The Year in Review: 2011

***  CWBA Favorite Books of 2011  ***

[ NOTE: As always, Fall 2010 titles may be included here as my reading backlog tends to build up substantially during this typically busy time for new releases. ]

Battle/Campaign Histories:

Trans-Mississippi Theater:
Thunder Across the Swamp: The Fight for the Lower Mississippi, February-May 1863 by Donald S. Frazier (State House Pr).
Western Theater:
Failure in the Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Joe Wheeler, and the Confederate Cavalry in the Chickamauga Campaign by David A. Powell (Savas Beatie, 2010).
Eastern Theater:
Second Manassas: Longstreet's Attack and the Struggle for Chinn Ridge by Scott C. Patchan (Potomac Books).
Small/Obscure Battle:
The Battle of White Sulphur Springs: Averell Fails to Secure West Virginia by Eric J. Wittenberg (The History Pr).
CW Indian Wars:
Dakota Dawn: The Decisive First Week of the Sioux Uprising, August 17-24, 1862 by Gregory F. Michno (Savas Beatie, 2011).

Social History:

The Great Heart of the Republic: St. Louis and the Cultural Civil War by Adam Arenson (Harvard Univ Pr).

Political History:

Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union by William C. Harris (Univ Pr of Kansas).

Economics, Technology and Society:

The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America by William G. Thomas III (Yale Univ Pr).

Most Welcome Reprint:

The Battle of Piedmont and Hunter's Raid on Staunton: The 1864 Shenandoah Campaign by Scott C. Patchan (The History Press, 2011).

Unit History:

I Will Give Them One More Shot: Ramsey's First Regiment Georgia Volunteers by George W. Martin (Mercer Univ Pr).

Essay Collection:

Violent Encounters: Interviews on Western Massacres by Deborah and Jon Lawrence (Univ of Oklahoma Pr).

Reference Book:

Of Duty Well and Faithfully Done: A History of the Regular Army in the Civil War by Clayton R. Newell and Charles R. Shrader (Univ of Nebraska Pr).

Biography:

Confederate Outlaw: Champ Ferguson and the Civil War in Appalachia by Brian D. McKnight (Louisiana St Univ Pr).

Naval History:

A Civil War Gunboat in Pacific Waters: Life on Board USS Saginaw by Hans Konrad Van Tilburg (Univ Pr of Florida).

Edited Letters/Memoir/Diary:

Worthy of the Cause for Which They Fight: The Civil War Diary of Brigadier General Daniel Harris Reynolds, 1861-1865 edited by Robert Patrick Bender (Univ of Ark Press).

Guide Book/Map Study:

Savannah, Immortal City: Volume I - Civil War Savannah by Barry Sheehy & Cindy Wallace with Vaughnette Goode-Walker (Emerald Book Co).

Local/Regional History:

Turmoil on the Rio Grande: The Territorial History of the Mesilla Valley, 1846-1865 by William S. Kiser (Texas A&M Univ Pr).

Self-Publishing Effort:

The Bristoe Campaign: General Lee's Last Strategic Offensive with the Army of Northern Virginia October 1863 by Adrian G. Tighe.