubious duty of Edmund Kirby Smith the Florida native to defend the Trans Missssippi region during the war.
   He was a good subordinate but was in way over his head at such
   a difficult assignmentaccording to Joseph T. Glatthaar whose
   article is well done.
   7. Keith S. Bohannon's picture of John Bell Hood is a man of all brawn and dash but little in the brain department! He was promoted beyond his abilities as he led grey legions in the Atlanta and Tennessee campaigns of 1864.
   8. Robert Edward Lee was a great geneal who led the Confederate armies with bloody tenacity. Gary Gallagher is one of my favorite Civil War authors and his portrait of Lee is limned with excellent scholarship and judicious appraisal.
   This is a good book to whet the appetite of readers eager to
   learn more about Civil War leadership. As an old Civil War buff I learned some new angles to these commanders. The book is well
   recommended for someone just getting their feet wet in the vast
   ocean of Civil War scholarship. Excellent!



4. Eight men became full generals in the army of the Confederate States of America. Four in the first months and four during the course of the war. All of us know some of the names, students of the war know more but few can name all eight men. They were diverse but in many ways similar, all West Point educated, all intelligent and well to do by the standards of the times. One never led an army in battle, one was killed in battle, two fought with President Davis almost constantly and one almost destroyed his army. Overall, most of them were not very good generals being unable to work within the system to produce victory on the battlefield.
   
   Each man is the subject of a 30 to 40-page essay covering his life, outlining his pre and post war activities but concentrating on the war. Each essay is written by a different person, which both adds and subtracts from the book. Taking a positive approach to J.E. Johnston or Braxton Bragg is a challenge but taking a very negative approach detracts from the book. Depending on your view, the essay on AS & JE Johnston, Bragg and Hood will be enjoyed or disliked. I found the JE Johnston essay to be very negative and overlooked many of his contributions. Bragg got a fair and even handed critique, while Hood is cast as a tragic figure. Beauregard's essay was excellent and I enjoyed Cooper's essay the most.
   
   The book is badly needed and while not a "must have" is a valuable introduction, I would have liked it much better if it had been less partisan.



5. President Jefferson Davis once wrote his brother that great generals only come around once in every generation. Unfortunately, Davis explained, the Confederacy needed a half a dozen."
   
   During the war the South had eight full generals. Of these only Lee proved to be fully up to the demands of the job. Albert Sidney Johnston died (Shiloh) before he could really prove himself. The others Joe Johnson, P. G. T. Beauregard, Braxton Bragg, Samuel Cooper, Edmund Kirby Smith, John Bell Hood did not live up to the expectations of Davis.
   
   Many of these men have not received the attention due them while other generals of lessor rank have received much more. Samuel Cooper, in particular is little known. As the adjutant and inspector general of the Confederacy, he spent the war behind a desk. But it was from this desk that the men, weapons, food and other supplies went to the front line armies.
   
   This is an excellent book, covering an aspect of the war not seen before.

No comments about The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln (Large Print Edition): A Narrative and Descriptive Biography with Pen-Pictures and Personal Recollections by Those Who Knew Him.

No comments about Ulysses S. Grant: Confident Leader and Hero (Cobblestone the Civil War).

4 comments about Custer and the Great Controversy: The Origin and Development of a Legend.

1. Despite its age (it was first published in 1962) this book is probably the best of the scores of books available to start with for those interested in exploring the ever elusive and controversial life of George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Utley, while steering clear of making judgments of his own ("I do not aspire to offer the last word on the subject"), lays out the scene of the battle, shows how the press and early writers colored events and created heroes and villains, looks at the Indian side of the story, and discusses some of the myths that have gone into creating the Custer Legend. The Custer literature is prodigious in amount, and tends to be either Custerphilic (pro-Custer) or Custerphobic (anti-Custer). Again, Utley refuses to take sides, but points out that virtually every "fact" regarding the battle and its participants issues up opposing interpretations. This short book gives a powerful sense of what the student of Custer and especially the Little Big Horn is up against. A useful and straightforward introduction.



2. Anything by Robert Utley is indispensible, especially when it comes to Custer as he wrote CAVALIER IN BUCKSKIN, probably the best biography of the man. Also to his credit are the official NPS Little Bighorn Battlefield guide, a biography of Sitting Bull, and numerous other Custer/Indian Wars/Western history books.

   This book is primarily focussed on an examination of the immediate aftermath of the Little Big Horn and how the various lines of controversy were established that still echo (unresolved) and are with us today. These include Did Custer Disobey Orders? Was Reno a coward when he fled from the valley fight? Were both Reno and Benteen negligent in not responding to Custer's written order for the packs, an order with an audible reminder of the gunfire four miles away that, two days later, the men on Reno Hill learned signalled the end of Custer and his command. All of the seeds of future books and endless debates were firmly planted by the end of the 1870s, topped off with the Reno Court of Inquiry. Excellent insight into that event and some of the second-hand talk and gossip sorroundingsthe officers who testified and why they may have said what they did. Utley is his usual dispassionate, detached self as he explores these issues in his highly engaging writing style.

   Originally published in 1962, the book concludes with Utley's brief commentary on most of the major battle books published up to that time. One can only wish that this section were revised and updated. Lacking that, we can all look forward to the autor's CUSTER AND ME, due in October 2004.




3. Early book by the great western writer Robert Utley provides a brief description of the Indian situation that evolved before the LBH and then he provides an abbreviated but well described sequence of battle events. Utley then describes the press' role in developing the story that caught General Sherman and Sheridan off guard as Sherman provides Terry's second controversial report to a reporter by accident. Utley describes the fireworks that arises between Custer supporters such as his old classmate Confederate Rosser and Reno and other military men such as Colonel Hughes, Terry's adjutant and relative. The controversy is even made even more complex by the chapter spent on the Indian's version of events that has elements of truth combined with confusing facts or half truths perhaps aggravated by poor translations and the Indians unique individualistic versions of battle that lack time and spatial realities. Finally, Utley tackles a number of the mythical stories about Custer and the LBH including Frederick Whitacker's quick print and fanciful book on Custer that became a best seller. The best part of this chapter is the discussion about the last four crow scouts to see Custer particularly the debate over when Curley departed from Custer. An excellent book that frames the controversies about Custer's battle which also explains the fascination, nothing is totally certian but amongst all the testimony and physical evidence, somewhere lies the truth.



4. Good reading offers some good insight into the whole Custer and Little Bighorn 'fiasco'! I'm more prepared now to find out what possibly happened on that fateful day. The case has been well made that there may 'never' be a definitive conclusion?

No comments about The Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston: 1846-1848 (Personal Correspondence of Sam Houston).

5 comments about Blood: Stories of Life and Death from the Civil War (Adrenaline Series).

1. I listened to the audio version of this book and found it wonderful. The stories are read by excellent actors. General Pickett's letters to his wife during the Gettysburg campaign were particularly moving. My attention was strained a bit by the length of the excerpts from Walt Whitman, but don't get me wrong, they were interesting.
   
   The topics covered by this book are varied, which I found helpful to understanding the Civil War years. Lincoln's words on slavery tell us how challenging it was for him to try to move the country forward on that issue. From another writer we hear how a slave family struggled during the war. We hear orders written by General Sherman, and a report on the difficult life of prisoners.
   
   I found this excellent for listening to while driving.



2. This review is going to be heavily shaded by the fact that the book turned out to be nothing like what the title, dust jacket and series name implied. My impressions of what I was going to get with the book was down and dirty hard core descriptions of fighting. Real meaty descriptions that would really provide me an insight to what it was like in the thick of the battle. What were the Calvary charges like, what were the conditions in the POW camps, what was the battle field medical care like, almost an Ambrose on the Civil War. If this book tried to document what I just described then the editor must be found and prevented from ever committing this kind of crime again. I will give the editor some credit and think that maybe the Marketing department got a little ahead of themselves in describing this book as the "Saving Private Ryan" of Civil War books.

   The book was made up of an assortment of chapters from many different authors. Some of the authors are historians and some are historical figures. The chapters were not in and of themselves that bad, it was just that it seams that they were the sale items of the literary world. They just did not flow together that well, were not particularly well written or exciting and covered far more issues then just combat. There were even some fictionalized accounts, did the editor forget this was a non-fiction book? There are no twos ways about it, I was disappointed in the book from about page 5 on. I am going to cut it a little slack in my rating just because I do not read a lot on the Civil War thus do not know how this book stacks up with others.




3. I think this would have been a better anthology if the editor had spent more time finding sources. It doesn't really seem like he searched lesser-known documents; just about everything here is pretty well known. The quality ranges from excellent to somewhat pointless.



4. I purchased this book without having any firsthand knowledge of it as a background source and I haven't been minutely disappointed. Kadzis assembled both primary and secondary sources either from the time of the Civil War or from more modern secondary source writings about aspects of that war. In any case the extracts were singularly well chosen and are valuable for my purposes. I would recommend Kadzis' compilation to any person searching for a single source of Civil War rememberances written at the time or of modern fiction writers using the events of that war around which to build their longer story. The writings he has selected are very useful and interesting.



5. This book is in a series put out by Adrenaline books and each book contains certain selections chosen by the editor. The selections are generally either excerpts from books, excerpts from diaries and journals, short stories, or an occasional essay. I look at how good the writing is, and how good the stories are.

   This is a strong anthology in many ways. It had a variety of civil war literature that helps to give a fuller picture of the civil war experience. There are many letters, stories, and diary entries and even a copy of orders given by a General. We get a picture of the inner workings of the war by people directly involved, as well as a picture of the world outside the war and how it was effected. We hear aspects of the war from multiple points of view. A soldier's fighting experience, a General's commanding view, letters to loved ones back home, the viewpoint of a young southern girl, life in a military prison. The reader gets to see not just the war, but the world it encompassed.

   The anthology is made even stronger by the selections of famous people's writings. We get to read the words of General Ulysses S. Grant, Stephen Crane, Generals Pickett and Sherman, Abraham Lincoln, and even Walt Whitman (who worked in the hospitals treating wounded soldiers from both sides).

   The only negative thing about this book is that it has no amazing powerful pieces. Almost all the selections are good (with two or three exceptions), but none are outstanding, in terms of either the writing or the story. There are no exceptionally well written pieces and no really incredible stories. This is unfortunate, but does not detract too much from the overall book. And also this volume includes some fiction, which generally does not exist in these series of books. Other than that the book is good and worth reading.

No comments about The Papers of Henry Clay. Volume 6: Secretary of State, 1827 (Papers of Henry Clay, Vol 6).

2 comments about Letters from the Iron Brigade.

1. This small but important collection of letters bears the stamp of the common soldier through and through. Partridge's political and personal attitudes towards the war reflect what modern scholars have come to identify as the norm among Federal soldiers during the early part of the war. Written in a simple and direct style, Partridge brings us inside the 7th Wisconsin by sharing his attitudes and experiences on the events he lives. This is complemented by a short commentary by Hugh Whitehouse, who offers brief and intelligent psychological insights and a historical context to understand Partridge's letters. After journeying with Partridge through the joys, hopes, fears and discomforts of his soldiering life, one feels a loss when he is killed at the battle of Gettysburg and his letters come to an end.



2. I thought this book was well laid out by it's author, who happens to be a descendant from the subject's family. The historical content is excellent, and provides some good insight for history buffs and reenactors alike on the personal opinions and emotions of a soldier in the 7th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade. I would recommend this book to anyone who desires to know more about the men of the legendary Black Hats! In all, a total of 27 letters are published here from George Washington Partridge, Jr. to his sisters, giving the reader a first-hand account of the Civil War through the eyes of a Union soldier.