More on the 1862 war in Virginia through the end of the Seven Days

Posting yesterday's review of Brian Burton's Forward to Richmond: The Virginia Campaign of 1862 made me wonder yet again whether we'll ever get a treatment of the Peninsula Campaign on the order of Gordon Rhea's Overland series or David Powell's multi-volume Chickamauga and Atlanta projects.

Thematically similar to Burton's single-volume overview, but fleshed out over multiple books, is Ethan's Rafuse's new Virginia campaign of 1862 series published by University Press of Kansas. The first volume, From the Mountains to the Bay: The War in Virginia, January-May 1862, was reviewed positively on the site. Its follow-up, From the Valley to the Tidewater: The War in Virginia, May 21–June 12, 1862, will be out in November. I am looking forward to it. It's still unclear, at least to me, exactly how far Rafuse plans to take this. If he visits here, perhaps he can chime in. There was no series roadmap revealed in the first book. In fact, no future volumes were mentioned at all. Perhaps everything will be explained in From the Valley to the Tidewater. It ends with the launching of Jeb Stuart's first "Ride Around McClellan," so I would imagine that there is at least one Seven Days installment in the works to follow that one.

Though quirky and largely one-sided in its approach, the late Russel Beatie's enormously ambitious Army of the Potomac project is also worth mentioning. Alas, it's author was only able to finish three volumes before he passed away: The Army of the Potomac: Birth of Command, November 1860-September 1861; (Volume 2) McClellan Takes Command, September 1861-February 1862; and (Volume 3) McClellan's First Campaign, March 1862-May 1862. Years ago, Savas Beatie co-founder and current director Ted Savas hinted at the possibility, uncertain as it was, of putting together a fourth volume out of Beatie's unfinished material, but I haven't come across any update on that since then.