Years ago, as a young er in Goddard College’s program, I had a classm dreamed of one day bein to walk through her hom stacks of her own books where. It sounded like dream, to be honest. It’s not an idea you about too much, though, the logistics can easil way: Why would I have s my own books everywhere there a lot of copies o or a few copies of seve
many titles? Are they remaindered copies? Why would my wife put up with this? But the idea of being surround ed by one’s own hard work and words, in tangible form, represents a kind of rewarding comfort. In a way, I feel like I ha been immersed in that sort of experience the past couple of months, surrounded by books from the Emerging Civil War Series. Two years ago, my son Maxwell came into the world, and at that time, I told my colleagues I’d be able to commit to overseeing four ECWS books a year through the production process on a first-come/first serve basis. As people finished projects, I’d put them into the queu and I’d get to them as fatherhoo allowed. We managed to do slightly better than I’d originally forecast thanks largely to some talented staff we brought on board to hel with prep work and production. (Here’s a shout-out to Hannah Gordon, Chris Kolakowski, Sarah Bierle, and Tara Hatmaker!) And now that Maxwell is old enough to toddle and provide editorial
advice of his own, I’ve been kicking into higher gear to help clear the backlog. So, aside from the three titles we released in the fall, we’ve had two releases so far in 2019, with two more books at the printer now, and one more in production for a late spring release. Five books in a single season, and eight in six months, are both new records for us. That will bring us up to a tot of 33 ECWS books from Savas Beatie (34 if you count our limited-edition booklet Traces of the Bloody Struggle: The Civil War at Stevenson Ridge, Spotsylvania Court House). Plus we have four more ECWS books slated for fall release as well as two more books in our Emerging Revolutionary War Series (plus two books in our “Engaging the Civil War” Series with Southern Illinois University Press). In short, we have a lot of great stories coming your way in 2019. For me, the best part of it is that they’ve books written by historians I respect, whose work I admire and enjoy. With all these books in the works, I feel immersed in a version of that comforting dream of my classmate’s from years ago. Chris Mackowski Editor-in-Chief
The 2019 Emerging Civil War Symposium is fast approaching!
On Friday, Aug. 2, 2019, the Sixth Annual Symposium will once again kick off at beautiful Stevenson Ridge in Spotsylvania, Va. Tickets are going fast and, be lieve it or not, we are almost at capacity already. Over the weekend, attendees will hear from numerous speakers presenting on this year’s theme, “Forgotten Battles of the Civil War.” Historians such as A. Wilson Greene, Chris Mackowski, Chris Kolakowski, James Broomall, and many more will delve into the battles of Romney, Wilson’s Creek, Secessionville, and others. The weekend will conclude with a battlefield tour of newly preserved ground at North Anna. It will be a weekend that you will not want to miss! Do not miss your chance to attend this great Symposium before it sells out for the second year in a row! You can get
register, or find more information at https://emergingcivilwar. com/2019-symposium.
American photography before the Civil War in an article title “Transcends the Bounds of Sober Belief” in the March 2019 issue lar column, the “Critic’s Corner, continued its look at letters hom from a Texan soldier, and he also penned a “Small Talk Trivia” quiz focusing on Union generals in the Western Theater. Meg Groeling will be one of the featured speakers at the Southwest Civil War Symposium on Saturday, March 23, 2019. The event is hosted by the Southwest Civil War Roundtable and will be held at 380 New York Street, Redlands, Calif. Meg will be speaking about the first assassination attempt on president-elect Abraham Lincoln as he traveled on the Inaugural Express through Baltimore. “Other than that,” she said, “we are waiting for our sec ond grandchild to be born—any day now!” (And we’re pleased to report Emery Ellyce arrived safely on Feb. 18.) Meg reviewed Angela M. Zombeck’s book Penitentiaries, Punishment, and Milita Prisons: Familiar Responses to an Extraordinary Crisis During the American Civil War in the March 2019 issue of Civil War News. Steward Henderson recently participated in the Untold Storie Program at Fredericksburg, playing the role of a corporal. Last year’s program was very successful, so the coalition of orga nizations presenting the program expanded the event to include vignettes in four downtown Fredericksburg churches. The Civil War portion was a recruiting scene at Camp Casey in 1864. Other vignettes portrayed scenes from the Revolutionary War, World War I, and World War II. Chris Kolakowski reviewed Challenges of Command in the Civil War: Generalship, Leadership, and Strategy at Gettysburg, Petersburg, and Beyond—Volume I, Generals and Generalship by Richard Sommers in the March 2019 issue of Civil War News.
For February’s Emerging Civil War podcasts, co-hosts Dan Welch and Chris Mackowski kicked off the month talking with their award-winning colleague Dave Powell about his new book, Decisions at Chickamauga, part of the “Critical Decisions” serie being published by the University of Tennessee Press. For the month’s second podcast, Chris talks with Kris White about the “forgotten fall” of
Jon-Erik Gilot works as an archivist by day and is assisting ECW’s archives behind the scenes by night. You can read his full background here: https://emerg-
Q: Let’s start with the obvious question first: As a Civil War historian and a resident of West Virginia, how do you feel about West Virginia statehood? A: As a resident of Wheeling— the birthplace of West Virginia— reminders of the statehood movement are all around. The first s capitol building sits just a blo from my office, and the custom house (Independence Hall) sits just a few blocks beyond that, while an imposing statue of Francis Pierpont greets visitors on Market Street. Residents of western Virginia were a people set apart, kept under the thumb of the tidewater aristocracy and FFV’s that dominated Virginia politics in the 19th century. As Abraham Lincoln opined that our country could not exist as half slave and half free, it would ha been tough sledding for Virginia to continue to exist as a state sectionally divided. The Civil War was the vehicle that helped push that statehood movement over the finish line. Montani Semper Liberi (Mountaineers Are Always Free)!
Q: What aspect of the war in West Virginia/western Virginia fascinates you the most? A: West Virginia was fighting a different kind of war, much more akin to what was happening in Missouri, Kansas, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina. The Civil War and West Virginia statehood very literall pitted families and neighbors against one another. It was a dangerous place to live, with
Q: How did you get hooked on the Civil War? A: I was lucky to have a mother who fostered my interest in history at a young age with books about Abraham Lincoln and trips to Gettysburg and Antietam. I also grew up in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, a small, historic town steeped in Civil War history. The first newspaper to advocate for the immediate abolition of slavery was published there (The Philanthropist, 1817). Benjamin Lundy, whom William Lloyd Garrison considered the “Father of American Abolitionism,” made his home there. Numerous Underground
Railroad landmarks still dot the village. John Hunt Morgan’s men skirted the village in July 1863 with Federal soldiers on their heels. I was just surrounded in Civil War-era history.
Q: You’re an archivist in your day job. Obviously, archivists can be invaluable resources to Civil War researchers. Do you want to give a shout-out to your profession? A: I started working with my local historical society at a youn age and really got hooked on the visceral connection you feel when holding a historic document, artifact or textile. As the “keeper” of such history, it’s important to protect what we have, but equally important is accessibility. What good is having all of this stuff i it’s locked away and out of sight? That’s why I’m such a big fan of what Garry Adelman and Kris White are doing at the American Battlefield Trust in utilizing som amazing, rarely seen artifacts on battlefield visits and giving us behind-the-scenes virtual tours of some outstanding Civil War collections all across the country Balancing access and preservation can be tricky, but I think it important that we constantly look for new ways for our material to reach a wider audience.
Q: Is there an aspect about your profession that’s commonly misunderstood? A: White gloves! Archives seem to be most associated with
white gloves, and Garry Adelman likes to rail on the ‘uppity’ ar vists who yell at him for handli artifacts without gloves. While I’d always advocate for using gloves when handling photos or negatives (fingerprints can damage emulsion), wearing gloves reduces our sense of touch, making us much more apt to accident ly cause damage to a fragile doc ument or book. So I’d tell Garry to go on with his bad self, as l as his hands are clean!
Lightning Round (short answers): Q: Most overrated person of the Civil War? A: Nathan Bedford Forrest...al day, every day.
Q: Favorite Trans-Mississippi site? A: Wilson’s Creek, a crown jewel of our battlefield parks.
Q: Favorite Regiment? A: I don’t know that I have on favorite, but I am fond of the 1 Ohio and 52nd Ohio, both incredibly hard fighting regiments raised around my hometown. I have substantial collections of
letters and photos from both reg ments that may one day make for a good book(s).
Q: What one Civil War book do you consider to be essential? A: Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson remains an incredibly accessible book for anyone looking for a solid, onevolume overview of the conflict.
Q: What’s one Civil Warrelated question no one has ever asked you that you wished they would? A: Let’s instead ask “What’s one Civil War-related question you wish no one would ask?” And that would be when my wife asks me “Do you really need another Civil War book?” Yes, Dear. Yes, I do.
The latest volume in the Emerging Civil War Series is now on its way to bookstores: All He Can’t Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga—Missionary Ridge and Ringgold by Dave Powell. You can order signed copies of the book from publisher Savas Beatie. All Hell Can’t Stop Them is a follow-up to Dave’s Battle Above the Clouds: Lifting the Siege of Chattanooga and the Battle of Lookout Mountain. Together, the two volumes tell the story o Ulysses S. Grant’s pivotal campaign as commander of all Union
All Hell Can’t Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga— Missionary Ridge and Ringgold by Dave Powell.
armies in the West. To see how those volumes fi together with events in the e check out The Great Battle Ne Fought: The Mine Run Campaign by Chris Mackowski, released last November. Soldiers in th Army of the Potomac heard abo Grant’s victory at Chattanoog just as they were setting out their own campaign and called “Good news to march on.”
One of the most important a recognizable dates in the mon of February is the birthday o George Washington, who was born on February 22, 1732, in the new-style calendar. Bonus points if you know what date
ysis of the latest and most significant arship. Contact Stephen Davis, Civil Wa
Civil War scholarship Upon the Fields of Battle:
Essays on the Military History of America’s Civil War. Edited by Andrew S. Bledsoe and Andrew F. Lang. Notes, index, 304 pp., 2018. Louisiana State
Andrew S. Bledsoe and Andrew F. Lang set as their goal with this collection “to rectify the disparities between military and other histories of the Civil War” in order to bring a balance to the field of traditional or conventional military history and the “new” school of thought that links military history to broader themes in society. As a result, the editors see the essays in this collection as pushing the boundaries of the
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In his Introduction, Gary W. Gallagher characterizes these ar ticles as a reflection of the “s change” that Civil War military history has undergone over the past 20 years, while Earl J. Hes urges practitioners of battle hi ry to widen the field by questio ing past research and plotting a new agenda. In this collection there are five articles in “The Contested Battlefield” category. Fi Kenneth W. Noe tackles the subject of how the weather contributed to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s misfortune on the Virginia Peninsula in 1862 during a five month-long siege and slog campaign that hampered
his strategy and tactics. These weather-induced problems continued after Gen. Robert E. Lee
took command of Confederate forces following the wounding of Gen. Joseph Johnston. However, Lee managed to gain a string of victories within a relatively br period despite the poor weather conditions. Next, Jennifer M. Murray examines Maj. Gen. George G. Meade’s “Golden Opportunity” to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia following the Union victory over Robert E. Lee’s army at Gettysburg in July 1863. Murray defends Meade against “detractors,” and stresses that Meade’s “primary objective was the protection of Washington, D.C.” Yet President Abraham Lincoln desired Meade to follow Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s example of forcing the surrender of the Confederate army at Vicksburg. Though Meade wavered in his resolve to contest Lee once again, Murray concludes that Meade’s failure was “less of a damning testament of his leadership than an observation of a broader reality in military history.” Andrew Bledsoe contributes an article examining “the unpredictable human element” in the art of command. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg is featured in this discussion, especially with regard to written orders. Bragg’s inability to convey
with subordinates. As a result, Bragg’s failure to establish an effective command and control system is cited as the reason his forces were unable to gain a victory at McLemore’s Cove in Georgia in September 1863,
despite the odds in their favor. “The Looting and Bombardment of Fredericksburg” is John J. Hennessy’s contribution. Was Robert E. Lee’s decision to occupy the town of Fredericksburg the main cause of
its eventual destruction in 1862, or were Union forces given a free hand to seek retaliation the primary factor? Hennessy examines this question in the context of a war in transformation, in which the standard rules would not be followed. The final essay in this catego addresses the existence of guerrilla warfare on both the battlefront and the home front. Brian D. McKnight states this violence was “a means to an end.” Along the borderlands of Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, widespread deprivation and fear re-
sulted. Destruction of personal property and disruption of the normal lifestyles of perceived en
emies generated retaliation from those with competing loyalties. Another section is devoted to
“The Soldiers’ War,” and also contains five articles. Andrew Lang begins with “The Limits of American Exceptionalism,” that evaluates how white Federal soldiers occupying the Confederacy in wartime understood the requirement for military power to preserve their “exceptional nation,” while at the same time the were also concerned about the transformation that would inevitably occur. In particular, blac liberation would present imposing challenges to the liberators, former slave owners, and the newly-freed population as well. Kevin M. Levin contributes an analysis of Confederate military executions that reveals surprising statistics about the frequency of this type of punishment. Executing soldiers, primarily for desertion, had a sobering effect on army units that were required to attend these frightening exhib tions. Nonetheless, Confederates on the whole tended to support execution as a deterrent for would-be deserters. In the third piece, Keith Altavilla writes about Democrats in the Union army at the time of the 1864 presidential election. I “McClellan’s Men,” he describes the political atmosphere after almost four years of war during which the Lincoln administration had been unable to crush the re-
In the final contribution in t segment, Robert L. Glaze examines how the reputation of mili-
tary leaders who succumbed early in the Civil War evolved based on emotion rather than performance. Albert Sidney Johnston had been the target of criticism for his performance as commander of a military department in the west, and there were calls for his resignation. However, his death on the battlefield led former critic to bemoan his loss as “a potential savior” of the Confederacy. Glaze concludes that “Johnston meant more to the people of the Confederacy in death than he ever did in life.” Bledsoe and Lang set out to present a balance between traditional and more modern approaches to Civil War history and interpretation, and insure th these presentations would be the product of qualified professionals. Judging from the variety of themes the authors chose to address, they achieved the first pa of their objective. The qualifica tions of the contributors are apt reflected in the clear, concise a well-researched essays in this collection.
Thomas J. Ryan is the author of Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign: How the Critical Role of Intelligence Impacted the Outcome of Lee’s Invasion of the North, June-July 1863. His latest book, with co-au thor Richard R. Schaus, titled ‘Lee is Trapped, and Must be Taken’: Eleven Fateful Days af-
