Mind Changing Books

[Pat Young]

Blight's book is brilliant. The best I've read in many years.

Yup.

 

[Stiles/Akin]

Tennessee Civil War Veterans' Questionnaires
http://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/tennessee-civil-war-veterans-questionnaires
http://share.tn.gov/tsla/history/military/quest.htm

For all the stories I have read I have always wanted to go straight to the source. This set of Questionnaires brings the soldiers story straight to life. When people tell you why your ancestor went to war and what they were fighting for its good to hear it straight from the soldiers mouth.

 

[Old_Glory]

Which book (and try to limit yourself to one) changed your mind most about the American Civil War era?

Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson without a doubt. It made me realize the current accepted narratives of the War in academia are more motivated by modern politics and social issues than historical reality.

 

[Vicksburger]

"The Confederate Ironclads" by Maurice Melton, published 1968. This book changed my mind totally about the Confederate navy, I became more impressed with the old American know-how, and how ingenuitive they had to be. Also, the chapter on the "Arkansas" really impressed me. This book may be out of print, it was a pick up by accident in a local second hand shop.

 

[leftyhunter]

Tennessee Civil War Veterans' Questionnaires
http://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/tennessee-civil-war-veterans-questionnaires
http://share.tn.gov/tsla/history/military/quest.htm

For all the stories I have read I have always wanted to go straight to the source. This set of Questionnaires brings the soldiers story straight to life. When people tell you why your ancestor went to war and what they were fighting for its good to hear it straight from the soldiers mouth.

Thanks I have been trying to find that link for a while.
Leftyhunter

 

[KansasFreestater]

The book that most opened my eyes to things I was not aware of before was a work of historical fiction, Ralph Peters's novel Cain at Gettysburg. Before I read it, I think I'd always assumed that Civil War soldiers (on either side) were either idealistically/patriotically fighting for a cause, or, just there because they were forced to be. I had conveniently blocked out of my mind the disturbing fact that, for the 3 to 4 percent of the population who are sociopaths, war is a golden opportunity to satisfy bloodlust. I've always said that war brings out the worst in people, and that when civil order breaks down, it unleashes those sick souls who are normally kept within bounds by laws and social expectations. But I guess I'd never really pondered all that in the context of the Civil War. Peters's novel brought it home, up-close and personal. (To be sure, there is plenty of heroism and nobility of character in the book, too -- but what unnerved me was the sociopathy.)

 

[Booner]

"Grierson's Raid," by D. Alexander Brown

I have always had an interest in the CW, but one day in the early 80's I read this book from my grandfathers library, and after finishing it, on the back flyleaf my grandfather had written a summary of my GG grandfathers term of service in company "L," 7th Ill. Vol Cav., one of the regiments that was on the raid. That started a much deeper interest in me with regards to the CW.

Over the years my CW interests have changed, and now I concentrate on the guerrilla conflict here in Missouri.
I cannot recommend highly enough;

"Bushwhackers: Guerrilla Warfare, Manhood, and the Household in Civil War Missouri" by Joseph M. Beilein, Jr.

I've had the book for about two months and think I've read it three times. The book for me is like peeling an onion, every time I read it more things fall into place. It really has changed how I view a really convoluted confrontation

 

[Jamieva]

Cold Harbor: Grant and lee by Gordon Rhea. It finally put to bed that 8000 casualties in 30 minutes stuff. I had bought that hook, line and sinker for years and years.

 

[MC44]

Our Man In Charleston, by Christopher Dickey.
Had always thought the British were eager to pair with the Confederacy.

 

[James N.]

Which book (and try to limit yourself to one) changed your mind most about the American Civil War era?

Once I finally got around to reading the first volume of Bruce Catton's Centennial Trilogy titled The Coming Fury I was amazed with what a cavalier attitude the Fire-Eaters had shepherded the Southern states out of the Union and how little they thought the result would be.

 

[Nathanb1]

Tainted Breeze by Dr. Richard McCaslin. When you really grasp the hysteria present in Texas before and during the war...

 

[Mike Griffith]

Which book (and try to limit yourself to one) changed your mind most about the American Civil War era?

Since my mind has changed twice, I'll take the liberty of naming two books!

The book that most changed me from being an ardent anti-Southern, pro-Northern Yankee and Lincoln admirer to being a staunch Lincoln critic and quasi-neo-Confederate was Jeffrey R. Hummel's book Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men.

The book that most changed me from bring a staunch Lincoln critic and quasi-neo-Confederate to a quasi-Peace Democrat who greatly admires McClellan and who sees much to admire in Lincoln was J. G. Randall's two-volume work Lincoln the President.

 

[shermans_march]

Team of Rivals By Doris Kearns Goodwin
Rebel Yell By SC Gwynne
William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of my Country By James Lee McDonough
The Myth of the Lost Cause: By Edward Bonekemper

 

[shermans_march]

A

David Potter's Impending Crisis. Before I read that I thought slavery was probably the biggest factor in the Civil War occurring. After I finished it I understood slavery was THE cause of the war. It killed all other notions dead to me. (Reading the secession declarations on these forums buried the corpse.)

Another good set of books are Road to Disunion by Freehling. Bit more dry and you have to read each sentence 1-2X, but they are a good complement to the Impending Crisis.

 

[Patrick H]

Which book (and try to limit yourself to one) changed your mind most about the American Civil War era?

"Three Years With Quantril", the dictated memoir of John McCorckle. It is deeply flawed in the way of timelines and dates and things such as that. But it is one of the first eyewitness accounts that gave me a clue that the Q-men might not have universally been the demons they were portrayed to be by the northern press.

 

[Bee]

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

 

[Mike Griffith]

A

Another good set of books are Road to Disunion by Freehling. Bit more dry and you have to read each sentence 1-2X, but they are a good complement to the Impending Crisis.

Unfortunately Freehling slants/chooses the evidence to support his view of the war, but his books do contain some useful information.

 

[Mike Griffith]

Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson without a doubt. It made me realize the current accepted narratives of the War in academia are more motivated by modern politics and social issues than historical reality.

Now that's very curious. When I was working on the final course for my advanced certificate in CW studies from Carroll College in WI, McPherson's The Battle Cry of Freedom was one of our required readings. I was fascinated to hear one of my fellow students say toward the end of the course that she was now sympathetic to the Southern view after reading McPherson's book.

 

[Mike Griffith]

I would suggest this strongly changed my mind about why Union generals did not pursue after a battle. Think I was always under the impression that they were chicken or lacked the drive to follow up. This book strongly suggested logistics and supply were often the real reason. Lincoln may have wanted the army to move, but you can't move hungry animals and men and then add the necessary items for battle such as rounds to fire. As you can tell, I enjoyed this read!

That is a great point, a point that most politicians and average citizens did not grasp. Interestingly, when Lee was asked after the war why the Confederate army did not march on Washington after First Bull Run, he said that it was mainly because of supplies, that most of the soldiers were extremely hungry and there weren't enough supplies to feed them. He also said the soldiers were just worn out and in no shape to advance.

Meade took all kinds of flack for not attacking Lee right after Gettysburg, but Longstreet said Lee would have liked nothing better than for Meade to have attacked him in the days after Gettysburg. Tom Huntington makes a powerful case that Meade was entirely justified and wise not to attack Lee soon after Gettysburg in Searching for George Gordon Meade (pp. 185-202).

McClellan faced the same kind of uninformed, amateurish second-guessing for not immediately pursuing Lee after Antietam. Robert Gould Shaw, the subject of the famous movie Glory and no shrinking violet when it came to combat, mocked the politicians and newspapers who were faulting McClellan for waiting until his army was supplied and rested before moving against Lee after Antietam.

 

[ForeverFree]

There is no book that "changed my mind" about the war. I came into CW studies maybe 8 years ago as a bank slate, so everything I read adds to what is in my mind. I tend to view various interpretations differently as I get more evidence and information from the books I've most recently read. I feel like I am still learning.

I can say that Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath Go Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 gave me an essential foundation for understanding the Antebellum Era, and McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom gave me a great foundation for understanding the prewar and wartime years.

Shearer Davis Bowman' book At the Precipice: Americans North and South during the Secession Crisis was very useful in describing the cultural, political, and social currents that created the environment for war. Michael E. Woods' book Emotional and Sectional Conflict in the Antebellum United States examines the emotional state of prewar America. These two books illustrate that it's not enough to look at politics and economics when trying to understand how civil war broke out in 1861.

- Alan