Booknotes - "Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Missouri in the Civil War"

Still in print (in hardcover or reissued in paperback) and still releasing titles after 20+ years, University of Arkansas Press's Portraits of Conflict is one of the finest Civil War photo essay series ever published. Well conceived in content and presentation, the inaugural Arkansas volume won several design awards, and the succeeding years have seen the format carried over to most of the rest of the Confederate states [of the eleven, Virginia, Florida, and Alabama remain].

Just released this month, the series embarks on something of a new direction, taking the reader through a crucial border state. Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Missouri in the Civil War is authored by William Garrett Piston and Thomas P. Sweeney. The pair is well suited for the task, with historian Piston the co-author of the new standard work on the Battle of Wilson's Creek and retired radiologist Sweeney the prior owner of one of the finest Trans-Mississippi Civil War artifact collections in existence. For many years, General Sweeny's museum was a must-see stop for visitors to the Wilson's Creek NBP.

Other volumes in the series:

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Arkansas in the Civil War by Bobby Roberts and Carl Moneyhon (1987, also paper reprint)

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Louisiana in the Civil War by Carl Moneyhon and Bobby Roberts (1990, also paper reprint)

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Mississippi in the Civil War by Bobby Roberts and Carl Moneyhon (1993).

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of South Carolina in the Civil War by Richard B. McCaslin (1994).

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Georgia in the Civil War by Anne J. Bailey and Walter J. Fraser Jr. (1996).

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of North Carolina in the Civil War by Richard B. McCaslin (1997).

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Texas in the Civil War by Carl Moneyhon and Bobby Roberts (1998).

Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War by Richard B. McCaslin (2007).