2015 - The "Civil War Books and Authors" Year in Review

BOOK OF THE YEAR:

Civil War Infantry Tactics: Training, Combat, and Small-Unit Effectiveness by Earl J. Hess (LSU Press).

BEST OF THE REST BY CATEGORY¹:

Battle/Campaign Histories:
Trans-Mississippi Theater: The Last Hurrah: Sterling Price's Missouri Expedition of 1864 by Kyle S. Sinisi (Rowman & Littlefield).
Western Theater: Shiloh: Conquer or Perish by Timothy B. Smith (University Press of Kansas).
Eastern Theater: "To Prepare for Sherman's Coming": The Battle of Wise's Forks, March 1865² by Wade Sokolosky and Mark A. Smith (Savas Beatie).

Naval History: Lincoln's Trident: The West Gulf Blockading Squadron during the Civil War by Robert M. Browning, Jr. (University of Alabama Press).

War and Society: Citizen-Officers: The Union and Confederate Volunteer Junior Officer Corps in the American Civil War by Andrew S. Bledsoe (LSU Press).

Society and Culture: To Live and Die in Dixie: Native Northerners Who Fought for the Confederacy by David Ross Zimring (University of Tennessee Press).

Politics and Economy: Agriculture and the Confederacy: Policy, Productivity, and Power in the Civil War South by R. Douglas Hurt (UNC Press).

Industry and Technology: Confederate Saboteurs: Building the Hunley and Other Secret Weapons of the Civil War by Mark K. Ragan (Texas A&M University Press).

Unit History: A Civil War History of the New Mexico Volunteers and Militia by Jerry D. Thompson (University of New Mexico Press).

Essay Collection: The Enigmatic South: Toward Civil War and Its Legacies edited by Samuel C. Hyde, Jr. (LSU Press).

Biography: Lincoln's Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stantonby William Marvel (UNC Press).

Edited Letters/Memoir/Diary: Confederate "Tales of the War" In the Trans-Mississippi, Part Four: 1864. From Winter Camp to Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry edited by Michael Banasik and Brenda F. Banasik (Camp Pope Publishing).

Guide Book: The Gettysburg Cyclorama: The Turning Point of the Civil War on Canvas by Chris Brenneman and Sue Boardman with photographer Bill Dowling (Savas Beatie).

Self-Published: The Confederate Hospitals of Madison, Georgia: their records & histories 1861-1865 by Bonnie P. Harris (Author).

Local and Regional History: Rebellion, Reconstruction, and Redemption, 1861-1893: The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina, Volume 2 by Stephen R. Wise & Lawrence S. Rowland w/ Gerhart Spieler (University of South Carolina Press).

Reference Book or Series: Civil War Biographies from the Western Waters: 956 Confederate and Union Naval and Military Personnel, Contractors, Politicians, Officials, Steamboat Pilots and Others by Myron J. Smith, Jr. (McFarland)

Reprint: The First Battle of Manassas: An End to Innocence, July 18-21, 1861 Revised Edition by John J. Hennessy (Stackpole).


1 - As mentioned before the CWBA review year is roughly Q4-Q4, as many titles are released very late in the final quarter and cannot be reviewed until the following year.
2 - Theater boundaries are up for debate. Some might argue that Wise's Forks is western theater but the Union operation was launched from occupied NC ports, which are considered eastern theater.