What Civil War Book are You Reading?

Didn't see a 'what r u reading' thread and thought one might be useful.

I'm currently reading "Co. Aytch" by Sam Watkins. For those that aren't familiar with the book, it's a memoir by a Confederate private.

Friends have been suggesting I read it for ages, and finally someone mailed me a copy. They were right. It's a fabulous primary source. I'm learning more about the war from this book than all my previous textbook learnin'. Now I suppose I'll have to read Grant.

Co Aytch is a short fun read of war as a boy scout adventure (OW Holmes "in our youth our hearts were touched with fire"). Probably best read with some bits from Ambrose Bierce about the horrors and futility of war.

You might like the similar but longer Hardtack and Coffee from a Northern perspective. The copious illustrations (eg Union corps badges) are worth the price of admission alone. I treasure my battered original copy which I received as a present from a distant acquaintance of my parents who somehow heard about my interest. He in turn has received the book as a gift from a US Civil War buff. Some day, I will honor the tradition and pass it on, but for now, I keep the precious in my greedy hands.

Thanks for the recommendation, JCBrunner.

Turns out our library has it so I'll probably drop by this weekend and pick it up.

love primary sources :)

The classics The life of Johnny Reb and Billy Yank are also recommended. As they are based on letters written at the time, historians consider them primary sources of a higher quality than memoirs which often suffer from lapses of memory, hindsight and their focus on writing for posteriority. Witness the many axes ground in the (essential and cheap) Battles and Leaders collection from Century magazine.

Re Hardtack and Coffee and other primary sources:

In the early 1980s, Time-Life published a series called the Collector’s Library of the Civil War. Memoirs from both sides of the conflict were printed in facsimile editions with bonded leather covers and gilded page edges. They are widely available in used book stores. If you can't find (or afford) the originals, these look nice on the shelf, and the interior appearance gives you more of the feeling of the original than a modern reprint would.

I have the following titles, but I know there are more in the series.
Army Life in a Black Regiment
Confederate Operations in Canada and New York
Daring and Suffering: a History of the Great Railroad Adventure
Destruction and Reconstruction: the Personal Experiences of the Late War
Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865
Hardtack and Coffee; The Unwritten Story of Army Life
In and Out of Rebel Prisons
Mosby's Rangers: A Record of the Operations of the Forty-Third Battalion Virginia Cavalry, from its Organization to the Surrender
The Narrative of a Blockade Runner
A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital
Reminiscences of the Civil War
The Story of a Cannoneer under Stonewall Jackson
Three Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863

Co. Aytch is an excellent look back on a life changing experience. I think Sam's age soften some of the events of the war. His book is a favorite for many of my students when we cover the American Civil War because Sam is from here and is buried in a beautiful (and historical) churchyard not many miles from the school.
brownt

I just finished To The Gates of Richmond:The Peninsula Campaign. I cannot say that I recommend it. Much better was a book I read earlier this yearThe Battle of the Wilderness. The Peninsula campaign did not provide much information about the people involved and very little analysis of the battles. It was mostly a naming of the units involved with attention to the casualty figures. I did learn something but I hope Sears other books are better.

#6, Brownt,

I can see where Co. Aytch would be popular with students. Watkins writing is so accessible. I wish we had read it in school. Instead my 8th (9th?) grade instructor spent months on detailed battle drawings. He was way off base on that one if he was intending on creating interest in that era. Much later I was fortunate enough to have been assigned "Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.

I recently read "Marching with the First Nebraska," a diary of the German immigrant named Scherneckau. Ooops, first name escapes me right now. This is a very interesting look into campaigning and daily life in Missouri in 1861, and in central Nebraska in 1863. The diary was edited by state historian Jim Potter and translated from the German by another. I think diaries give the down to earth story of the experiences of the average soldier. Not strategy or tactics here, but lots of rain and hunger. Unglorified, but maybe something a reenactor would find useful.

Sounds like a great book, Saxhorn. I've added it to my TBR.

Thanks.

I just finished To the North Anna River. This is the third volume in a four volume series on the overland campaign. The author makes extensive use of primary sources from the privates to Lee and Grant. I have the next volume Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee May 26-June 3, 1864 and expect to read it soon.
Tuesday I will get General Lee's Army: From Victory to Collapse. This is highly touted as based upon 20 years of research of primary sources. It is described as a cultural history of the Army and the men who fought in it. While the battlefield experiences are covered they are not the focus of the book. I am looking forward to getting it and will let you know if it lives up to the reviews.

I am about halfway through Forts Henry and Donelson: Keys to the Confederate Heartland by Benjamin Franklin Cooling. An excellent account of the campaign where Grant first showed his true mettle for war.

I've just finished Gettysburg: The First Day by Harry Pfanz. I read it in conjunction with Maps of Gettysburg. I'd recommend doing that because while Pfanz's descriptions are excellent, like so many books, the maps are not adequate. What there are are very good, however. Going back and forth between the two books is work, but rewarding. Pfanz has so much detail that at times it gets in the way, and Gottfried's book, which is much more terse, helps to organize the material.

I've started his book on the second day, which is actually the first one he wrote in his trilogy. It is truly excellent in coverage from the evening of July 1 until Longstreet's attack.

Am finally back to the Civil War. Have begun Ed Bearss' Fields of Honor courtesy of the Early Reviewers club.

Then I'm on to This Republic of Suffering, The Life of Johnny Reb, The Life of Billy Yank, A Stillness at Appomattox, Lincoln at Gettysburg, Grant and Sherman: The Friendship that won the Civil War, and finally Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order.

Should be fun. Haven't read any ACW since finishing Foote last spring.

#14: This Republic of Suffering is excellent.

Half way through Perryville: Battle for Kentucky. So far excellent with almost too many maps (never thought I'd write that!).

I am 3/4 of the way through Fields of Honor and am loving it. I can hear Mr. Bearss voice in every sentence. It almost makes me feel as if I were there with him.
Next I'll be getting into Abraham Lincoln: The Observations of John G. Nicolay and John Hay and Why the North Won the Civil War. A couple of short ones ought to tide me over until I find the next one.

Just got Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and his brothers in the Civil War.

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Had a bit of an interruption so am only on chapter 3, but I am really enjoying this book.

pam 11/3

RE#16. I much preferred Perryville: Battle for Kentucky to Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle but at least it was better than the abysmal Battle of Perryville, 1862: Culmination of the Failed Kentucky Campaign. BTW, Liddell's Record, a great little book & a favorite of mine, has a very interesting chapter on Perryville.