Booknotes III (March '12)

New Arrivals:

1. General Abner M. Perrin, C.S.A.: A Biography by Ron V. Killian (McFarland, 2012).

Many ANV brigade commanders are so well covered in the literature that they seem like old friends to the widely read, but there were a few general officers that operated under the radar. For me, Abner Perrin is one of these, and I know little about him beyond his Gettysburg service and his mortal wounding at Spotsylvania. I don't know if it is fair to say that this is the first book length biography to emerge, but I am not aware of another.

2. Civil War Lawyers: Constitutional Questions, Courtroom Dramas, and the Men Behind Them by Arthur T. Downey (American Bar Association, 2011).

Of course, there are mountains of books examining court cases pertaining to prominent Civil War related issues (before, during, and after the war itself), but this book does all this while also shedding light on the lives and professional relationships of the lawyers that argued these cases.