Booknotes (Jan 08)

Regular rundown of book purchases or review copies received this month:

Fort Anderson: Battle for Wilmingtonby Chris E. Fonvielle, Jr. (Da Capo, 1999). Anyone who loves maps shouldn't miss picking up this oversize paperback volume; another great book by Fonvielle. The first edition of this book was published by Savas Publishing (1999, a secondary listing I read mentioned a single 500 copy print run).

The Civil War's First Blood: Missouri, 1854-1861 by James Denny and John Bradbury (Missouri Life, 2007). Distributed by University of Missouri Press for Missouri Life magazine, this heavily illustrated book looks to be a reasonably good introductory history of the period.

Divided Allegiances: Bertie County during the Civil War by Gerald W. Thomas (North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1996). This is the only completely blind acquisition of the bunch. Bertie county is located just west of Plymouth, so it presumably hosted more than its share of Civil War events in NC.

Action Before Westport 1864 by Howard N. Monnett (University Press of Colorado, 1995 revised edition). New introduction by John M. Monnett, with revised annotation. Prices for the hardcover first edition (Westport Historical Society, 1964) have really come down since the late 1990s when they were all triple digits. Though dated, Monnett's book is still the best one volume history of the campaign [this situation is expected to change with Sinisi's upcoming book]. While not a complete overhaul by any means, John Monnett's corrective notes make this new edition an attractive acquisition.

Confederate Cavalry West of the River by Stephen B. Oates (University of Texas Press, 1992 PB-reprint). This is another dated classic that nevertheless contains some useful information, in this case mainly in the tables and appendices.