Booknotes II (May '11)

New Arrivals:

1. Campaign for Wilson's Creek: The Fight for Missouri Begins by Jeffrey L. Patrick (McWhiney Foundation Pr, 2011).

With years passing and a succession of release dates missed, I was concerned this book was never going to appear. I don't know if it will offer a significant amount of new information above and beyond that contained in the Bearss and Piston/Hatcher studies, but Jeff Patrick, the librarian at Wilson's Creek NBF, is a fine historian in his own right. The book itself is annotated [but no bibliography] and over twice the size of the typical Civil War Campaigns and Commanders series title. 18 maps are included with 12 plotting the course of the 1861 Missouri campaign in 1-3 day intervals, and the remaining covering the battle itself.  The tactical battlefield maps are superb.

2. Last to Leave the Field: The Life and Letters of First Sergeant Ambrose Henry Hayward, 28th Pennsylvania Volunteers edited by Timothy J. Orr (Univ of Tenn Pr, 2011).

A new volume from the Voices of the Civil War series, Sgt. Hayward's letters cover his experiences first in the east and then in the western theater beginning with the Chattanooga Campaign. He was mortally wounded in Georgia during the June 1864 Gilgal Church battle.