ECW Honors Brueske’s Digging All Night and Fighting All Day with 2025 Book Award
Emerging Civil War has selected Paul Brueske’s “Digging All Night and Fighting All Day: The Civil War Siege of Spanish Fort and the Mobile Campaign, 1865″ as the recipient of its 2025 Book Award. “Digging All Night and Fighting All Day” was published by Savas Beatie.
The Emerging Civil War Book Award is presented to the best Civil War book published during the previous calendar year.
When most think of Mobile in the Civil War, scenes of David Farragut steaming his squadron at full speed into Mobile Bay in August 1864 come to mind. As Paul Brueske demonstrates, however, that was merely the beginning of interservice efforts by the United States to capture Mobile. Early 1865 brought a renewed campaign by land and naval forces to capture the city and further isolate a collapsing Confederacy. In their way were veteran Confederate soldiers manning Spanish Fort and other positions.
Brueske’s text provides clear explanations on why Mobile was critical to the Confederacy, even though the bay was in U.S. hands, why Federal forces launched this 1865 campaign, and how Spanish Fort became the linchpin of the campaign. His trenchant analysis and clear narrative also explore how a few thousand persistent Confederates held back tens of thousands of Federals in efforts to keep Mobile in Rebel hands. Actions of both senior commanders and common soldiers pervade the text, showcasing the decades of research and on-scene experience Brueske has amassed. His work sheds new light on and adds to the complexity of the Civil War’s closing days.
Park ranger and ECW member Aaron Stoyack, in his original review of the book published on the Emerging Civil War blog, said, “Brueske gives voices to the overlooked men toiling during the siege and reveals how the coastal environment shaped their tactics. The fast-paced narrative follows the defeated Confederates to their surrender, finally shedding light on this oft-forgotten offensive almost 160 years later.”
Brueske is the head coach of track and field at the University of Alabama and a founding member of the Mobile Area Civil War Round Table. In addition to “Digging All Night and Fighting All Day”, he is author of The Last Siege: The Mobile Campaign, Alabama 1865 (Casemate, 2018).
“What an honor to be recognized for the Emerging Civil War Book Award,” remarked Paul Bruseke. “I am passionate about Mobile’s Civil War era history, and especially the siege of Spanish Fort. I am forever grateful for all of the help that I received from so many great people in making this book a reality. I am especially thankful for the support of Ted Savas and his staff for this opportunity.”
To pick up a copy of Brueske’s book, please visit Savas Beatie’s site here.
In making its book award selection, the committee also chose a runner-up: Neils Eichhorn and Duncan A. Campbell’s The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism (Louisiana State University Press, 2024).
Most books on the Civil War focus on internal elements of the conflict such as the war’s politics, military activity, or impact on Americans. Eichhorn and Campbell focus on the war’s international aspects, adding to a growing literature on the conflict in a global and international scale. By placing the United States Civil War in context alongside other 19th century revolutionary movements and within trends of developing nationalism, they demonstrate how global trends impacted the war and how the conflict impacted those trends.
Retired lawyer and ECW member Kevin Donovan, in his original review of the book published on the Emerging Civil War blog, described the book as “Sprawling. Complex. Illuminating,” using which “leads to discussion of a sprawling array of nation-building activities” that provides an illuminating perspective on how the Civil War fit into a much broader international movement called nationalism.”
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Previous winners of the Emerging Civil War Book Award include I Dread the Thought of the Place by D. Scott Hartwig, Gettysburg’s Southern Front: Opportunities and Failures at Richmond by Hampton Newsome; Meade at Gettysburg: A Study in Command by Kent Masterson Brown; The Three-Cornered War: The Union, The Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson; The Fight for the Old North State: The Civil War in North Carolina, January-May 1864 by Hampton Newsome; A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg by A. Wilson Greene; On to Petersburg: Grant and Lee, June 4-15, 1864 by Gordon Rhea; and Grant Invades Tennessee: The 1862 Battles for Forts Henry and Donelson by Timothy B. Smith.
About Emerging Civil War
Emerging Civil War is the collaborative effort of more than thirty historians committed to sharing the story of the Civil War in an accessible way to the general public. Founded in 2011 by Chris Mackowski, Jake Struhelka, and Kristopher D. White, Emerging Civil War features public and academic historians of diverse backgrounds and interests, while also providing a platform for emerging voices in the field. Initiatives include the award-winning Emerging Civil War Series of books published by Savas Beatie, LLC; an annual symposium; a speakers’ bureau; and a daily blog: www.emergingcivilwar.com.
Emerging Civil War is recognized by the I.R.S. as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation.
