tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57360542024-03-14T05:29:35.995-04:00Civil War BookshelfAmerican Civil War historiography and publishing blogged daily by Dimitri Rotov.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4223125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-40769679579216736672019-03-15T14:14:00.002-04:002019-03-15T14:15:31.198-04:00The Free State of Southwest VirginiaHattaway and Beringer mention The Free State of Southwest Virginia in their Jefferson Davis book but I can find no trace of it on the WWW or elsewhere.
This site would have provided a natural home for it ... but no mention.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-86781495943484302372019-02-27T22:41:00.000-05:002019-02-27T22:43:08.896-05:00Civil War memes in Zamoyski's Napoleon, A Life
I was startled by the number of Civil War history memes found in Adam Zamoyski's Napoleon, A Life.
Marches
Recall a topic as trivial as the length and duration of a military march. Short marches infuriate Civil War authors, yet,
The Austrian Army operated like a machine, observing tested routines such as only marching for six hours in twenty-four.
Six hours in 24? In their marching, the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-55678165143760277732019-02-26T19:18:00.000-05:002019-02-26T19:46:05.186-05:00The new revolutionary war
With the fall of Richmond, Jefferson Davis proposed to carry on the war in the style of the American revolution.
This is as much as we get from those historians who write past Appomattox and it leaves much to the imagination. The clarifying explanations are in the record, however.
As early as the fall of Vicksburg, Davis wrote to BG Reuben Davis (emphasis added):
I hoped that the popular Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-74999036868738821442019-02-02T09:55:00.005-05:002019-02-02T09:55:56.414-05:00When history repeats itselfMr. Lincoln's Army, Catton, 1951
Mr. Lincoln's Navy, West 1957
Life in Mr. Lincoln’s Navy, Ringle, 1998
Mr. Lincoln's Brown Water Navy, Joiner 2007
"Mr. Lincoln's Navy," National Museum of the American Sailor 2019Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-91237905485482924192019-01-26T18:10:00.000-05:002019-01-26T18:10:00.238-05:00Francis Preston Blair (Sr.) remains history-proof
At that time at which Fremont is relieved, and later when McClellan must be restored, there appears in Civil War military histories a shadowy advisor to the president named Francis Preston Blair, sometimes styled "senior."
He is introduced, if at all, as a former confidant of Andrew Jackson. To military historians, politics is so marginal, so irrelevant to their narratives of personal Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-80020781002121791592019-01-25T14:40:00.002-05:002019-01-25T14:40:25.210-05:00A new year revelationThe New York Times list of top Civil War books may be the saddest thing you ever read but this can make you sad as well.
Pop history is an impersonator, roaming the room soused, boasting its history credentials, breathing its cheap sensibilities into your face, offering nothing but the drunk's stock-in-trade of nostalgia, stories, emotions, drama and "life lessons." You finish whatever show/bookUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-72085472841633588222019-01-04T20:35:00.001-05:002019-01-04T20:35:47.661-05:00Happy New YearMuch to share in 2019. Humble request, however. If you are not subscribed to this blog, please stop accessing it.
Thanks!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-11261342113622616572018-12-22T15:00:00.000-05:002018-12-22T15:00:25.373-05:00Quartermaster Meigs
Remember when one subtitle was enough? Here we have The [emphasis in original] Quartermaster: Montgomery C. Meigs * Lincoln’s General * Master Builder of the Union Army.
So, our problems start with the title. Really, Meigs reads out as Seward’s general, later becoming Stanton’s general (Lincoln appears disinterested from first to last). As for "Master Builder of the Union Army," as I have Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-59783145959097178032018-12-08T05:56:00.002-05:002018-12-08T05:56:12.518-05:00Publishing industry snapshotsI used to do more with this but for now enjoy this industry site, filled with data and analysis.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-74455288828829898932018-11-29T14:06:00.000-05:002018-11-29T14:06:08.553-05:00Private ACW portraiture made public
The Army and Navy club has put its private art collection online. Have a look here and browse the whole site for more Civil War history paintings.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-53378377054633039442018-11-28T12:17:00.003-05:002018-11-28T12:17:20.946-05:00John Clem
Just encountered club member John Clem in our newsletter. The club account has him thrice wounded by age 13. It gives the number of 40,000 children enlisted and fighting in the ACW.
The internet version of his story are rather flat; he was a colorful celebrity who rejoined the army in peacetime.
Clem's exploits put me in mind of a movie I saw recently with many of the same elements present.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-58528694724149415842017-06-20T19:41:00.002-04:002017-06-20T19:41:33.338-04:00Civil War beer for discerning Civil War readers (Centennialists, stick to your Kool-Aid)
Antietam Brewery knows what's what. Unfortunately, the website does not include the text on the beer label (right). It says something like
Little Mac was loved by his troops for his concern over their lives, a concern that caused Lincoln to fire him.
That's near-enough history for a beer label, I think. And Mac is the only general honored with a beer label here. (IPA is not my style, but Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-34029940078665349272017-06-17T14:33:00.002-04:002017-06-18T13:28:51.746-04:00The first Union mobilizationEvery reader faces that early war event where Lincoln (spoiler alert: not just Lincoln) mobilizes 75,000 “militia” (spoiler alert: very little militia, per se) for 90 days or three months (spoiler alert: it’s not quite either).
We remember this milestone in part because it puzzles at first look: why that number of men and for that duration of service? This post looks at the Federal orders, theUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-73958634988523027332017-05-26T16:41:00.004-04:002017-05-26T16:42:49.695-04:00William Manchester exposedYet another lying historian... who had no need to lie.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-64043833296826441242017-05-24T18:44:00.000-04:002017-05-24T18:44:48.835-04:00Thinking about statuesI weighed in over at Tom Woods' site.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-31054151146960466552017-05-22T18:26:00.005-04:002017-05-22T18:29:15.108-04:00NYT: Best ACW booksDid not know that the New York Times extended its authority worship or influence peddling into ACW nonfiction, For the authority seekers who crave the Times, this is essential and non-negotiable. The history is settled. For the rest of us, read this for amusement. Let loose the wisecracks.
p.s. The people who think that these are good books are telling us what to think about contemporary issues.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-88356056944402672632017-05-22T18:12:00.003-04:002017-05-22T18:27:20.365-04:00Reading levelsThe great thing about being 65 is you read at the 65-year-old level.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-75053681708000771802017-05-12T10:11:00.005-04:002017-05-12T10:16:06.697-04:00Pop quiz
Hello, Civil War readers! Let's take a quiz.
Francis Preston Blair was the father of Frank and Montgomery Blair. We find him advising President Lincoln. The alert reader wonders why this fellow is advising Lincoln and looks to the historian for a clue. The writer feels the need to give a clue and offers one very brief biographical note.
The purpose of this quiz is to see if that note Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-25965736973736878452017-05-12T09:15:00.000-04:002017-05-12T09:15:10.843-04:00It's good to mock Civil War pop history ... as Althouse does here:
Wait. I thought the Civil War was inevitable and no President could have averted it.
Is inevitable history even history?
I like the way that here Pierce's debility becomes a cause of the war (an interesting contributing cause?). And I was shocked that no one in the press had enough history to understand Trump's recent Jackson reference. Teach the children:“I expectUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-6753075160758749562017-05-08T08:17:00.000-04:002017-05-08T08:17:01.462-04:00Sears' "Generals"The esteemed Russell Bonds finds a few good things in Stephen Sears' latest.
Whenever I feel so inclined myself, I go back and read this post.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-54353323195695301572017-05-07T07:48:00.001-04:002017-05-14T21:59:46.614-04:00Get NellyI bought Lincoln's Generals' Wives by Candice S. Hooper to read more about Mary Ellen McClellan. Something on the Internet led me to believe that here were letters and diaries from the Library of Congress used to compile the Nelly chapters. Indeed there were: five letters and a few short, tiny diaries; I did not find these referenced in the notes. It seems likely that Sears used them and Ms. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-479768414247155262017-03-30T11:30:00.000-04:002017-03-30T11:30:26.083-04:00Civil War operasCivil War operas are proliferating. A few I missed:
Freedom and Fire!
Cold Mountain
The Dream of a Good Death: A Civil War Folk-Rock Opera
Rappahannock County
My Civil War
What's interesting here is the idea, among producers, that the Civil War history crowd might be as arcane and fringe-y as American opera goers.
Or maybe they think that ACW readers will buy tickets to anything ACW-ish.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-4500985533301670752017-03-29T20:12:00.001-04:002017-03-29T20:12:13.845-04:00The ghost of Civil War pastThe Confederacy’s 9th Kentucky Infantry had a drama club.
Among prisoners of war, and "Chess was the principal game, and the demand for chessmen created quite a business for a former prisoner who had erected a turning lathe."
Civil War bands "provided [soldiers] a daily acquaintance with opera melodies..."
During the Great Revival of '63-64, "Night after night troops participated in prayer Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-57520057324691318222017-03-27T16:41:00.002-04:002017-03-27T16:41:56.059-04:00Light my cannon ballAnother one of those stories where the reporters and city officials are too ignorant and illiterate to explain what the problem might be:
Museum calls in bomb squad fearing possible Civil War cannon ball explosion.
Hat tip to a dear reader. Best line in the story, "...the cannon balls and artillery rounds did not have fuses and would not have exploded without having been lit, according to the Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5736054.post-27774649748902904122017-03-25T06:00:00.000-04:002017-03-25T06:00:34.342-04:00Ramblin Spokes, ACW author: Best ways to blurbHello again, readers and aspiring authors!
Many a time has Ramblin been asked to blurb a book he hasn't read. As you become successful, this will happen to you. Let me help.
I read a lot of blurbs on Civil War book jackets. It's a quick, fast, fun way to save time and energy. The material I find there, I add to my stockpile.
This guy decided to pen a navy book and asked for my opinion. IUnknownnoreply@blogger.com