Civil War News Book Reviewer's Top Picks for Western Theater Books

Originally published November 2022 · pp. 12–15

Stephen Davis’ Top Ten Favorite Western Theater Books

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Stanley F. Horn, The Army of Tennessee (1941)—f Glenn Tucker, Chickamauga: Bloody Battle in the West (1961)—b, h Thomas R. Hay, Hood’s Tennessee Campaign (1929)—f Robert Selph Henry, “First With the Most” Forrest (1944)—e Peter F. Walker, Vicksburg: A People at War (1960)—f

David Marshall’s Top Picks for Western Theater Titles • a. b. c. d.

Criteria: Scholarly Fine writing Provocative; offering original ideas e. Masterful—a model in the genre f. Often turned to in personal research g. G r o u n d b r e a k i n g ; first-of-a-kind h. Best among competitors; approaching definitive; the “go-to source” i. Offering anecdotes used in conversation with friends or in talks j. Concise, succinct narrative Faves: • Adolph A. Hoehling, Last Train from Atlanta (1958)— e, f • Thomas Lawrence Connelly, Autumn of Glory: The Army of Tennessee, 1862-1865 (1971)—a, c • Andrew Nelson Lytle, Bedford Forrest and his Critter Company (1931)—b, h • Richard M. McMurry, Atlanta 1864: Last Chance for the Confederacy (2000)—i • Albert Castel, Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (1992)—d, g

The Siege of Vicksburg: Climax of the Campaign to Open the Mississippi River, May 23-July 4, 1863, by Timothy B. Smith. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2021. Pp. xxviii, 724. Illus., maps, appends., gloss., notes, index. ISBN: 978-0-70063225-1. $45.While Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign (March 29-July 4, 1863) has received considerable attention from historians, they have not spent very much time on the actual siege, despite the fact that it lasted for 46 of the 97 days of the campaign (May 19-July 4), which is what Tim Smith seeks to correct in this book. The Confederates did well under very difficult circumstances, and their resistance helped shore up morale, which enabled them to continue the fight. Smith observes that there were no significant strategic actions or movements during the siege, just common soldiers slugging it out on perhaps some of the poorest ground conceivable. In addition, Smith paints an affective picture of the challenges Vicksburg residents faced to survive, with food in short supply, a constant Union artillery bombardment, and the destruction of housing. This outstanding book is the second volume in an expected five-volume series on the Vicksburg Campaign. • Defending the Arteries of Rebellion: Confederate Naval Operations in the Mississippi Valley, 1861– 1865, by Neil P. Chatelain. El Dorado Hills, Ca.: Savas Beattie, 2020. Pp. x, 324. Illus., maps., gloss., notes, biblio., index. ISBN: 978-161121-510- 6. $32.95. Defending the Arteries of Rebellion is the story of the Confederacy’s efforts to prevent the Union from seizing control of the Mississippi Valley and River. Chatelain does an excellent job analyzing the many Union moves to seize control of the rivers, the surprising initial success on the Tennessee and Cumberland in early 1862, the seizure of New Orleans, U.S. Grant’s several attempts to take Vicksburg, culminating in its fall on July 4, 1863, and then the protracted strangling of river and maritime traffic which greatly contributed to the Union victory after four years of war. Chatelain concludes that the Confederacy’s loss was due to a combination of a lack of assets, particularly ships and the ability to build them, not enough time, a shortage of trained personnel, and the problem of trying to defend everywhere. This title is a fast-paced read, well written, and demonstrates careful research, with extensive documentation. There are several excellent maps by Edward Alexander and a useful glossary. • The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863, by Chris Mackowski. El Dorado, Ca.; Savas Beatie, 2022. Pp., 192. Illus., Maps., Notes, Biblio., Index. ISBN10:‎1611216559. $29.95 While the battle of Jackson was not the most important battle during Ulysses Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign, it has been overlooked by most historians. Chris Mackowski has written a small but comprehensive account of the May 14, 1863, fighting that is crammed with vibrant accounts and rock-solid analysis. His deeply researched efforts provides readers with a significant understanding of how the Union captured the capitol of Mississippi, how Union troops scattered Confederate forces, General Joseph Johnston’s perplexing actions in Mississippi, how Grant improvised during this battle, why the fall of Jackson was an important operational victory, the success of hard-war and its effects on the Grant’s efforts to capture Vicksburg. Mackowski asserts that this victory damaged communications between Confederate generals Pemberton and Johnston, made Vicksburg accessible by land and set the stage for a major clash a few days later at Champion Hill. • Thirteen Months In Dixie, Or, The Adventures of A Federal Prisoner In Texas Including The Red River Campaign, Imprisonment At Camp Ford, And Escape Overland To Liberated Shreveport, 1864–1865, by W. F. Oscar Federhen Edited by Jeaninne Surette Honstein and Steven A. Knowlton Published by Savas-Beatie. El Dorado, Ca.; Savas Beatie, 2022. Pp., 168. Illus., Maps., Notes, Biblio., Index. ISBN-10: ‎1611215889. $29.95. Thirteen Months in Dixie is a Union soldier prisoner-of-war account that offers a picture of Louisiana and Texas from 1864– 1877. William Federhen wrote his memories in a style that weaved together stories of imprisonment, adversity, and valor during the last year of the war that were hidden away by family members, and sat unpublished until Jeaninne Surette Honstein and Steven Knowlton prudently transliterated and annotated his text with an extensive bibliography, useful maps, and the soldier’s own drawings. As a new recruit to the 13th Independent Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery, he was taken prisoner in Louisiana during May 1864 while preparing to participate in the Red River Campaign. Federhen provides justice to the drama in a narrative rich with perceptive analysis, and attention to the horrors of detention. Included are fascinating biographical details about the confiscation of his personal property, initially marching 115 miles in five days, life at Camp Ford including successful escape attempts, food deprivation, and disease in its worst forms. David Marshall is a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for the past thirty-five years. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami

Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Common Soldier.

Sundry Perspectives on the Western Theater, by Gould Hagler

Any historical event—a plague, a migration, a religious transformation, a technological revolution, a political upheaval, or a war can be viewed and analyzed from a wide variety of perspectives. For CWN’s book issue I selected eight works that focus on different aspects of the Civil War in the Western Theater. 1. Secret Yankees: The Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta (Thomas G. Dyer, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999) tells the story of Unionists in this key Confederate city. The book is largely based on a diary of one of the Unionists which had been discovered two decades before the book was published. The author had to do painstaking detective work to uncover the lost story. 2. The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood’s First Sortie (Robert D. Jenkins, Sr., Mercer University Press, 2013) is a study of the battle fought on July 20, 1864, just north of Atlanta. This detailed analysis covers the first effort by the new commander of the Army of Tennessee to go on the attack after his predecessor’s removal. 3. Stephen Davis’s two-volume work on John Bell Hood (Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood and

Into Tennessee and Failure: John Bell Hood, Mercer University Press, 2019 and 2020) offers sophisticated readers an inciteful analysis of John Bell Hood’s career and, as well, a review and assessment of what generations of historians have written about the general. To the Manner Born: The Life of General William H.T. Walker (Russell K. Brown, University of Georgia Press, 1994) is, as far as I know, the only biography of the cantankerous and oft-wounded Georgian. A West Pointer who served in Mexico and in the Seminole Wars, Walker rose to the rank of major general in the Confederate army and was killed in the Battle of Atlanta. Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor (Russell S. Bonds, Westholme Yardley, 2008) covers all the facts for those of us who knew only what we saw in the Fess Parker movie. It’s all there, from the planning, the high-jacking, the chase, the capture, the botched hanging, and the long and difficult journey home by those who escaped. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (Albert Castel, University Press of Kansas, 1992) is a comprehensive account of Sherman’s campaign from Dalton to Atlanta and Johnston’s, and then Hood’s, efforts to stop him. Marching through Georgia: The Story of Soldiers & Civilians During Sherman’s Campaign (Lee Kennett, Harper Collins Publishers, 1995) is one of many accounts of Sherman’s destructive Savannah campaign, and a very good one. Following the battles came the aftermath, and I end with the classic Reconstruction in Georgia, by C. Mildred Thompson, The Beehive Press, 1972, published originally in 1915 by Columbia University Press). The war itself is not the whole story.

Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyist living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table and the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Hagler speaks frequently on this topic and others related to different aspects of the Civil War and

CivilWarNews.com has been a regular contributor to CWN since 2016. He can be reached at [email protected].

Christopher L. Kolakowski’s top ten books on the Civil War’s Western Theater’s campaigns and key personalities. They are listed in no particular order:

1. Days of Glory by Larry David. This is an outstanding overview of the Army of the Cumberland’s formation, makeup, and campaigns. The mix of soldier accounts, official documents, and commentary provide superb details about the life of this important formation. 2. Nothing But Victory by Steven Woodworth. The same as above, but for the Army of the Tennessee. 3. Two Great Rebel Armies by Richard McMurry. This classic work offers much for understanding the Confederate Army of Tennessee and why it performed as it did. 4. The Edge of Glory by William Lamers. This is an outstanding and illuminating biography of William S. Rosecrans, one of the most important Western Theater generals for his 1862 and 1863victories. Lamers explores how the general’s gifts brought him to prominence, but his corresponding flaws held him back. 5. The Chickamauga trilogy by David Powell. This is simply the finest operational and tactical overview of this critical operation yet seen. Powell’s detailed writing offers important insights into both armies and their leaders. This study is a model of its kind. 6. A&B. Memoirs by U.S. Grant & William Sherman. These two were the dominant

Western Theater personalities for the United States, and their memoirs offer important insights into each man. Grant’s has been called the greatest military writing since Caesar’s Commentaries; I agree. 7. Simon Bolivar Buckner: Borderland Knight by Arndt Stickles. From secession to the surrenders of 1865, Buckner stood at the intersection of much of the war’s political and military currents. This biography, written in 1939-1940 with the family’s help, is illuminating about the man and his times. 8. A&B. The 24th Wisconsin in the Civil War by William J.K. Beaudot and That Body of Brave Men by Mark W. Johnson. Among the legion of regimental and brigade histories on both sides, these are two of the best modern ones. Both use a variety of sources to bring to life the units and their members, throughout the arc of their service and as veterans. 9. To The Bitter End by Bert Dunkerly. This is the definitive short history of the Civil War’s finish. The accounts of the final campaigns and various Confederate surrenders after Appomattox are vivid and illuminating. 10. Privations of a Private by Marcus Toney. Sadly, this is not as well-known as other Confederate enlisted memoirs. Toney’s perceptive memories and commentary offer much insight into the private soldier’s experience in the Army of Tennessee. Christopher L. Kolakowski is Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, WI. He received his BA in History and Mass Communications from Emory & Henry College, and his MA in Public History from the State University of New York at Albany. He has spent his career interpreting and preserving American military history with the National Park Service, New York State government, the Rensselaer County (NY) Historical Society, the Civil War Preservation Trust, Kentucky State Parks, the U.S. Army, and the MacArthur Memorial. He has written and spoken on various aspects of military history from 1775 to the present. He has published two books with the History Press: The Civil War at Perryville: Battling For the Bluegrass and The Stones River and Tullahoma Campaign: This Army Does Not Retreat.

My Top Ten Books on the Western Theater, by W. Clifford Roberts Jr. The past twenty-five years have seen a proliferation of first-rate historians focusing on the Western Theater. Their scholarship has pointed a bright light on where the Civil War was militarily won and lost. 1. Larry J. Daniel, Conquered: Why the Army of Tennessee Failed, University of North Carolina Press, 2019 Daniel is a superb writer with books on Shiloh and Stones River as well as studies on artillery and engineering in the war. He is particularly perceptive on analyzing how armies in the West took on their own character and Conquered is a sharp study on why the Army of Tennessee never performed up to its capabilities. 2. Timothy B. Smith, Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg, Savas Beatie, 2004 Smith has written a dozen books on Mississippi and the events surrounding the Siege of Vicksburg. Champion Hill is an example of taking a complex and little understood battle and making it comprehensible and meaningful. 3. Winston Groom, Vicksburg 1863, Knopf, 2009 Apart from Shelby Foote, nobody wrote with the verve of the late Winston Groom. His trilogy of books on the Civil War, covering Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Hood’s Tennessee campaign, are all page turners. 4. James Lee McDonough, William Tecumseh Sherman: In the Service of My Country, Norton, 2016 Professor McDonough wrote books on Shiloh, Kentucky, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville before he tackled this detailed biography of “Old Cump,” whose capture of Atlanta saved the Lincoln presidency. 5. Earl J. Hess, Civil War Supply and Strategy: Feeding Men and Moving Armies, LSU Press, 2020 Nobody has been more prolific with the pen than Professor Hess. His understanding of field fortifications and the importance of logistics sets his books apart from the rest. 6. Stephen Davis, What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta, Mercer, 2012 Davis is another prolific writer and the first to tackle in depth what Sherman’s 254 field pieces did to Atlanta and its citizens over the course of a five-week bombardment. 7. Russell S. Bonds, Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor, Westholme, 2007 The Atlanta Civil War Roundtable awarded local attorney Russell Bonds the 2007 Richard Barksdale Harwell Award for Stealing the General. Bonds brings to life the assorted characters who participated in this astounding raid. 8. Gary Ecelbarger, The Day Dixie Died: The Battle of Atlanta, Thomas Dunne Books, 2010 If the 1886 Cyclorama painting captures the drama of the Battle of Atlanta in art, Ecelbarger does the same with his pen. A welldone account from a Civil War writer with a half a dozen well received books to his credit. 9. David A. Powell, The Chickamauga Campaign (3 volume set) Savas Beatie, 2014,2015,2016 This detailed three-volume trilogy makes Powell, a VMI graduate, the foremost expert on this 1863 battle. Chickamauga was a rare Confederate victory at a cost of 18,000 Southern casualties. 10. Mark L. Bradley, This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place, University of North Carolina Press, 2000 The campaigns of the Western Theater all but ended with the Army of Tennessee making its last stand in eastern North Carolina. Bradley wrote an excellent book on the Battle of Bentonville before writing this second book tackling the politics and complexity of the final surrender at Bennett Place. Cliff Roberts is a Vanderbilt University graduate in Southern history. He is the president of the Generals Barton and Stovall History/Heritage Association, a board member of the Fort Sumter Civil War Roundtable, and coauthor of Atlanta’s Fighting 42nd: Joseph Johnston’s “Old Guard” (Mercer University Press, 2020). He lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

Noyalas’ Top 10 Books about the Civil War in the West

1. Earl J. Hess, The Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012. While this list is presented in no particular order Hess’s volume is placed purposely at the outset as for the past decade this has been the one book I have referenced more than any other when seeking answers to questions about the conflict in the Western Theater. Written by one of the most prolific and distinguished historians of our time this volume

offers the single-best overview of the Civil War in the West to date. In-depth, balanced, and written with clarity, this book is an essential volume for anyone seeking an understanding of the conflict’s complexities. Since the moment this book was released, it has been a staple in my classroom and has aided my students in understanding the myriad challenges armies confronted in the vast territory between the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi River. 2. Peter Cozzens, The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. The final volume in Cozzens’ trilogy examining the conflict in “the Confederate heartland” offers a deeply researched and splendidly crafted narrative of the campaign for Chattanooga during the autumn of 1863. Like all of Cozzens’s excellent campaign and battle studies, he describes the movements and engagements with clarity, and provides splendid examination of issues of starvation and mood among soldiers on both sides. 3. Anne Sarah Rubin, Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and American Memory, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014. Rubin’s cogently-crafted study, includes a chapter that recounts the events of Sherman’s March, but the text focuses on the ways the March has been portrayed and how perspectives about it evolved over time. Rubin’s study explores the myriad ways civilians caught in its path reflected on what happened. While some highlighted the manners in which the March impacted them adversely, others explored ways how pro-Confederates defied Union troops. Rubin’s study also explores the ways in which Sherman’s March has been portrayed to tourists over the decades and been remembered in various art forms. Rubin’s volume is a splendid reminder that interpreting the past is a moving target, influenced by more than accounts penned in the historic event’s moment. 4. Benjamin Franklin Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson: The Key to the Confederate Heartland, Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1987. When Cooling’s history of the Forts Henry and Donelson campaign was released more than three decades ago historian James I. Robertson Jr., my graduate mentor at Virginia Tech, praised Cooling’s study as “the definitive history of what a number of historians (including the late Bell I. Wiley) regard as the climactic campaign of the Civil War in the West.” More than three decades later, Cooling’s history still stands as my favorite history of this important campaign to control the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. Thorough, in-depth, and smartly crafted, Cooling offers a compelling account of the first significant Union victories and how they buoyed spirits in the North. Additionally, the book explores the legacies of Forts Henry and Donelson and efforts to preserve Fort Donelson. 5. Wiley Sword, The Confederacy’s Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, & Nashville, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993. Originally published as Embrace an Angry Wind: The Confederacy’s Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville in 1992, Sword’s recounting of Confederate General John Bell Hood’s Tennessee campaign during late 1864 and early 1865 offers an exemplar of how to craft campaign history. Sword not only describes movements and decisions with splendid precision, but never loses sight that these bloody clashes in Tennessee involved more than generals. Sword’s use of primary accounts from Union and Confederate soldiers vividly captures the range of emotions felt during combat and in its aftermath and underscores the tragedy and horror of the battlefield. Furthermore, 6. Evan C. Jones and Wiley Sword, eds., Gateway to the Confederacy: New Perspectives on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, 1862–1863, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2014. I have always loved essay anthologies because they offer a breadth of perspective not usually present in a volume penned by a singular author. This collection of ten essays aims “to address vacuums in the relevant literature” and “consider aspects of the battles and their aftermath that have received little, if any, previous attention.” Half of the essays in this fantastic volume examine aspects of leadership. Some essays, such as Gerald Prokopowicz’s essay on Union General Don Carlos Buell, long scrutinized for his inability to capture Chattanooga in 1862, attempt to exonerate. David Powell’s marvelous essay on Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest challenges, at least in the context of the autumn of 1863, the notion that Forrest was “an authentic genius.” This important anthology also contains essays related to historical memory including Stephen Cushman’s analysis of Ambrose Bierce’s writings on Chickamauga and Caroline Janney’s essay about reconciliation’s limits in the establishment of Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. 7. Timothy B. Smith, A Chickamauga Memorial: The Establishment of America’s First Civil War National Military Park, Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2009. Well-known for his scholarship on Shiloh and Vicksburg, this is perhaps the least well-known of Smith’s books in popular circles, but is among my favorite of all books written about the Civil War era. This engagingly written study explores the efforts to preserve the Chickamauga and Chattanooga battlefields. Led by Henry Van Ness Boynton, an Ohio veteran who fought at Chickamauga, Boynton and his supporters envisioned the establishment of a “Gettysburg of the West,” a national military park that would not only serve to honor the service of Union soldiers who fought in the West, but as a place where reunion and reconciliation between former foes could occur. 8. Megan Kate Nelson, The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West, New York: Scribner, 2020. A finalist for the Pulitzer in history, Nelson’s outstanding history has brought much attention to the Civil War in the southwest since its release. Explored from the perspective of nine individuals; Union, Confederate, and Native American, Nelson’s volume vividly explores clashes in Arizona and New Mexico, reasons about why United States and Confederate forces vied for control of this area long neglected by Civil War historians, and ways in which Native Americans’ desire for controlling that area presented obstacles to both. Nelson’s book is not only a model for how to write compelling and engaging history, but has compelled Civil War historians to reevaluate how they think about the conflict. 9. Stephen E. Woodworth, Nothing But Victory: The Army of Tennessee, 1861– 1865, New York: Knopf, 2005. Any of Woodworth’s many titles related to the Western Theaters are deserving of being on a of my top ten favorite books about the Civil War, however, in order to maintain variety, I am singling out this particular volume. In his sweeping analysis of the Army of the Tennessee, that Union force which achieved so much battlefield success and aided significantly in forging the reputations of Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman, Woodworth offers an incredibly in-depth analysis of this important force from its organization through demobilization. This, like the Hess volume, has been a staple in my classroom since its publication. 10. Charles P. Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics, Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001. Originally published in 1964 by University of Texas Press, Roland’s biography was praised in 1981 by Civil War Times as “one of the best one hundred books ever written on the Civil War.” Roland, a giant in the field of Civil War and Southern history for decades, penned a biography that has stood the test of time. The research is exhaustive, analysis is sharp, and prose eloquent. While the book covers much more than Johnston’s Confederate service, which ended with Johnston’s death at Shiloh, Roland’s recounting of Johnston’s life from the war’s outset until early April 1862 offers much important insight into the Confederacy’s struggles in the West. Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute in Winchester, Virginia, a professor in Civil War Era Studies at Shenandoah University, and founding editor of Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era. He is the author or editor of fifteen books including Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era (University Press of Florida).

Joan Wenner’s Top Books on the Western Theater

The Civil War Chronicle, Large Hardback, pgs., extensive photos. Publications International, Ltd., Lincolnwood, IL 2004. With a Foreword by William C. Davis plus four distinguished contributing writers, this book for the Civil War general interest reader is a clear timeline format of eight chapters beginning with The Road to the Civil War and ending with the War’s Enduring Legacy. It is much more than a coffee table book; it is one that will be consulted easily time and time again for details not often found quickly about various battles and campaigns including the Western Theater and individuals famous, infamous, and not well-known. • Never Call Retreat, Bruce Catton, Vol. Three of The Centennial History of the Civil War series. Hardback, 555 pgs. Doubleday & Company, 1965. Comprehensive and extremely detailed, the notes on sources have comments that read like a companion book in and of themselves and cover all eight fact filled chapters of this wellknown and extraordinary work of research and presentation. Joan Wenner, J.D. is a longtime historical and maritime writer with a law degree and contributor and book reviewer for Civil War News.

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Richard Bloomberg’s Top Western Theater Books

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Woodworth, Steven: Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West This Fletcher Pratt Award winning work relies on extensive research from the Jefferson Davis Association collection at Rice University. Steven Woodworth asserts that personality clashes were one of the biggest obstacles to effective unity of command within the Confederacy. • McMurry, Richard: Two Great Rebel Armies This is an excellent comparative study of strategy, tactics and generalship used by the Confederacy’s two mightiest armies, the Army of Tennessee and the Army of Northern Virginia. • Cozzens, Peter: No Better Place to Die: Battle of Stones River Peter effectively uses personal letters and memoirs to tell the story of the battle, while providing a good contextual background of how it influenced the war. • Piston, William Garrett and Richard Hatcher: Wilson’s Creek The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought it. This battle is largely overlooked, but provides key lessons on several aspects of logistical operations. The authors’ analysis looks through the lens of the soldiers and the communities that supported them. • Jones, Archer: Confederate Strategy from Shiloh to Vicksburg Archer Jones does an excellent job discussing how territorial defense and logistical considerations greatly influenced the Confederacy’s overall operational strategy. Richard has served over 20 years as a Book Reviewer for Civil War News. Three of his articles have been published in previous editions of the periodical. His next work focuses on religious and spiritual influences of the Civil War.