Civil War Books
Indispensability is measured by the distance of an item from one’s desk. In my case, the indispensable Nevins, Robertson and Wiley, eds., Civil War Books: A Critical Bibliography is no more than an arm’s length from my favorite writing table.
This work, released in two volumes in 1967 and 1969, proposed to address a need perceived by the three editors: “an annotated, critical bibliography of the major works in the field.”
A century after the war there were an estimated 40,000-60,000 books about it. At the time, Allan Nevins, James Robertson and Bell Wiley were officers of the United States Civil War Commission — Chairman, Executive Director, and Chairman of the Executive Committee, respectively. The three won the Commission’s endorsement of a project to compile a reference guide to fill the need. Robertson would serve as managing editor, with Wiley and Nevins advising.
How to organize such a daunting project? The three editors took their cue from James G. Randall and David Donald’s The Civil War and Reconstruction (1961). For their bibliography Randall and Donald employed 15 categories. Nevins, Robertson and Wiley decided to use the same ones.
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General Works — E. B. Long Biographies, Memoirs and Collected Works — Robert W. Johannsen Military Aspects: Campaigns — Warren W. Hassler Jr. Military Aspects: Soldier Life — James I. Robertson Jr. Navies — Thomas Wells Diplomacy — Norman Ferris Prisons and Prisoners of War — Frank Byrne The Negro — Dudley T. Cornish Military Aspects: Mobilization, Organization, Administration and Supply — Archer Jones The Union: Government and Politics — Rodney C. Loehr The Union: Economic and Social Studies — John T. Hubbell The Union: State and Local Studies — William E. Parrish The Confederacy: Government and Politics — Martin Abbott The Confederacy: Economic and Social Studies — May S. Ringold The Confederacy: State and Local Studies — Thomas A. Belser Jr.
With such a vast literature to choose from, how would the compilers make their selections? In March 1964 Dr. Wiley presided in Washington at a meeting of the compilers to discuss guidelines. They reached agreement on several fundamental points. They would deal only with books and pamphlets, avoiding articles, dissertations and theses. They would include works considered both good and bad.
“The overall aim of the project,” as they explained, “was to analyze those volumes familiar and unfamiliar, general or limited, indispensable or useless for the benefit of anyone delving into the literature of the Civil War.”
In other words, this would be a true “critical bibliography.”
Now came the hard part: “finding competent historians who on the one hand were specialists in each of the fifteen categories and who on the other hand were not already hard at work on other endeavors.”
To make matters worse, the Commission could not offer payment to the compilers. They wouldn’t even get royalties, as the U.S. Printing Office was expected to be the publisher. But surprisingly they found scholars for each of their fifteen categories, as shown in the accompanying sidebar.
In less than a year, sections of the proposed work began arriving at Dr. Robertson’s Centennial Commission office in Washington. It was his thankless task to edit each one for uniformity of style, and to check them all against duplication of entries.
One of the charms of Civil War Books is the editors’ use of printed title cards from the Library of Congress. This means that every book’s publisher and date are invariably correct. For older titles, these details are golden.
Example: William Allan’s Stonewall Jackson’s Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley was published by H. Rees, London in 1912. (Bet you didn’t know that!) The title cards also provide the number of pages and maps. One of Robertson’s jobs was to obtain Library cards if the compiler missed them.
By January 1966 half of the proposed sections were in hand, featuring more than 2,700 annotated titles. The three editors realized they already had enough material for a book; Volume II could come out later.
Louisiana State University Press stepped in as publisher, and Volume I appeared in 1967. Its companion came out two years later, with 2,400 entries. Dust covers for the two books were thoughtfully tinted in butternut and blue.
For each Dr. Robertson meticulously prepared a comprehensive index of both authors and book titles.
The compilers’ pithy assessments are in themselves tasty treats. One of my favorites is the “Campaigns” section, prepared by Warren Hassler, who at the time taught at Penn State. Union Gen. Jacob Cox’s Battle of Franklin (1897) is “informed and well organized.” Fairfax Downey’s history of Brandy Station (1959) is “colorful and unflaggingly interesting.” James Montgomery’s work on Gettysburg (also 1959) is “an undocumented rehash.”
In addition to evaluating the literature, Civil War Books conveys the rich variety of titles in each genre. Frank Byrne assessed more than 200 titles pertaining to prisons and POWs. Many of them are veterans’ reminiscences. After his capture at Gettysburg, Capt. Dulcimus et Ultimus Barziza of Co. C, 4th Texas, was confined at Johnson’s Island. His memoir, reprinted by the University of Texas in 1964 from a rare original edition, offers a “highly literate account” of life at the famous prison.
Rose Greenhow’s memoir of her imprisonment, published in 1863, contains “much anti-Republican vituperation.” But Byrne looked at secondary works, too. William Hassler’s Civil War Prisons (1962) is judged the best. Byrne even mentions the June 1862 issue of Civil War History, “the best collection of modern scholarship” on Andersonville and other prisons.
Robert W. Johannsen’s section lists nearly 700 biographies and memoirs. Let’s just look at works about Stonewall Jackson. Lenoir Chambers’s biography (1959) is comprehensive and well-written. Burke Davis’s They Called Him Stonewall (1954) is “a sympathetic portrait.” In writing his Life (1863), John Esten Cooke was “an unconcealing admirer.” Allen Tate’s Stonewall Jackson (1928) is “sensitive and sympathetic.” Frank Vandiver gets profound praise for his Mighty Stonewall (1957). “Written in a clear, polished and sometimes picturesque style,” Vandiver’s book is termed “an excellent, definitive study.”
…which we know today is not quite so, as Robertson’s Stonewall Jackson (1999) is now the “excellent definitive study.”
Since Civil War Books, other critical bibliographies have come out, including David Eicher’s The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography (1997). There are specialized studies, too, such as Garold L. Cole, Civil War Eyewitnesses: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles, 1955-1986 (1988), and his subsequent volume, carrying Cole’s listing from 1986 to 1996 (2000). There are The Union Bookshelf, by Michael Mullins and Rowena Reed (1982) and Richard Barksdale Harwell’s In Tall Cotton: The 200 Most
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Highest Price attained for Confederate firearms sold at auction
Important Confederate Books for the Reader, Researcher and Collector (1978).
But when I want a reliable, informed evaluation of a book printed before the Centennial (or accurate information on its publication), I always, always, turn to Nevins, Robertson and Wiley’s monumental work.
Steve Davis of Atlanta is a regular contributor to Civil War News. His new book, A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River May 5-July 18, 1864, has just been published as part of Savas Beatie’s Emerging Civil War paperback series.
The companion volume, carrying the Atlanta Campaign to the city’s surrender on September 2, 1864, will be published later this summer.