ACW books

[69th NYSV]

Hancock the Superb wrote:

Stephen Sears has all three, Antietam (A landscape turned Red), Chanc. and Gburg.

+2 for Stephen Sears

Amish John - I've been thinking of getting "Gettysburg: The Second Day", excellent you really liked it. As you can see in my sig, it was my units day of the battle. B)

[Ephrum]

Amish John wrote:

First of all, I'm assuming you've already read "The Killer Angels" (historical fiction).

If you haven't, read that first as a warm up to the heavier duty straight history books.

Then I'd recommend three books by Harry Pfanz, and I'd suggest reading them in the following order. The order is just my opinion of how well I like them with my favorite at the top of the list:

Gettysburg: The Second Day
Gettysburg: The First Day
Culps Hill and Cemetery Hill

For heavy duty reading of the entire campaign I'd suggest

The Gettysburg Campaign by E. Coddington

Yes I've read Killer Angels, and the two his son wrote!
Thanks, Amish John, Hancock, Estabu2, 69th NYSV, and Gfran64! This are the kind of books I'm looking for!
Much appreciated!

[louie raider]

estabu2 wrote:

The Sears books are all very good. Noah Trudeau's book Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage is excellent. I am reading Taken at the Flood, by Joseph L. Harsh. It is a look at the Confederate strategy of the Antietam campaign. So far I am about 1/5 of the way through and it is very good also.

Team member MarkT had recommended to me The Gleam of Bayonets by James Murfin and it's a great read; goes in-depth of the entire MD campaign, not just the battle.

[louie raider]

ironsight wrote:

Another good one which i'm in the middle of is:
"The Blue and the Gray"
which has a lot of individual soldiers accounts of events, battles and daily life during the war.

i enjoy this one as well, you can just pick a spot anyhere in the book and start reading, which i like to do more often than not...

on a somewhat-related subject, i just came back from my annual county book sale which allows the county libraries a chance to sell their old library books for cheap - i've been able to fill out my personal Civil War library over the past few years this way (i picked up my copy of The Blue and The Gray at one of these sales). This year i picked up the 6-volume set The Image of War by the national historical society for $24. not much on text but some great photos there.

[ironsight]

LR Wrote:...not much on text but some great photos there.

Along with the text heavy books, i also also enjoy the books with a lot of actual photographs taken at that time. Snap shots of history. It'd be great if some unknown CW photograph of an actual battle re-surfaced from someone's attic. To my knowledge there are no battle photographs most likely because the crude photographic technology at the time didn't allow for movement of the targeted picture subject.

Its too bad the photographic process wasn't invented yet during the Revolutionary War.
We have photographs of the Civil War players and know exactly what they looked like.

But we only rely on paintings of George Washington's image which varies more or less from painting to painting. Some paintings of CW generals look nothing like their actual photographs.

[louie raider]

Ephrum wrote:

I was wondering if any of you could suggest some good books on; Antietam and Chancellorsville.

As far as C'ville, i picked up The Souls of the Brave by Ferguson (from the county book sale, again) and it's very good as well.

[Hancock the Superb]

The best C War book out there is Shenandoah Valley: Nov. 1861 to June 1862. This is the best book! It evenly gives both views, civilan and soldier prospective, geography, very good maps, OOBs, everything. Three or more chapters per battle, a look at general overview.


THIS IS THE BOOK YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

He needs to do one on Gettysburg next.

[Chamberlain]

I agree with estabu2 on Noah Trudeau's book Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage.

It is one of the Civil War books I have read, very good !!!!!

Chamberlain

[Hancock the Superb]

I second that.

[Jim]

You might also pick up: The Gettysburg Campaign A Study in Command. by Edwin B. Coddington. One of the best books on the campaign as a whole and a good evaluation of command decisions on both sides.

-Jim