Coming Soon (May '25 Edition)

Scheduled for MAY 2025¹:
• Rebels at the Gates: The Confederacy's Final Gamble and the Battle to Save Washington by Robert Watson.
• Reluctant Participants: Animals and the American Civil War by Charles Poland.
• Late to the Fight: Union Soldier Combat Performance from the Wilderness to the Fall of Petersburg by Alexandre Caillot.
• Rockets, Tanks and Submarines: The Ingenuity of Civil War Texans by Edward Cotham.
• Gettysburg in Color - Volume 3: Sacred Ground, 1863-1938 by Patrick and Dylan Brennan.
• Five Flags: The Warship that Reshaped the World by Stuart Buxton.
• Hero of Fort Sumter: The Extraordinary Life of Robert Anderson by Wesley Moody.
• The Tenacious Nurse Nichols: An Unsung African American Civil War Hero by Eileen Yanoviak.
• 1861: The Lost Peace by Jay Winik.
• Lee Besieged: Grant’s Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18-July 1, 1864 by John Horn.
• The Overland Campaign for Richmond: Grant vs Lee, 1864 by Bradley Gottfried.

¹ - These monthly release lists are not meant to be exhaustive compilations of non-fiction releases. They do not include reprints that are not significantly revised/expanded, special editions not distributed to reviewers, children's books, and digital-only titles. Works that only tangentially address the war years are also generally excluded. Inevitably, one or more titles on this list will get a rescheduled release (and they do not get repeated later), so revisiting the past few "Coming Soon" posts is the best way to pick up stragglers.

The other Gallagher-edited battle anthology series

Reviewing the latest addition to UNC Press's Military Campaigns of the Civil War series, and recalling the series as whole, reminded me how incredibly busy Gary Gallagher must have been in the 1990s with his university obligations, series contributor and editor duties, television program involvements, public history speaking engagements, and other research and writing.

One group of books from that time (and I'm not sure if all five were formally part of a single series) that I have fond memories of, and unfortunately haven't revisited since then, are the following essay compilations Gallagher edited for Kent State University Press:

• Antietam: Essays on the 1862 Maryland Campaign (1989).
• Struggle for the Shenandoah: Essays on the 1864 Valley Campaign (1991).
• The First Day at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership (1992).
• The Second Day at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership (1993).
• Three Days at Gettysburg: Essays on Confederate and Union Leadership (1999).

These books, especially the Gettysburg ones, were a staple of 1990s Borders and B&N bookshelves, back when their Civil War store offerings filled entire aisles. Man, I miss those days. Today, the otherwise flourishing B&N store closest to me treats the ACW like it's an embarrassment to the history section, relegating the entire subject to the floor shelf of a single bay.

To end on a more positive note, like UNC Press has managed to do with the Military Campaigns series, KSU Press still makes all of the above titles available in very reasonably priced paperback format.

Booknotes: Fred Grant at Vicksburg

New Arrival:

• Fred Grant at Vicksburg: A Boy’s Memoir at His Father’s Side During the American Civil War edited and annotated by Albert A. Nofi (Savas Beatie, 2025).

While firsthand Civil War accounts written by officers, common soldiers, and reporters at the fighting front and civilians and politicians on the home front fill our bookshelves, much much rarer is the published journal or memoir written from a child's perspective. This is one of those.

Frederick Dent Grant, 12-years-old at the time, joined his father for the most momentous period of the Vicksburg Campaign. According to Albert Nofi, editor of Fred Grant at Vicksburg: A Boy’s Memoir at His Father’s Side During the American Civil War, adult Fred was frequently invited to offer his own account of his time with Grant's army (over a dozen versions of his published speeches and interviews survive), but his longest and most significant contribution was an 18,000-word memoir account serialized in the National Tribune in Jan-Feb 1887. That version forms the basis of this book.

From the description: "On March 29, 1863, 12-year-old Frederick Grant, the eldest son of Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, arrived at his father’s headquarters at Young’s Point, Louisiana. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee was preparing to move against Vicksburg, Mississippi, and young Fred had no intention of missing out on the adventure. His incredible journey would consume more than three months and would not end until shortly after the surrender of the Confederate bastion on the Fourth of July."

Young Grant frequently took advantage of the free reign given to the son of the big guy in charge. Grant himself later claimed that the boy never gave any cause for anxiety, but one imagines that his staff and headquarters guard might not, at times, have appreciated the distraction. More from the description: "For nearly 100 days, young Fred roamed freely within the army, often not seeing his father for days while living amongst the troops, sharing their rations, and seeing war firsthand. At times hungry, cold, and alone, he was also often under fire, slept where he could, was nearly captured, and was lightly wounded in the battle of the Big Black River Bridge. The pre-teen twice watched as Union ships ran the Vicksburg batteries, acquired souvenirs, met some of the most notable Americans of the time, and nearly died from dysentery—all the while witnessing and participating in some of the most decisive events of the Civil War."

Nofi's book is centered on the extended account referred to above, but it is also enhanced by the other existing versions of his experiences, "which often add additional details or explanations omitted in the longer National Tribune telling." In small bits, Vicksburg Campaign books frequently draw from Fred's remembrances, and it is nice to finally get the entire picture, newly footnoted. But there's a lot more. Section II of the book explores more about the Grant family and includes a timeline of Fred's wartime comings and goings. Also, a pair of appendices offer detailed information about persons and places referenced in the memoir, and a few more supplements round out the volume.

Booknotes: The Johnson-Gilmor Cavalry Raid Around Baltimore

New Arrival:

• The Johnson-Gilmor Cavalry Raid Around Baltimore, July 10-13, 1864 by Eric J. Wittenberg (Savas Beatie, 2025).

This is the fourth volume in the Savas Beatie Battles & Leaders series. As demonstrated by the very first installment being a POW and escape memoir [Thirteen Months in Dixie, or, the Adventures of a Federal Prisoner in Texas (2022)], subject matter coverage is a bit wider than the series title implies, although the next three—Chris Mackowski's The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863 (2022), Ed Bearss's Outwitting Forrest: The Tupelo Campaign in Mississippi, June 22 - July 23, 1864 (2023), and now Eric Wittenberg's The Johnson-Gilmor Cavalry Raid Around Baltimore, July 10-13, 1864—unambiguously fit the mold.

On paper, the Point Lookout operation appears on sober reflection to have had an almost zero-percent chance of success, making it one of the more hare-brained military schemes the war produced. It ranks up there with the complicated plot to free the Confederate officer POWs from Johnson's Island on Lake Erie. Both are fascinating topics to contemplate, though.

From the description: "The thundering high-stakes operation was intended to free the suffering of 15,000 Confederate prisoners held at Point Lookout, Maryland, a peninsula at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. The operation consisted of two mounted columns, one under Bradley Johnson and a second smaller one under Harry Gilmor. Each had different objectives. The former would move directly on Point Lookout, while the other destroyed bridges and created other mischief to tie up enemy forces. (The wild plot initially envisioned launching a simultaneous naval strike, which went awry at the 11th hour.) Success would have released thousands of men behind enemy lines, created significant chaos and, with a little more luck, returned veterans into the fighting ranks."

Other books have covered this topic before, but it is claimed that this one exceeds the others in research, depth, and "precision." As part of Wittenberg's overall analysis of the operation, his study also intriguingly "compares and contrasts this raid to a pair of other unsuccessful attempts to free Union prisoners of war—the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid of February–March 1864, and the Stoneman Raid on Macon, Georgia, of July 1864—as well as Gen. George S. Patton’s attempt to free his son-in-law and other American prisoners in March of 1945."

Review - "The Second Manassas Campaign" by Janney & Shively, eds.

[The Second Manassas Campaign edited by Caroline E. Janney & Kathryn J. Shively (University of North Carolina Press, 2025). Hardcover, 3 maps, figures, chapter notes, bibliographical essay, index. Pp. 265. ISBN:978-1-4696-8536-6. $34.95]

With this latest release, there are now an even dozen titles in UNC Press's Military Campaigns of the Civil War series. With the earlier volumes reissued in paperback format, it happily appears that all of them remain in print. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and we've now reached the penultimate addition to the series, The Second Manassas Campaign. Though theme and content mix has altered over time, reflective of evolving scholarly trends, each anthology still aims to "reexamine common assumptions about pivotal campaigns, the experiences of major figures and common soldiers involved in the fighting, the connection between strategy and tactics on the ground, and the political and social ramifications of battles on the respective home fronts." The nine contributions to this volume collectively address that mission statement in fine fashion.

Union Army logistics is frequently, and with much evidentiary justification, presented as a marvel of volume and efficiency, but it took some time to get there. Steven Stotelmyer's work has highlighted serious gaps in the post-Antietam supply chain, but this essay shows that the shortfalls experienced during the fall of 1862 were an extension of earlier problems in the theater. Citing near logistical collapse as a major contributing factor to Union defeat at Second Manassas, contributor and volume co-editor Kathryn Shively paints a strong picture of the collective consequences of poor top-down decision-making (from Army of Virginia commander John Pope's almost laughable attempts at logistical micromanagement to his ill-timed dismissal of railroad specialist Herman Haupt), extreme levels of military-civilian traffic congestion along the Washington-Fredericksburg corridor, and lack of system when it came to balancing the Army of Virginia's own prodigious needs in the areas of food, forage, supplies, and medical needs with the sudden influx of reinforcements that needed transportation to the front. Significantly, her own views on some matters run counter to historian John Matsui's thesis, developed in his book The First Republican Army (2017), of the Army of Virginia as a distinctive radicalizing force of "hard war" advocacy within the Union war effort. Shively instead sees the crux of Pope's general orders as being an almost desperate attempt to establish order and discipline in his badly administered army, the harshness directed toward civilians being little different from what he and his military superior, Henry Halleck, had already done in Missouri much earlier. She also cites Pope's personal dismay at his army's interpretation of his orders as giving license to plunder the populace and his apparent ignoring of the growing black refugee problem as additional evidence of the prioritization of practical military matters over ideologically driven ones. What a harried Pope, knee deep in a very fluid military situation, might have done above and beyond what his subordinates had already been doing to alleviate the black refugee situation before his arrival (by either employing them with the army or directing them behind Union lines toward Washington, as outlined in the following essay by John Hennessy) is unaddressed.

Hennessy's chapter detailing how the infantry corps that would eventually comprise the Army of Virginia confronted slavery provides yet another example of the institution being critically disrupted, even destroyed, wherever heavy Union forces made their presence felt. This connection was certainly well known at the time. He agrees with Shively that Pope was less of an instigating force in bringing hard war to the Old Dominion countryside than he was an obliging commander carrying out the wishes and directives of both the President and the Congress. There is even some tantalizing evidence hinting at the possibility that much of the rhetorical bombast that Pope has been ridiculed over, then and now, actually originated from Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's office.

In contrast to Shively's interpretation of Pope's military-political agency as being primarily reactive in nature, Cecily Zander presents the general and his actions in ways that largely hearken back to their more traditional portrayal in the literature, with his failure to achieve a signal military victory in the field destroying any lasting footprint he might have left in the theater. Her article serves as a powerful reminder that the Civil War's political initiatives, especially ones invoking radical transformations, had to be paired with military victory in order to be credibly sustained.

Original series editor Gary Gallagher opens his essay by noting that the Battle of Second Manassas, sandwiched between the Peninsula/Seven Days and Maryland campaigns, has (until quite recently) suffered undue neglect, at least on a standalone basis. He goes on to explain that much of that can be traced back to the war itself, when the battle was viewed by many Confederate supporters as just one part of a sweeping series of events that collectively reshaped the war in the East, and by extension the course of the war itself. Of the modern interpretations of this period, the fullest and arguably best account can be found in B.F. Cooling's Counter-Thrust: From the Peninsula to the Antietam (2007). Gallagher's interpretation of that strategic metamorphosis includes a geographic reorientation of the theater seat of war from the outskirts of one capital to another and a fundamental change in the character of Confederate strategy from passive defense to aggressive offense. Closely tied to both was the emergence of Robert E. Lee, who still lagged behind Stonewall Jackson in terms of popular acclaim but nevertheless gave the Confederacy an army commander that inspired confidence in the future. As Gallagher demonstrates here and in previous writings, the new style of war fought in the East proved enormously popular on both the Confederate military and home fronts, with victory (at least as measured through battlefield success) making the heavy casualties incurred more palatable.

The most interesting element of Peter Luebke's chapter, which explores the sources and nature of Lee's 1861-62 strategizing, is the bundle of lessons the Virginian drew from his frustrating time spent in command of the military department tasked with managing Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida's overextended coastal defenses. As Luebke outlines, the local/regional situation along the Lower Atlantic coast (where Union forces, on land and sea, possessed—whenever they had the will to do so—the capability of quickly concentrating overwhelming numbers and firepower against scattered defenders) mirrored the Confederacy's strategic challenges as a whole. The answer, seizing the initiative by concentrating one's own forces and employing risk-taking aggression utilizing rapid maneuver to put enemy plans in disarray and hopefully destroy significant parts of their forces by gaining local superiority at the point of attack, formed the core of Lee's response to taking command in Virginia with George McClellan's army at the gates of Richmond. That operational and strategic philosophy was also employed against Pope's growing concentration of forces in central Virginia.

Common to every volume in the series are essays recounting the key actions of prominent officers and unit formations. Fitting that mold in The Second Manassas Campaign are a pair of chapters, James Marten's focus on the Sixth Wisconsin at Brawner's Farm and Keith Bohannon's review of the part John Bell Hood played in delivering the resounding Confederate victory at Second Manassas. Marten not only traces the Sixth's part in the bloody fighting between what would become the Iron Brigade and Jackson's men but also integrates historical memory and home front components into his narrative. Bohannon's recounting of Hood's initiation to division command is generally laudatory in nature, and, although Hood committed a serious error in assigning a staff officer to lead the Texas Brigade, the writer deems his subject's overall leadership performance on the plains of Manassas as heralding a bright future in the ANV high command. Revisiting the infamous Fitz John Porter trial and conviction as well as that general's long and bumpy road to official redemption, William Marvel's chapter offers a spirited overview of salient points more fully addressed inside his book-length biographical study Radical Sacrifice: The Rise and Ruin of Fitz John Porter (2021) [site review].

Finally, co-editor Caroline Janney's essay tracks both the placement of the first Second Manassas battlefield monuments (a pair of permanent markers installed at Groveton and Henry Hill, both of which were built by Union soldiers just as the war in the East concluded) and the tortuous path toward securing protection via legislative creation of Manassas National Battlefield Park. This concluding chapter yet again reminds us that, like the friction of war itself, nothing is straightforward where partisan politics is involved.

It's a pretty tired reviewing cliche to say that an essay collection offers 'something for everyone,' but this volume's strong addressing of a wide range of subjects, and this series as a whole, really does achieve that type of impact better than most others. Of added interest are elements of the anthology that amplify, and in some cases even challenge, the conclusions of fellow contributors. Now it's on to First Manassas and the ironic outcome of the first major battle of the war being the last volume in the grand old Military Campaigns of the Civil War series.

Booknotes: Antebellum America, 1787-1861

New Arrival:

• Antebellum America, 1787-1861: A Sourcebook on States' Rights, Limited Government, Slavery, Political Violence and the Road to Civil War compiled and edited by Thomas J. Ebert & Allen Carden (McFarland, 2025).

Intended to be paired with 2022's Abraham Lincoln and His Times: A Sourcebook on His Life, His Presidency, Slavery and Civil War, this is the second historical document reference book from Ebert and Carden. Antebellum America, 1787-1861: A Sourcebook on States' Rights, Limited Government, Slavery, Political Violence and the Road to Civil War "is a documentary sourcebook that provides a roadmap to the antebellum era. The primary documents assembled herein describe how slavery became intertwined with the antebellum arguments over the nature of the federal constitution, whether it created a national government or a loose confederation of states."

From the description: "The emphatic opinions on both sides of" debates surrounding the relationship between states and the federal government "are highlighted in the documents compiled in this book. Also highlighted is the evolution of the pro-slavery argument that the institution of slavery was a social positive and should be preserved." The key documents compiled in the volume are organized into four time intervals: the "Federalist Era," the "Age of Jefferson," the "Age of Jackson," and the "Road to Civil War," the last representing the period from March 1849 to April 1861.

The book's lengthy preface describes the volume's content and thematic intent. The editors provide additional introductory text at the beginning of each chapter. More from the description: there are "more than 145 documents presented" in the book."Many of these documents have not been included in prior collections of antebellum documents, and taken together provide a fresh perspective on this tumultuous era in American history." For added contextualization, the documents are wedded within a running timeline of political and judicial events. There are also scattered footnotes containing either source citations or brief additional commentary. Finally, a large set of biographical sketches of individuals associated with the documents and their creation are collected in an appendix.

Some release highlights from the second half of 2025

The leaves returning to the trees and the blossoms and flowers coming into bloom not only signal the beginning of spring but also a stream of new information about titles scheduled for release during the latter half of the year. Here are a few selections from the growing list of interesting-sounding works that intrigue me most (and haven't already been mentioned before):

1. Civil War Cavalry: Waging Mounted Warfare in Nineteenth-Century America by Earl Hess.

Already the author of books addressing infantry tactics and field artillery, it is no surprise that Hess is now turning his attention toward the third major combat arm of the Union and Confederate armies.

2. The Devil’s Own Purgatory: The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War by Robert Gudmestad.

We have solid single-volume overview histories of the Union Brown Water Navy and its operations from Gary Joiner and Barbara Tomblin, but Gudmestad's book looks to become the new standard in that category.

3. Richmond Views the West: Politics and Perceptions in the Confederate Capital by Larry Daniel.

Of course, Daniel's own body of work has contributed mightily to our understanding of the Civil War in the West. His next book focuses on viewing the theater from an entirely different perspective, from contemporary Richmond. By examining a broad range of viewpoints, from President Davis to "cabinet members, War Department clerks, congressmen, capitol reporters, and even civilians," Daniel "shows for the first time how poor intelligence, fierce politics, and cultural prejudice affected Confederate strategy in the Western Theater." Sounds very interesting.

4. The Surgeon's Battle: How Medicine Won the Vicksburg Campaign and Changed the Civil War by Lindsay Rae Smith Privette.

I'm always leery of lofty new claims such as the one indicated by this book's subtitle, but the topic is certainly worthy of more in-depth attention, and I'm looking forward to following the development of Privette's central argument.

Booknotes: Epic Adventures of the American Civil War

New Arrival:

• Epic Adventures of the American Civil War: Warriors, Spies, Chases, Banks, and Desperados by Robert Scott Davis (Edwin Mellon Pr, 2024).

I don't think I've come across this publisher before now, but at the very least I do commend them for having perhaps the best book packaging I've ever encountered as a reviewer well used to receiving items damaged in shipment.

There isn't much of an official book description out there to go on, so I'll just summarize what I see from glancing through the contents. There are 131 pages in total, with 83 pages of main text further enhanced by numerous period photos and illustrations. There is no bibliography, but the endnotes indicate use of a diverse range of source materials, including extensive archival research.

The series of "adventures" referred to in the title are grouped into five chapters. The first chapter addresses naval warfare and the Confederate use of "shallow water commando tactics," the second the Civil War career of Union spy James George Brown, and the third the actions of William Allen Fuller in pursuit of the Andrews raiders during"The Great Locomotive Chase." Chapter Four follows the story of Richmond bank specie lost during the waning moments of the war, and the final chapter looks at the violent lives of Civil War fighters turned postwar outlaws (the focus being on Hamilton County, Tennessee Unionist Joseph G. Ritchey).

Booknotes: Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861

New Arrival:

• Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861: Securing Missouri for the Union by Kenneth E. Burchett (McFarland, 2025).

Kenneth Burchett's Nathaniel Lyon's River Campaign of 1861 connects two earlier titles, Massacre at St. Louis: The Road to the Camp Jackson Affair and Civil War (2024) and The Battle of Carthage, Missouri: First Trans-Mississippi Conflict (2012), forming a trilogy of sorts that follows the main axis of military and political events leading up to the climactic confrontation at Wilson's Creek.

Beginning where Massacre at St. Louis left off, this study covers the failed attempt to broker a political truce in the state, General Lyon's seizure of the state capital and securing of the Missouri River corridor, and the advance of the Southwest Column (the hope being that the opposing Missouri State Guard would be caught in a vise and destroyed). Numerous military clashes are described in the text, the most noteworthy being the Union victory at Boonville and the Missouri State Guard's crushing of federal forces gathered at Cole Camp in Benton County.

As you'll notice from reading the linked reviews of Burchett's earlier books, I generally like the quality of work, and I fully expect to find more of the same in this one.

Booknotes: The Girl in the Middle

New Arrival:

• The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West by Martha A. Sandweiss (Princeton UP, 2025).

Frontier conflicts that filled the years before, during, and immediately after the Civil War, sparked major realignments in the relationships between the federal government and the Indian tribes of the vast Trans-Mississippi West. One of the most momentous diplomatic events from that period was the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. A photographic image from that time inspired Martha Sandweiss to write The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West.

From the description: "In 1868, celebrated Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner traveled to Fort Laramie to document the federal government’s treaty negotiations with the Lakota and other tribes of the northern plains. Gardner, known for his iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln and his visceral pictures of the Confederate dead at Antietam, posed six federal peace commissioners with a young Native girl wrapped in a blanket. The hand-labeled prints carefully name each of the men, but the girl is never identified. As The Girl in the Middle goes in search of her, it draws readers into the entangled lives of the photographer and his subjects."

According to the introduction, Gardner's camera activities around the fort produced "52 large and 101 smaller stereo views." The six men in the Gardner photo that sparked Sandweiss's curiosity and quest for finding the identity and story of the "girl in the middle" are well-known to Civil War readers. They are Alfred H. Terry, William S. Harney, William T. Sherman, John B. Sanborn, Christopher C. Augur, and Samuel F. Tappan. The child has been identified as Sophie Mousseau. While her study incorporates in some aspect all eight figures in the picture—photographer Gardner, the six negotiators, and the girl—its primary focus is on three of those individuals: Gardner, Harney, and Mousseau.

More from the description: "Spinning a spellbinding historical tale from a single enigmatic image, The Girl in the Middle reveals how the American nation grappled with what kind of country it would be as it expanded westward in the aftermath of the Civil War."

Review - "Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia" by Michael Hardy

[Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia by Michael C. Hardy (Savas Beatie, 2025). Hardcover, map, photos, illustrations, footnotes, appendix section, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xii,129/175. ISBN:978-1-61121-731-5. $27.95]

A clear takeaway message from reading Michael Hardy's Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia is that describing how well, or how badly, Lee's army was fed during the war lacks easy generalization. Perhaps the best way to describe that army's food situation throughout the war might be feast and famine along a generally declining curve. Depending on a variety of circumstances, even when the army was static and its logistical tail secure, the availability of supplies (either through domestic sources or through the blockade) proved highly variable. This made stockpiling foodstuffs for the lean times very difficult to accumulate in enough tonnage to sustain consistent soldier rations, especially during the winter months.

The most senior government official directly involved in keeping the Army of Northern Virginia fed was Commissary-General Lucius B. Northrop, an administrative figure not presented favorably in the literature. Hardy himself does not lean heavily toward either end of the spectrum when it comes to weighing Colonel Northrop energy and competence level (or President Jefferson Davis's questionable decision to sustain his beleaguered friend at the post for nearly the entire war). Instead, when discussing Northrop, the author focuses mostly on recounting the Commissary-General's frequent disputes with Lee over food supplies and ration orders. You don't often read of Lee fighting with the administration's War Department (even to the point of disobeying official directives) as much as and for as long as he does against Northrop's ration cutting. Hardy does note that Northrop's February 1865 successor (Brigadier General Isaac St. John) made an immediate positive impact on supply, even at a time when the Confederacy as a whole was in dire straits, but his appointment came far too late in the war (just two months before Appomattox) to make comprehensive comparative analysis possible. Highlighting the efforts of lower-level commissary officers is a useful appendix that names a number of officers who served in the army as commissaries of subsistence and summarizes their duties. The standard view that the South produced at least adequate amounts of food for its armies for most of the war but a large percentage of it could not get to the army due to insufficient transportation (especially over the South's overworked and under-maintained rail system) and storage capacity is supported by Hardy's evidence assessments.

As Hardy explains, a number of alternate ways of procuring food, including through private purchases and activities such as foraging and fishing, were available to supplement meager official rations. Connecting soldiers at the front with family and local communities were boxes from home. A vital source of necessities and delicacies alike, these care packages boosted morale and helped soldiers feel appreciated by those for whom they were fighting. However, as sources indicate, sending those boxes was often very expensive and receiving them intact was far from assured, as even from the very beginning of the war shipment of non-essential goods was unreliable and freight thievery common. As one can imagine, neither situation improved as the war progressed and general privation hit all segments of Confederate society. As Hardy notes, official government impressment and tax-in-kind measures also limited the ability of families and aid society donators back home to set aside extra food to send to local soldiers fighting at the front.

In addition to those associated with the long periods of encampment between campaigns, the measures and challenges involved in feeding Lee's army while on the march and on the firing line are also addressed in the book. An added bonus of sorts for Lee's men was the opportunity active campaigning offered to feast upon foodstuffs left behind by or taken from their more lavishly supplied foes. The process involved with either seizing or purchasing food from enemy civilians, most relevant to the 1862 Maryland and 1863 Pennsylvania campaigns, is also accorded due attention.

For the most part, officers had it better than the rank and file when it came to food, and how the army's high command, including Lee himself, fared is also considered in the book. Just like a soldier marches on his stomach, food played a major part in keeping an over-stressed general officer's mind clear and focused, and Hardy notes at least two instances in which severe bowel complaints impaired Lee's performance in battle. Freeing generals and their staffs from the day to day concerns surrounding the procurement of food and its preparation were camp cooking servants. That position was frequently occupied by slaves, but paid individuals (black and white) also served as cooks. According to Hardy, their numbers and overall proportions in the ANV can only be guessed at, but it's clear there were never enough and the most skilled ones were priceless additions to officer messes.

Every Civil War reader knows that coffee was especially prized by soldiers of both sides, and this book offers an interesting revelation related to that treasured commodity. The literature often claims that supplies of real coffee, for soldiers and civilians alike, largely disappeared as the war progressed, replaced by variations of 'ersatz' coffee alternatives (all disappointing to some degree or another). Thus many readers will be surprised to find how many references there are in Hardy's book to ANV units being issued regular rations of real coffee, undoubtedly sourced through Wilmington and its direct rail connections with ANV warehouses and commissaries, well into the late-war period.

The main reasons but forth by Civil War scholars to explain Confederate collapse and defeat are numerous and commonly known to Civil War readers, and Hardy suggests that inadequate food supply ranked at or near the top. Due to a variety of factors, food supply levels in the southern armies clearly trended downward (regardless of temporary times of plenty), and it is not unreasonable to claim that deficiencies in the quantity and quality of foodstuffs occurred so regularly across the Confederacy as to seriously, perhaps even fatally, impair the morale and efficiency of its armies. Additionally, winter food shortages were arguably the chief driving factor behind the flood of desertions that plagued Confederate armies, including the ANV, during that most challenging time of year.

This slim volume was obviously not intended to be exhaustive in nature, but it would have been interesting to read Hardy's thoughts on some additional matters. Food-related problems in Lee's army, which is considered to have been the Confederacy's best supplied in comparison to the others, are often deemed structural in nature, and one might wish to have read Hardy's views in regard to where, if anywhere, he thought clear improvements controllable at the army administrative level were possible. More in-depth analysis of the depot system supplying the Virginia front, and its prospects for improvement, would also have been appreciated. Nevertheless, there is powerful substance to be found this fine study, which incorporates a large and diverse collection of pointed and informative food-related commentaries and perspectives left behind by the officers and men who served in the Confederacy's premier field army. Michael Hardy's Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia is both an elegantly written narrative overview of the topic as well as an insightful observance of the grave consequences involved with failing to maintain the vital link between food and sustaining soldier health and morale.

Booknotes: The Pathfinder and the President

New Arrival:

• The Pathfinder and the President: John C. Frémont, Abraham Lincoln, and the Battle for Emancipation by John Bicknell (Stackpole Bks, 2025).

As John Bicknell reminded us in his 2017 book Lincoln's Pathfinder: John C. Fremont and the Violent Election of 1856, even though the Republicans ended up losing the presidential contest that year, the party's performance at the polls and shifting political winds together revealed a path for victory in 1860. Of course, it is well known among Civil War readers that relations between the Republican Party's first two presidential candidates were never smooth, and the two were frequently at odds. Their complex and highly strained interactions over wartime policy matters are the focus of Bicknell's new book The Pathfinder and the President: John C. Frémont, Abraham Lincoln, and the Battle for Emancipation. Overstepping his bounds as a military department commander, General Fremont "sparked a national crisis by unilaterally declaring emancipation in Missouri. Drawing from extensive research, this study "chronicles the volatile relationship between these two leaders as they grappled with slavery, military strategy, and the future of the nation."

While Bicknell's primary focus is on the Lincoln-Fremont relationship, wider questions associated with the heavily blurred boundary between military and political matters and responsibilities during the Civil War are addressed. More from the description: The Pathfinder and the President "(r)eveals how Frémont's radical actions in Missouri influenced Lincoln's own path to the Emancipation Proclamation," "(e)xplores the complex political and military dimensions of Civil War leadership," "(i)lluminates the crucial role of border states in shaping Union strategy," and "(p)rovides fresh insights into the personal dynamics that affected wartime decision-making."

In sum, Bicknell's "narrative shows how the clash between Lincoln and Frémont helped determine the course of emancipation and the outcome of the war itself."

Booknotes: Lincoln the Citizen, The Complete Version

New Arrival:

• Lincoln the Citizen - February 12, 1809 to March 4, 1861: The Complete Version by Henry C. Whitney, ed. by Michael Burlingame (Univ of Ill Press, 2025).

Of the group of individuals who both knew Abraham Lincoln intimately and contributed to the field of Lincoln biography, Henry Clay Whitney is a person of whom I am not familiar. General info online tells me that Whitney was a fellow lawyer who met Lincoln in Illinois and joined him on the circuit in that state. Showing yet again that it helps to have friends in high places, Lincoln appointed him Assistant U.S. Paymaster in 1861 and Whitney served in that capacity for almost the entire length of the war. Long after Lincoln's assassination, Whitney put pen to paper and authored a two-volume biography of his personal friend and political associate (Lincoln the Citizen and Lincoln the President) along with another book, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln.

In this new edition of Lincoln the Citizen, editor and eminent Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame "restores material cut by editors of the original 1907 publication to present Henry Clay Whitney’s work in full." Whitney's account "offers a rare character study and insightful biography of Lincoln before he became president." Burlingame's brief but informative introduction summarizes Whitney's own background and contextualizes Whitney's volume in terms of both content and reliability while also offering useful comparisons to how other biographers presented certain aspects of Lincoln's life, legal career, and character. In Burlingame's view, Whitney "significantly complements Herndon's biography." He also rates Whitney's presentation of Lincoln's character as being filled with "keen insights." Whitney covers a lot of ground that interests today's scholars and readers alike, including Lincoln's childhood, family, early adventures, his time in New Salem, relations with Anne Rutledge and other women, his legal and political careers, and even his physical appearance. In Burlingame's estimation, the book contains much in the way of "valuable information not found elsewhere" (pp. xii-xiii).

On the other hand, serious charges have been levied against the veracity of Whitney's works, and Burlingame addresses those matters as well. As mentioned above, Burlingame "places Whitney’s singular contributions within Lincoln studies," but he "also weighs criticisms of the book and disputes over what information the author may or may not have invented." Taking all that into account, one gets the clear impression that Burlingame firmly believes that the reliable good outweighs the unreliable bad in Whitney's writings. "A restored edition of an invaluable memoir," Lincoln the Citizen "presents a wealth of overlooked biographical detail by one of the people who knew Lincoln best."

Booknotes: Joshua Hill of Madison

New Arrival:

• Joshua Hill of Madison: Civil War Unionist and Georgia's First Republican Senator, 1812-1891 by Bradley R. Rice (Mercer UP, 2025).

Befitting his status as "Georgia's most prominent wartime Unionist," Joshua Hill finally has his first full biography in Bradley Rice's Joshua Hill of Madison: Civil War Unionist and Georgia's First Republican Senator, 1812-1891. He had a long career as a lawyer and politician. From the description: Hill "served in the United States House of Representatives prior to the Civil War and strongly opposed secession. During the War he ran for governor as the so-called peace candidate and later met with William T. Sherman in peace negotiations that failed." During Sherman's March to the Sea, Hill's ironclad Unionist credentials are credited with saving his hometown of Madison from general destruction.

Hill's political presence as a Deep South moderate Republican continued after the war. More from the description: "During Reconstruction, Hill supported Republican President Ulysses S. Grant and endorsed black suffrage, yet he clashed with the Radical wing of his party. As a result of a compromise between Democrats and moderate Republicans, Hill became the state's first Republican member of the U.S. Senate." Nevertheless, Hill was swept out of his seat by the Democratic resurgence of the "Redemption" period. "After two years Confederate General John B. Gordon replaced him in 1873. Hill remained a Republican senior statesman until his death in 1891, and Georgia did not send another Republican to the Senate until 1980."

The central focus of Rice's study is on Hill's political career. Glancing through the table contents, it appears that the first half of the book's approximately 400 pages of narrative is devoted to the prewar and Civil War periods and the second half to Reconstruction and beyond. This biography constitutes "a long overdue account of the life and times of the man who was, as his gravestone reads, 'a staunch southern friend of the Union.'"

Booknotes: From Dakota to Dixie

New Arrival:

• From Dakota to Dixie: George Buswell's Civil War edited by Jonathan W. White & Reagan Connelly (UVA Press, 2025).

Generally speaking, Union volunteers from the Trans-Mississippi, be they from states closest to areas of expected fighting or those in the Far West region of the country, enlisted to fight Confederates. The reality was that a great many would never see a gray-uniformed enemy over the entire length of their service. Others would be caught up in a hybrid war, facing hostile tribes at one or more points in their service and Confederates at another, typically later, date. In this latter group resided George Buswell of Minnesota.

From the description: "In the summer of 1862, young Minnesotan George W. Buswell enlisted in the Union army, but his marching orders did not take him to the South to fight the Confederacy, as he had hoped, but to the US-Dakota War. Until the end of 1863, Buswell served with the 7th Minnesota Infantry, witnessing and describing that war’s infamous final act: the hanging of thirty-eight Dakota men at Mankato, the largest officially sanctioned mass execution in American history. Afterward, he volunteered as an officer to lead the 68th US Colored Infantry, serving in the Civil War’s Western Theater and seeing action in Mississippi."

Published for the first time in From Dakota to Dixie: George Buswell's Civil War and co-edited by Jonathan White and Reagan Connelly, Buswell's writings "offer an extraordinary record of his unusually wide-ranging experience, taking readers through the Dakota War, into Union prisons in St. Louis and Memphis, onto picket lines where he searched Confederate women suspected of smuggling, and into the ranks of a Black regiment that fought against Confederate forces led by Nathan Bedford Forrest. His eyewitness accounts represent a vital contribution to the ongoing debate over the parameters of the American Civil War."

Editorial features include a general introduction, introductory passages for each of the volume's eight chapters, footnotes, and an epilogue.

Review - "Hundreds of Little Wars: Community, Conflict, and the Real Civil War" by Schieffler & Stith, eds.

[Hundreds of Little Wars: Community, Conflict, and the Real Civil War edited by G. David Schieffler and Matthew M. Stith (Louisiana State University Press, 2025). Hardcover, chapter notes, index. Pages:xii,271. ISBN:978-0-8071-8220-8. $45]

Beginning most prominently with 1995's Seasons of War, historian Daniel E. Sutherland has had a profound impact on the field through his exploration of the many ways in which local history enriches and expands our modern understanding of the American Civil War. Developed in another line of study headlined by 2009's A Savage Conflict, Sutherland's sweeping reinterpretation of the character, scale, and larger meaning of the war's vast irregular component has also proved to be highly influential. Additionally, as editor of University of Arkansas Press's The Civil War in the West series (now sadly defunct), Sutherland played a significant part in promoting and conveying to readers new scholarship dealing with the Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi West. In appreciation of Sutherland, as person, scholar, and mentor, is the essay anthology Hundreds of Little Wars: Community, Conflict, and the Real Civil War, edited by G. David Schieffler and Matthew M. Stith.

Given Daniel Sutherland's stature as one of the leading proponents of the idea that the local experience of the Civil War was the "real war" for most of the population, this set of essays written in his honor grabs onto that central concept and branches off from it far and wide. The traditional understanding of Civil War "community" as being tied to static local geography (i.e. cities, towns, and counties) is explored in fresh directions such as temporary POW and refugee camps. Entering into other spaces (including more figurative-level ones) are those essays that address community in the context of race, gender, regular and irregular military organizations (ex. volunteer regiments and partisan ranger units), and intersections between the natural and built environments. The resulting dozen essays are organized into pairs assigned to six themed sections: (1) Regimental Communities, (2) County and Environmental Communities, (3) Border Communities, (4) Hybrid (in terms of race and demography) Communities, (5) Irregular Communities, and (6) Transnational and Comparative Communities. To get a taste of what to expect, one chapter from each pairing will be commented upon below.

Through works such as Gerald Prokopowicz's All for the Regiment and others, the Civil War regiment, always seen to have been closely representative of the community or communities from which it was recruited, has also come to be viewed as a community in and of itself within the larger structures of the Union and Confederate armies. Similar to how she approached the topic in other writings dealing with the 16th Connecticut, 11th New York, and 2nd Texas, Lesley Gordon examines issues of alleged cowardice and the quest for redemption in her essay exploring the 128th New York, a regiment that was singled out as the worst of the "Harpers Ferry Cowards"—the context being alleged misbehavior that contributed to the entire garrison's disgraceful surrender on September 15, 1862. Interestingly, Gordon finds that the men of the 128th, unlike their fellow New Yorkers of the 11th, fully redeemed themselves in subsequent campaigning, yet (unlike other Harpers Ferry regiments collared with the same label) during reunions and for the decades after the war bitterly clung to a victim mentality that remained one of the central unifying elements of their communal memory. It's a testament to the far reaching power and endurance of such accusations.

Paired with an occupation study of Virginia's Fauquier County emphasizing the local irregular conflict and gender relations between civilians and occupiers is an examination of the prison community established at Camp Ford (Smith County, Texas, located a few miles outside Tyler) from 1863-65. In it, volume co-editor Matthew Stith explores the camp's interactions with the local population along with the natural (including area wildlife of various kinds) and man-made environments. With good water and wood for shelter-building widely available and given the opportunity to forage liberally from the resource-rich countryside, Camp Ford prisoners (even after overcrowding resulting from the breakdown of the exchange system and influx of new arrivals from the 1864 Red River Campaign) experienced much lower morbidity and mortality rates in comparison with the war's more infamous POW facilities.

As developed fully in The Rivers Ran Backward, his sprawling 2016 study of the nineteenth-century West's so-called Middle Border, the essay authored by Christopher Phillips again frames that vast multi-state region occupying both sides of the Missouri and Ohio Rivers as being not a distinct line of demarcation between northern and southern identities but rather a place, a region-sized "community" if you like, of integrated economies and mostly shared political and social values. As Phillips explains, the harshest and most enduring divisions within the Middle Border were not of a longstanding North versus South nature but rather were a product of mid-1850s political violence, the Civil War itself, and postbellum politics.

Co-editor G. David Schieffler's contribution expands the concept of Civil War community to the black refugee camp, one of the largest in the South, that was established at Helena, Arkansas after the Union Army of the Southwest entered the area and set up a permanent and heavily fortified garrison in the river town. As Schieffler shows, the reciprocal relationship that developed between the army and refugees, the former providing protection, employment, and limited supplies and the latter camp and military labor, forged a community of mutual assistance. However, those benefits to the refugees were also accompanied by inconsistent policies and support, much of which was dependent upon the attitude and priorities of the military officer who happened to be in overall command of the post at a given moment. That capriciousness, the frequent abuses, and the naturally unhealthy conditions at Helena that felled soldiers and freedpeople alike in alarming numbers, together rendered uncertain both life and freedom for the refugees.

The Barton Myers essay identifies a community of similarly skilled and motivated partisan officers who led irregular units in different parts of the border and southern states during the Civil War. In addition to offering fresh recognition of obscure figures, their commands, and their activities, Myers points toward commonalities among the leaders, with many having served in conventional forces before the appeal of independent action and of engaging in local defense led them to enter partisan service. The divide between regular and irregular service was also significantly blurred, as these officers frequently returned to the conventional war by directly cooperating with regular forces. In addition to their local knowledge, most possessed aggressive streaks and a high tolerance for risk that made them effective raiders and scouts. However, as evidenced by a number of violent deaths among these men long after the war ended, those qualities valuable during wartime could also negatively impact their relations with others off the battlefield and upon their return to civilian life. As Myers makes clear, among the host of factors that scholars have developed in recent years to explain the 1862 Partisan Ranger Act's mostly disastrous outcome, the lack of strong and effective leadership from officers such as these was not among them.

As recounted by Michael Shane Powers, Confederate veterans Edward Burke of Louisiana and members of Virginia's Imboden family represented international actors forging mutually beneficial links between Gilded Age America and the country of Honduras, with the added dimension of key involvement with British sources of capital. Powers's essay is not a tale of fleeing the country to escape postwar persecution or renewal of antebellum-style filibustering activities but rather one of successful entrepreneurs expanding New South economic ties with Central America. In the 1880s, Burke and the Imbodens utilized British investment to fund large-scale mining operations, and they became instrumental figures in developing Honduran mineral extraction industries and national infrastructure. Much of their success was owed to their integration into Honduran society in ways that previous foreigners failed to do, and as experienced soldiers they also played an active part in Honduran internal conflicts in support of the legitimate government.

Certainly, you can expand the definition of a word or concept like "community" so far and wide as to run the risk of losing its value as an object of reference or study, but the larger point of these essays, that of recognizing the abundant insights that localized (even microscopic-level) points of view can offer in both isolation and in sum, certainly holds true. A handful of men dying in a remote guerrilla ambush far behind the front lines barely merits mention, but a thousand of such forgotten incidents spread across the landscape of war can have the same impact on a combatant side's friends, families, and local communities as the Battle of Gettysburg. In similar fashion, the "hundreds of little wars" that this volume touches upon and that collectively fill in the innumerable gaps and crevices between and behind the major campaigns and battles that garner the lion's share of attention were often the war for a great many of those who participated in them.

Booknotes: Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia

New Arrival:

• Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia by Michael C. Hardy (Savas Beatie, 2025).

The ill-clothed and half-starved southern 'scarecrow' fighting man as myth or reality has been the subject of some debate, but no one can discount the vital link between food and fighting capacity. From the description: "Although seldom studied, food (or the lack thereof) and the logistics behind it played a critical role during the war, contributed mightily to the success and failure of campaigns, and affected the overall outcome of the conflict. Understanding how soldiers prepared their food, how they ate and, very often, went hungry, is a vital tool to understanding their individual experiences and the larger history of supply and logistics within the Confederate army."

Rather than take on the entire Confederate Army, Michael Hardy adopts the more manageable task of examining a single army. His Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia is based upon a "unique study on more than 300 sets of letters and diaries that closely examine the importance of sustenance in the day-to-day life of the soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia. Various chapters examine food issued by the army, food sent from home to the front, and food carried, collected, and eaten during campaigns. These accounts dispel many misconceptions and assumptions about food during the war and provide a rich and complex picture of the arduous journey various meats, grains, and other foodstuffs underwent to reach hungry soldiers in the field."

The common soldier perspective in camp and on the march is not the only lens through which Hardy scrutinizes his subject. More from the description: Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia also "examines what the Confederate high command ate and explores the relationship between hospitals and food, demonstrating the importance of proper nutrition in the recovery and care of the wounded. Hardy also examines the vital role played by camp servants, as well as the critical connection between proper nutrition and morale. The voices of the men themselves provide a multifaceted examination of this central, but often overlooked, field of history."

Booknotes: Lincoln's Campaign Biographies

New Arrival:

• Lincoln's Campaign Biographies by Thomas A. Horrocks (SIU Press, 2024).

This is the 2024 paperback reissue of the original 2014 hardcover edition, which is part of SIU Press's long-running Concise Lincoln Library series.

In pre-modern American political history, campaign biographies provided a great way to for a presidential campaign to expose its candidate to a wide audience while at the same time controlling the message. From the description: "During the 1860 and 1864 presidential campaigns, Abraham Lincoln was the subject of over twenty campaign biographies. In this innovative study, Thomas A. Horrocks examines the role that these publications played in shaping an image of Lincoln that would resonate with voters and explores the vision of Lincoln that the biographies crafted, the changes in this vision over the course of four years, and the impact of these works on the outcome of the elections."

According to Horrocks, Lincoln's campaigns were more adept than most when it came to using the campaign biography as an effective election tool. More from the description: "Horrocks investigates Lincoln’s campaign biographies within the context of the critical relationship between print and politics in nineteenth-century America and compares the works about Lincoln with other presidential campaign biographies of the era. Horrocks shows that more than most politicians of his day, Lincoln deeply appreciated and understood the influence and the power of the printed word."

Campaign biographies were also useful when it became necessary, or simply advantageous, for a candidate's public face to shift and evolve. That was certainly the case between 1860 and 1864. More: "The 1860 campaign biographies introduced to America “Honest Abe, the Rail Splitter,” a trustworthy, rugged candidate who appealed to rural Americans. When Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, the second round of campaign biographies complemented this earlier portrait of Lincoln with a new, paternal figure, “Father Abraham,” more appropriate for Americans enduring a bloody civil war."

In the end, Thomas Horrocks's Lincoln’s Campaign Biographies "provides a new perspective for those seeking a better understanding of the sixteenth president and two of the most critical elections in American history."

Booknotes: A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg, Volume 2

New Arrival:

• A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg, Volume 2: From the Crater's Aftermath to the Battle of Burgess Mill by A. Wilson Greene (UNC Press, 2025).

The long-awaited second installment of A. Wilson Greene's epic three-volume series A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg has arrived. The excellent from top to bottom A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg, Volume 1: From the Crossing of the James to the Crater arrived on our doorsteps back in 2018, so powers of recall will have to be sharp in order to pick up on the full range of recurring themes (and hopefully the Volume 1 review linked just above will assist in that area to some degree).

As stated in the Preface, A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg, Volume 2: From the Crater's Aftermath to the Battle of Burgess Mill covers the period "between August 1 and the end of October." Thus, it encompasses the "Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Petersburg Offensives, all entailing concurrent efforts south of the Appomattox River and north of the James River. August also witnessed one of the war's greatest acts of sabotage, while in September the Confederate cavalry conducted a spectacular raid behind Union lines" (pp. xii-xiii). "But as winter approached, Grant had captured one of Lee’s primary supply routes and extended the lines around Petersburg and Richmond to some thirty-five miles."

If the past few decades of Petersburg Campaign scholarship haven't already disabused you of the common notion that its ten months were generally lacking in operational and tactical-level features of interest, Greene's series should be thoroughly convincing. As was the case with Volume 1, Volume 2 enhances its narrative through extensive map coverage, too. From the description: "Supported by thirty-four detailed maps, Greene’s narrative chronicles these bloody engagements using many previously unpublished primary accounts from common soldiers and ranking officers alike. The struggle for Petersburg is often characterized as a siege, but Greene’s narrative demonstrates that it was dynamic, involving maneuver and combat equal in intensity to that of any major Civil War operation."

In a nice touch, Greene dedicates this volume to Richard Sommers, who passed away the year following Volume 1's release. Grant and Lee were the giants who actually fought the campaign, but Sommers was also a giant, albeit of a different sort. Through his masterwork Richmond Redeemed and beyond, Sommers established himself as the dean of Petersburg Campaign historians, his work influencing all who followed in his footsteps.

Booknotes: The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War

New Arrival:

• The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War: The Biography of a Regiment by James Marten (UNC Press, 2025).

The Sixth Wisconsin was, as we all know, an integral component of one of the most celebrated infantry brigades produced by either side, the Iron Brigade. "One of the core units of the famed Iron Brigade, the Sixth was organized in July 1861 and mustered out in the summer of 1865, playing major roles at Second Manassas, Antietam, and Gettysburg, and in the Overland campaign of 1864." The unit's service history has been well documented in that integrated context (and in field grade officer Rufus Dawes's well-used memoir based on his wartime writings), but I am not aware of any prior full-length regimental history. According to James Marten, author of The Sixth Wisconsin and the Long Civil War: The Biography of a Regiment, that might still be the case, as he categorically states that his book "is not a regimental history," but rather, as he calls it, a "regimental biography." Like a biography covering an individual's life, Marten's book "traces the birth, education, maturation, aging, and decline of its subject" (pg. 3).

From the description: "Reimagining one of the oldest genres of Civil War history," Marten's own brand of regimental study does not aim to recount in detail the Sixth's part in the various campaigns and battles. From the author's point of view, "the regiment’s full history is found in the stories of its men learning to fight and endure far from home amid violence, illness, and death, and in the lives of families that hung on every word in letters and news from the front lines. Those stories also unfolded long after the war’s end, as veterans sought to make sense of their experiences and home communities struggled to care for those who returned with unhealed wounds." Marten branches off from modern Civil War community, memory, and veteran studies by following "a single regiment through the entire gamut of experiences, from peace to war and back again" (pg. 4).

In his introduction, Marten explains his main goals for the book at some length. The first is to present the veteran lives of the Sixth's surviving members as being just as important as their soldier lives. This gets into the "long Civil War" part of the title. Most inspired by the focus and style of soldier studies from Gerald Linderman, Earl Hess, and Peter Carmichael, the second of Marten's goals is to "enrich and complicate the way we think about common soldiers' experiences." The third central intention is to explain, through the eyes of Sixth Wisconsin soldiers along with their loves ones and home communities, "how the Civil War generation invented the very idea of war" in the sense of "inventing a vocabulary, a series of acceptable responses," and "a way of explaining it to others and themselves." Finally, Marten uses his biography of the Sixth to develop the idea of "the Civil War regiment as a particular kind of constructed community" (pgs. 5-6). Through all of this, it is hoped that "readers will understand the long history of the Civil War" in a new way.