Booknotes: The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 - Volume III

New Arrival:
• The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 - Volume III: Shepherdstown Ford and the End of the Campaign by Ezra Carman, edited and annotated by Thomas G. Clemens (Savas Beatie, 2017).

This third volume of The Maryland Campaign of September 1862 marks the end of Tom Clemens's journey to bring a definitive edited version of the massive Carman manuscript to print. 

The book's introduction provides a good rundown of the content within. The first chapter covers the Battle of Shepherdstown, the campaign's final battle. A casualty and results analysis is next, followed by a discussion of high level strategy and political conflicts that occurred during the campaign's aftermath. The original intent of the final two chapters is speculative. The second to last chapter covers events preceding the Maryland Campaign (including the Second Bull Run command fiasco), and the last is a general summary of the campaign up until the Antietam battle.

The appendix section has three parts. The first two appendices are composed of errata for the preceding volumes, and the third is an extensive 'biographical dictionary' (138 pages in length) of individuals (civilian and military, both famous and obscure) "mentioned in Carman's manuscript or mentioned by [Clemens] as providing information to Carman." The book also has four original maps.