Member Review Civil War books read during Coronavirus

Due to lots and lots of free time since March, I have been able to visit Amazon and read the following:

2020 CW Readings:



Gettysburg (Sears)

Chancellorsville (Sears)

Landscape Turned Red: Antietam (Sears)

To Gates of Richmond: Peninsula (Sears)

Lincoln Lieutenants (Sears)

George B McClellan: The Young Napoleon: (Sears)

Catton, B., Mr. Lincoln’s Army

Catton, B., Glory Road

Catton, B., Stillness at Appomattox

Foote, S., Fort Sumter to Perryville

Foote, S., Fredericksburg to Meridian

Foote, S., Red River to Appomattox

Building the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869

The Devil's Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America

Politics in the Age of Civil War by Iver Bernstein

Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff

Telegraphing In Battle: Reminiscences Of The Civil War

B&O Power: Steam, Diesel & Electric Power of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 1829-1964

A Picture History of B&O Motive Power: The Fascinating Story of 125 Years of Locomotive Development on the Great Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Mr. Lincoln’s High Tech War

Mr. Lincoln’s T-mails

Reconstruction: A Concise History

Never liked paperbacks, and Amazon offers good hardback editions.
 
Due to lots and lots of free time since March, I have been able to visit Amazon and read the following:

2020 CW Readings:



Gettysburg (Sears)

Chancellorsville (Sears)

Landscape Turned Red: Antietam (Sears)

To Gates of Richmond: Peninsula (Sears)

Lincoln Lieutenants (Sears)

George B McClellan: The Young Napoleon: (Sears)

Catton, B., Mr. Lincoln’s Army

Catton, B., Glory Road

Catton, B., Stillness at Appomattox

Foote, S., Fort Sumter to Perryville

Foote, S., Fredericksburg to Meridian

Foote, S., Red River to Appomattox

Building the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869

The Devil's Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America

Politics in the Age of Civil War by Iver Bernstein

Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff

Telegraphing In Battle: Reminiscences Of The Civil War

B&O Power: Steam, Diesel & Electric Power of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 1829-1964

A Picture History of B&O Motive Power: The Fascinating Story of 125 Years of Locomotive Development on the Great Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Mr. Lincoln’s High Tech War

Mr. Lincoln’s T-mails

Reconstruction: A Concise History

Never liked paperbacks, and Amazon offers good hardback editions.

Some great reads! Any insights into which of those CW books really stood out for you?
 
Shiloh: Conquer or Perish by Timothy B. Smith
The Army of Tennessee by Stanley F. Horn
Jefferson Davis and his Generals by Steven E. Woodworth
Two Great Rebel Armies by Richard M. McMurray
Lincoln Finds a General, Vol I by Kenneth P. Williams
Comments on Major-General McClellan's account of his West Virginia campaign by Charles Wesley Hill
Antietam and the Maryland and Virginia campaigns of 1862 ; Issac W. Heysinger
The Antietam and Fredericksburg by Francis W. Palfrey
Nathan Bedford Forrest; Worlds Greatest Generals Series; Charles River Editors
plus partly read or re-read a few other books

I'm currently fascinated with the Battles & Leaders Series which I hope to finish by the end of the year. Not planning on buying any more books until I start and finish three other books recently bought. BTW, if anyone is interested there are a lot of books available in the Hathi Trust Digital Library and Archive.org that are free as they are public domain.
 
I’ve read more books in the last 10 months than in the last 10 years (perhaps that’s an exaggeration but you get the idea) Just finished Stephen Davis’ 2 volume history of John Bell Hood in Tennessee and Georgia 1864-1865. Excellent books written in his usual no holds barred style. Bound to cause some reaction as he also analyses the authors who have written about this subject over the years. Highly recommended!
 
I just finished "The Howling Storm, Weather, Climate and the American Civil War" by Kenneth Noe. I highly recommend it. It explains how the weather affected the major campaigns in the war including some of the major decisions.
 
April usually turns my mind back to the beginnings of the American Revolution: Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill; this year I revisited three of my favorite books on the subject, Paul Revere's Ride (really about the entire campaign, centered on the characters of Revere and British commander Thomas Gage), The Minutemen, and Decisive Day (Bunker Hill). I've also managed to finish John Allen Weyth's classic biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Perhaps not so oddly, after Wyeth and the Revolutionaries, for some reason I figured I'd tackle some HUGE volumes I'd owned for literally decades about the Wars of Napoleon: David Chandler's 1960's magnum opus The Campaigns Of Napoleon (1000+ pp.), John Elting's Swords Around A Throne (800+ pp.), and a much shorter last book by Gunther Rothenberg on the Wagram Campaign. So far this year I've advanced over a century to WWII with a very short Ballentine Book Patton, another short Battle of The Ruhr Pocket, and currently Lost Victories, the memoirs of Generalfeldmarshall von Manstein.
 
As we start to come out of lockdown restrictions in the UK I decided to tackle the 3 volume Chickamauga series written by David Powell. I’ve always found this battle to be confusing partly because it took place over such a large area and partly because so much of the battle was fought in woodland. David Powell’s books were recommended to me. I’m well into volume 1 and am finding it to be very readable, not something you can usually say about micro battle histories. I have separate copies of the relevant maps to help me along. Enjoying the experience!
 
Ironically, the Coronapocalypse has overall been bad for my reading, but I'm not stuck at home as much as some other folks.
Almost a year later, I can say the same about my reading. It really tailed off after our CWT Muster at Shiloh last year and I haven't bought a book since then. I didn't crack a book in January or February this year. I started one this month and hope to finish it in the next few days. I think I'm getting back in my groove.
 
Due to lots and lots of free time since March, I have been able to visit Amazon and read the following:

2020 CW Readings:



Gettysburg (Sears)

Chancellorsville (Sears)

Landscape Turned Red: Antietam (Sears)

To Gates of Richmond: Peninsula (Sears)

Lincoln Lieutenants (Sears)

George B McClellan: The Young Napoleon: (Sears)

Catton, B., Mr. Lincoln’s Army

Catton, B., Glory Road

Catton, B., Stillness at Appomattox

Foote, S., Fort Sumter to Perryville

Foote, S., Fredericksburg to Meridian

Foote, S., Red River to Appomattox

Building the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869

The Devil's Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America

Politics in the Age of Civil War by Iver Bernstein

Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff

Telegraphing In Battle: Reminiscences Of The Civil War

B&O Power: Steam, Diesel & Electric Power of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 1829-1964

A Picture History of B&O Motive Power: The Fascinating Story of 125 Years of Locomotive Development on the Great Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Mr. Lincoln’s High Tech War

Mr. Lincoln’s T-mails

Reconstruction: A Concise History

Never liked paperbacks, and Amazon offers good hardback editions.

I'm looking for something good to read about the B&O. What's your take on those books?
 
Perhaps not so oddly, after Wyeth and the Revolutionaries, for some reason I figured I'd tackle some HUGE volumes I'd owned for literally decades about the Wars of Napoleon: David Chandler's 1960's magnum opus The Campaigns Of Napoleon (1000+ pp.), John Elting's Swords Around A Throne (800+ pp.), and a much shorter last book by Gunther Rothenberg on the Wagram Campaign. So far this year I've advanced over a century to WWII with a very short Ballentine Book Patton, another short Battle of The Ruhr Pocket, and currently Lost Victories, the memoirs of Generalfeldmarshall von Manstein.
Almost a year later, I can say the same about my reading. It really tailed off after our CWT Muster at Shiloh last year and I haven't bought a book since then. I didn't crack a book in January or February this year. I started one this month and hope to finish it in the next few days. I think I'm getting back in my groove.
I've continued to plow ahead - I finally finished von Manstein which was a bit tedious, mainly in its length and sticking to mainly strictly military matters, both understandable considering the times and circumstances under which it was written. I recently found a short historical handbook on Kansas' Fort Larned which restored my interest in the Old Army of the Frontier and have turned to another book I've had for a while without reading, The Last Stand, a sort of dual biography or study of Little Big Horn focusing on the leaders Custer and Sitting Bull.
 
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Just finished 3rd. Winchester by Patchen. Pretty good too. Has more on the cavalry vs. Infantry action than any other book I know of.

John
 
Not Civil War but was recently given Washington's Immortals by Patrick O'Donnell concerning a Maryland infantry regiment in the Revolutionary War.

John
 
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