The Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862 edited by Gary W. Gallagher. University of North Carolina Press, 2003. Throughout Gallagher’s distinguished career he has assembled some of the best historians to con tribute essays to volumes about various battles and campaigns, but this remains my favorite. This collection of eight essays covering everything from strategy, personalities, how the campaign impacted the Shenandoah’s demographically divers population, and how the campaign shaped Stonewall Jackson’s image, shows that complete understanding of any Civil War campaign only results from a multi-faceted examination of soldiers and the generals who commanded them, those caught in war’s path, and the manner in which events shaped legacies. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America by Allen C. Guelzo. Simon Schuster, 2004. Approximately 15,000 books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, but arguably none presents a more detailed and eloquently written examination of the complexities surrounding our sixteenth president, the evolution of Lincoln’s thoughts about emancipation, and the reactions to the document that transformed the Civil War’s course than Guelzo’s excellent study. U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth by Joan Waugh. University of North Carolina Press, 2009. For all of his success as commander of a victorious army, Ulysses S. Grant’s reputation has long been tarnished. Part biography, part memory-study, Waugh’s magnificent volume presents a fascinating examination of the evolution of Grant’s image from the Union’s savior to someone remembered as a butcher, an alcoholic, and incompetent chief executive. Waugh’s book provides an excellent framework for not only understanding Grant and how he has been remembered and commemorated, but for solidifying the point that the manner in which historical figures are viewed is as much
about what individuals did as it is about cultural influence at a particular moment. 9. Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation by Caroline E. Janney. University of North Carolina Press, 2013. While the United States endured one Civil War there were multiple memories of the conflict. This book, one I regard as the finest single-volume in the genre, addresses how those who supported the Union and Confederacy attempted to shape the conflict’s memory in the decades after the conflict. Clearly delineating a difference between reunion and reconciliation, Janney takes a nuanced approach to understanding how veterans from opposing armies could take part in activities with former foes, but refused to conceal beliefs, fo instance in the case of some Union veterans, about slavery’s centrality to the conflict’s origins. 10. Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War’s Slave Refugee Camps by Amy Murrell Taylor. University of North Carolina Press, 2018. The most recently published book on this list, Taylor’s study is truly groundbreaking. As someone who has spent the better part of his career researching the complexities of the African American experience in the Shenandoah Valley I find this study powerful and compelling. It has helped shape my thinking about the complexities of emancipation and the uncertainties freedom seekers confronted. Among the many powerful stories examined in this instant classic are the efforts of twenty-seven formerly enslaved women from Harpers Ferry who lived in Philadelphia to sew garments for contrabands in Virginia.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute and a professor in the history department at Shenandoah. He is the author or editor of numerous books on Shenandoah Valley Civil War era history. His next book, Slaver and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era is slated for release by the Universi Press of Florida in 2021.
The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War text by Bruce Catton and the coolest maps ever. American Heritage Publishing Co., 1960. What’s not to love? Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant. Charles L. Webster, 1885– 1886. Written brilliantly by dying Grant, this is the sta dard against which all other Civil War memoirs are measured. Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command, by Douglas Southall Freeman. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942–1944. This is the standard referen study of the command structure of the Army of Northern Virginia. Although tainted b Lost Cause dogma, these are indispensable volumes for any student of the Civil War in the East. Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas by John J. Hennessy. Simon & Schuster, 1993. I think that this book is the single finest one-vol ume campaign study ever published. The Union Cavalry in the Civil War, 3 vols., by Stephen Z. Starr. Louisiana State University Press, 1979 1985. For the cavalry histor an, these three volumes are the standard reference and starting point for any serio study of mounted operations in the Civil War. While date they remain indispensable. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam by Stephen Sears. Easton Press, 1983. This was one of the first critical campaign stud that I ever read. It remains classic today. The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command by Edwin B. Coddington. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 196 THE definitive work on the Gettysburg Campaign and on the command decisions made by the high ranking officers of both sides. Although this book is now more than 50 years old and had to be completed posthumously, it remains the standard reference on the campaign. Annals of the Si Pennsylvania Cavalry by
Samuel L. Gracey. E.H. Butler & Co., 1868. This is my favorite regimental history of all-time, written by the regimental chaplain of the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry, also known as Rush’s Lancers. This book launched my own studies of the exploits of the Sixth Pennsylvania Cavalry. 9. Gordon C. Rhea’s six volume study of the Overland Campaign of 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 1994– 2017. I realize that the assignment asked for 10 specific books, but this series o book constitutes THE definitive campaign study of any aspect of the American Civil War. These are the gold standard for campaign studies and likely will remain the authoritative study of their subjects for the foreseeable future. 10. “Co. Aytch,” Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment; or a Side Show of the Show by Samuel Watkins. Cumberland Presbyteria Publishing House, 1882. The best-known and probably finest soldier memoir of the American Civil War, written by an enlisted man of the Army of Tennessee. The narrative is both amusing and moving all at the same time. It’s a great read.
Eric J. Wittenberg is an accomplished American Civil War cavalry historian and author. An attorney in Ohio, Wittenberg has authored more than 21 books on various Civil War subjects, with particula focus on cavalry operations, as well as three dozen articles in po ular magazines such as North & South, Blue & Gray, America’s Civi War, and Gettysburg Magazine. His first book, Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions (Thomas Publications, Gettysburg, PA, 1998) won the prestigious 1998 Bachelder-Coddington Litera Award. The second edition won the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Writing Award, for Reprint, 2011. His 2014 book, “The Devil’s to Pay”: John Buford at Gettysburg. A History and Walking Tour, was awarded the Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable’s 2015 Book Award. Wittenberg is a favored speaker at Civil War Roundtables, and conducts tours of various Civil War battlefields and related sites. He was instrumental in saving important battlefield land at Trevilian Station and Brandy Station, Va., and wrote the text for the historical waysides located at Trevilian Station. He serves on the board of directors of the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust and is the program coordinator
he entries on my list are list ear in alphabetical order by hor’s last name.
The Civil War: A Narrative by Shelby Foote. Random House, 1958, 1963, 1974. I’m gonna get a three-fer here and lump all three books under a single umbrella because Foote’s mammoth work is best appreciated as a work of literature only in its entirety. Yes, each book is expertly constructed to stand on its own, and the chapters about Gettysburg and Vicksburg have been spun off as standalone volumes, but the scope of Foote’s work is sweeping and grand, his attempt at replicating the epic nature of th war itself. His narrative construction is artful, unexpected, and satisfying, and his prose is brilliant, if you can unpack his labyrinthine sentences, which did, I admit, take me some time to figure out. Antietam: The Photographic Legacy of America’s Bloodiest Day by William Frassanito. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978. Then-and-now photos of Civil War battlefields have become popular thanks to Frassanito’s seminal work. His groundbreaking scholarship matched historical photos with modern landscapes to shed important light on bat tles. Nowhere was that work more important, I would argue, than at Antietam, which basically served as the birthplace of modern photojournalism. The photos from Antietam stunned America; Frassanito’s Antietam takes us behind the scenes to show how and why those photos became so important. Memoirs and Selecte Letters: Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant / Selected Letters, 1839–1865 by Ulysses S. Grant. Library of America, 1990. Two excellent annotated versions of Grant’s memoirs have been published recently, but I keep my un-annotated Library of America edition on my desk because it’s an excellent resource by the preeminent survivor of the Civil War. “Wars produce many stories of fiction, some of which are told until they are believed to be true,” Gran