Booknotes III (Nov '14)

New Arrivals:

1. Marauder: The Life and Times of Nathaniel McClure Menefee by Randall Osborne (East KY Pr, 2014).

Osborne is an expert on the Civil War in the East Kentucky and was a frequent collaborator with Jeff Weaver, who wrote extensively on the units that fought along the borderlands of E. Kentucky and S.W. Virginia. Marauder explores the colorful life and Civil War career of Nathaniel Menefee (also frequently spelled Menifee) who was a one-legged Confederate irregular fighter. This is the first full account of the Civil War activities of Menefee, who remains a relatively obscure figure outside the region.

2. The 2nd Maine Cavalry in the Civil War: A History and Roster by Ned Smith (McFarland, 2014).

Formed near the end of 1863, the 2nd Maine Cavalry was a latecomer to the war, seeing its first combat in Louisiana during the Red River Campaign and spending the rest of the war conducting raids in Alabama and Florida (mostly the latter). Health wise, they had a tough time in the Deep South during the war, suffering 334 deaths from disease and only 10 from combat.

3. Confederates in Montana Territory: In the Shadow of Price's Army by Ken Robison (The Hist Pr, 2014).

Both during and after the Civil War, ex-Confederates migrated west to Montana Territory. This book is basically a collection of their individual stories, each chapter length.

4. Antebellum and Civil War San Francisco: A Western Theater for Northern & Southern Politics by Monika Trobits (The Hist Pr, 2014).

"In just two years, San Francisco's population skyrocketed from eight hundred to thirty thousand, making it an "instant city" where tensions between transplanted Northerners and Southerners built as war threatened the nation. Though seemingly isolated, San Franciscans took their part in the conflict. Some extended the Underground Railroad to their city, while others joined the Confederate-aiding Knights of the Golden Circle. Including a directory of local historic sites and streets, author Monika Trobits chronicles the dramatic and volatile antebellum and Civil War history of the City by the Bay."