A basic Civil War library?

[Gary of CA]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

John Worsham's One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry It is the book that got me hooked on Civil War literature.
George Peck How Private George W. Peck Put Down the Rebellion. If you want to read about the Sad Sack of the Civil War, Peck is your man. Peck mixes humor in recounting his numerous experiences as a cavalryman. His skilled pen and winning style makes it easy to understand how he later became Michigan's Governor.

[mtvernon]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

Old thread, new book.

While in Barnes & Noble today during lunch, I found the following book from Time/Life Books: Soldier Life, subtitled "Fancy the comforts of such a life as this!"

Here is a link below:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/BookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780760790335&itm=2

I mention it because I couldn't find evidence that other people on The AC had it, and because it contains many, many photographs of everyday soldier life. Only a couple are ones I had seen before, and I quickly dismissed the assumption that this was yet another recycled-photo book that you find so often. I haven't delved too deeply into it at this point, but so far from thumbing through it, I'm suitably impressed. Also, at that price, I can afford to have a touch of redundancy.

Anyway, there it is for what it's worth. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else has this particular book, and if so, what his impression(s) is (are).

Respectfully,

[Jim of The SRR]

Re: Beginner's bibliography

Even though it is a novel, another good one with a wealth of detail about the everyday life of the Federal soldier is:

Hinman,Wilbur: "Corporal Si Klegg and his Pard" 1887,1997,J.W.Henry pub.Co.

[/color][/b]



Doug Price

= ding - ding - ding....we have a winner! I agree.

Jim Butler

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

Soldier-life accounts are, of course, among the best resources for reenactors in developing a reasonably accurate portrayal. However, I'd like to encourage folks to think beyond "Billy Yank" and "Co. Aytch" and similar books and also consider types of books like,

* Campaign histories, such as Peter Cozzens's "This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga", Gordon Rhea's books on the Overland campaign, Stephen Sears's books "To the Gates of Richmond", "Landscape Turned Red", and "Chancellorsville", Herry Pfanz's books on Gettysburg, Earl Hess's books on the Western campaigns such as "Pea Ridge: Civil War Campaign in the West" and "Bannders to the Breeze" and many, many others. These books are chock-full of first-person accounts and not only reflect the history of these epic campaigns, but also how the basic skills that reenactors attempt to practice were actually applied in the field.

* Regimental histories. Often these books have just as much "slice of soldier life" accounts as do diaries, memoirs, and collections of letters.

* Biographies. It's sometimes difficult to understand why and how certain military events happened as they did without understanding the men who made them happen. Sherman, for example, comes off as something of an enigma until one reads a good bio of him like Marzalek's "Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order", which brings a lot about Sherman's military actions into much sharper focus.

* Social studies of the era. For example, books on religion of the day, books about the home front and how it affected the war effort and the morale of the troops, books on immigrant toops such as "Melting Pot Soldiers" and "The Harp and the Eagle" (a 2007 publication); also included in here (at least with how my bookshelves are arranged!) are things like studies on prisoners of war, military railroads, and other miscellaneous topics.

As with the nuts-n-bolts of developing a well-rounded reenacting portrayal, the stuff you read to back up your portrayal also needs to be well-rounded.

[Rob Weaver]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

Although not specifically Civil War, I would recommend a few authors as representing the best in American and British literature from the period before the War. Our historical forebearers didn't spring from the ground fully clothed and equipped, nor were they droids programmed to march and kill or be killed. They were people whose lives and attitudes were shaped by what they read. I would consider Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe) to be required reading. It was, in Lincoln's words, "the book that started this great big war.) I would also recommend Moby Dick (Herman Melville). Probably the best work of fiction in the antibellum period. If you're and older person, you should be familiar with The Last of the Mohicans (James Fenimore Cooper), also a good choice if you like Indian stories. If you have a taste for science fiction, Edgar Allan Poe is your man, immensely popular both north and south. My personal favorites are: The Black Cat, Murders in the Rue Morgue, especially for the discussion comparing checkers and chess, and any of his poetry. From across the other side of the waters, I would recommend Ivanhoe or Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott. Although I personally don't like Scott, he's the first historical novelist, and those are arguably his best. Charles Dickens was the most respected English novelist of the age, Nicholas Nickleby being a personal favorite. You should also have a passing knowledge of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, (Charge of the Light Brigade, Idylls of the King) When you read any of these, you're not only getting the best and most popular of 19th century authors (and so expanding your brain), but you're beginning to get inside the influences on the man inside the uniform, blue or gray.

[Parault]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

My thoughts too on this subject Mr. Weaver.

Melville lost me after "They call me Ishmael." This book was very boring. "Deer Slayer," "The Pioneers," & "Last of the Mohicans,"were better reading material.
Some of the other noted authors that the soldiers were reading,and worth reading include; Washington Irving's books "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "Rip Van Winkle." Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Amercian Scholar," Nathaniel Hawthorn's "Scarlet Letter." Frederick Douglass had some extensive writtings.
Poets of that time period include; John Greenleaf Whittier,Walt Whitman,Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau. Sarah Willis whose pen name was Fanny Fern,was a newspaper columinist,and Novelist, who for years was amoung the best paid and most famous authors in the nation.
There is one poet who is less known today,however,during the Victorian era this poet rivaled Henry David Thoreau. Lydia Howard Huntley Cigourney.

I enjoy being on a campaign and pulling out one of these books and reading by candlelight before "lights out!!" It puts me in the mindset of the soldiers. In fact I have started reading one of these books and find myself reading it at home from cover to cover.

[Rob Weaver]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

The interesting thing about Moby Dick is that it's two books in one: The first is the story of the pursuit of the white whale; the other is a pretty respectable book on period whaling. The beginning is very slow and methodical. I can see where it might leave you behind. Ironically, you liked "The Skarlet Letter" and I don't particularly care for it at all! Wow - preferences in period reading material! I'd actually recommend reading these recognized masters of the language, rather than period copies of cheap books, such as religious books or Sunday School books, that you can pick up in antique stores. They may be period, but there's a reason they're still around; they terrible! Nobody could stand to read them then (- or now!) I completely forgot Washington Irving, thanks for including him! I didn't go into the Transendentalists because their stuff is a little heady for essential reading. Frederick Douglass autobiography is perhaps the most powerful anti-slavery document I ever read. I assigned it to my teenaged daughter to read for school last year. Made her cry. Now that's powerful writing!

[CJ Roberts]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

It might be a little difficult to find a copy, but Edmund Brown's The Twenty-Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion 1861 to 1865 First Division 12th and 20th Corps is a great resource and a very fine regimental history. Butternut Press republished this work sometime in the late 1980s I believe, but even their edition is tough to find.

C.J. Roberts

[The Chesterfield Rifleman]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

2012 updated list:

Cadet Grey and Butternut Brown
Company of Military Historians Confederate Issue Jackets
Life of Johnny Reb
Johnny Reb, Uniforms of the Confederate Army
Blue and Grey marching.com
Echos of Glory CS Edition
The Reluctant Rebel
Hardtack and Coffee
The Confederate infantryman on Campaign by the Lazy Jacks Mess 1&2
Confederate Mess Names by the Lazy Jacks Mess
One of Jacksons Foot Calvary
Detailed Minuite Life of the Soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia
Corpral Si Klegg and his Pard Shorty
A Rebel Private: Front and Rear
Columbian Rifles Research Comerandium ?? (spelling, not my thing) (all gone now except 1 first edition)
All articles from the AC Links page
The Rebel Yell Lives CD version from the MOC
All issues of the Confederate Veterans Magazine

And if movies are more your thing, try Life and Death of the Army of Northern Virginia

Start with those, then reffer to the above list.

As Curt would put it: Others mileage may vary

[Philip cav]

Re: A basic Civil War library?

Another fine book for a CW library is "Desolating This Fair Country" The Civil War Diary and Letters Of Henry C. Lyon. It was written from July 1861-Sept 1862 when he dies of his wounds he got at Sharpsburg. It provides a good look at early war eastern fed.