Wayne Wolf’s Top Five Must-Read Book Choices

By Wayne Wolf · Originally published November 2018 · p. 28

Such Troops As These; The Genius and Leadership of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. By Bevin Alexander. The Berkeley Publishing Group, maps, index, notes, 2014, 324 pp., hardbound $26.95. With vastly greater resources, the North had a decided advantage in the Civil War. Stonewall Jackson’s vision of how the South could win the war was to strike at the North’s vulnerabilities, never challenging its strength directly. This defensive strategy, combined with an invasion of eastern states to bring the war to the North might have brought success or at least a negotiated peace, but neither Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis signed on to this strategy and ultimately fell victim to Northern manpower and industrial superiority. This book is an excellent examination of the “what ifs” that enables the reader to apply Jackson’s logic to the entire war effort. Clearly written and thoroughly researched, it is indispensable for presenting a strategy that many Southerners embraced and could have resulted in a different ending.

Wayne Wolf’s Top Five Must-Read Book Choices I selected a battle account, biography, common soldier account, civilian account, and military leadership book to round out my choices.

The Chickamauga Campaign: Glory or the Grave: The Breakthrough, the Union Collapse and the Defense of Horseshoe Ridge, Sept.20, l863. By David A. Powell. Savas Beatie, index, maps, illustrated, 2015, 726 pp., hardbound, $39.95. This second volume in a three volume series is an outstanding analysis of a major Civil War campaign. Over 2000 primary sources went into Powell’s research that covers not only battle strategy but the impact of terrain, the effect of stubborn resistance, and command relationships that all contributed to the Confederate breakthrough on September 20, 1863. Powell analyzes this crucial battle down to the regimental level and provides historians with a blueprint for how to dissect any Civil War battle .This book, as well as the other two volumes should be referred to whenever logistics, personalities, weather, and command decisions are analyzed. Additionally, military strategy is not the volume’s only claim to fame. The impact of the battle on the common soldier is artfully integrated to give a true picture of the suffering individual men endured. This stands as a classic volume that should be on every historian’s shelf. Cry Uncle Sumbody. By Thomas Ray Crowel. Success Press, 2011, 401 pp., hardbound, $22.95. This book skillfully blends the Civil War diary of David Longenecker of Co. G. 110th Ohio Volunteers (which is included as an appendix) with a fictional account of a common soldier who enters the army believing the war will be a short one. He then experiences four years of hellish conditions and brutality. While fiction seldom is chosen as a basis of must read books, this text does an excellent job of relating the human side of the conflict which pitted brother versus brother. Both the diary and fictional episodes detail the medical and psychological scars of war. It provides excellent descriptions of filthy prison conditions, rotten rations, disease, neglect and discontent as few books have related in as much depth or detail. This book exemplifies the life of the common soldier in a wonderful prose style that reads as a novel, conveys a myriad of facts, is based on a true story, and keeps the reader wanting more. The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of Leroy Wiley Gresham, 1861–1865. Edited by Janet Elizabeth Croon. Savas Beatie, illustrated, index, 2018, hardbound, $34.95. Leroy Wiley Gresham, an invalid teen suffering from advanced tuberculosis, watched the Civil War unfold from his plantation window in Macon, Ga. Occasionally venturing from home in a special wagon to accommodate his crushed leg, he viewed armies marching, acquaintances buried, food shortages, political intrigue, and the slow demise of his beloved Confederacy. He kept seven diaries where he writes cogently and far beyond his age of the rise and fall of the South from the perspective of a privileged son of plantation slave owners. Janet Croon’s excellent editing and voluminous footnotes provide a wonderful picture of one family’s struggle with their collapsing world. Of the many diaries currently in print for generals and politicians, this one stands out as a superb example of a teenager’s view of a crumbling way of life, the horrors of war, and the mental anguish caused by civil conflict. It is a welcome addition to the genre of Civil War books that reach to the heart and soul of common people living through a tragic time.

Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson. By S.C. Gwynne, Scribner, illustrated, notes, maps, index, 2014, 673 pp., softcover $20. Stonewall Jackson embodies the romantic Southern notion of the virtuous Lost Cause. His strategic military maneuvers destroyed the conventional rules of warfare. This biography of one of America’s most competent military figures is replete with battle accounts, political intrigue, personal tragedy and strategic innovations. Superbly written, the narrative compels the reader on, objectively and academically cataloging Jackson’s private life, his two year military career, and his meaning to post war Southern ideology. Highlighted is also how Jackson managed to galvanize the Southern populace to keep fighting even in the bleakest times. As the biography of a man, his meaning to the war, and his legacy to the South, this volume has no equal. Wayne Wolf first became interested in the Civil War at age 7 when his parents took him to Chickamauga and purchased a rusty old sword for him. Since then his fascination has never waned. He currently has published twenty-three books on the Civil War including Heroes and Rogues of the Civil War (4 volumes), the Last Confederate Scout, Soldiers and Sailors of the Civil War, Two Years Before the Paddlewheel, Civil War Letters, etc. Currently he is researching newly discovered letters from common soldiers, researching their contributions, and publishing them for all historians to take advantage of. Wayne is also a book reviewer for Civil War News.