Question of the Week: 7/12-7/18/21

What Civil War book[s] are you reading this summer?



44 Responses to Question of the Week: 7/12-7/18/21

  1. Hopefully the ones I wanted to read LAST summer! I keep getting more books while NOT putting a dent in the ones I have!

  2. R.E. Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman (only 100 pages to go in Vol IV)
    Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command by Douglas Southall Freeman

  3. Meade at Gettysburg, A Study in Command. By Kent Masterson Brown, and A Fire in the Wilderness by John Reeves. Waiting to start He’ll Itself, by Chris Mackowski.

  4. I’ve been reading a lot in the last couple of months in addition to school work, but I’m currently working my way through “September Blood: The Battle of Carnifex Ferry” by Terry Lowry in preparation for a trip to the battlefield.

    1. Hope you write a little something on this. My favorite year of the war to read about is 1861 and there’s a lot going on with in the couple of different wester Virginia campaigns that year.

  5. Anything and everything. I haven’t finished the Civil War in North Carolina book, which is quite good, but I stopped reading at some point as a picked up some other books (not Civil War) to read. Currently I’m reading Donald Miller’s Vicksburg campaigns book.

  6. “The Civil War: A Narrative – Fort Sumter to Perryville” – Shelby Foote. I am not too deep into yet, but I love it so far.

  7. 21st NC Infantry by Lee Sherrill, Jr. (very detailed and thoroughly researched)
    Beauregard by T. Harry Williams
    Stonewall Jackson by Bud Robertson (great book)

    1. T. Harry is great … took a CW course last year and we read William’s Lincoln and His Generals … almost 75 years old and still very fresh.

  8. MEADE AT GETTYSBURG: A STIUDY IN COMMAND by Kent Masterson Brown – a masterful book, really putting Meade’s superb performance in the Gettysburg campaign in deep and developed fashion.

  9. I went with rereading–So Red the Rose, Gone With the Wind, etc. I even read the North & South novels. Of course, I also have new books to review–Incidents in the Life of Cecilia Lawton, Marriage on the Border, A Contest of Civilizations, Yank & Rebel Rangers, etc. I am just thrilled to be able to read again!

    1. Did you ever read the GWTW “sequel”, “Scarlet”? I picked it up at the wonderful Brafferton Inn at Gettysburg. (They let me keep it.) I was wary, but found it quite good until Scarlet went to Ireland

  10. I’m currently reading Holding the Line on the River Of Death by Eric Wittenberg in advance of a tour and seminar that he is co-leading with David Powell at Chick Chat next week. After that I hope to get through Chancellorsville’s Forgotten Front and A Season Of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse before I head out for the ECW Symposium. Should be an educational Summer.

  11. Edward Ayers companion works told from the perspective of the people — soldiers, slaves, civilians, et al — in Augusta County, VA and Franklin County, PA — In Presence of Mine Enemies: The Civil War in the Heart of America, 1859 to 1864 and The Thin Line of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America.

  12. The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War by Kenneth W. Noe.
    I’m halfway through and it has radically changed how I’ve viewed many campaigns. The criticisms I’ve leveled at many Union & Confederate leaders over the years for inaction, retreat, or just poor decision making are being challenged by the ferocity of the elements before, during, and after many battles. A deep look at an aspect of the war that is far too often overlooked.

    1. There’s a great account from a Union soldier during the Mine Run campaign who grouses about all the people warm at home, complaining about the progress of the war, and he wishes they’d come out and see what life was like marching around with the army in the rain and mud and cold–and THEN see if they had anything to say!

  13. All of Dave Powell’s and Eric Wittenberg’s books related to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga campaigns, including their joint Tullahoma book. Like Nicholas above, I am attending the same tour/conference next week and decided there was no better time to finally read all these books I have accumulated over 10+ years. I have been amply rewarded so far. Two books left to go!

  14. Just finished: “Civil War Logistics”, by Earl J. Hess and “Caught In The Maelstrom”, by Clint Crow

    Up Next: “Lee is Trapped and Must be Taken”, by Thomas J. Ryan and Richard R. Schaus and
    the three (to date) Meade and Lee After Gettysburg books by Jeffrey Wm. Hunt.

    Then: Eric Wittenberg and David Powell’s volumes on Chickamauga

  15. 1. Crucible Of Commmd by William C Davis 2. Lincoln’s Lieutenants by Stephen W Sears.3.AWant of Vigilence by by Bill Nackus and Rob Orrison.. 4. The Great Battle Never Fought by Chris Mackowski. 5. A Short History of Reconstruction by Eric Foner. 6. Robert E Lee and Me by Ty Seidule.

  16. This Terrible Sound by Cozzens and The trilogy on the Army of the Potomac by Catton

  17. “Cyclone in Calico: the story of Mary Ann Bickerdyke” (1952) by Nina Brown Baker. Skim-read this years ago… enough to get an appreciation for this remarkable woman and her exploits at Shiloh and Memphis. Returned to the work a few days ago to add information about Colonel John Logan at Fort Donelson, and found myself on page 207 (of 295) this afternoon : https://archive.org/details/cycloneincalico001060mbp/page/n10/mode/1up

  18. Too many to list but Knight’s Arlington to Appomattox is tops, followed by Meade at Gettysburg and then The Summer of ’63: Gettysburg by Mackowski and Welch. Have already read those and currently dabbling in others.

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