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.