Review - "A Desperate Fight: The Lives of Louisiana's Confederate Soldiers" by Henry Motty

[A Desperate Fight: The Lives of Louisiana's Confederate Soldiers by Henry B. Motty (Louisiana State University Press, 2026). Hardcover, endnotes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:x,183/272. ISBN:978-0-8071-8615-2. $50]

Themes associated with the military, social, and psychological ties cemented between the Civil War home and fighting fronts, both North and South, have been heavily incorporated into numerous modern studies. Those who have examined those themes frequently find broad application, but there are certainly unique facets to each state's Civil War experience. Henry Motty's A Desperate Fight is distinctive in that way for its focus on one state, Confederate Louisiana, but also for the emphasis it attaches to face-to-face interactions over the more commonly explored distant ones expressed through soldier correspondence (though a full chapter is devoted to letter writing and its significance). Motty's work concentrates on the communal forces that sustained Confederate morale among Louisiana's fighting men and civilians, a key part of which were the bonds between the two groups that were formed early on in the conflict and maintained until the end. Supporting that line of investigation are a multitude of firsthand soldier and civilian perspectives gleaned from various university manuscript archives located across Louisiana along with newspaper articles and a range of published primary sources.

With initial enlistment motivations well explained in previous works, those factors are only briefly summarized for background purposes. While popular reaction to the Confederate experiment was mixed among the Louisiana populace, once war broke out, mass mobilization resulted in strong family and community support being placed behind the fighting volunteers. Reflective of Louisiana's white ethnic and cultural diversity (the extent of which was unique among the Confederate states), it is estimated by the author that, among the initial rush of men sent to Virginia as Louisiana's contribution to collective defense of the national capital, the number of volunteers who were foreign-born approached that of their native-born counterparts, and they exhibited similar communal attachments. Though one might wish for more exploration of distinctive features of the Civil War experience among unique segments of the population (such as the Cajuns of Acadiana), the book does present interesting, and sometimes amusing, accounts of encounters between Louisianians of different ethnicities, cultures, and languages.

Countless modern works have explored the vital role of women in sustaining the Confederate home front, and Motty's book applies many of those well-developed concepts and themes to Confederate Louisiana. Women were among the most outspoken defenders of the Confederate national experiment. That, and the privations and sacrifices they were willing to endure in support of the war effort, sanctified the female sex as the ideal moral representation of what soldiers were fighting for. As they did across the Confederacy, Louisiana women sewed and presented unit flags, and they, both collectively and individually, supported the troops through fundraising and through the production or donation of clothing items that the government could neither adequately nor consistently provide. Where possible, they fed hungry soldiers who were camped nearby or were passing through. Women also took care of sick and wounded soldiers in both hospital and private home settings. All of those direct exchanges reinforced connections between the home and fighting fronts and further motivated soldiers to persevere amid escalating casualties, mounting battlefield defeats, general want, and enemy occupation.

Wealthier Louisianians frequently sponsored and financed local volunteer units. That and the leadership they also provided helped bridge the gap between social classes and enhance perceptions that everyone was working together and sacrificing for the common cause. However, certain measures such as conscription strained communal spirit and heightened the class divide, although, as John Sacher notes in his excellent study of the topic, conscription was far from universally despised. Within the army it was widely praised, and most of the public admitted its necessity in keeping the army in existence. It was the law's specific measures and their implementation (for example, those related to exemptions) that drew the most criticism, and the government responded through regular revision. Nevertheless, class tensions remained. Another result of conscription, in combination with impressment of slave labor, is that it both expanded and further complicated the household, farm, and plantation management responsibilities of women, heightening interdependence between the fighting men and the home front.

Encampments, both short term and long term, were another aspect of the war that fostered communal ties. While Confederate military authorities strove to isolate camps from outside influences, in practice Louisiana Civil War camps were busy with soldier-civilian interactions. Visitation by family and friends bolstered morale and inserted, however briefly, home comforts and pleasant diversions into otherwise restrictive military life, and civilians from the surrounding area also provided opportunities for soldiers to gain access to goods, services, and delicacies that were otherwise scarce. However, as Motty notes, that physical proximity was not always mutually beneficial or popular, as local civilians were often on the receiving end of unauthorized property destruction as well as official impressment of livestock and provisions by their own protectors.

Soldiers from all Confederate states benefited from civilian generosity that helped fill the many gaps in government supplies of individual needs and wants, but that relationship were arguably even more essential in Louisiana. Uniquely divided, courtesy of the Mississippi River, between the western and trans-Mississippi theaters, Louisiana quickly fell into geographical isolation from state government administration and sustained Confederate assistance. After the city of New Orleans, the state capital of Baton Rouge, and most the Louisiana stretch of the Mississippi River fell into Union hands in close succession during the spring of 1862, much of the state's interior was laid open to federal invasion and occupation. At the time time, across the state Confederate and state government control and lines of supply and communication were profoundly disrupted. Louisiana civilians stepped into that void by providing food and clothing to soldiers on a local level. The civilian population's own needs were addressed through trade, both legal and illegal (prominent among the latter both smuggling and the illicit cotton exchange), and most Louisiana soldiers reluctantly came to recognize that home front trading with the enemy was a temporary matter of survival, not a betrayal of them or the Confederate cause as a whole. While the widespread impression that the distant Confederate government failed to provide Louisiana's defense with the resources, care, and attention that it needed and deserved may have resulted in some erosion of Confederate patriotism as the war progressed beyond its early stages, Motty amply demonstrates that soldier-civilian interdependence that developed over that same period led to the rise of home and community defense becoming the principal factor that motivated Louisiana's Confederate soldiers to keep fighting against the odds.

Campaigns and battles were another aspect of Louisiana's Civil War that bound soldiers and civilians tightly together. Battles fought inside state borders were typically small to medium-sized affairs, mostly the former, but they were numerous and, as was the case elsewhere, commonly placed civilian lives and property in the line of fire. Conventional warfare was just part of the experience, though, with the Louisiana civilian as military participant being most clearly associated with the guerrilla warfare that erupted across the state as Union land and naval forces penetrated into the interior from early 1862 onward. Addressing that side of conflict, Motty's book adds Louisiana context to what modern scholarship has called the "household" war.

The inextricable interdependence between the home and fighting fronts of both sides during the American Civil War has been well established in the modern scholarship, but Henry Motty's A Desperate Fight: The Lives of Louisiana's Confederate Soldiers meaningfully expands that literature through both illuminating specificity at the state level and recognition that many distinctive elements within the broader theme exist across the board that are worthy of discrete examination.

Booknotes: Stonewall Jackson’s Winter Operations

New Arrival:

• Stonewall Jackson’s Winter Operations: The Raids Against the C&O Canal and the Bath-Romney Campaign, December 1861 to February 1862 by Timothy R. Snyder (Savas Beatie, 2026).

Timothy Snyder’s Stonewall Jackson’s Winter Operations is the second major study of Jackson's Romney Expedition. It comes more than three decades after Thomas Rankin's Stonewall Jackson's Romney Campaign, January 1-February 20, 1862. Unfortunately, it has probably been more than twenty years since I read it, and I don't own a personal copy to refresh my faded memory and draw comparisons. I am assuming there isn't much C&O Canal raiding content in Rankin's study (since those events occurred outside the time interval indicated by his book's title), but I do seem to recall it being one of the better H.E. Howard Virginia Civil War Battles and Leaders Series titles overall, detailed but (like many others) suffering from inadequate map coverage.

If I have enough time, I like to read or skim through a new arrival's foreword/preface/introduction text before assembling these Booknotes entries. Doing that for this one, it immediately becomes clear that Snyder does not join hands with Jackson's strongest admirers! Much like Robert E. Lee's own earlier introduction to conducting offensive operations, things did not go particularly well for Jackson in the mountainous parts of their home state. From the description: "When viewed apart from the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, these earlier military activities reveal a starkly different portrait of the enigmatic general. Instead of lightning-quick maneuvers and tactical victories, Snyder depicts a fallible Jackson who encountered significant difficulties, made mistakes and miscalculations, and led a series of unsuccessful operations."

As indicated by his book's subtitle, Snyder, who has also authored a 2011 study of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal during the war, covers the series of December 1861 Confederate raids launched against that important regional transportation system. More from the description: "As commander of the Valley District, Jackson orchestrated raids against two dams of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, a vital coal carrier serving Washington, D.C. This book provides the first comprehensive account of these important but understudied events that helped shape the war along the Maryland-Virginia border. Although Jackson failed to breach either structure, his persistent efforts highlight the canal’s overlooked significance to the Union war effort."

During the ensuing winter expedition, Confederate forces were able to occupy both Bath and Romney, but their leaders fell into unproductive infighting that grew into disputes with Richmond. More: "During the bitterly cold Bath-Romney Campaign, Jackson led a small army into the Allegheny foothills, and captured Bath, Virginia. On picket duty at the town, several men from General William W. Loring’s command froze to death while officers from the Stonewall Brigade lodged their men in a resort hotel. This disparity fueled deep resentment within Loring’s command and eventually a near-mutiny. Although Jackson later captured Romney, Virginia, without a fight, occupying the town was not the general’s original objective. When the Confederate secretary of war ordered Jackson to withdraw Loring’s command to Winchester, Jackson threatened to resign, citing interference from Richmond. Snyder’s extensive research reveals that this order was strategically sound given Confederate intelligence and Union troop concentrations."

Coverage of the early-war period in the eastern theater is one of my favorite parts of Savas Beatie's prodigious output, so expect a full site review of this latest addition to that category in the near future.

Booknotes: Civil War Photo Forensics

New Arrival:

• Civil War Photo Forensics: Investigating Battlefield Photographs Through a Critical Lens by Scott Hippensteel (U Tenn Press, 2026).

Of the new Civil War book authors who have emerged in recent times, Scott Hippensteel is one of my favorites. He always selects topics that are far from ordinary [his previous works examine Civil War battlefield geology, sand's impact on military operations, and myth-making] and approaches his subjects in fresh ways from interesting angles. His newest book is Civil War Photo Forensics: Investigating Battlefield Photographs Through a Critical Lens.

From the description: Civil War Photo Forensics "reconsiders iconic photographs from the American Civil War in a completely new light, questioning everything we have been taught about the images and their significance. Employing new scientific techniques to investigate the timing, location, and authenticity of photographs taken by Alexander Gardner, Mathew Brady, Timothy O’Sullivan, and their contemporaries, Hippensteel provides fresh insights into the motivations behind these pioneers in battlefield photography." I am very curious to discover what these new techniques might be.

More from the description: "As the first battlefield photojournalists, these documentarians and their work deserve a critical and scientific treatment of this order." Of course, most readers are aware that some Civil War photographers were not above staging their work. "In addition to their historical value, Hippensteel’s study demonstrates that the degree of manipulation present in many of the most famous Civil War “combat” photographs should make us contemplate whether an image is more a work of art than an unbiased example of front-line reporting."

The book is divided into four parts. The first "deals with mid-nineteenth century photography, the men who took the pictures, and the future historians who studied their work in detail." Part two "delves into controversy" over whether these photographers should be understood as "journalists or artists". In the third part, "history is explored by analyzing the subtle details found in the photographs, and what these (often disquieting) details reveal about the motivations of the photographers." The fourth and final section "explains what new insights about the war can be gleaned from critical analysis of the sepia images" (pp. 4-5).

Booknotes: Mercy in Disaster

New Arrival:

• Mercy in Disaster: Abby Hopper Gibbons’s Journals and Letters from Four Years of Civil War Nursing edited by Angela G. Schear (UGA Press, 2026).

From the description: Edited by Angela Schear, Mercy in Disaster "is about the forgotten nurse in America’s signature, iconic photograph of Civil War wounded: abolitionist Abby Hopper Gibbons. Hung in museums large and small, pictured in books, and found across the internet, rarely is what the New York Times called “one of the most remarkable women of this century” identified. More practitioner than pundit, an organizer and social reformer for nearly six decades before the war, Gibbons spent the majority of America’s largest crisis at the front or in various hospitals."

The widely distributed photographic image referenced above, which is reproduced as part of the book's cover art, is this one from James Gardner. The LOC summary describes it as showing "Union soldiers wounded during the Wilderness Campaign outside a hospital established by the Sanitary Commission in Fredericksburg, Virginia." A sitting Gibbons is seen at center and slightly behind the wounded figure standing on crutches.

More from the description: Mercy in Disaster "is the compilation of Gibbons’s wartime letters and journals, which are a vivid window on the emerging role of women, medical care, the struggle for freedom by African Americans, and Gibbons’s fascinating place in it all."

Supporting text includes a lengthy introduction from John Hennessy. Editor Schear divides the Gibbons material into eleven chapters encompassing letters dated November 1861 through May 1865, each chapter introduction providing context and bridging narrative. Footnotes offer additional commentary and identify/clarify persons and places mentioned in Gibbons's writing. Letters to Gibbons from friends are collected in an appendix.

Review - "William Henry Seward's Quest to Save the Nation During the Secession Winter" by C. Evan Stewart

[William Henry Seward's Quest to Save the Nation During the Secession Winter (November 1860-April 1861) by C. Evan Stewart (Twelve Tables Press, 2026). Hardcover, photos, illustrations, chapter notes. Pages:xiii,205. ISBN:978-1-946074-46-1. $20.95]

As the momentous 1860 Republican National Convention approached, the general expectation was that New York's William Henry Seward would be the party's presidential nominee. The man himself clearly anticipated it, and was crushed by the defeat. Nevertheless, while Seward failed to reach the pinnacle of American political aspirations, he still saw himself as a man on a mission. After President-elect Abraham Lincoln retreated into an extended stretch of pre-inaugural silence after his great victory, a choice deemed "masterly inactivity" by some and a grave mistake by others, Seward went to work indefatigably trying to prevent further defections from the Union, seven states having seceded in close succession that winter of 1860-61. Seward set out, presumptuously, to act as the power behind the throne, a 'Premier' of sorts who would sagely guide the inexperienced Lincoln through the coming political shoals.

The hardline Lincoln and the more moderate Seward both sought to avoid war, but they weren't on the same page when it came to risking escalation. Seward's mollifying approach during that time, which included unauthorized dealings with southern representatives, provoked strong reactions, including accusations that he was a disloyal Republican. The historical literature has been similarly critical of his actions. More sympathetic is C. Evan Stewart's William Henry Seward's Quest to Save the Nation During the Secession Winter (November 1860-April 1861), which presents Seward's diligent conciliatory efforts as an organized plan, distinct from Lincoln's own apparent lack of a clear plan, to avoid intersectional conflict long enough to keep the balance of restless slave states within the federal union and cool national passions. It may have been a vain hope in hindsight, but it was also considered possible, given time and absent provocation, that a resurgence of unionist pressure, both from within and without, might force the already seceded states to reconsider their folly.

As Stewart outlines it in the book, Seward's plan to save the nation unfolded in three parts. Unlike Lincoln, who steadfastly adhered to his party's national election platform opposing any further extension of slavery and was fiercely partisan in placing Republican interests above all else, Seward adopted a conciliatory approach open to what he felt were moderate concessions. So the first part of Seward's plan, as explained by the author, was to conciliate Border State Unionists [in the context of his analysis, Stewart's definition of "Border States" also encompasses the Upper South] by supporting some sort of acceptable territorial compromise. One option was to allow a proslavery New Mexico. Citing a private statement by Lincoln himself indicating that he might budge in the case of New Mexico (a unique exception to his otherwise uncompromising stance that was likely rooted, as biographer Michael Burlingame and others have suggested, in the widespread belief that slavery itself was impractical there), it seemed like a possibility. However, when considered within the full context of Lincoln's firm and longstanding opposition to slavery's extension, it is not surprising that compromise proposals such as the "New Mexico Plan" or the "Border State Plan" went nowhere.

Even if Lincoln had been explicit in accepting some level of backtracking on his previous pledge regarding slavery's extension, he would have encountered significant, perhaps overwhelming, opposition among his newly formed Republican coalition. Nevertheless, Seward did leverage his considerable influence in a strong attempt at lobbying fellow Republicans to unite with Border State Unionists in some common cause. This was the second part of his plan. The basis of this common cause would be Lincoln's own set of proposals, which included stronger federal legislation (with safeguards against abuse) enforcing the fugitive clause of the Constitution, insistence that state laws contradicting the federal statutes be repealed, and that the Union be preserved.

Intertwined with the second, the third part of the Seward plan involved reorienting the face of the national crisis from it being primarily a matter of 'proslavery versus antislavery' to 'union versus disunion,' the latter question far more unifying. Unlike Lincoln, Seward had personal relationships with key southern leaders and understood their concerns and perspectives, and Stewart credits Seward with clear success in this key part of his plan, which was primarily directed toward Virginia. While it is debatable how much credit should be awarded to Seward personally, overall success is evidenced by the clear unionist majorities that emerged from the winter debates among state delegates in critical Upper South states such as Virginia and Tennessee. The conditional versus unconditional nature of that pro-Union support is not explored, but the point is that the efforts of Seward to center the political discussion on the choice between union and disunion resonated in slave states outside the Deep South. This status quo was maintained until the Lincoln administration attempted to force the issue in Charleston Harbor, the resulting acts of "coercion" (as many southerners of all stripes termed Lincoln's insistence on maintaining a military presence in the harbor but especially his national call to arms after the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter) ultimately pushing the Upper South into the secessionist fold.

Seward was among those who favored withdrawing federal forces from Charleston Harbor. It is one of the great what-ifs of events leading up to the outbreak of the war. Abandoning Fort Sumter could be interpreted as being symbolic of weakness that would only embolden the secessionist movement, but it could also be part of a wily political strategy that avoided igniting the crisis' most dangerous powder keg by giving up a strategic point that was by all measures indefensible while still maintaining possession of the other U.S.-held fortified installations in the Deep South, such as Fort Pickens, which were defensible. Regardless, Lincoln's risky actions placed Seward's cherished conciliatory campaign in a profoundly awkward, to put it lightly, position that ended up catching fire from all sides. Seward's backdoor dealings, which included unauthorized promises that could not be kept, both destroyed his credibility among the southern allies he had cultivated for weeks and months and deeply angered fellow Republicans who felt that Seward was betraying their party's avowed principles.

A compact 5"x7" hardcover with roughly half its pages filled with explanatory chapter notes, Stewart's narrative account can be read in a single sitting. Every reader would do well to pay close attention to the notes as they are not only composed of source citations but are crammed with interesting nuggets of background information and additional discussion, the latter including deeper looks into the documentation along with judicious measurement and analysis of competing interpretations from Lincoln scholars, Seward biographers, and other leading historians.

C. Evan Stewart's William Henry Seward's Quest to Save the Nation During the Secession Winter does not try to argue that Seward's plan was superior to Lincoln's handling of the crisis, or that it could or would have eventually brought about reunion without war. One wonders about the degree to which some of the more fantastical elements of Seward's scheming, particularly his infamous memorandum proposing a means of reuniting the country through declaring war against European nations Spain and France (which Stewart believes to have been more threatening tool, part of a combined domestic and foreign strategy, than earnest desire), have unduly overshadowed the totality of his efforts. Rather than seeing Seward's Southern Strategy to be an unqualified failure, Stewart concludes that Seward's post-election plan "indisputably bought the administration time to get into place and start to wield the levers of power." With inflamed passions all around, how much longer Seward's conciliatory process could have been maintained remains an open question. In the end, Lincoln's decision to directly risk war by resupplying Fort Sumter upended Seward's moderate course, but Stewart seems to agree with keen observer Henry Adams that it was "right to make the effort even if overruled" (pp. 197-98). William Seward's role in the Secession Winter will always be a topic of discussion rife with disagreement, and Stewart feeds the debate with a balanced assessment that offers a great deal of food for thought.

Booknotes: Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend

New Arrival:

• Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend: Reconsidering Lincoln as Commander in Chief by Kenneth W. Noe (LSU Press, 2026).

From the description: Kenneth Noe’s Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend "boldly questions the long-accepted notion that the sixteenth president was an almost-perfect commander in chief, more intelligent than his generals." Blindness toward Lincoln's flaws as Commander in Chief isn't quite that extreme anymore, but the backtracking has still been pretty tentative. Regardless of where we are at today, it could be said that the idea that the president's military acumen frequently exceeded that of the professional officer class "originated with Lincoln himself, who early in the war concluded that he possessed a keen strategic and tactical mind. Noe explores the genesis of this powerful idea and asks why so many have tenaciously defended it."

Naturally, every investigation of this topic must include an examination of the fraught working relationship that developed between Lincoln and George McClellan. More from the description: "George McClellan, Lincoln’s top general, emerged in Lincoln’s mind and the American psyche as his chief adversary, and to this day, the Lincoln-McClellan relationship remains central to the enduring legend. Lincoln came to view himself as a wiser warrior than McClellan, and as the war proceeded, a few members of Lincoln’s inner circle began to echo the president’s thoughts on his military prowess." Lincoln's self-confidence in matters of grand strategy did not wane, even after putting the abundantly successful Grant in charge of all Union armies. "Convinced of his own tactical brilliance, Lincoln demanded that Ulysses Grant, McClellan’s replacement, turn to the “hard, tough fighting” of the Overland and Petersburg campaigns, when Grant’s first instinct was to copy McClellan and swing into the Confederate rear."

Critically, Noe's study identifies the origins of the legend and traces its development over time. More: "Noe suggests that the growth and solidification of the heroic legend began with Lincoln’s assassination; it debuted in print only months afterward and was so cloaked in religious piety that for decades it could not withstand the counternarratives offered by secular contemporaries. Although the legend was debated and neglected at times, it reemerged in interwar Great Britain and gained canonical status in the 1950s Cold War era and during the Civil War Centennial of the 1960s." Consolidated in both the professional historical literature and the popular mind, the strength and endurance of this particular Lincoln legend has been difficult to crack. "Noe’s reappraisal is long overdue."

Booknotes: Confederate General D. H. Hill

New Arrival:

• Confederate General D. H. Hill: A Military Life by Chris J. Hartley (Savas Beatie, 2026).

The two big Confederate Hills (A.P. and D.H.) were both undeniably fighting generals, but they also possessed difficult personalities and ended the war with decidedly mixed overall records. Though their early exploits fostered rapid promotion within the army, the further up the chain of command both men went the more serious the questions that arose. After peaking in rank at lieutenant general, subsequent performances led some to speculate that both officers were elevated beyond their capabilities. You could probably label each of the pair as "enigmatic" figures, but D.H. Hill, who directed troops in major campaigns with both of the Confederacy's principal field armies, is perhaps the more mysterious of the two.

With much in the way of fresh material published in recent decades about the campaigns and battles associated with Hill's career, Chris Hartley's new biography Confederate General D. H. Hill: A Military Life arrives at a good time.

From the description: "A native South Carolinian, Hill stood at the heart of the Civil War’s most pivotal moments and the center of its fiercest controversies. From his reluctant assault against George B. McClellan’s James River transports in 1862 to his role in negotiating the contentious prisoner cartel, Hill’s actions consistently provoked the ire of his superiors. He faced blame for the loss of “Special Orders No. 191” during the Maryland Campaign, and his clashes with Gen. Robert E. Lee supposedly convinced Lee to orchestrate Hill’s departure from the Army of Northern Virginia. Hill’s defiance continued as he opposed Lee over reinforcements for the Gettysburg Campaign. His transfer west to command a corps in the Army of Tennessee resulted in battlefield decisions at Chickamauga that sparked debate during and after the conflict, and his involvement in the 1863 generals’ revolt against Braxton Bragg strained his relationship with President Jefferson Davis. Hill ended the war in North Carolina."

The main text is 500 pages in length (supported by 20 maps), so readers will have to carve out a good chunk of time for this one. The general structure is that of the more traditional Civil War military biography. The first hundred pages or so covers Hill's early life, military education, Old Army career, and other antebellum work. The vast middle is filled with a detailed account of the general's Civil War activities. Ending the volume is a chapter addressing the remainder of Hill's life, which included a return to the college setting, where "he left a legacy as president of the University of Arkansas and Georgia Military College." Also, "(a)s an editor, writer, and commentator, he helped shape the Confederacy’s enduring legacy."

I've admired Hartley's work since he first burst on the scene back in 2010 with a great book about George Stoneman's epic 1865 raid, and I'm sure I join many in looking forward to reading this one.

Booknotes: Mollie Brumley's Civil War

New Arrival:

• Mollie Brumley's Civil War: Surviving the Guerrilla War in Arkansas by Theodore Catton (OU Press, 2026).

From the description: "Mollie Brumley, a thirteen-year-old orphan, was living on a farm in the mountainous Ozarks of northwest Arkansas when the Civil War broke out. In a borderland region on the northern periphery of slavery and the western edge of white settlement, her corner of Arkansas saw terrible destruction―but not primarily from fighting between opposing armies. Mollie Brumley's Civil War was one of guerrilla warfare and outlawry, shifting loyalties, betrayals real and imagined, and, for some, death by starvation." This personal and regional story is recounted in Theodore Catton's Mollie Brumley's Civil War: Surviving the Guerrilla War in Arkansas.

Mollie Brumley was born in Mississippi, losing her mother at an early age and her father also died soon after he sent his daughter to live with his sister's already large family in NW Arkansas. The geography of Mollie's narrative is the Richland area straddling the shared border of Searcy and Marion counties in the Boston Mountains, a region of mostly subsistence farming. Utilizing Mollie's 1902 autobiography (titled A Thrilling Romance of the Civil War) as the basic framework of his study, "Catton offers a rare, intimate look at the heroism and desperation of war conducted on the home front―all amidst the anything-but-ordinary romantic adventures of an adolescent who lived during an extraordinary time." Amid the chaos and danger that the guerrilla war inflicted upon the Richland area, Mollie herself left home to work as an army laundress down the White River at Batesville.

Catton weaves other area residents into the narrative, notably the Cole family, Mollie's love interests (including husband Henry Cole, and, after Cole's death, Valentine Williams, whom she married in 1867), and Parthenia Hensley (a teenage slave girl three years older than Mollie and the only black resident of Richland).

More from the description: "An unprecedented picture of the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi West, Mollie Brumley's Civil War is also a remarkable coming-of-age story shaped by the fight against slavery―a fight that Mollie didn't choose but that finally influenced the person she became and the outcome of her life."

Book News: More Hess on the horizon

The pattern of having one Earl Hess title in the reading pile and two more in the immediate pipeline continues! My review copy of Shattered Courage arrived last month from University Press of Kansas, and Civil War Camps and Soldier Health (which has been mentioned here on the site before) will be published by Kent State University Press next month. In October, LSU Press is releasing Hess's Managing the Union Army: Scott, McClellan, Halleck, and Grant as General-in-Chief.

The description sounds very intriguing, including the part where it indicates that Hess's book "offers a much more positive evaluation of Halleck than is typical of the scholarly literature on Civil War commanders." Given how important the working relationship was between General in Chief and Commander in Chief when it came to managing the Union war machine from the top, it should be a good volume to pair with Kenneth Noe's Abraham Lincoln and the Heroic Legend: Reconsidering Lincoln as Commander in Chief, which arrived on my doorstep a few days ago (the Booknotes announcement for it will appear soon).

Booknotes: Decisions on Western Waters

New Arrival:

• Decisions on Western Waters: The Twenty-Seven Critical Decisions That Defined the Battles by Michael D. Becker (U Tenn Press, 2026).

Decisions on Western Waters is a pretty major departure from the standard Command Decisions in America's Civil War series volume. Whereas every earlier installment, numbering well over two dozen and counting, addressed a single campaign or battle, Michael Becker's new contribution explores the decision-making behind a series of related operations spread over years, the unifying theme being the struggle for control of the Mississippi River Valley.

From the description: "At the outset of the Civil War, General Winfield Scott drafted the Anaconda Plan, an ambitious strategy to blockade southern ports and use army forces supported by naval gunboats to secure control of the Mississippi River for the Union, effectively dividing the Confederacy in two. Over the course of the campaign, General Grant’s ground forces closely cooperated with river forces under the leadership of Flag Officers Andrew H. Foote and David Dixon Porter, as well as Rear Admiral David Farragut, to successfully seize Confederate strongholds along the Mississippi River and its tributaries."

While the central 1861-63 contest ended in Union triumph after successful conclusions to the twin sieges at Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the Union Brown Water Navy had to both maintain those gains and still directly support further combined operations. The volume's packet of critical decisions, arranged in four yearly chapters, are thus heavily concentrated in the years 1861-63, with two additional decisions related to the 1864 Red River Campaign.

More from the description: Decisions on Western Waters "explores the critical decisions made by Confederate and Federal politicians and commanders during the campaign that shaped its outcome. Rather than offering a linear history of the campaign, Michael D. Becker homes in on decisions made by both sides of the contest to provide a clear blueprint of the campaign development and conduct at its tactical core."

The driving tour, which stretches from the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers all the way down to Fort Jackson below New Orleans, has to the longest of the series. Also included are comprehensive combat and support vessel lists for each major operation.

I'm looking forward to reading this, and it will be interesting to see if the series continues to expand its scope in other directions.

Review - "Desert Empire: The 1862 New Mexico Campaign" by Kelly-Fischer & Greenwalt

[Desert Empire: The 1862 New Mexico Campaign by Patrick Kelly-Fischer and Phillip S. Greenwalt (Savas Beatie, 2026). Softcover, 5 maps, photos, illustrations, integrated driving tour, appendix section, orders of battle, reading list. Pages main/total:xxviii,131/191. ISBN:978-1-61121-775-9. $16.95]

The Confederacy's early-war New Mexico Campaign is one of those Civil War operations that seems foolhardy in retrospect, seemingly destined for failure if not complete disaster. On the other hand, world military history is replete with examples of campaigns and wars won against longer odds. From the Confederate government's perspective in faraway Richmond, the invasion of New Mexico Territory via the upper Rio Grande River Valley was a self-contained, low-risk gamble that placed a slate of grand rewards on the table. If successful in New Mexico and the declared territory of Arizona, Confederate forces would be well positioned to threaten U.S. overland communications in the West. Critically, they would also gain a pathway to the Pacific and vie for control of vital mineral resources in the Rockies and Desert Southwest. Happily for Confederate planners, the expedition would involve only local troops, local resources, and captured munitions, placing minimal demands upon a central government already overwhelmed by the process of funding, clothing, supplying, and arming the main Confederate armies then gathering in the war's main theaters. Of course, Richmond's rather detached 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' attitude toward the risks and challenges involved in the operation offered little comfort to those whose lives and reputations would be at stake in carrying it out.

The existing literature associated with the New Mexico Campaign is well developed. In addition to classic campaign overviews from pioneering Civil War in the Southwest scholar Martin Hall and, more recently, Donald Frazier, the combined efforts of Don Alberts, John Taylor, and Thomas Edrington have produced an excellent Valverde book and two fine Glorieta battle studies. The well-coordinated, multi-front Union response that first derailed then completely defeated the Confederate expedition has been thoroughly explored by Flint Whitlock and Andrew Masich. Jerry Thompson has also compiled an exhaustive record and study of the New Mexico territorial volunteers and militia. A number of very useful edited primary source materials have been published, too. Combining a strong synthesis of the secondary literature with fresh revisitation of the O.R. documents associated with the campaign (the footnotes are available here), Patrick Kelly-Fischer and Phillip Greenwalt serve up a fine new overview history of the campaign with their book Desert Empire: The 1862 New Mexico Campaign, the latest volume in the Emerging Civil War series of military overviews.

Co-authors Kelly-Fischer and Greenwalt work successfully within the established format of the series. In addition to providing a sound summary of the strategic picture in the Desert Southwest at the outbreak of the war, their narrative offers well-rounded operational and tactical-level summaries of the military events that unfolded across what is today's Arizona and New Mexico. The campaign's primary battles at Valverde and Glorieta are both well described and contextualized, the account of the multi-day fight for control of Glorieta Pass being the centerpiece of the study. Five maps and a multitude of period and modern photographs, along with many other illustrations, supplement the text. A driving tour, its components placed at the tail end of select chapters, is also incorporated into the study.

Logistical considerations, and how well or how poorly each side met their challenges, are a major theme of the book. Headed by General Henry Hopkins Sibley, the Confederate "army" of some 3,000 men, all mounted, was supported by a logistical apparatus entirely inadequate for the requirements of a long campaign conducted over great distances. The Rio Grande could supply most of its water requirements, but food for the men and forage for the horses would be an almost entirely improvised affair, dependent on local sources (most of which would be unfriendly to their cause). On the other side, Union authorities managed their affairs remarkably well. Preparing for the arrival of Confederate forces in the region, they did a good job of spiriting away or hiding supplies previously stored along what would become the main path of invasion, largely denying them to the enemy. At the same time, resources and reinforcements were being concentrated in the northeast corner of the territory at Fort Union for the coming counteroffensive. Sibley's most direct opposition, the sizable Union garrison at Fort Craig led by Col. E.R.S. Canby, was able to husband supplies within the fort for an indefinite stay. However, the authors also note that Canby's own logistical situation, his command's Santa Fe Trail supply line cut off by Sibley's presence in the Union rear, was itself less than ideal. Far to the west, the famed "California Column"'s long advance from southern California to New Mexico across hundreds of miles of inhospitable desert, its own successful logistical support plan undoubtedly informed by the U.S. Army's antebellum experiences conducting desert operations, is recounted in a sparkling essay attached as an appendix. Another shorter appendix discusses the importance and role of Fort Union, as well as New Mexico volunteers at large, to the outcome of the campaign.

Union commanders, none of whom were experienced in managing large numbers of fighting men over vast distances, proved themselves well up to the task of blunting Sibley's offensive. Aggressive Col. John Slough, while suffering a tactical setback at Glorieta Pass, nevertheless blocked the Confederates from reaching Fort Union, and his subordinate officers are credited with destroying much of the Confederate supply and ammunition train during their surprise attack at Johnson's Ranch. While his forces based at Fort Craig could not halt the Confederate advance in its early stages and lost the battle at Valverde, Canby still successfully managed to keep the fort and its stockpiles out of Confederate hands and continued to be a thorn in Sibley's side for the duration of the campaign. The authors, citing Canby's own mounting logistical concerns, are only mildly critical of his unwillingness, or inability, to directly oppose Sibley's retreat during the latter stages of the campaign. How much of Canby's innate caution bled into overcaution and a great missed opportunity to destroy Sibley's crippled remaining forces is left to the reader to decide. Col. James Carleton's deft handling of the California Column is justly praised. Desert logistics and scarce water resources necessitated a journey conducted in stages and at a measured pace. Carleton's arrival on the scene, though it was too late to cut the retreating Confederates off before they reached safe haven, nevertheless completed the final link in Union forces fully re-securing New Mexico Territory and eliminating the Texas-based threat for the rest of the war.

By all accounts, including the one presented in this volume, Henry Sibley had no business being entrusted with an enterprise as complicated and difficult as an invasion of New Mexico Territory. His military judgment and leadership capacity severely compromised by chronic alcoholism, Sibley was ill for most of the campaign, leaving tactical direction to his principal subordinates. Even though those regimental officers—notably Col. Thomas Green, Lt. Col. William Scurry, and Majors Charles Pyron, Henry Raguet, and John Shropshire (the last two killed in action)—were able to produce impressive tactical successes at Valverde and Glorieta, the lack of firm overall direction and persistent logistical nightmares meant that Confederate forces were typically scattered as the campaign progressed and could not fully leverage their speed and maneuverability advantage in being fully mounted. The Confederate offensive effort also did not possess enough artillery firepower to threaten enhanced defenses such as those newly erected at Fort Craig and Fort Union. One interesting what-if to contemplate is if Slough had not disregarded orders to remain at Fort Union and instead drawn the Confederates deeper into the mountains, further isolating them and perhaps affording the California Column enough additional time to truly seal Sibley's fate.

Desert Empire skillfully delivers a comprehensive campaign history in a tight package capable of appealing to a wide range of readers. In all likelihood, the Confederate invasion of New Mexico Territory represents the Civil War's most extreme disparity between the scale of what was at stake (militarily, politically, and economically) and the numbers of fighting men involved on both sides, and Patrick Kelly-Fischer and Phillip Greenwalt's engaging new account of that unique campaign is highly recommended.

Booknotes: A Little Piece of Hell at Gettysburg

New Arrival:

• A Little Piece of Hell at Gettysburg: The Attack and Defense of the Rose Farm, July 2-3, 1863 by Scott T. Fink (Savas Beatie, 2026).

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the Gettysburg literature hosts a number of microhistories of micro-sectors of the battlefield. One of the better known examples of these is Elwood Christ's "Over a Wide, Hot...Crimson Plain": The Struggle for the Bliss Farm at Gettysburg, July 2nd and 3rd, 1863, which was first published in the 1990s by Butternut & Blue and reissued in paperback by Savas Beatie in 2023. Now, SB shifts attention toward another Gettysburg farm immortalized by the battle with Scott Fink's A Little Piece of Hell at Gettysburg: The Attack and Defense of the Rose Farm, July 2-3, 1863.

From the description: "The unassuming stone farmhouse, where John and Ann Rose and their seven children lived, stood amid 230 acres of verdant land on the eastern side of the Emmitsburg Road about two miles south of Gettysburg. On July 2, 1863, this patch of ground—sandwiched between Little Round Top to the south and the Peach Orchard to the north—became a vortex for tens of thousands of men as the armies renewed the second day of battle."

An introductory history of the farm, the origins of which can be traced back to 1741, is provided, and the events that occurred on the farmland during the battle are the main focus of the book. On July 2, the sheer number of unwanted visitors and ferocious intensity of the fighting on the Rose family's property earned it the unenviable "distinction as the bloodiest farm in American history."

More from the description: "Confederates under James Longstreet swept across the Rose farm from different directions in a bid to crush Maj. Gen. George Meade’s left flank. The Rose land, which included the Stony Hill and the Rose Woods, saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war as thousands of Georgians and South Carolinians flooded onto the property from the west and southwest into sheets of lead and iron. One of the fields, a 20-acre plot across which some 20,000 men of both armies would march, charge, fight, and die—often in hand-to-hand combat—is better known today as the Wheatfield. Union soldiers from several corps, arriving from different parts of the field, rushed into the swirling chaos to stem the break in the line and hold fast."

Of course, that back and forth fighting produced mass casualties, and the Rose farm land and buildings were quickly converted into one of the battle's major field hospitals. Also, "(b)etween 500 and 1,000 Southerners were buried on the Rose property," making the grounds a very significant temporary burial site. In addition to covering those topics, Fink's study traces the farm's postwar history, including the exhumations of buried remains, up to today. Given that "Alexander Gardner took some of the most famous photographs of the war there, mostly of dead Georgians from George T. Anderson’s Brigade," a chapter is also devoted to closely analyzing the many classic images associated with the Rose Farm.

Fink's detailed narrative, well supported by maps and other illustrations, full explores the ways in which "(t)he fighting on the Rose farm played a critical role in the fortunes of both armies at Gettysburg, and, along the way, "(t)his original new study helps put the sacrifices of those who fought there in context."

Coming Soon (April '26 Edition)

Scheduled for APR 2026¹:
• Deserter Declarations: Letters from North Carolinians Who Abandoned Their Confederate Units ed. by Judkin Browning.
• Mercy in Disaster: Abby Hopper Gibbons’s Journals and Letters from Four Years of Civil War Nursing ed. by Angela Schear.
• Decisions on Western Waters: The Twenty-Seven Critical Decisions That Defined the Battles by Michael Becker.
• Lost Souls of Gettysburg: Battlefields and Beyond by Kevin Lynn.
• Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom: Free People of Color and the Fight for Equal Rights in the Civil War Era by Warren Milteer.
• Ulysses’s Odyssey: Ulysses S. Grant’s World Tour at the Dawn of American Empire by Louis Picone.
• The First Pariah State: How the Proslavery Confederacy Menaced the World by Robert Bonner.
• Civil War Photo Forensics: Investigating Battlefield Photographs Through a Critical Lens by Scott Hippensteel.
• Stonewall Jackson’s Winter Operations: The Raids Against the C&O Canal and the Bath-Romney Campaign, December 1861 to February 1862 by Timothy Snyder.
• Fulfill Thy Ministry: Three Episcopal Clergymen, Race, and the Civil War Era by Mead & Martinez.

¹ - These monthly release lists are not meant to be exhaustive compilations of non-fiction releases. They routinely do not include reprints that are not significantly revised/expanded, publisher exclusives, children's books, and digital-only titles. Works that only tangentially address the war years are also generally excluded. Inevitably, one or more titles on this list will get a rescheduled release (and they do not get repeated later), so revisiting the past few "Coming Soon" posts is the best way to pick up stragglers.

Rafuse's War in Virginia series continues

You might recall that I liked Ethan Rafuse's From the Mountains to the Bay: The War in Virginia, January-May 1862 (Kansas, 2023) quite a bit. I remarked at the time that it had the hallmarks of the beginning of a series (including a cliffhanger ending) but nowhere inside was there even a hint that future volumes were planned. Happily, it turns out to be the case that The War in Virginia is indeed a series-format project, the next volume, From the Valley to the Tidewater: The War in Virginia, May 21–June 12, 1862, scheduled for a November '26 release.

Whereas the first book covered a five-month period that positioned Union forces on the doorstep of Richmond, the second covers three weeks of dramatic Confederate countermoves on both the Shenandoah and capital fronts. It will be interesting to see how far forward Rafuse plans to carry this series. Hopefully, the new book will lay out a roadmap.