Leon Reed’s Top Ten Civil War Books

Originally published November 2020 · pp. 27–28

Leon Reed’s Top Ten Civil War Books 1. 1861: The Civil War Awakening by Adam Goodheart. Knopf, 2011. Considering that there are probably more books on the fighting engaged in by 1 ½ Confederate corps over the course of a few hours on July 2, 1863, than there are about the broad topic of secession and the onset of war, it seems evident that the latter subject is under-covered This is an outstanding popular account of the nation’s drift toward war in late 1860 and early 1861. The author focuses on several of the most important and intriguing episodes during this time period: Lincoln’s presidential campaign and the Wide Awake movement; compromise efforts; the defense and attack of Fort Sumter; the Federal assault on northern Virginia and the fall of Elmer Ellsworth, the first martyr of the war; and Benjamin Butler and his first steps to interfere with the institution of slavery. 2. The Business of Civil War: Military Mobilization and the State by Mark R. Wilson. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. OK, this book is a bit of a busman’s holiday. A good part of my work back in the early and mid-1980s was planning the next mobilization and studying the experiences, successful and unsuccessful, in mobilizing for two world wars and the Korean conflict. As a result, I was fascinated to see Wilson’s description of how it was done in the Civil War. This is an excellent overview

of the various components of mobilizing manpower, supply, and transportation and creating the industrial and government infrastructure to make it happen. Historians frequently say the Civil War showed the kernel of modern warfare; Wilson shows that the organizational effort to supply Federal armies similarly foreshadows the mass efforts that created the Arsenal of Democracy in the 20th century. The Campaign for Atlanta and Sherman’s March to the Sea edited by Theodore P. Savas and David A. Woodbury. Savas Woodbury, 1994. Anthologies often sound better at the storyboard conference than the actual product put between covers. The quality of the writing is sometimes uneven and it’s often hard to discern any theme in a seemingly random collection of essays. This was a really strong entry. There were great writers and a nice sampling of battle histories, personality and command studies, and histories of support organizations such as logistics, railroads, and pioneers. That Furious Struggle: Chancellorsville and the High Tide of the Confederacy by Chris Mackowski and Kristopher D. White. Savas Beatie, 2014. The Emerging Civil War series is a great addition to the literature and this is one of the finest in an excellent series. It provides an accessible but still comprehensive tale of perhaps Lee’s greatest “against the odds” victory – and surely his costliest. Gettysburg: A Journey in Time by William A. Frassanito. Scribners, 1975. It’s not often a book creates an entire new field of study. Frassanito’s insight about photographs is a commonplace today but was a totally original thought when he brought this book out. One of the most influential Civil War books ever. One Continuous Fight: the Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia by Eric J. Wittenberg, David J. Petruzzi, and Michael F. Nugent. Savas Beatie, 2008. There are too many great books about the Gettysburg campaign to pick one or two. But the retreat from Gettysburg is often dismissed with a casual “Meade pursued slowly and let Lee escape across the Potomac.”

This book highlights the importance of this vital segment of the campaign. 7. Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861– 1865 by William F. Fox. Forgotten Books, 2012 (originally published 1898). Going to this book to check one fact is a sure loss of an hour or more, as one discovery leads to the next. It is impossible to understand the scope of the war without perusing this book regularly. Fox has seemingly thought of every way possible to tabulate and present casualty information. Just the list of battle by battle casualties in the “Fighting 300” section is a revelation; we see the early regiments that had largely bled out by Antietam, the relatively new regiments that got their baptism of fire at Gettysburg, and the grinding effect of the series of battles in the Overland Campaign. Then we see the separate section on heavy artillery regiments, who suffered casualties so extreme they had to get their own special section. Essential. 8. Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas by John J. Hennessy. Simon and Schuster, 1993. One of the best campaign studies. This battle sometimes gets lost in the shadow of the even more violent battles that occurred in the same theater in the following year (Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg). This book gives the battle its proper place in the American Iliad. 9. These Honored Dead: How the Story of Gettysburg Shaped American Memory by Thomas A. Desjardin. DaCapo, 2003. From Bachelder’s invention of the “High Water Mark,” Shaara’s creation of Chamberlain as the savior of the Republic, to the ever-changing interpretations of Lincoln’s great speech, probably no American event provides a fuller example of how “memory” evolves and changes over time, Desjardin has written one of the most interesting books about Gettysburg. 10. The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Grisham, 1860–1865 edited by Janet Elizabeth Croon. Savas Beatie, 2018. Amazingly insightful diary written by a young and very ill southern boy. Despite being practically bedridden, or maybe because of his disability, he was an amazingly perceptive and well informed observer of events large and small. The book also documents the sad story of his physical decline and eventual realization that he was dying. A national treasure. Leon Reed is a former congressional aide, defense consultant, and U.S. history teacher. He lives in Gettysburg, where he has written two books about Gettysburg monuments, No Greater Calamity: North-South Conflict, Secession, and the Onset of Civil War and a book for children, Jennie Wade’s Story.