1. Chicago's Battery Boys: The Chicago Mercantile Battery in the Civil War's Western Theater
by Richard Brady Williams (Savas Beatie, 2008). This is a softcover revised edition of the 2005 hardcover. A brief glance through it certainly gives me the impression that the positive reviews are deserved. I think readers interested in the western and Trans-Mississippi theaters (like me) will delight in the amount of information provided. The author also has a website, Civil War Legacy.
2. Thunder in the Hills: Military Operations in Jefferson County, West Virginia, During the American Civil War
by Stephen D. Engle (Mountain State Press, 1989).Jefferson County is located along the extreme NE border of West Virginia, and Engle's book is a pretty thorough summary (with numerous, albeit primitively drawn, maps) of the skirmishes and battles that occurred there from 1861-1865. Some time ago, Engle mentioned to me the possibility of a reprint of this rather scarce study.
Drew,
ReplyDelete'Chicago's Battery Boys' is really an impressive unit history. I wish there were more like it for the Western theater. It has great coverage of the Vicksburg and Red River campaigns and even interesting information about the prison of war experience that members of the battery were confined to in Texas. I highly recommend Williams book to all readers. The only modern battery history of the western theater that rivals it is Hughes book from LSU that came out in 1997 about the Washington Artillery on New Orleans that fought with the Army of Tennesee. These two books are what modern unit histories should all strive to be.
Thanks,
Chris