Antietam Institute publications

CWBA reader Alex K. kindly passed along some news of a Summer '21 publication that I missed, Brigades of Antietam: The Union and Confederate Brigades at the Battle of Antietam (edited by Bradley Gottfried). You will surely recall Gottfried's The Brigades of Gettysburg, but this one is not the work of one author but rather a collaborative effort of "over 15 Antietam Battlefield Guides, Rangers, and seasoned Antietam volunteers."

From the description: "Using the words of enlisted men and officers, the book weaves a fascinating narrative of the role played by every unit (112 entries) from the time it began its march toward Sharpsburg to the final action at Shepherdstown. Organized by order of battle, each unit is covered in complete and exhaustive detail: where it fought, its commander, what constituted the unit, and how it performed in the campaign." Alex didn't have a copy in hand yet to tell me what he thought of it. If the specifications I've come across (8.5" x 11" hardcover nearly 500 pages in length) are correct, it's quite a doorstopper.

The book was published last summer by the Antietam Institute. I'd never heard of that organization until Alex's email, later learning from its website that it was formed just last year. According to the 'About' page, the Antietam Institute is "a member-based educational and philanthropic 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a mission to study, collect, publish and teach about the Battle of Antietam and the Maryland Campaign of 1862." Go to their homepage [here] to learn more about their programs and other activities.

Most appropriate to discussion here on this site is the institute's publication work, which at this time includes a journal and, so far, a pair of books. The Antietam Journal: Perspectives on the 1862 Maryland Campaign will be put out twice per year, its articles "featuring the latest scholarly research, interpretation, and stories of the Maryland Campaign." As mentioned above, the Brigades of Antietam book has already been released, and their other book title, currently in the works, is The Artillery Units of Antietam. Planned for a 2022 release, the artillery study is authored by James Rosebrock and designed to be a companion book to the brigade study. It aims to provide "a comprehensive overview of every artillery unit in both armies—including all the divisional artillery batteries and Artillery Reserve of the Army of the Potomac and the divisional artillery battalions and general reserve artillery battalions of the Army of Northern Virginia." Detailed treatment of each unit will include information about "its formation and history, commander, armament, and its role in the Maryland Campaign."

Blue & Gray Magazine Phase II

Even though Blue and Gray no longer circulates as a bi-monthly magazine, it has stayed in the game in a limited capacity by offering some free downloads to stranded subscribers while also keeping their store open selling back issues and the occasional reprint. However, yesterday they announced a new initiative that they are calling "Phase II" of the magazine. It involves bringing back select OP material as new on-demand paperback publications.

The first in the new series is “A Wilderness of Woe”: The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864 by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White. Subscribers might recall that this was one of the early digital downloads. In addition to the annotated feature article and "General's Tour" complete with photographs, orders of battle, and maps, the book will also include a pair of previously published articles by Thomas Gilbert and Elizabeth Roberson. From the description: Gilbert's "“Mr. Grant Goes to Washington,” first published in 1995, covers the general’s visit to Washington, D.C., in March 1864 to meet President Lincoln and receive his promotion to commander of all United States armies. The other, titled “Gentle Annie Goes Home,” also a 1995 publication, describes the personal problems and heartbreak that weighed upon Robert E. Lee as he prepared for a showdown with Grant."

No news yet regarding what other Phase II projects are in the works.

R.I.P. Blue & Gray

In my estimation, Blue & Gray for most of its run and early North & South sit together at the pinnacle of popular Civil War magazines. While N&S had fallen to such depths for so long that I was indifferent to its ultimate demise, I truly regretted Dave Roth's May 31 announcement that B&G was shutting down the presses.

I was moving seemingly every year or two in the 1990s (changing your mailing address with magazines was a nightmare in the pre-internet age), so I picked up all the issues at bookstores that decade and have been a faithful subscriber since the beginning of the millennium. I think the magazine really came into its own when the decision was made to concentrate each issue on a feature historical article and General's Tour (when that exactly came to be, I don't recall). Happily, the quality of both also steadily increased over time. The maps in each issue were often better than anything found in published books and were often worth the cover price alone.

In his post, Roth cites declining subscriber base numbers post-Sesquicentennial as one of the driving forces behind the decision to close shop, but I can't have been the only person to notice that the magazine itself was regularly slipping up on its own obligations. For some time, I suspected that we weren't getting the promised six issues per year. Going back only two years, I found that I received five issues during calendar year 2015 and only four in 2016. It became instantly apparent that no catch up was in the offing, and this year was projecting out even worse, so the end did not shock me. But enough of that. This moment should be more celebration than post-mortem.

Really, we shouldn't feel sorry for the Roths. They got to experience, for more than three decades (and make a living out of it), the kind of Civil War dream that many of us might only fantasize about. That is a remarkable run. They, along with Robin, created an utterly unique niche-within-a-niche print magazine that will undoubtedly never be replicated. Hopefully, Dave and Jason won't feel bitter. One would think that, over time, feelings of pride over their legacy will surely replace the sadness. For me, as one of those 'who still hears the guns,' I will hold onto my B&G issues forever.

Blue & Gray Magazine Vol. 32 #2

is heading to Cedar Mountain (for the first time, I believe).

Looking through the list of back issues, only 2 out of the last 62 have tackled Trans-Mississippi Civil War topics. I understand the unforgiving market forces involved with magazine publishing but I was really hoping B&G could do much better than that.

Bob Younger piece in Gettysburg Magazine

Back in the pre-Internet days of mail order book buying, I used to love getting the latest Morningside catalog in the mail. They were a cherished reference for serious readers looking to expand their home library of Civil War titles. Far less enjoyable was talking to proprietor Bob Younger on the phone. I never met him in person, and I wish I could have visited the store sometime, but ordering books from him was a unique experience. I was a good, regular customer but was always left with the impression my patronage was the least important thing in the world to his business. So why go back? The gruff interface was always worth it. Morningside selection was incredible and if Bob didn't stock a title I wanted himself he always found it somewhere. My orders were always delivered to my door quickly and securely packaged in a double-walled box (the good old days of actually receiving new books still in new condition). He and his wife Mary also deserve a great deal of credit for publishing original works of merit (like Ed Bearss's 3-volume Vicksburg study) along with many quality classic reprints. The reason I'm bringing up all this is that the latest issue of Gettysburg Magazine (Number 54, Jan 2016) has a great "tribute" article by Sonny Fulks titled "Bob Younger: My Most Unforgettable Character." If you are still reading this post and have any idea what I am talking about, do yourself a favor and read Fulks's piece. You'll get a kick out of it, too.

CWN about face

It seems that a grassroots campaign has succeeded in convincing the new owner of Civil War News to abandon earlier transition plans and keep the publication as is. CWN in its current form must mean a lot to many people. Here's the announcement on Facebook [link].

I was kind of interested in seeing what the new magazine would look like. At the local B&N rack I counted 21 modeling magazines (the glue and plastic kind, not the skinny runway kind) and one would think there might be room for yet another CW periodical. Tough business, though.

B&G Vol. 32, #1

The next issue of Blue and Gray magazine (Volume 32 #1) will cover the opening moves of the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, the preliminary fighting at the gaps (Mill Creek and Dug) confronting the main Confederate position atop Rocky Face Ridge and across Crow Valley.

CWN out, now CWB&C

According to this announcement, Civil War News is ending its run and current subscribers will receive a new magazine Civil War Battles and Commanders.

"An 80-page, full-color bimonthly, it will convey the Civil War experience and life in the field with scholarly and entertaining articles that will focus on personal leadership, critical decisions, battlefield conditions and wartime technology. High quality photography, photographs of original artifacts, period maps and documents, first-hand accounts, modern recreations and scholarly analysis will enhance the articles."

I don't know if this is good news or bad news for the readers involved. I've never been a CWN subscriber and don't have any personal opinion on the situation. It does seem like the new publication is seeking to recapture some of what early North & South tried to do.

Blue & Gray Vol. 31, #6

After brief detour with Crook in Montana the magazine is getting back to the Civil War, to the North Anna Campaign to be precise.

Gettysburg Magazine in bookstores

I was surprised to see Gettysburg Magazine appear in the local Barnes & Noble this week but I shouldn't have been given the bold "Current issues of Gettysburg Magazine are now available in bookstores throughout the US." notice on the website. It was priced at $13 retail so it looks like yearly subscribers do not get a discount on the biannual publication (a narrowing gap between newsstand prices and subscriber rates seems to be a broadening trend in the biz, at least by my limited sampling).  Though I'm not personally  interested in subscribing, I hope the new owners (Univ of Neb Press) are successful with it.

B&G Vol. 31, #5 sneak peak

In its long history, the only time (I believe) that Blue & Gray Magazine tackled a non-Civil War topic was for their Little Bighorn special issue (Volume 23 Issue #2). I suppose it's fitting that the second time around is for the Rosebud fight (TOC).

The rebirth of "Civil War Regiments"

Roughly equal in cultural importance to the return of the X-Files will be the 2016 return of Civil War Regiments. Yesterday, Emerging Civil War announced that they and publisher Savas Beatie will be partnering up to revive the well regarded but long defunct unit essay journal. It appears that the new issue format will be similar to the later evolution of the series as a themed compilation. No mention of any kind of volume subscription plans this time around, which is fine for those of us who will want to pick and choose our subjects. Good news this is.

B&G complete run article, tour, and review index

Blue & Gray Magazine posted some new downloadable documents. It's great to finally get a complete content index of all 31 volumes.

A Chickamauga touring supplement (2 documents) can be picked up from here. Each contains extra vignettes to add to the earlier issues (Battle of Chickamauga, Day 1, Vol. XXIV, #6) and (Battle of Chickamauga, Day 2, Vol. XXV, #2). Also included are "“Teaching Points” notes from the Staff Ride handbook placed at the end of the “Situation” text, and which were not published in the magazine; the “Teaching Points” describe the lessons Dr. Robertson hopes are learned by today’s Army officers from the actions, and sometimes the mistakes, of their predecessors in the Civil War armies." [Hmm. In between writing and posting this these tour docs seem to have been taken down. Perhaps they will reappear in the near future]

B&G Volume 31, #4 will be ...

The Battle of Resaca: Sherman in North Georgia [view table of contents pdf] with the feature article written by Stephen Davis. Way back in Vol. VI they did a three issue series on the Atlanta Campaign and unless I missed something there's been nothing else until now, which is a bit surprising.

The Last Surrender - B&G (Vol. XXX, No. 2)

Blue & Gray Magazine recently redesigned their website the result of which is a bloggish style. The most recent post , a guest submission by Fort Smith National Historic Site superintendent Lisa Frost, talks about an important historical event, the Fort Smith Council of 1865 [Coincidentally,The Trans-Mississippian's Jane blogged about this subject a couple months ago (here), with special mention of the 1996 symposium and companion book]. The post also acts as a teaser for the next issue of B&G (Vol. XXX, No. 2), the cover image showing the feature article title to be "The Last Surrender: Indian Territory June 1865."

B&G Volume 31 Issue #1 "The Bermuda Hundred Campaign"

I am aware of only two major Bermuda Hundred Campaign histories, William Glenn Robertson's Back Door to Richmond: The Bermuda Hundred Campaign, April-June 1864 and Herbert Schiller's The Bermuda Hundred Campaign both published in the late 1980s.  I read Robertson and liked it very much, but have never opened a copy of Schiller before.  Blue and Gray first featured the campaign way back in Vol. VII (presumably with Robertson as author) and they revisit the subject with Schiller in the upcoming first issue of Vol. XXXI. The magazine used to have a 'dueling historians' sidebar every once in a while and I seem to recall Schiller and Robertson pitted against one another on the question of whether Butler was, as the saying went, "corked in a bottle" or not.  I don't recall who believed what or which writer made the strongest case but it appears Schiller has another opportunity to state his opinion.

B&G Volume XXX Issue #6

The last Blue and Gray Magazine issue from Vol. 30 will ship this week.  The subject is the Battle of Tupelo and the author Tom Parson.  Parson also has a book length treatment of the same coming out the following month (good timing) -- Work for Giants: The Campaign and Battle of Tupelo/Harrisburg, Mississippi, June-July 1864 -- through Kent State University Press. 

The magazine usually does a fairly good job of varying theaters, but this one will also mark the 15th issue since the beloved General's Tour last ventured into the Trans-Mississippi. I hope the wait for another visit won't be too much longer. 

The Crater is next (B&G Volume XXX Issue #5)

The subject of Blue and Gray Magazine's next feature article and General's Tour is the Battle of the Crater,  authored by Petersburg NB ranger Emmanuel Dabney. 

Blue & Gray Volume XXX Issue #4

The next issue of B&G (the table of contents link is currently broken) will be a Franklin history and tour by Eric Jacobson.  Considering the quality of the new issues and constantly changing states of site preservation, I always welcome revisits like this one.

CWBR Winter issue

We're on the cusp of spring and I just now noticed the Winter 2014 issue of Civil War Book Review.