November 2022
4. To the Manner Born: The
5. Stealing the General: The
6. Decision in the West: The
7. Marching through Georgia:
8. Following the battles came
Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyist living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table and the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Hagler speaks frequently on this topic and others related to different aspects of the Civil War and
Into Tennessee and Failure: John Bell Hood, Mercer University Press, 2019 and 2020) offers sophisticated readers an inciteful analysis of John Bell Hood’s career and, as well, a review and assessment of what generations of historians have written about the general.
Life of General William H.T. Walker (Russell K. Brown, University of Georgia Press, 1994) is, as far as I know, the only biography of the cantankerous and oft-wounded Georgian. A West Pointer who served in Mexico and in the Seminole Wars, Walker rose to the rank of major general in the Confederate army and was killed in the Battle of Atlanta. Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor (Russell S. Bonds, Westholme Yardley, 2008) covers all the facts for those of us who knew only what we saw in the Fess Parker movie. It’s all there, from the planning, the high-jacking, the chase, the capture, the botched hanging, and the long and difficult journey home by those who escaped. Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Albert Castel, University Press of Kansas, 1992) is a comprehensive account of Sherman’s campaign from Dalton to Atlanta and Johnston’s, and then Hood’s, efforts to stop him.
The Story of Soldiers & Civilians During Sherman’s Campaign (Lee Kennett, Harper Collins Publishers, 1995) is one of many accounts of Sherman’s destructive Savannah campaign, and a very good one.
the aftermath, and I end with the classic Reconstruction in Georgia, by C. Mildred Thompson, The Beehive Press, 1972, published originally in 1915 by Columbia University Press). The war itself is not the whole story.
They are listed in no particular order:
3. Two Great Rebel Armies by
5. The Chickamauga trilogy
6. A&B. Memoirs by U.S. 7. Simon
8. A&B. The 24th Wisconsin
David. This is an outstanding 9. To The Bitter End by Bert overview of the Army of the Cumberland’s formation, makeup, and campaigns. The mix of soldier accounts, official documents, and commentary provide superb details about the life of this important formation.
Victory by But Steven Woodworth. The same as above, but for the Army of the Tennessee.
Richard McMurry. This classic work offers much for understanding the Confederate Army of Tennessee and why it performed as it did.
William Lamers. This is an outstanding and illuminating biography of William S. Rosecrans, one of the most important Western Theater generals for his 1862 and 1863victories. Lamers explores how the general’s gifts brought him to prominence, but his corresponding flaws held him back.
by David Powell. This is simply the finest operational and tactical overview of this critical operation yet seen. Powell’s detailed writing offers important insights into both armies and their leaders. This study is a model of its kind.
Grant & William Sherman. These two were the dominant Western Theater personalities for the United States, and their memoirs offer important insights into each man. Grant’s has been called the greatest military writing since Caesar’s Commentaries; I agree.
Bolivar Buckner: Borderland Knight by Arndt Stickles. From secession to the surrenders of 1865, Buckner stood at the intersection of much of the war’s political and military currents. This biography, written in 1939-1940 with the family’s help, is illuminating about the man and his times. in the Civil War by William J.K. Beaudot and That Body of Brave Men by Mark W. Johnson. Among the legion of regimental and brigade histories on both sides, these are two of the best modern ones. Both use a variety of sources to bring to life the units and their members, throughout the arc of their service and as veterans.
Dunkerly. This is the definitive short history of the Civil War’s finish. The accounts of the final
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Reproductions of Books, Documents, Stationery
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10. Privations of a Private by
Christopher is Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, WI. He received his BA in History and Mass Communications from Emory & Henry College, and his MA in Public History from the State University of New York at Albany. He has spent his career interpreting American military history with the New York State government, the Rensselaer County (NY) Historical Society, the Civil War Preservation State Parks, the U.S. Army, and the MacArthur Memorial. He has written and spoken on various aspects of military history from 1775 to the present. He has published two books with the History Press: The Civil War
Civil War & More
Sullivan Press
Miller’s Millinery
Room left of front desk Room left of front desk
campaigns and various Confederate surrenders after Appomattox are vivid and illuminating.
Marcus Toney. Sadly, this is not as well-known as other Confederate enlisted memoirs. Toney’s perceptive memories and commentary offer much insight into the private soldier’s experience in the Army of Tennessee.
and preserving National Park Service,
Books and CD’s Lucyshairwork Specializing in Victorian Hair Jewelry
at Perryville: Battling For the Bluegrass and The Stones River and Tullahoma Campaign: This Army Does Not Retreat.
The past twenty-five years have seen a proliferation of
first-rate historians focusing on the Western Theater. Their scholarship has pointed a bright light on where the Civil War was militarily won and lost.
1. Larry J. Daniel, Conquered: Why the Army of Tennessee Failed, University of North
Carolina Press, 2019 Daniel is a superb writer with books on Shiloh and Stones River
