Booknotes II (January '10 )

New additions this month:

1. Executing Daniel Bright: Race, Loyalty, and Guerrilla Violence in a Coastal Carolina Community 1861-1865 by Barton A. Myers (LSU Press, 2009).

My selections from LSU's Fall catalog finally arrived. Myers's book was most anticipated, joining works like Meekins's Elizabeth City study and Gerald Thomas's Bertie County history in highlighting the political schisms and irregular military conflict within North Carolina's coastal communities.

2. Isham G. Harris of Tennessee: Confederate Governor and United States Senator by Sam Davis Elliott (LSU Press, 2010).

LSU's Southern Biography Series is one of the better ones out there. I'm hoping Elliott discovered lots of information about the governor's key role in the organization of the Provisional Army of Tennessee.

3. Baring the Iron Hand: Discipline in the Union Army by Steven J. Ramold (Univ. of N. Illinois Press, 2009).

Much admired by me for its fresh insights into attitudes toward the enemy and (in)discipline among federal volunteer soldiers is From Conciliation to Conquest: The Sack of Athens and the Court-Martial of Colonel John B. Turchin by George C. Bradley and Richard L. Dahlen (U. of Alabama Press, 2006). With its own even more direct focus on the subject, I've been looking forward to reading Ramold's lengthy study ever since its announcement.