John Michael Priest’s Top Ten Civil War Books

Originally published November 2020 · pp. 22–23

John Michael Priest’s Top Ten Civil War Books (in no particular order) 1. The Bachelder Papers, 3 vols, edited by David L, and Audrey J. Ladd. Savas Beatie, 2020. Originally published by Morningside Press in 1994, these three volumes belong in every Gettysburg enthusiast’s library. They represent the lifelong work of John B. Bachelder to preserve forever the personal recollections of hundreds of the battle’s participants. 2. The Maryland Campaign of 1862, 3 vols., edited by Thomas G. Clemens. Savas Beatie, 2012. Thomas G. Clemens spent several decades tracking down and documenting the sources that Colonel Ezra A. Carman (13th New Jersey) used in compiling this monumental history of Robert E. Lee’s first incursion across the Potomac. The exhaustive footnotes and commentary reflect Dr. Clemens’ superb scholarship, which have made Carman’s work all the more valuable. 3. Failure in the Saddle by David A. Powell. Savas Beatie, 2013. Until I read David A. Powell’s thorough analysis of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Joseph Wheeler in the Chickamauga Campaign, I honestly believed the popular assessment of them as superb cavalrymen. This book completely dispelled that myth. It is one of my genuine

favorites. Too Useful to Sacrifice by Steven R. Stotelmyer. Savas Beatie, 2019. I am not a “McClellanite” by any stretch of the imagination, however, this refreshing book introduces solid arguments that historians have quite probably given George B. McClellan short shrift. It really changed my assessment of him as a general. This War So Horrible: The Civil War Diary of Hiram Smith Williams edited by Lewis N. Wynne and Robert A. Taylor. University of Alabama Press, 1993. Hiram Smith enlisted in the 40th Alabama in 1863 and served in the Atlanta Campaign, until captured and sent to Point Lookout. Literate and extremely perceptive, his diary is filled with astute observations about life in the Army of Tennessee. The Battle of Carthage: Border War in Southwest Missouri, July 5, 1861 by David C. Hinze and Karen Farnham. Savas Beatie, 1997. My friend, Dave Hinze, who passed away too early in his life, produced one of the finest works I have yet read on the early war in the West. Thoroughly documented, with detailed small unit maps, it broke new ground in an often-overlooked arena of the war. Under the Crescent Moon with the XI Corps in the Civil War, 2 vols., by James S. Pula. Savas Beatie, 2017. James S. Pula, editor-in-chief Gettysburg Magazine, has written what, I believe, is the first history of the much maligned XI Corps. Objective, and well written, it shattered a number of the myths surrounding this corps and its controversial commander, Oliver Otis Howard. The Great Locomotive Chase, by Craig Angle. Mercersburg Printing, 1993. Privately printed, with a limited run of 1,500 copies, this heavily illustrated and beautifully produced book is filled with the personal accounts of the Union soldiers who participated in stealing the famed locomotive, the General. It is a good read and full of great material. With a Flash of His Sword: The Writings of Major Holman S. Melcher, 20th Maine Infantry edited by William B. Styple. Belle Grove Publishing, 1994. I found this book invaluable in researching Gettysburg and the Wilderness. Melcher had no problem saying what was on his mind, particularly when it came to his renowned commander, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. 10. Harvestfields of Death: The Twentieth Indiana Volunteers of Gettysburg by Craig L. Dunn. Guild Press of Indiana, 1999. A remarkable history of a Western regiment at Gettysburg, this thoroughly documented regimental history brings the men who served in the 20th Indiana’s ranks to life. Great writing, and attention to detail make this a remarkable regimental. John Michael Priest, a retired high school history teacher has authored or edited numerous books on the Civil War, including Stand To It And Give Them Hell, an in depth narrative of Longstreet’s assault at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863 (Savas Beatie); Antietam: The Soldiers’ Battle (White Mane, soft cover, and Savas Beatie, digital format.) His books are not about grand strategy and generals but the front line combatants. Ed Bearss dubbed him “the Ernie Pyle of the Civil War soldier.”