Casemate Illustrated: Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Antietam, Atlanta, and More–in shiny full color!

I should be leery about those phone calls from Ted Savas by now: “I have an idea for you. . . .”

To be fair, I hit him with an equal number of those sorts of calls. Neither of us ever learn our lessons, though, probably because we end up doing cool things as a result.

In this particular case, the phone call paid off with “a chance to strengthen your Vicksburg chops,” Ted promised. I didn’t know I even had Vicksburg chops. But I was certainly intrigued by the idea. While writing The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, I became fascinated with Grant’s operations out there, and I was glad for this unexpected opportunity to write more.

The result: a pair of publications as part of the new Casemate Illustrated Series, hot off the press.

The first, The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863: Grant’s Failed Offenses, covers everything from the first spring 1862 attempts to capture the Key City all the way through Grant’s move down the west bank of the river for his crossing to Bruinsburg.

The second, The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863: The Inland Battles, Siege, and Surrender, gets Grant’s army to the east bank of the Mississippi and follows it through to the end of the campaign.

The books are full-color on glossy paper, and they run about 35,000 words each. In approach, they’re similar to books in the Emerging Civil War Series—general overviews of the action—although at 6.7 x 9.5 inches and 128 pages, they are physically much different in look and feel. They retail for $24.95. They’re quite handsome.

And, as it turns out, they’re quite collectable. Aside from my own entries in the series, this spring sees the release of a book on Shiloh from ECW writer Sean Chick and the first day of Gettysburg by my pal Jim Hessler. My ECW colleagues Dave Powell and Kevin Pawlak have books in the series, too: Dave has a pair of books on the Atlanta Campaign and Kevin’s focuses on Antietam. Our friend brad Gottfried, who’s written a pair of books for the Emerging Civil War Series, has a book coming in the Casemate series on the Overland Campaign. I encourage you to take a look.

If you notice the common ECW connection there, yes, Ted raided his bullpen of ECW authors and friends to do these books. We all have a tough time saying “No” to Uncle Theodore. After all, he lets us do cool stuff. We hope you’ll check ’em out!

*     *     *

The Shiloh Campaign: Battle for the Heartland by Sean Michael Chick

*     *     *

The Overland Campaign for Richmond: Grant vs. Lee 1864 by Brad Gottfried

*     *     *

The First Day at Gettysburg: July 1, 1863 by James Hessler

*     *     *

The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863: Grant’s Failed Offenses by Chris Mackowski

The Vicksburg Campaign, 1863: The Inland Battles, Siege, and Surrender by Chris Mackowski

*     *     *

Such a Clash of Arms: The Maryland Campaign, September 1862 by Kevin Pawlak

*     *     *

The Atlanta Campaign: Sherman’s Campaign to the Outskirts of Atlanta by David Powell

The Atlanta Campaign: Peach Tree Creek to the Fall of the City by David Powell