Which Books Influenced You the Most?

[jakebook]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

The first diary/letters I ever read was from "With Sherman to the Sea" by Theodore Upson of the 100th Indiana. So very good and to date the best and most enjoyable read I have yet come across. Can't recommend it enough!

[Stephen Lunsford]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

The first Civil War book that thrilled me the most was , "Antietam: The Soldiers' Battle" By John Michael Priest. Other notable books were "A Scythe Of Fire-Through the Civil War With One Of Lee's Most Legendary Regiments" (the 8th Georgia) by Warren Wilkinson & Steven Woodworth and the entire "Voices of the Civil War" series by the editors of Time-Life Books.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

It's a toss up between Kautz's Company Clerk and Battle Studies by Ardant du Picq. :)

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

There are many, but Rice Bull's Soldiering is at the top of the list.

[John McPherson]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

Several books by Catton and one by Robert Leckie served as my introduction to the American Civil War. After watching the movie "Glory" in the theater back in '89 I wanted to learn a lot more. Following Ken Burns's mini-series (which I always thought to be rather slow) I read the diaries of Elisha Hunt Rhodes. But, if there was one book that inspired the direction of my impression in this hobby, it would have to be "Hardtack & Coffee: the Unwritten Story of Army Life" by John Billings.

Lately, "Dear Friends from Home" by Charles Bowen has further tightened my impression. It's an on-going thing and I find myself going back to Billings just for the hilarity of his prose and for the genius in the sketches done by Reed.

[JWysong]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

I guess that I would have to say that Bruce Catton's history of the Army of the Potomac, as well as his three volume general history of the war, were the books that awakened my interest in the Civil War. My father had gotten them during the centennial, and as a kid they fascinated me. I have to say, I was very lucky to have a father who encouraged my interest. A few years after reading the Catton series, we began the purchase of the Time-Life Civil War series. Between the books and frequent trips to battlefields, I was pretty well hooked by the time I was in junior high.

[Texyank]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

Mine is a novel (from a time when I actually read novels still). It was when I was twelve and it was all about a Union drummer. It was pretty old at the time I read it and I can't remember the name. But the main characters were Mr. Putnam and his drummer boy friend. It was a good book as I recall and it eventually lead me to read more CW books, starting with Bruce Catton's Civil War book and then his series.

[LtCol0802]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

That Devil Forrest by John Wyeth and Fighting for the Confederacy by EP Alexander. I was always a Civil War fan but when I was in the hospital my dad brought me the Forrest book and I was hooked immediately!

LtCol John Owens USMC (ret)

[GburgSldr]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

The very first book for me was Ghost Cadet by Elaine Marie Alphin. I bought it at one of those Scholastic Book sales that came to school when I was 10 or 11. It's about a kid who spends the summer near VMI, and is visited by a ghost of one of the cadets who fought at the battle of New Market. The ghost needs his help in order to complete a task so he can join in the "final dress parade." It was one of the first books I ever read that I could not put down. After I finished it, I tracked down every book I could on the battle of New Market and have been hooked ever since.

[lambrew]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

"The Red Badge of Courage" is where it all got started. Also I was constantly told of my relatives who fought for the confederacy in several North Carolina regiments.

[Strawfoot]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

At about age 11 or 12 was given the Bruce Catton Army of the Potomac trilogy and it changed my life forever. My heroes as a young child were Pete Rose, Jerry West, The Rolling Stones and the Iron Brigade lol...

[James Taub]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

When I was maybe 12 or 13 I picked up a copy of My Enemy my Brother. As a kid it gave me a much more down to earth view of how the average soldier acted. It made everything just so much more dark and less heroic. I think it was the first book I had read at the time that describes soldiers being killed in a realistic and utterly horrible sense (Arms/legs flying off, screaming etc...). Up to that point the only thing I had really known about Civil War battles was from the movie Gettysburg. Started me on my path from idolizing history to studying it in a more realistic sense.

[robwall1861]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

"Rifles for Watie" was the first Civil War book I read, then "Confederates in the Attic"...now I have a whole bunch on my shelf I'm trying to catch up on (currently reading "Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (on book 3 of 4)).

[Philo]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

Like many others Cattons "Army of the Potomac" trilogy was and still is one of my favorites. I go back those three volumes often. Nolans "The Iron Brigade" also played a huge role in developing my interest in those 'Damned Black Hats." And then there is Si Klegg and his Pard.........

But all that said, it was in 1961 when I was 7, that my grandmother gave me the Life Magazine magazine, "The Civil War." This was the issue with George Woodbridges great uniform images, along with several of Tom Lovell's paintings. I still have this magazine, it is well worn, stained and missing its cover, but it remains one of my most valued possessions.

[Chad Teasley]

Re: Which Books Influenced You the Most?

The ones that influenced me when I was young were several works already mentioned: "Rifles for Watie", the all time favorite book of my youth, which I read four times before the seventh grade, Bruce Catton's immortal "A Stillness at Appomattox", which I still find myself re-reading every few years, and "My Enemy, My Brother", which I read when I was twelve. The latter was the first book that gave me a real idea of how truly horrible war is. Another was Bell Wiley's classic study of common Rebel soldiers, "Johnny Reb", which I devoured in the fifth grade, and which engendered my life-long obsession with the Confederate Army.

In adulthood, William Safire's historical fiction work, "Freedom", about the first two years of the War, is quite simply the best novel I have ever read. I was also profoundly moved by Howard Bahr's "The Black Flower", a fictional account of Mississippi soldiers at Franklin.