NF Our CW book initiation

[LtTevis]

Happy New Year all!
Just curious. What books initiated you into your Civil War journey?
For me it was these two. I began my journey at 10 years old and within a short time these were my staples.
I still use them for references.

( btw I don't know what hf and nf mean in the prefix, hope I didn't mess up too bad )

 

[Broch]

For me, the American Heritage book as well.

 

[Kurtlg]

The Golden Book of the Civil War. A Christmas present in the 1960s.

 

[TallTallMan]

Don't laugh.

 

[Jamieva]

The civil war by Fletcher Pratt

 

[amccauley]

First book I read relating to the Civil War was Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I had planned on reading a book about every president at that point…not so much any more

 

[A. Roy]

I think for me the earliest source was actually a juvenile-level biography of US Grant that I read in elementary school. (The only thing I remember now is that schoolkids teased him by calling him "Useless." Stood out for me, as I got teased a lot for my name.)

Probably the next thing was "Johnny Reb and Billy Yank," a comic strip which I think appeared in the Sunday "colored funnies."

Then high school and my reading of "The Red Badge of Courage." Then some time later Michael Shaara's "The Killer Angels." So fiction did a lot to draw me in to the topic.

When I finally decided to seek out more in-depth sources, I started with Shelby Foote's trilogy -- not what you might call a scholarly source, but it helped me to read something from a storyteller.

ARB

 

[TallTallMan]

Probably the next thing was "Johnny Reb and Billy Yank," a comic strip which I think appeared in the Sunday "colored funnies."

Animated cartoons and comic strips and books are my hobbies, but I've never heard of this one!

 

[scooter748driver]

I can't say for certain, but If it wasn't this book this was one of them. I've had this book since childhood and remember reading it over and over when I was young.

 

[Lampasas Bill]

I don't remember the first, but the Landmark Books edition of Gettysburg by MacKinlay Kantor was certainly influential. I still have my original copy.

 

[Eric Wittenberg]

For me, it was the American Heritage book, featuring Bruce Catton's brilliant prose and the greatest maps ever.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

The first serious history books (albeit for a YA audience) I can recall reading were several by Albert Marrin, when I was in middle school. However, he didn't have any books about the American Civil War.

The first book I can remember reading about the American Civil War was Shelby Foote's trilogy. I spent most of my sophomore year of high school plowing through 2.5 out of 3 volumes, borrowed from the school library. I didn't finish the last volume before the semester ended so my knowledge of the last 6-8 months of the war was a bit shaky for many years afterwards.

 

[LtTevis]

I can't say for certain, but If it wasn't this book this was one of them. I've had this book since childhood and remember reading it over and over when I was young.

View attachment 494200

Most definitely!
I recall many hours with that one. My adult daughter has it now, along with the entire set.

 

[scooter748driver]

For me, it was the American Heritage book, featuring Bruce Catton's brilliant prose and the greatest maps ever.

I forgot that one! I remember checking it out at my elementary school library many time because of the great battle maps!

 

[DaveBrt]

Mine was Burke Davis' JEB Stewart, The Last Cavalier, 1957.

 

[Bruce Vail]

For me, it was the American Heritage book, featuring Bruce Catton's brilliant prose and the greatest maps ever.

Me too.

Also, Random House's Landmark Book series (for kids) of the 1960s stimulated a life-long interest in American history, especially Civil War. see https://www.historians.org/research...neration-past-the-story-of-the-landmark-books

 

[LCYingling3rd]

My dad had Fletcher Pratt's "Civil War in Pictures" which got me interested. That led to me getting the American Heritage book, which I really enjoyed. Eventually I became mature enough to read my dads Bruce Catton books, "The Coming Storm," "Terrible Swift Sword," and "Never Call Retreat." They whisked me away to another time and place and the rest, as they say, is history...

It helped that my parents took me to the 100th anniversary reenactment at Antietam in 1962 and we traveled to Gettysburg too. (It is wild that my current fiancee and I each have nearly the exact same pictures of ourselves posing at the cannon at Lee's headquarters when we were like seven or eight years old visiting Gettysburg with our families! LOL) That my father had my great grandfather's ornate discharge document, listing the battles he was in, framed and hanging on the wall as I grew up also sparked my interest.

 

[SJU]

I was with my mom at some kind of thrift sale and picked a copy of A Stillness At Appomattox from a box of used books. I must have driven my father nuts talking about that book. I remember him patiently correcting my pronunciation of Appomattox and Potomac.