My Best Books

By Thomas J. Ryan · Originally published November 2021 · pp. 17–18

1. The Civil War Diary of Allen Morgan Geer-Twentieth Regiment Illinois Volunteers. Mary Ann Anderson, editor, 1977. Cosmos Press, New York. Organized in late 1861, the 20th Illinois was involved in almost every Western Theater major battle and campaign. It was a part of the XII Corps from late 1863–1864, and ended the war as a part of the XVII Corps. Geer was a 21-year old teacher before the war and his education clearly shows in his writing. This may also explain why he started the war as a private and ended as a lieutenant. The strength of his diary is that he spends a great deal of time discussing the little things, like nicknames soldiers gave each other or how they passed the time in camp. After the war Allen Geer moved to Missouri and became an attorney. He died in 1926. I will readily confess to being a sucker for soldiers discussing mundane, everyday life, and Geer does one of the best jobs of it. He also gives one of the best descriptions of the burning of Columbia, S.C., I have ever read. 2. We Are Sherman’s MenThe Civil War Letters of Henry Orendorff. William Anderson, 1986. Western Illinois University, Macomb, Ill. Then 22-year-old Orendoff joined the 103rd Illinois Infantry Regiment in 1862 and served for the duration of the war and rose in rank from private to lieutenant. Originally Orendorff’s regiment was attached to the XII Corps,

but in 1863 they became a part of the XVI, and later, IX Corps. After the siege of Vicksburg they were attached to XV Corps for the remainder of the war fighting with Sherman in Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas Orendorff’s letters give a nice view of the life of an average soldier and also show a bit of insight to his psyche as many of them were written to women. Despite this, in his letters he shares honest and straightforward observations about army life. When the war ended, Henry Orendorff took a business course in Chicago and would be become the owner of a hardware company in Ohio. He died in 1910. 3. Civil War Experiences of a Foot-Soldier Who Marched With Sherman. John C. Arbuckle, 1930. N/P Columbus, Ohio. Arbuckle joined the 4th Iowa Infantry as a 16-year-old in 1864 just in time to participate in the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, the Carolinas Campaign, and the Grand Review in Washington, D.C. He was one of the first Union soldiers in Columbia and gives a very descriptive account of the taking and destruction of the city. It is interesting to note that Arbuckle was born in Scotland. After the war Arbuckle became a minister. When interviewed in the 1920s, he described the march to the sea as a “picnic” compared to the Atlanta campaign. His memoirs were apparently selfpublished. Rev. Arbuckle died in 1939 4. Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory-Combat Diaries of Union Sergeant Hamlin Alexander Coe. David Coe, ed., 1975. Associated University Press Inc., Cranbury N.J. Coe joined the 19th Michigan Regiment in 1862. He was instantly made a corporal and ended the war as a sergeant. His regiment was attached to the Army of the Cumberland for much of the war, but because they were assigned to the XX Corps, they became a part of what would be known as the Army of Georgia and participated in the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign. Coe was shot in the shoulder and received a concussion from a cannonball that almost took his sight, but he recovered fully from injuries. The diary is noteworthy in that it was discovered over a century after the war and gives a very frank account of life in the army. The war had a definite effect on Coe’s religious beliefs, which for a time he questioned. After the war Coe was a wagon maker and a dairy farmer. He died relatively young age in either 1896 or 1899 5. Upcountry South Carolina Goes to War-Letters of the Anderson, Brockman, and Moore Families 1853–1865. Tom Moore Craig, editor. The University of South Carolina Press, 2009. Although these three families, related by blood or marriage, were wealthier than most of their neighbors, having sent four children to college, they suffered the same problems as their less affluent neighbors. At first glance, these 124 letters seem rather mundane, talking about the weather, crop prices, people’s health, etc. The children in college seemingly always wrote back home for money, proving that after 150 years some things have not changed. However, that emphasis on every day matters is the strength of these letters. We do not get details about battles, or insights into great leaders, just about regular folks trying to survive those difficult times. African American scholars will find interesting the two letters written from Wilmington, N.C., by a Moore slave, who accompanied his master, to his wife back home in South Carolina. I will confess to some favoritism here as the families are from the part of South Carolina that my family is from.

6. Left for Dixie–The Civil War Diary of John Rath. Kenneth Lyftogt, ed., 1991. Mid-Prairie

Books, Parkersburg, Iowa. Rath joined the 31st Iowa in 1862. For most of the war, his unit was attached to the XV Corps of the Army of the Tennessee. He was one of the first Union soldiers into Columbia, S.C., and his description of the chaos that followed is very vivid. He stayed with his unit until the end of the war and marched in the Grand Review. John Rath was born in Germany in 1840. When he was 15, he and a brother immigrated to America and settled in Iowa with an uncle. There Rath took English and business classes and worked in the flour and lumber industries before the war. After the war he returned to business, but also became a banker and the Mayor of Ackley, Iowa. He named one of his sons after Gen. Sherman. He died in 1914 Being a foreigner, Rath, offers a somewhat different perspective of the war than what one usually sees. One thing in particular that I found impressive, is that despite being in America for only seven years, his command of the written English language was excellent, and he writes with a clear, distinctive, but honest style. Given his background, his ability to describe what he saw is remarkable. 7. With Sherman to the Sea. The Journal of Theodore F. Upson. Oscar Osburn Winther, ed. 1958. Indian University Press, Bloomington, In. Theodore Upson (1845– 1919) served as a private in the 100th Indiana. He saw action at Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Battle of Atlanta, the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign. Upson participated with his regiment in the Grand Review in Washington, D.C. on May 20, 1865. During his time in the Army, Upson had marched around 4,000 miles and was engaged in 25 battles. After the war he became a carriage maker and lived in New Jersey and Indiana. He died in 1919 What I found particularly interesting were his observations about Savannah, Ga., and Beaufort, S.C. Given the fact that most, if not all, the men in his regiment had never seen the ocean, it led to some unfortunate, but humorous, incidents. Also noteworthy is his open disdain for African American soldiers. 8. Co. Aytch-A Side Show of the Big Show. Sam Watkins, 1952. McCowat-Mercer Press, Jackson, TN. Watkins served in Company H (or as he called it “Aytch”) of the 1st Tennessee Regiment. He was 21 when he enlisted in May 1861 and was with the Confederate Army of Tennessee until it surrendered in 1865. The regiment fought from Shiloh to Nashville and everything in-between. At the time of its surrender, only 65 out of the 1200 men who served in the regiment were still with the regiment. Watkins was one of only seven survivors of some 120 men who served in his company. He died in 1901. Watkin’s book, first published in book form in 1882, is generally regarded as one of the finest first-person accounts of the war by a common soldier, because of Watkins ability to combine humor and seriousness. It was often quoted in filmmaker Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary. 9. The Civil War Letters of Alexander McNeil2nd South Carolina Infantry Regiment. Mac Wyckoff, editor, Cora Lee Godsey Starling, translator, 2016. University of South Carolina Press This book is an extensive collection of letters written by Alexander “Sandy” McNeil, a 29-year-old merchant from Greenwood, S.C., to his fiancé Almirah Haseltine “Tinie” Simmons whom he would marry during the war. The letters, all extremely well-written even by 21st century standards, start on April 17, 1861, and end on May 2, 1865. During the war McNeil’s unit, the 2nd South Carolina Infantry, fought in the Battles of Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. They went with Longstreet to Tennessee and then rejoined Lee’s army to fight in the Overland and Shenandoah campaigns. In early 1865 they were sent back to South Carolina to try to stop Sherman’s army and surrendered with Johnston in North Carolina. After the war McNeil returned to Greenwood and resumed life as a businessman until his bizarre death caused by being hit by a train in 1889. Wyckoff was the perfect person to edit this book as he is the author of the definitive book about the 2nd South Carolina Regiment. At 672 pages, this is the largest and best collection of letters from a soldier I have ever seen. Just about every detail about what it was like to be a Confederate soldier during the war can be found in these pages. In addition, I found information about Sherman’s march through the Carolinas that I had never seen before. Author of the multiple awardwinning ’Lee is Trapped and Must Be Taken’: Eleven Fateful Days after Gettysburg, July 4-14, 1863, with co-author Rick Schaus, and the multiple award-winning Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign: How the Critical Role of Intelligence Impacted the Outcome of Lee’s Invasion of the North, JuneJuly 1863” A new book pending publication is titled In Their Role as Commander in Chief: Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis during the Gettysburg Campaign.