Thursday, January 5, 2017

2016 - The "Civil War Books and Authors" Year in Review

BOOK OF THE YEAR:

The Old North State at War: The North Carolina Civil War Atlas by Mark Anderson Moore, with Jessica A. Bandel and Michael Hill (Office of Archives and History - NC Dept of Natural and Cultural Resources).

MORE FAVORITES OF 2016 BY CATEGORY:

Battle/Campaign Histories:
Trans-Mississippi Theater: The Red River Campaign and Its Toll: 69 Bloody Days in Louisiana, March - May 1864 by Henry O. Robertson (McFarland).
Western Theater: Tie - Grant Invades Tennessee: The 1862 Battles for Forts Henry and Donelson by Timothy B. Smith (Univ Press of Kansas) & Slaughter at the Chapel: The Battle of Ezra Church, 1864 by Gary Ecelbarger (Univ of Oklahoma Press).
Eastern Theater: Kill Jeff Davis: The Union Raid on Richmond, 1864 by Bruce M. Venter (Univ of Oklahoma Press).

Naval History:
The Civil War on the Mississippi: Union Sailors, Gunboat Captains, and the Campaign to Control the River by Barbara Brooks Tomblin (Univ Press of Kentucky).

War and Society:
The Rivers Ran Backward: The Civil War and the Remaking of the American Middle Border by Christopher Phillips (Oxford Univ Press).

Society and Culture:
Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri by Joseph M. Beilein Jr. (Kent St Univ Press).

Politics and Society:
Abolitionizing Missouri: German Immigrants and Racial Ideology in Nineteenth-Century America by Kristen Layne Anderson (LSU Press).

Industry and Technology:
Engineering Victory: How Technology Won the Civil War by Thomas F. Army, Jr. (Johns Hopkins Univ Press).

Unit History:
"Forward My Brave Boys!": A History of the 11th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry CSA, 1861-1865 by M. Todd Cathey and Gary W. Waddey (Mercer Univ Press).

Essay Collection:
Border Wars: The Civil War in Tennessee and Kentucky edited by Kent T. Dollar, Larry H. Whiteaker and W. Calvin Dickinson (Kent St Univ Press).

Biography:
Amiable Scoundrel: Simon Cameron, Lincoln's Scandalous Secretary of War by Paul Kahan (Potomac Books).

Edited Letters/Memoir/Diary:
Albert C. Ellithorpe, the First Indian Home Guards, and the Civil War on the Trans-Mississippi Frontier edited by M. Jane Johansson (LSU Press).

Guide Book:
A Field Guide to Antietam: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People by Carol Reardon and Tom Vossler (UNC Press).

Regional History:
Extreme Civil War: Guerrilla Warfare, Environment, and Race on the Trans-Mississippi Frontier by Matthew M. Stith (LSU Press).

City/County/Local History:
Kentucky Rebel Town: The Civil War Battles of Cynthiana and Harrison County by William A. Penn (Univ Press of Kentucky).

Reference Book or Series:
The Army of Northern Virginia: Organization, Strength, Casualties 1861-1865 by Darrell L. Collins (McFarland).

Self-Published:
Hoffman's Army: The 31st Virginia Infantry, CSA 1861-1865 by David Wooddell.

Uncategorized:
Seizing Destiny: The Army of the Potomac's "Valley Forge" and the Civil War Winter that Saved the Union by Albert Z. Conner, Jr. with Chris Mackowski (Savas Beatie).

2 comments:

  1. Hi Drew

    Thanks for the nod for "Seizing Destiny." Sadly it has been mostly overlooked, but hopefully enough folks will eventually read and appreciate it. Happy New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also liked Abolitionizing Missouri. Good choice!

    ReplyDelete

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