Battles and Leaders of the Civil War
Douglas Southall Freeman deemed it one of “the basic reference works” on the war.1 Ralph Newman and E. B. Long included it the same way in their “Basic Civil War Library.”2 The very first issue of Civil War History (March 1955) ran Newman’s “For Collectors Only”; of course it was listed there, too.3 In an article, “Battle of the Books” for CWTI in February 1970, James I. Robertson remarked that so many Civil War books were coming out that the next one would be titled “Lincoln’s Wife’s Doctor’s Dog”—but amid the bibliographic bustle he was careful to mention it.4 More recently (1995), Gary Gallagher listed it among 100 essential titles.5 Bibliographer David J. Eicher included it in “Finding the Civil War in Books” for North & South (April 1998).6 He based a list of 125 titles on his The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography (1997), in which it is #743 of 1,099 works cited.7
We’re speaking, of course, about Battles and Leaders of the CivilWar, the four-volume work thatranks as probably the most important compilation of writings by major Civil War figures, both Union and Confederate. First published in 1888, the series was reissued in a single-volume Century War Book: People’s Pictorial Edition in 1894.8 Three subsequent editions have appeared, including that published in 1956 by Thomas Yoseloff.9
The “Battles and Leaders” series was conceived by Clarence Clough Buel, assistant editor for Century magazine. In early 1883 Buel thought of pairing an article on John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry written by a Virginian, with a “Comment by a Radical Abolitionist.” The pieces, published that June, aroused considerable interest. Soon Buel outlined a more ambitious project using the same format: a series of eight or ten articles on decisive battles of the Civil War, written by generals who had commanded the opposing armies. Buel proposed his idea to the associate editor, Robert Underwood Johnson. Both Johnson and the Century editor-in-chief, Richard Watson Gilder, liked the plan. Gilder put Johnson in charge of it, with Buel assisting.
The most important task, the lining up of contributors, was begun in the spring of 1884. In the early days of “general catching” (Gilder’s phrase), the editors met with setbacks. Ulysses S. Grant, the first officer to be contacted, declined to write because his biographer, Adam Badeau, had said it all. William T. Sherman said the proposed series would fail. G. T. Beauregard said he was too busy. Some officers refused because they would have to criticize their dead comrades; others held back because of the living (Johnson termed this dilemma “Scylla and Charybdis”). But the editors worked their prospects energetically. They persuaded Beauregard by using as intermediary his friend George Washington Cable, whose fiction Gilder had published. Grant, attracted by the editors’ promise of $500 per article, consented after his banking house had failed, and he in turn helped convince Sherman to write an essay. Eventually Joseph E. Johnston, David D. Porter, James Longstreet and many other important military leaders agreed to help.10
Despite their array of contributors, the editors regretted the refusal of some notables to cooperate. Johnson could not persuade generals Winfield S. Hancock, Nathaniel P. Banks, Simon B. Buckner, or Benjamin F. Butler to participate in the series. Philip H. Sheridan wanted to save his commentary for a book; Jubal A. Early claimed that he opposed writing history for money. Neither Robert E. Lee’s son, George Washington Custis Lee, nor Lee’s chief of staff, Col. Charles Marshall, could be induced to contribute a piece on the great Virginian.
With these exceptions, though, most of the war’s major figures participated, and the series progressed. From the start, the editors emphasized an interesting, colorful format. Johnson admonished his contributors to avoid the style of official reports and tell of their battles as they would an after-dinner chat, preferably with personal incidents and even secrets. But many contributors submitted articles that were too long and sometimes so colorless that they were returned or discreetly set aside. General Grant, considered the biggest “catch,” was one such case. Having received his article on Shiloh in early July, Johnson was dismayed to find the general’s writing too much like an official report. On his next visit, Johnson induced Grant to talk offhand about the battle, then informed him that this was the style which the editors were seeking. “He seemed astonished at this,” Johnson recalled, but the general eagerly applied himself to revision. Before long he had completed a more lively piece, as well as three others on different battles.11
Plentiful illustrations by such staff artists as Walton Taber and Allen C. Redwood (himself a Confederate veteran) would accompany the articles. To balance the generals’ factual narratives, lighter pieces were also commissioned. In December 1885, for instance, there appeared a witty piece by Mark Twain, “The Private History of a Campaign That Failed,” relating in a highly imaginative way the celebrated author’s brief stint in the Confederate service. At the same time, the editors planned to continue their policy of publishing Southern fiction by Joel Chandler Harris and others, long a trademark of Scribner’s-Century, as another counterweight to the war series. “I’ve just been blubbering over [Harris’] “Free Joe,” wrote Gilder. “How well it goes with the war articles!”
With plans set, the editors chose a title for the series. After considering “Men and Events,” Buel proposed “Leaders and Battles.” Gilder liked the dramatic emphasis on fighting, as opposed to political events in the war, and approved Buel’s suggestion in August 1884. By the time the war series was announced in October 1884, the title had become Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. The next month’s issue carried Beauregard’s piece on First Manassas. Thereafter each issue of the magazine carried a least one or two articles by famous officers.
Public response was immediately favorable. A year later, in November 1885, circulation figures for Century peaked at 225,000, up from 127,000 the year before. Letters from readers poured in such quantity that the editors created a special column, “Memoranda of the Civil War,” to print some of them. Unsolicited manuscripts and illustrations also came in, and generals heretofore reluctant to contribute now readily agreed.
On the strength of this good showing Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, which had originally been forecast to run for a year, was extended. The unexpected abundance of manuscripts resulted in a hefty pile of unpublished work even after the final piece in Battles and Leaders appeared in November 1887. To use the remaining materials and to capitalize on the success of the magazine series, Johnson and Buel planned an elaborate
The Atlanta Daily Intelligencer Covers the Civil War Stephen Davis and Bill Hendrick
July 2022
four-volume set of books. The ninety-nine feature articles in the magazine provided its basis. In all, 226 writers contributed four hundred articles in the four volumes. As much an anthology of participants’ narratives, B & L also gave officers on both sides a forum for airing complaints and criticisms. Grant and Buell argued about Shiloh; Longstreet was attacked for his role at Gettysburg. Nearly two hundred pages, in fact, were devoted to the Pennsylvania battle. Meade was defended against charges of slow pursuit; Mosby spoke up for Stuart. Johnson and Buel gave space to Sickles’ argument that his corps’ placement had saved the army and the battle.
Buel and Johnson sought new material for the books. Significantly, and a point overlooked by many students, is that only a fourth of the books’ articles had appeared in some form as part of the original “Battles and Leaders” series of the Century. There were some deletions, too. Many of the lighter pieces, such as Twain’s “Private Campaign,” didn’t make their way into the final volumes.
The editors welcomed controversy, but they also worked hard to vouch for the historical reliability of their contributors’ writings. Their efforts paid off; the Century’s circulation doubled, allowing it to surpass Harper’s, the topselling magazine in the United States. The books sold well, too; some 75,000 sets were purchased before the pictorial edition of 1894. Johnson estimated that the entire project netted the Century Company a million dollars.12 Decades ago Steve Davis spent
As the largest and most an afternoon in the New York scrupulously edited compilation Public of war-related articles by major Robert military figures of the Civil War, Papers. He then wrote an article Battles and Leaders remains on Battles and Leaders that an indispensable source for appeared in Civil War History, historians and general readers December 1981. He has drawn alike. on it for this piece in our
newspaper. 1 “A Confederate Book Shelf” in Douglas Southall Freeman, The South to Posterity: An Introduction to the Writing of Confederate History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939), 217.
2 Ralph G. Newman and E. B. Long, “A Basic Civil War Library,” Illinois State Historical Society Journal, vol. 56 (1963), 392. Reprinted with additional listings as “The War in Books: A Basic Civil War Library” in Newman and Long, The Civil War Digest (New York: Grosset & Dunlop, 1960), 392.
3 Ralph G. Newman, ed., “For Civil War Collectors Only,”
History, vol.1, no. 1 (March 1955),
4 James I. Robertson, Jr., “The Battle of the Books,” Civil War Times Illustrated, vol. 8., no. 10 (February 1970), 47.
5 Gary W. Gallagher, “The Civil War 100: Civil War Magazine’s Essential Titles on Military Campaigns and Personalities,”
Provenance a Must!
Civil War, Issue 49 (February 1995), 43.
6 David J. Eicher, “Finding the Civil War in Books,” North & South, Issue #44 (April 1998), 69. 7 David J. Eicher, The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 260-61.
8 Michael K. Shaffer, “Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,” Civil War News, vol. 42, no. 9 (October 2016), 6.
9 Roy F. Nichols, “Introduction to New Edition” in Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel, eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 4 vols. (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1956 [1888]), vol. 1, iii.
10 Stephen Davis, “’A Matter of Sensational Interest’: The Century ‘Battles and Leaders’ Series,” Civil War History, vol. 27, no. 4 (December 1981), 340-41.
11 Davis, “’A Matter of Sensational Interest,’” 341.
12 Stephen Davis and J. Tracy Power, “Battles and Leaders of the Civil War” in Clyde N. Wilson, ed., American Historians, 1866– 1912 (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1986), 373-76.
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May offers a wealth of riches for any student of the Civil War. The weather finally got good enough for campaigning, which unfortunately meant new seasons of slaughter. In 1863 and 1864, in particular, there was so much action going on east and west that it can be hard to keep track of.
In my own front yard, Chancellorsville erupted on May 1, 1863. Along the Mississippi River, meanwhile, Ulysses S. Grant crossed to the east bank and began his overland campaign for Vicksburg. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, while worried about events in his home state, was too distracted by the urgent nearby events in Virginia to give the situation in Mississippi the attention it needed. Modern students of the war often find their own attention split and how to pay attention to both. Then add the events of early May 1864.
Grant launched another overland campaign, this one
Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston saw plenty of action, but few victories, in May 1862, 1863, and 1864. through Virginia that became intense enough to earn its own capital letters: The Overland Campaign. He marched into the same Wilderness, the “dark, close wood,” where Chancellorsville had taken place the year before; this time the fighting and maneuvering lasted for six straight weeks. Meanwhile, out west, William T. Sherman began maneuvering against Joseph E. Johnston to open the Atlanta Campaign. Farther west, there is the Trans-Mississippi’s tail end of the Red River Campaign.
That is a tremendous amount of activity to study, east and west, and that’s not even considering the many smaller actions all across the map. Nor does it include the many compelling stories found on the homefront.
If we rewind back to May 1862, we get the battle of Williamsburg on the James Peninsula. On May 8, Stonewall Jackson begins zipping around the Shenandoah Valley with the battle of McDowell. In Charleston Harbor, Robert Smalls and a crew of escaping slaves stole The Planter on May 13. We get Seven Pines/ Fair Oaks at the end of the month.
Most Civil War buffs know all this, but I call it out as a way to invite you to really think about how much material we really have to study and learn and understand, even in just this short span of the calendar, because, at the end of May, we’re called to commemorate the losses from this and other wars. When you pay your respects at Memorial Day, I hope you call to mind these “seasons of slaughter” and appreciate what they meant.
One Simple Way You Can Help ECW
Each Monday morning, we feature a Question of the Week. We’d love to have your participation in that weekly conversation. Make a point to check in on Mondays and add your thoughts, either as a reply to the question or as a reply to the answers others provide. (And, of course, as always, help us keep the conversation civil!)
The Seventh Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge
We have only a handful of tickets left for the Seventh Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, which will be held August 5-7, 2022, in Spotsylvania, Virginia. Our theme this year matches up with our newest book release, Great What Ifs of the American Civil War.
Join keynote speaker Garry Adelman for “The What Ifs of Gettysburg.” We’ll also hear from Gordon Rhea and Brian Matthew Jordan, plus ECW’s Sarah Kay Bierle, Neil Chatelain, Sean Michael Chick, Phill Greenwalt, Kevin Pawlak, Jon Tracey, and Kris White. We’ll have panel discussions on “The What Ifs of the Antietam Campaign” and “Favorite What Ifs of the War.” We’ll also have a Sunday morning tour of the Slaughter Pen Farm at Fredericksburg.
Chris Mackowski (left) and Kris White (right) enjoyed the company of legendary football coach Vince Dooley and his wife, Barbara, on a bus tour at the ABT conference.
ECW Bookshelf
The forty-third book in the Emerging Civil War Series is now available: Dreams of Victory: General P.G.T. Beauregard in the Civil War by Sean Michael Chick. Beauregard was one of the most controversial Confederate generals and he remains so to this day. Sean’s biography looks at the pros and cons of the Creole general and offers new insights for readers to consider. Signed copies are available from publisher Savas Beatie: https://www.savasbeatie.com/ dreams-of-victory-general-p-g-tbeauregard-in-the-civil-war.
ECW News & Notes
The Midwest Book Review included a nice review of The Great What Ifs of the American Civil War. “Far from presenting alternative or counterfactual history, the volume examines some of the key pivotal moments of the Civil War and analyzes their importance,” explained reviewer Robin Friedman. Although cast in terms of “what if's" most of the book is squarely within the responsible practice of history.... Each of these essays encourages the reader to look closely at the complexity of determining what happened before speculating on what might have happened.” You can read the full review here: http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/ may_22.htm#robinfriedman
The American Battlefield Trust featured a slew of ECW talent at its early May conference in Chantilly, Va. Sarah Kay Bierle, Dan Davis, Phill Greenwalt, Chris Mackowski, Mark Maloy, Rob Orrison, and Kris White all assisted with various programs and tours.
Steve Davis has not one, not two, but three pieces in the June 2022 issue of Civil War News. For his regular “Critics Corner” column, Steve traces the work of Confederate poet Henry Nimrod, whose poem “Carolina” became the lyrics to the South Carolina state song. Steve also contributed a piece, “The Atlanta Intelligencer Covers the War,” that looked at the work of one of the paper’s mysterious contributors, “Clio.” Steve has a book about the Intelligencer’s wartime coverage coming out later this year. Finally, Steve covered the historiography of John Bell Hood in a lengthy article titled “New Perspectives on the Atlanta Campaign and General John Bell Hood.”
Bert Dunkerly recently visited Kentucky where he saw several Civil War and Revolutionary War sites, and went to his first horse race!
Chris Kolakowski will be the keynote speaker for the rededication of the Hans Heg monument in Madison on May 29. (The original was destroyed by vandals in June 2020.) On June 8, just after the 80th anniversary, Chris is lecturing about the Battle of Midway online for the Commemorative Air Force. Details are at: https://www.commemorativeairforce.org/events.
Jon Tracey recently delivered a Pennsylvania Infantry as a part of a lecture series by the Cedar Creek that supports restoration of an historic structure. He will also be attending the Society of Civil War Historians conference from June 2-4. He'll be presenting some of his research on wounded Civil War veterans as a part of a panel titled “Civil War Bodies, Past and Future.”
Dan Welch is heading back to Gettysburg as a seasonal Park Ranger beginning Memorial Day weekend. If you're in Gettysburg over the summer stop in and say hi!
ECW was pleased in May to welcome new regular contributor Max Longley. “The Civil War is like a real-life Iliad,” he says, “a source of life-or-death drama that authors can recur to again and again while still uncovering new perspectives.” Based in North Carolina, Max loves to focus on lesser-known personalities of the Civil War, and he likes to write about the intersection between the war and religion. Max is available for roundtable talks on the following topics: •
The Reaper Man – Cyrus McCormick and the Civil War Conscientious objectors in the Civil War Was Lincoln right about the
