Booknotes (August '10)

New Arrivals:

1. A German Hurrah!: Civil War Letters of Friedrich Bertsch and Wilhelm Staengel, 9th Ohio Infantry trans. and edited by Joseph Reinhart (Kent St. U. Pr, 2010).

I've always liked the look and feel of Kent State books and this one is no exception. Reinhart, with his translation and editing work, deserves a lot of credit for bringing to today's Civil War readers the attitudes and experiences of German immigrant officers and soldiers in their own words. A large body of the letters in A German Hurrah!, as much as half this book's text it seems, covers the 1861 western Virginia campaign, so the volume should be of special interest for those students.

2. Recollections of War Times: By An Old Veteran while under Stonewall Jackson and Lieutenant General James Longstreet by William A. McClendon (U. of Ala Pr, 2010).

This is the new volume from 'Bama's Seeing the Elephant series. McClendon served in the 15th Alabama, and his memoir was originally published in 1909 by Paragon Press in very limited numbers [**rare book alert**]. Historian Keith Bohannon has added a biographical introduction and an index.