What American Civil War Books Are You Planning On Buying/Reading Next?

R. Evans

Sergeant
Joined
Jan 19, 2013
Location
Salem, Ohio
Forgive me if there is a thread like this around. I did a search and couldn't find anything.:smile:

So here goes. These 3 should be here tomorrow or Saturday. Can't wait to dive in.​
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I have started General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War, by Frank P. Varney from Savas-Beatie, 2013 (honorable mention for the 2014 Albert Castel Award).

Fair notice: Frank and I were on the same Little League team in fourth grade (our team won one game, the day I was out sick). I reconnected with him last year and discovered he had a late-life conversion from business to teaching history, got his doctorate from Cornell, and teaches out at Dickinson State University in North Dakota these days. He's currently writing his second book for Savas-Beatie.

This book is controversial. Frank takes a view that goes against the common wisdom (he thinks Grant did Rosecrans a dirty deed). I've always liked Rosecrans, but then I like Grant more. I haven't decided if Frank will change my opinion a bit. He does present a detailed argument for his side, but I haven't checked the reference yet.
 
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I have started General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War, by Frank P. Varney from Savas-Beatie, 2013 (honorable mention for the 2014 Albert Castel Award).


This book is controversial. Frank takes a view that goes against the common wisdom (he thinks Grant did Rosecrans a dirty deed). I've always liked Rosecrans, but then I like Grant more. I haven't decided if Frank will change my opinion a bit. He does present a detailed argument for his side, but I haven't checked the reference yet.
I've heard Varney speak. He didn't change my mind about Grant, but I did came away with an opinion about Varney.
 
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I just finished Wilson Greene's The Last Battles of the Petersburg Campaign and found it to be excellent. One of the best books of its type that I've ever read.

His book inspired me to order Noah Trudeau's The Last Citadel. I'm looking forward to digging into it.
 
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I just finished Milton Greene's The Last Battles of the Petersburg Campaign and found it to be excellent. One of the best books of its type that I've ever read.

His book inspired me to order Noah Trudeau's The Last Citadel. I'm looking forward to digging into it.
I don't see that first title at amazon. Can you mean, The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign: Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion by A. Wilson Greene, which gets top reviews, as does your second choice?
 
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A bit bored with the choices I've looked at lately. Most I have previewed are just rehashing the same stories. But I'll keep looking. Or just hit the O.R. some more
 
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I have started General Grant and the Rewriting of History: How the Destruction of General William S. Rosecrans Influenced Our Understanding of the Civil War, by Frank P. Varney from Savas-Beatie, 2013 (honorable mention for the 2014 Albert Castel Award).

Fair notice: Frank and I were on the same Little League team in fourth grade (our team won one game, the day I was out sick). I reconnected with him last year and discovered he had a late-life conversion from business to teaching history, got his doctorate from Cornell, and teaches out at Dickinson State University in North Dakota these days. He's currently writing his second book for Savas-Beatie.

This book is controversial. Frank takes a view that goes against the common wisdom (he thinks Grant did Rosecrans a dirty deed). I've always liked Rosecrans, but then I like Grant more. I haven't decided if Frank will change my opinion a bit. He does present a detailed argument for his side, but I haven't checked the reference yet.
Read Albert Castel’s last book Victors in Blue and ponder why he said it would take a “courageous historian” to write about Rosecrans.
 
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Read Albert Castel’s last book Victors in Blue and ponder why he said it would take a “courageous historian” to write about Rosecrans.
Rosecrans is a problematic guy. Had some part of undoubted genius to him (at the start of the war, Grant thought the three great men for the Union would be McClellan, Buell and Rosecrans). Was a huge pain to his superiors and had constant disputes with them. Loved by many of his troops, ran roughshod over immediate subordinates. Looks like an uncooperative, unreliable comrade out for himself if you have the command next to his (like Grant at Vicksburg when Rosecrans is in Middle Tennessee). Probably caused the defeat at Chickamauga by his treatment of Wood beforehand (although Wood should, IMHO, have seen a court-martial for his own part in that).

Before Varney, the last major book on Rosecrans was The Edge of Glory by William Lamers, 1961. I read that one way-back-when. Even Rosecrans biggest biographer, Lamers, thought Rosecrans' personality and behavior was the root cause of his problems. Unfortunately not a unique problem among leaders, military or otherwise, which is why Greek tragedy is based on people with fatal flaws that lead to their own destruction.
 
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Currently enjoying The Civil War in the West by Earl J. Hess, which I picked up from the bookstore at Shiloh battlefield park. Next up is General Sterling Price and the Civil War in the West by Albert Castel.
 
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I just finished Wilson Greene's The Last Battles of the Petersburg Campaign and found it to be excellent. One of the best books of its type that I've ever read.

His book inspired me to order Noah Trudeau's The Last Citadel. I'm looking forward to digging into it.

Put greens campaign of giants on your reading list after you finish Trudeau. I'm about halfway through the 1st volume now
 
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Rosecrans is a problematic guy. Had some part of undoubted genius to him (at the start of the war, Grant thought the three great men for the Union would be McClellan, Buell and Rosecrans). Was a huge pain to his superiors and had constant disputes with them. Loved by many of his troops, ran roughshod over immediate subordinates. Looks like an uncooperative, unreliable comrade out for himself if you have the command next to his (like Grant at Vicksburg when Rosecrans is in Middle Tennessee). Probably caused the defeat at Chickamauga by his treatment of Wood beforehand (although Wood should, IMHO, have seen a court-martial for his own part in that).

Before Varney, the last major book on Rosecrans was The Edge of Glory by William Lamers, 1961. I read that one way-back-when. Even Rosecrans biggest biographer, Lamers, thought Rosecrans' personality and behavior was the root cause of his problems. Unfortunately not a unique problem among leaders, military or otherwise, which is why Greek tragedy is based on people with fatal flaws that lead to their own destruction.
I’ve spent 25 plus years researching Rosecrans and have visited practically every research library that has any primary sources regarding Rosecrans and his campaigns and battles. I wtote a biography of him that has been praised for the depth of its research if not its conclusions. Lamers didn’t get deep into the political machinations that affected Rosecran’s career. I give special treatment to the role of Elihu Washburne. Albert Castel was once an admirer of William Sherman but in the course of researching Decision in the West he came to a sharply different opinion. I suggested you read Castel’s Victors in Blue in which he questions the accepted Grant-Rosecrans storyline and expresses his desire that a “courageous historian” would write Rosecrans’ biography. Castel himself was too old to be that historian. I believe Castel would have reached a similar conclusion as I - and Frank Varney and others - have come to. All I ask of you and any other seeker of historical truth is to read outside the box. Nineteenth century opinion of Grant and Rosecrans as military men was very different from what is widely accepted today. I would also recommend you read Gateway to the Confederacy edited by Evan Jones among others. Especially interesting is Jones’ discussion of the Grant-Rosecrans dispute and Dave Powell’s chapter on Rosecrans’ army as an “incubator of innovation” during the period when the conventional wisdom is Rosecrans was being idle.
 
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I’ve spent 25 plus years researching Rosecrans and have visited practically every research library that has any primary sources regarding Rosecrans and his campaigns and battles. I wtote a biography of him that has been praised for the depth of its research if not its conclusions. Lamers didn’t get deep into the political machinations that affected Rosecran’s career. I give special treatment to the role of Elihu Washburne. Albert Castel was once an admirer of William Sherman but in the course of researching Decision in the West he came to a sharply different opinion. I suggested you read Castel’s Victors in Blue in which he questions the accepted Grant-Rosecrans storyline and expresses his desire that a “courageous historian” would write Rosecrans’ biography. Castel himself was too old to be that historian. I believe Castel would have reached a similar conclusion as I - and Frank Varney and others - have come to. All I ask of you and any other seeker of historical truth is to read outside the box. Nineteenth century opinion of Grant and Rosecrans as military men was very different from what is widely accepted today. I would also recommend you read Gateway to the Confederacy edited by Evan Jones among others. Especially interesting is Jones’ discussion of the Grant-Rosecrans dispute and Dave Powell’s chapter on Rosecrans’ army as an “incubator of innovation” during the period when the conventional wisdom is Rosecrans was being idle.

There are many things to like about Rosecrans. He also had flaws which caused problems for himself and others. I have read widely on this over the years, but not recently. Thanks for the suggestions.

On political machinations: it would be hard to find a Civil War commander who didn't have political machinations to deal with as he served. Grant and Lee dealt with them better than most of the others -- both had times when they were benched and out of the action only to come back to prominence.
 
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There are many things to like about Rosecrans. He also had flaws which caused problems for himself and others. I have read widely on this over the years, but not recently. Thanks for the suggestions.

On political machinations: it would be hard to find a Civil War commander who didn't have political machinations to deal with as he served. Grant and Lee dealt with them better than most of the others -- both had times when they were benched and out of the action only to come back to prominence.
Grant had Washburne (and Washburne had Grant) Washburne was one of the most senior Republicans in the House of Representatives. He was from Galena as was Grant. Washburne’s role in the rise, survival and triumph of Grant was not disputed in the 19th century. It hasn’t been discussed much since then. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be discussed or those who do discuss it are wrong.
 
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I just received/started Letters From the Colonel's Lady, the letters of Mrs. (Colonel) William Lamb of Wilmington. (Had to get it by Interlibrary Loan -- a tough book to find.) She was a Northern woman who married the Colonel Lamb who ran Fort Fisher during the war. She managed to get permission to leave the North and join her husband in Wilmington, where she lived in a little cottage near the fort with her children. I much confess, my initial impression of her from the first chapters is of a homesick, lonely young person, torn apart from her family by the war. I'm reading it because I really like first person accounts, telling about someone's experiences during the war -- gives me a real sense for being there.
 
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Grant had Washburne (and Washburne had Grant) Washburne was one of the most senior Republicans in the House of Representatives. He was from Galena as was Grant. Washburne’s role in the rise, survival and triumph of Grant was not disputed in the 19th century. It hasn’t been discussed much since then. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be discussed or those who do discuss it are wrong.

I actually like Rosecrans and have been interested in him for decades. I am not disputing anything about Grant or Washburne. The support of Washburne is mentioned in every serious work on Grant and is well-known. I simply see such issues as routine matters to be expected in the situation. Everyone has connections, friends, enemies and opponents.

Grant thought Halleck was his friend and protector during the war; Grant found out after the war that Halleck was perfectly willing to shop Grant as a scapegoat to McClellan in 1862. Rosecrans often created or aggravated the problems he encountered and Rosecrans often suffered because ***he*** failed to deal well with the political issues.

This thread is probably not the place to be posting on this.
 
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I am re-reading Caudills Army and Appalachian Rebels. About Confederate Letcher County Ky. I enjoy reading about the common mans experience in the war.
 
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