Book Reviews

Reader’s Redoubt

Originally published November 2016 · p. 30

Like all avid Civil War readers, I keep my radar finely calibrated to identify intriguing new releases. Decision at Tom’s Brook: George Custer, Tom Rosser, and the Joy of the Fight piqued my interest first because of the author’s name, William J. Miller, whose body of work (eight or so publications to date) reliably signals what, in my experience, is known as a “sure bet.” What many know of Tom’s Brook—the “Woodstock Races”— comes from brief treatments in general histories, or time line entries marking the victory that certified the superiority of Union cavalry. Fought six months to the day before the surrender at Appomattox, Tom’s Brook is the story of a small fight populated by big personalities (Sheridan and Early play enduring roles). The saga begins at West Point, where cadets Custer and Rosser were kindred spirits, and continues long after the war, after Custer’s death, when Rosser maintained a war of words with former enemies and comrades alike. By keeping people—soldiers—at the heart of the narrative, a small incident of the war speaks to the whole. A first-rate scholar, and a battlefield tramper with a deep knowledge of the ground, Miller has assembled a solid history. Add to those credentials a rich editorial background, and years spent teaching composition and literature to Virginia college students, and you have an author who can ferret out a good story, and knows how to tell it.

David Woodbury has edited/coedited numerous Civil War titles, and was a contributor to and cartographer for The Library of Congress CW Desk Reference. He was co-founder of the South Bay CWRT in San Jose, California, and coordinates battlefield tours for Woodbury Historical Tours. He works for Cengage Learning in San Francisco.

Book Review Editor’s note: For this year’s “Book Issue” we asked some Civil War experts—authors, teachers and other professionals—to choose a book published so far this year which strikes them as notable or particularly interesting. Here are their responses.

The Damned of Petersburg is the fourth in ultimately a series of five novels by Ralph Peters on events during the Civil War. This is historical fiction at its finest, written by retired army Lieutenant Colonel Peters, covering some of the events of the siege of Petersburg in1864. Peters wastes no time drawing the reader into the dirty, often wet, insect-filled world of the Civil War soldier, with oftentimes vulgar conversations between characters. He conscientiously relates real events, then fleshes them out in an entertaining way. He presents a very realistic picture of what Civil war combat and maneuvering was all about, while weaving several characters’ stories into the narrative as events unfold, bringing to life notable commanders and characters on both sides. I find this approach to Civil War history a wonderful change of pace, and recommend this book to anyone looking for a combination of entertainment and perhaps some further knowledge of this part of the Civil War.

Lawrence K. Peterson’s Confederate Combat Commander: The Remarkable Life of Brigadier General Alfred Jefferson Vaughan Jr. was reviewed in the August 2015 issue of Civil War News. He is president of the Rocky Mountain Civil War RoundTable in Denver.

Earl Hess is one of our most prolific writers of Civil War military history, and he has scored another winner in his recent military biography of Braxton Bragg. Bragg has become little more than a pejorative punch line among students of the Late Unpleasantness. His alleged sins of personality and generalship are well known and rarely do historians assign anything positive to Bragg, except to grudgingly acknowledge that he organized troops well. Hess takes a fresh look at this maligned officer and presents a much more balanced—and persuasive—picture. Don’t expect a revisionist screed. Hess takes Bragg to task where warranted. Yet Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy will challenge long-cherished stories and assessments of the singe-most important Confederate commander in the Western Theater. Continue to despise Bragg if you must, but don’t do so without reading Hess’s new book first.

A. Wilson Greene, Executive Director, Pamplin Historical Park & the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier, Petersburg. Author of The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign: Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion (2012).

2016 has already produced a number of excellently written and well-researched studies related to the Civil War era, but from my perspective one of the most notable books published this year (and my personal favorite) is a collection of fifteen essays edited by Prof. Kirk Savage (University of Pittsburgh), The Civil War in Art and Memory (New Haven: Yale University Press). Through the careful analysis of monuments, photographs and art, this volume offers much food for thought about how things which appear in what Savage terms “major cultural spaces” have shaped and continue to shape people’s understanding of our American Iliad. As a history professor, I am always looking for unique ways to engage my students (and the broader public) about why the Civil War still holds such an enormous grip on American society today. At times that can be a difficult task, but this volume helps with its close analysis of an image such as Alexander Gardner’s photograph of the dead at Antietam, or August Saint-Gaudens’ Robert Gould Shaw Memorial. Each can be used as a medium through which to address the Civil War’s complexities.

Jonathan A. Noyalas is assistant professor of history at Lord Fairfax Community College in Middletown VA. In January he will join the faculty of Shenandoah University in Winchester, where he will serve as Director of the McCormick Civil War Institute.

Caught between its ties to the Southern slave economy and its own patriotic ardor to produce men and matériel for the Union, New York City was just as helpful to the Northern war effort as it was a hindrance. Though the obvious tension of the forces at play in Gotham has been the fodder for great drama (most notably in Martin Scorsese’s film, The Gangs of New York), there have been relatively few studies of the City’s role in the war. Fortunately, John Strausbaugh’s City of Sedition: The History of New York City During the Civil War looks to rectify this by bringing to life the heroes, villains, deeds and misdeeds of New York City, all while exploring its very close ties to slavery. Given the subject matter and Strausbaugh’s compelling prose, City of Sedition looks to be an exciting read.

Douglas Ullman, Jr., is the Digital Content Producer at the Civil War Trust, where he is responsible for the creation of much of the Trust’s web content. He has also produced the Trust’s smartphone touring apps, including apps for Gettysburg, Antietam, and the Atlanta Campaign (with Steve Davis). Apart from his work at the Trust, Mr. Ullman is an independent historian with a strong interest in the 1864 campaigns for Atlanta and Richmond. He is currently working on a regimental history of the 102nd New York Volunteers.