Last month saw a lot of good podcasts, blog posts and book reviews.
By the way, if you want to listen to my own podcast on Reconstruction and the Civil War, just click here.
Blogs
Irish in the American Civil War has an interesting look at an immigrant’s pension file. Michael Beaty was an Irish immigrant who was badly wounded in his first battle, Chancellorsville, captured by the Confederates, held prisoner, and later exchanged. After his death a quarter century later, his wife filed for survivor’s benefits. A great look at what Damien Shiels found out by examining the file.
Al Mackey writes about a new effort in Florida to prevent the contextualization of Confederate monuments. A bill in the legislature would bar the placing of historical panels explaining the history of the controversial statues and memorials.
Now I turn to the best of the blog Emerging Civil War. As you likely know, Emerging Civil War publishes post by dozens of writers every year, including me. David dixon is one of their consistently good writers. Last month, he wrote about the reaction of a pro-Union delegate to the Alabama secession convention to the state’s leaving of the Union. More than a third of the white delegates opposed secession, and they resented the secessionists’ attempts to stigmatize them as disloyal.
There has been a lot of attention recently to the efforts to rename Army bases that honor Confederate figurers. Neil Chatelain writes about a similar project underway in the Navy.
Emerging Civil War has had a number of posts on weather during the Civil War, a relatively new topic in the history of the period. Last month, Mike Block wrote about a storm that hit the Army of the Potomac in May of 1864 called a “derecho.” Block does a good job of covering both the meteorological event and the impact on the army. Jim Morgan has a look at how a torrential rain storm impacted the Battle of Secessionville in 1862.
Sarah Kay Bierle at ECW wrote about women’s voices during the Civil War in her article for International Women’s Day. The same author writes about one of my favorite New Yorkers off the war years, Robert Gould Shaw’s sister Josephine.
Also for Women’s History Month, JoAnna M. McDonald, Sheritta Bitikofer, Meg Groeling, Cecily Nelson Zander, and Sarah Kay Bierle got together to chat about women during the Civil War. Part I of this conversation looks at women as support for their men. Part II discussed how the war “changed” women.
Brian Krasielwicz at ECW writes about a Confederate soldier, held captive by the Union army, who was apparently executed by his captors in North Carolina in retaliation for a Confederate execution of a “Bummer.”
Tim Talbott has a fascinating story of sixteen year old Judson Spofford who lied to join the Union army and was nearly killed forr his commitment to his cause. Talbott has been named as the new Book Review Editor at Emerging Civil War.
At the blog Muster, Holly A. Pinheiro, Jr. writes about why when he writes about members of the United States Colored Troops he also writes about their families and he interviews a woman who has been researching her own family’s experience during the Civil War Era. At the same site, Hilary Green has an interview on Latinx in California a decade before the Civil War began.
Substack
Kevin Levin offers advice in how to build a Civil War library for your home, including how to organize your book collection.
Levin has a thought provoking piece on how Gettysburg is both a battlefield and a commemorative landscape. He pays particular attention to how the Ku Klux Klan used the site to rally its supporters. He also writes about the trend among op-ed writers to compare the present to the Civil War Era.
Kevin Levin asks why the Army, in its new commercial depicting past conflicts, leaves out the Civil War. In another post, he discusses answering a question he was asked at a recent presentation about whether all those opposing the removal of Confederate monuments are racists.
Kevin Levin is one of the leading scholars on how the Civil War is remembered and he has an in-depth discussion of how we talk about the war over time.
Book Reviews
Derek Maxfield at Emerging Civil War has a review of Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era by Sarah J. Purcell published by University of North Carolina Press, 2022. The book looks a number of well-publicized funerals during and after the Civil War, including Stonewall Jackson and Elmer Ellsworth, Robert E. Lee and Frederick Douglass. Maxfield says “I found the whole book utterly fascinating and very compelling.” He concludes that “Purcell’s work is excellent and it is valuable for understanding culture and memory in America at the time.”
Sean Michael Chick reviewed Bulldozed and Betrayed: Louisiana and the Stolen Elections of 1876 by Adam Fairclough published by Louisiana State University Press, 2021. Sean Michael Chick has some critical words to say about this book, particularly in its portrayal of Rutherford B. Hayes, but he ends the review saying; “Bulldozed and Betrayed is a superbly researched, written, and tragic tale of the election that for many ushered in and represented the worst parts of the Gilded Age. The story is not pretty. However, it is worth reading.”
The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865: A Study in Command by William Rosyton Geise (Michael J. Forsyth, editor) Savas Beatie, 2022 was reviewed by Pat Kelly-Fischer for ECW. The review notes that “Civil War scholarship has rarely given the Trans-Mississippi the kind of in-depth analysis of command structure, logistics and high-level strategic decisions that eastern armies have received at length.” The book is not a study of the battles fought in the Trans-Mississippi, it is an analysis of command structure. The review concluded that “this is an excellent work that I’d happily recommend to anyone interested in the Trans-Mississippi West.”
Civil War Books and Authors reviewed July 22: The Civil War Battle of Atlanta by Earl J. Hess published by University Press of Kansas, 2023. The review says that this is the new standard history of this battle; “Utilizing an expansive research effort typical of his work, Hess creates a very detailed yet readily comprehensible picture of the July 22 battle. No previous account has exhibited this degree of depth when it comes to tactical-level interpretation of the battle.”
It will not surprise readers to learn that Civil War Books and Authors reviewed another Earl Hess book last month, Civil War Torpedoes and the Global Development of Landmine Warfare by Earl J. Hess published by Rowman & Littlefield, 2023. Hess is the most prolific of academic Civil War historians. According to the review; “this impressive study rightfully assumes its place as the new standard history of what proved to be the most controversial weapon and mode of warfare that emerged during the American Civil War. Highly recommended.”
Civil War Books and Authors has a more mixed review of The Civil Wars of General Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate States Army – Volume I: Virginia and Mississippi, 1861–1863 by Richard M. McMurry published by Savas Beatie, 2023. The review notes that this is not a standard biography of the general and that it leaves out segments of his first two years in the Civil War.
Podcasts
Gerry Prokopowicz at Civil War Talk Radio has a good discussion with Dillon Carroll, author of “Invisible Wounds: Mental Illness and Civil War Soldiers,” about the impact of mental illness and PTSD on troops he investigated using veterans’ medical records.
Gerry also has a fascinating interview with John M. Sacher, author of “Confederate Conscription and the Struggle for Southern Soldiers.” I was surprised to hear that very little has been written on the Confederate draft in a hundred years.
Addressing Gettysburg interviews Gettysburg guide and rival podcast host Jim Hessler. Hessler is always well-spoken and this is a good interview.
Addressing Gettysburg has a show on the new museum dedicated to the story of Gettysburg’s civilians.
Video
Emerging Civil War’s Chris Mackowski took a close look at the newest museum at Gettysburg, the Adams County Historical Society museum devoted to the civilians of the Pennsylvania town during the Civil War. The video includes scenes from inside the facility. Andrew Dalton of the Society describes the museum.
Chris also talks with Vicksburg Park Ranger Taylor Hegler about women in the Civil War and how women’s history is interpreted.
Gary Adelman and Chris Mackowski discuss whether Vicksburg orr Gettysburg was a more important campaign.
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