2023 Year in Review - Honorable Mentions

It's that time again, time to revisit my favorite titles of the year. You can read my full thoughts on each recommendation by clicking on the review link provided. Really, any of these 2023 Honorable Mentions could have made the upcoming CWBA Top Ten list:

• Union General: Samuel Ryan Curtis and Victory in the West by William L. Shea [1/12/23 Review] (Potomac).

As a major Union commander in the war fought west of the Mississippi River, Curtis finally receives the modern full-length biography that he has long deserved. The book also offers possible answers to questions regarding why the Union high command, in the middle of 1862, essentially sidelined into desktop service one of the nation's most aggressive and successful field commanders of the early-war period.

• July 22: The Civil War Battle of Atlanta by Earl J. Hess [3/30/23 Review] (Kansas).

July 22 is the latest in a long line of top-notch battle histories from one of the field's most talented and prolific military historians. Highly detailed and full of insightful reflection and analysis, this particular Earl Hess offering ranks as the deepest examination of its subject to date.

• From the Mountains to the Bay: The War in Virginia, January-May 1862 by Ethan S. Rafuse [2/28/23 Review] (Kansas).

As a single-volume overview of the war in Virginia during the first half of 1862, this is as good as it gets. I would welcome some manner of follow-up, perhaps a natural ending point being the conclusion of the Battle of Second Bull Run, but I've yet to encounter any news on that front or really any indication that such as thing was ever in the cards.

• The Civil Wars of General Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate States Army - Volume I: Virginia and Mississippi, 1861–1863 by Richard M. McMurry [3/9/23 Review] (Savas Beatie).

I still lament the author's choice to largely exclude the 1861-62 period of the war in Virginia as not being applicable to his study's primary themes (and I would love to have read McMurry's opinion of Johnston at Seven Pines), but there is a lot of insightful material in the book regarding Confederate high command dysfunction in the West. I am greatly looking forward to Volume II.