What was life like for western Irish volunteers in the American Civil War? Historian James B. Swan attempts to answer that question in Chicago’s Irish Legion: The 90^th Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War, the first full length regimental history of that unit. The 90^th Illinois (aka “Chicago’s Irish Legion”), the second Irish regiment raised in the state, saw more hard marching than bloody fighting, but was in the war until the end and played its role.

Author James B. Swan is a retired professor of agronomy, which he taught at Iowa State University. Swan is an independent historian, and like this reviewer, a native of Illinois and lifelong student of the Civil War. Although Swan does appear to have had a relative in the regiment, Corporal Simon Swan of Co. G, his real inspiration to write this regimental history was his wife Pat’s excitement over an account of the regiment’s attempt to establish camp near the Big Black River during the Vicksburg Campaign.

In an introduction, Swan covers the Irish experience in America in the years leading up to the Civil War, including the perception that Irish Catholics were not loyal to the Union cause, especially after the Emancipation Proclamation. It was to refute this perception that Father Denis Dunne decided to raise a second Irish Illinois regiment for the Union cause, the 23^rd Illinois “Irish Brigade” already being in the field. Unfortunately for Dunne, the regiment was raised in mid to late 1862, long after initial enthusiasm for the war was gone. The regiment initially had trouble filling its ranks, but thanks to the efforts of Dunne and other influential Illinois Irishmen, it was able to muster in on September 7, 1862. After muster in, however, all was not well. The regiment suffered from a high rate of desertion, 38%, which compared very unfavorably to the Union average of 8%. Owing partly due to the time of organization, the men were on average four years older than the average age of Illinois soldiers as a whole. The vast majority of the 90^th Illinois’ soldiers were laborers or farmers. The Irish Legion was lucky in that they had a capable leader in Colonel Timothy O’Meara, who led the regiment until his death at Missionary Ridge in November 1863.

As mentioned in the introduction, the Irish Legion saw few large-scale battles during their time in the Western Theater. Their first pitched battle was at Coldwater Station, in north central Mississippi, guarding Grant’s supply line during his abortive overland approach to Vicksburg in late 1862. As Drew Wagenhoffer points out in his review of the book, the author should be complimented on adding a detailed account of this sharp little fight, about which little has been written. Much of early 1863 was spent guarding railroads east of Memphis during the Vicksburg Campaign. After Vicksburg was invested, the 90^th Illinois was part of the reinforcements being rushed to the area. The Irish Legion arrived too late to do much in the siege proper, but they did participate in the advance on Jackson after the fall of the important river city. The bloodiest experience of the Irish Legion during the war occurred at Tunnel Hill on November 25, 1864, during the Battle of Missionary Ridge. Sherman’s Army of the Tennessee soldiers, including the 90^th, were severely bloodied while attempting to dislodge Patrick Cleburne’s crack Confederate division from Tunnel Hill and the surrounding area. In addition to the loss of their popular Colonel O’Meara, the 90^th suffered 117 casualties during the ill-fated attack. This was the battle that would define the regiment, so much so that long after the war the regimental association would meet at Lt. Col. Stuart’s widow’s house every November 25. Although the Irish Legion saw some action in the Atlanta Campaign (at Resaca, Dallas, Atlanta, and Ezra Church), they were mainly serving as wagon train guards during a significant portion of the campaign. The Irishmen also participated in Sherman’s March to the Sea all the way to Savannah. As a part of Hazen’s division they successfully assaulted Fort McAllister, opening the way to an army connection with the U.S. Navy standing by off the coast of Georgia. According to the author, the 90^th Illinois was one of two Irish regiments in the Atlanta Campaign and March to the Sea. The men of the Irish Legion closed the war by participating in Sherman’s march through the Carolina’s, and participated in the Grand Review of the Union armies in Washington, D.C.

The maps in Chicago’s Irish Legion have their strong points and some shortcomings. First, and most importantly, the maps literally track where the regiment itself went during each of its campaigns. Too often, regimental histories use generic maps which give the reader no clue as to where the regiment in question was. Not so in this book, as James Swan made the maps fit the topic he covered. The maps are in many cases oriented with true north in a position to make the map best fit onto a page. This was at first a bit disorienting but the repeated use of this tactic as well as clearly marked arrows showing which direction was north helped to lessen this feeling. There were 17 maps in all, and in a helpful touch, Swan often indicated which map to refer to in the text itself.

There were 25 pages of notes and an impressive list of primary sources, including numerous newspapers and letters written by members of the regiment. As a wargamer, this reviewer greatly appreciated Appendix 1, which included monthly PFD totals for the regiment throughout the war. In addition, the author was diligent in providing strength and armament information where known in the text. Appendix 2 consists of a regimental roster listing the names of every man who served in the 90^th Illinois throughout the war.

Chicago’s Irish Legion was a good read despite the lack of battles. Swan clearly knows this regiment and relished the opportunity to tell their tale. The ethnic origin and later formation date of the 90^th Illinois makes the tale of this regiment quite different from the average Union regiment. The book is an excellent addition to my growing library of regimental histories, and will be of particular interest for students of the later western campaigns of the Civil War and those interested in the experiences of ethnic regiments. The author is to be commended for giving readers as much information as possible on this interesting unit while keeping their story compelling and enjoyable. Highly recommended.

I would like to thank James and Pat Swan for their assistance in sending me a copy of Chicago’s Irish Legion.

Disclaimer: A copy of the book reviewed was provided gratis.

Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online!

Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!

Read many Civil War Book Reviews here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog!

Did you enjoy this blog entry?  Subscribe to TOCWOC’s RSS feed today!

Please consider using the ShareThis feature below to spread the word.

Post from: TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

Review: Chicago’s Irish Legion: The 90th Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War

Related posts:

1. <a href='http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2009/03/14/in-the-review-queue-chicagos-irish-legion/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: In the Review Queue: Chicago’s Irish Legion'>In the Review Queue: Chicago’s Irish Legion
2. <a href='http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2009/03/03/review-hampton-legion-infantry-csa-by-o-lee-sturkey/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Review: Hampton Legion Infantry C.S.A. by O. Lee Sturkey'>Review: Hampton Legion Infantry C.S.A. by O. Lee Sturkey
3. <a href='http://www.brettschulte.net/CWBlog/2009/04/14/review-a-history-of-the-3rd-south-carolina-regiment-lees-reliables/' rel='bookmark' title='Permanent Link: Review: A History of the 3rd South Carolina Regiment: Lee’s Reliables'>Review: A History of the 3rd South Carolina Regiment: Lee’s Reliables

It’s been about a month since my inaugural report, and I’ve made some steady progress.  Here are several of the most active areas of the site in tbe last month:

1. Petersburg Campaign First Offensive Order of Battle: I am happy to report that all Union and Confederate forces down to division level are now complete for the First Offensive of the Petersburg Campaign.  Leaders are listed and images shown where available in the Public Domain (more on that in a later post).  Knowing the sheer scope of the OOB portion of the Petersburg Campaign, my plan has been to go in steps.  Step 1 is to  complete an OOB to the division level, which is now complete for the First Offensive.  I can now go in one two ways, either further burrowing down into this OOB or creating the Second Offensive OOB down to division level.  I haven’t decided which way to go yet, and may simply do a mixture of both.
2. June 1864 Newspapers: I recently obtained permission from NewsInHistory.com to transcribe newspaper articles pertaining to the Petersburg Campaign from their collection and post them here at Beyond the Crater.  With the able help of volunteer transcriber Ken Perdue, steady progress has been made.  The ultimate goal is to have newspaper articles posted for every single day of the Petersburg Campaign.  Obviously, since these are being transcribed by hand, this is going to take a long time.  If you’re interested in transcribing (for the love of it, no pay available), please use the Contact form and let us know.
3. MOLLUS Papers, Battles and Leaders, and Military Historical Society of Massachusetts Papers:  All three of these sources were written by veterans of the Civil War, though the MOLLUS Papers and MHSM Papers obviously have a Northern slant.  All of these men, North and South, wanted to make themselves look good after the war.  All of these sources offer valuable information as long as you read with a critical eye.  I’ve mainly been focused on the Bermuda Hundred Campaign for the Battles and Leaders series.  I’m literally working my way through Volume 4 of Battles and Leaders and posting according to the articles’ order in the book.  The MOLLUS Papers are not all available on Google Reader, so I’ve been working on those states which have articles on the Petersburg Campaign and which are available on Google Books.  The MHSM Papers consist of three volumes (5,6, and 14) which contain Petersburg Campaign articles.  I’m working my way through Volume 5 now.  Continue to watch for more firsthand accounts in these areas as well as when I launch my Southern Historical Society Papers section, coming soon.
4. Regimental Histories in the Bibliography Section: Another area I’ve made a little progress in is the Regimental History subsection of the Bibliography area.  I am in the process of compiling spreadsheets of Union Regimental Histories and Confederate Regimental Histories, available HERE and HERE, respectively.  These spreadsheets list out every possible unit history, diary, letter, or reminiscence I could find for a given regiment which participated in the Petersburg Campaign.  My main sources are the regimental histories in the Library of Congress and Google Books.  Each book mentioned will eventually get its own page at Beyond the Crater.  By going to this section you can already see some examples, each of which links to the full version on Google books where available and also takes you to Amazon.com to buy.  My goal is to make it easier for researchers to not only find these books but also to be able to access them more quickly as well.

Whew, that’s it for now.  Be sure to keep checking back, and, if you enjoy this site, please spread the word via email, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and any other Social Networking sites you may belong to.  Thanks!

Post from: TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

Beyond the Crater Petersburg Campaign Progress Report: 3/08/2010

Related posts:

1. Beyond the Crater: Petersburg Campaign Progress Report: 2/12/2010
2. Announcing Beyond the Crater: A New Petersburg Campaign Web Site
3. The Battle of the Crater, July 30, 1864

Plastic Roman auxiliary cav under construction, Swedish GNW cavalry and officer being based.

March 2010

James Durney

***********************************************************

Excellent Reads!

March 1865 saw Sherman’s army fight a number of small battles that while doing little to change the situation are interesting and should be included in your studies.  We usually pass over these battles in the rush to Appomattox.  These books will give the reader an excellent understanding of the finial battles in the Carolinas.

Eric Wittenberg contributes Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads and the Civil War’s Final Campaign published in 2006 by Savas Beatie.  This book covers the March 10, 1865, attack by Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton and Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, on the sleeping camp of Maj. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, Sherman’s cavalry chief.  This battle gave Hardee the time to withdraw and join J. E. Johnston.

Ironclad Publishing fills a void with NO SUCH ARMY SINCE THE DAYS OF JULIUS CAESAR: Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign from Fayetteville to Averasboro by Mark A. Smith & Wade Sokolosky.  Averasboro, like Monroe’s Crossroads is a critical link in the chain of events leading to the Battle of Bentonville.  I am a huge fan of Ironclad Publishing and their Discovering Civil War America series.  This is the third volume in the series.  That means a quality book with maps, illustrations and a driving tour at a reasonable price.

The Battle Of Bentonville: Last Stand In The Carolinas by Mark L. Bradley, while out of print, is one of the best books on this battle.  Johnston tries to damage a wing of Sherman’s army as it advances North toward the AOP.  Consider completing the set with This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place by the same author from The University of North Carolina Press.  This book takes us from Bentonville to Johnston’s surrender.

************************************************************

New Releases

March 2010

Long out of print, Jeffry Werts’ first book From Winchester to Cedar Creek: The Shenandoah Campaign of 1864 is being released as a Paperback. If you were not lucky enough to get the hardback here is your chance.  This is an excellent book and a valuable addition to your library.

Yes, it is alternate history and most do not read this.  However, the first one was great fun and the second is A Rainbow of Blood: The Union in Peril An Alternate History by Peter G. Tsouras.  This continues the story started in Britannia’s Fist: From Civil War to World War: —An Alternate History.

I only have a title and know the author has a couple of Trans-Mississippi books in print.  Civil War Arkansas 1863: The Battle for a State by Mark K. Christ is scheduled this month.

A total unknown but a subject we have almost zero on is Thunder on the River: The Civil War in Northeast Florida by Daniel L. Schafer.

Eric Wittenberg reports The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863: North America’s Largest Cavalry Battle will be part of The History Press’s forthcoming sesquicentennial series on battles of the Civil War will be available toward the end of the month.

Yankee Warhorse: A Biography of Major General Peter J. Osterhaus by Mary Bobbitt Townsend from University of Missouri is due on the 24^th.  The press release says the book “sets the record straight on this important Civil War general as it opens a new window on the war in the West”.

April 2010

Savas Beatie will release as paperbacks Those Damned Black Hats! The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign by Lance J. Herdegen and Sickles at Gettysburg by James A. Hessler.

The audio supplement to The Complete Gettysburg Guide: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest by J. David Petruzzi should be ready.  The author tells me this is much more than simply reading the book aloud.  The supplement covers some places, locales, and actions not in the printed Guide.  There will also be things in the Guide not covered in the audio tour.  The supplement will cover the June 26 actions, the main battlefield, the cavalry battlefields, etc., with many new and different spots along the way.  Savas Beatie is offering signed copies.

Steven Woodworth continues the excellent Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series with The Chickamauga Campaign. This volume will have essays by Alexander Mendoza, Timothy B. Smith, Dave Powell, Ethan S. Rafuse, Lee White and William Glenn Robertson.

May 2010

Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market by Charles R. Knight is a 264-page book with eight maps covering the “complex prelude” and the battle.  The author is a former Historical Interpreter at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park.

Look for a full-color hardcover edition of The Maps of Gettysburg by Bradley M. Gottfried bringing this book on par with the other books in the series.  For those that own the black-and-white version of The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 – July 13, 1863 by Bradley M. Gottfried, Savas Beatie’s coupon code MAPSCOLOR will give you $10.00 off the new edition and free shipping. Email sales@savasbeatie.com with the coupon code and they will let you know when the book is available.

Michael T. Bernath’s Confederate Minds: The Struggle for Intellectual Independence in the Civil War South is due on May 15.  This is part of the Civil War America series by the author of Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee through His Private Letters.

Rusty Williams has written My Old Confederate Home: A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans. This is the story of the Kentucky Confederate Home, a refuge in Pewee Valley for their unfortunate CSA veterans from 1902 until it closed in 1934.

Edwin Cole Bearss will publish Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg: The Battles That Changed the Civil War from National Geographic.

Lincoln and McClellan: The Troubled Partnership between a President and His General by John C. Waugh “is a tale of the hubris, paranoia, and eventual failure of George McClellan” that should reinforce the McClellan wrong Lincoln right school.

A new book by Kevin Dougherty STRANGLING THE CONFEDERACY: Coastal Operations in the American Civil War “examines the various naval actions and land incursions the Union waged from Virginia down the Atlantic Coast and through the Gulf of Mexico”.  This is not something we see a lot of and rates a look-see.

Reluctant Rebels The Confederates Who Joined the Army after 1861 by Kenneth W. Noe offers a nuanced view of men often cast as less patriotic and less committed to the cause.  He rekindles the debate over who these later enlistees were, why they joined, and why they stayed and fought.   Most of us know this author from his book Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle

June 2010

The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, Volume 1: South Mountain is expected.  Thomas G. Clemens edited part of the Ezra Carman manuscript into a 694-page book with ten maps covering the action leading up to Antietam.

William Marvel’s The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln’s War is scheduled for the 22^nd.  The press release says “The Great Task Remaining is a striking, often poignant portrait of people balancing their own values—rather than ours—to determine whether the horrors attending Mr. Lincoln’s war were worth bearing in order to achieve his ultimate goals.”

At the Precipice Americans North and South during the Secession Crisis by Shearer Davis Bowman looks at how Americans, North and South, black and white, understood their interests, rights, and honor during the late antebellum years

Confederate Minds The Struggle for Intellectual Independence in the Civil War South by Michael T. Bernath looks at the fight to prove the distinctiveness of the Southern people and to legitimatize their desire for a separate national existence through the creation of a uniquely Southern literature and culture.

My Old Confederate Home A Respectable Place for Civil War Veterans by Rusty Williams is the story of the Kentucky Confederate Home, a luxurious refuge in Pewee Valley for their unfortunate comrades. Until it closed in 1934, the Home was a respectable if not always idyllic place for disabled and impoverished Confederate Veterans could spend their last days in comfort and free from want.

Scheduled for 2010 with an unavailable date

Joseph R. Reinhart expects German Hurrah!: Civil War Letters of Friedrich Bertsch and William Stängel, 9th Ohio Infantry to be out in the Spring.  The book contains 110 translated letters written by two fiery, highly opinionated German-born officers who fought in the Ninth Ohio Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Published in two German-American newspapers, the letters helped connect German Americans in the Ohio Valley to their native landsmen at the battlefront.

Thunder Across the Swamps, the second book in the Louisiana Quadrille series, covering the war for the lower Mississippi from February to May 1863.

We can look forward to a complete history of the Iron Brigade from Lance J. Herdegen.  Those Damned Black Hats!, the Iron Brigade during the Gettysburg Campaign won The Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for Operational Battle History.

Eric Wittenberg is working on a project is for The History Press entitled The Battle of Yellow Tavern: Jeb Stuart’s Last Battle. This will be a study of Phil Sheridan’s May 1864 raid on Richmond, with particular focus on the May 11, 1864 Battle of Yellow Tavern, where Jeb Stuart received his mortal wound.   The project after that is a book on the Revolutionary War Battle of Camden with Scott Patchan.

From Ten Roads Publishing we can expect:
Gettysburg Glimpses 2: More True Stories from the Gettysburg Campaign by Scott L. Mingus Sr. This is the fourth in a series of very popular books about human interest stories from Gettysburg, this installment offers more than 200 of the best anecdotes, amusing incidents, and funny stories from the Gettysburg Campaign.
Human Interest Stories from the Civil War by Scott L. Mingus Jr. and Dr. Thomas M. Mingus.  Similar in style and variety as the Gettysburg series by Scott L. Mingus Sr., this inaugural work by two professionally trained historians/educators contains some of the very best stories from the Civil War. Many have not been retold since the 19th century. Balanced between Union and Confederate accounts, this upcoming new book covers the gamut of the war from 1861 through 1865 with many very amusing true tales.

Jim Schmidt announced his next book Notre Dame in the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory from the History Press.  This book will be the first book to incorporate the Notre Dame story into a comprehensive and unified narrative.

Savas Beatie has a two-volume set on The Petersburg Campaign, taken from a series of unpublished battle studies written by Ed Bearss, edited by Bryce Suderow in the works.  This has no publication date.

Sometime in the Fall, Savas Beatie has a Dave Powell book tentatively titled “Nathan Bedford Forrest and the Confederate Cavalry in the Chickamauga Campaign”.

*******************************************************

Meet the Author J. David Petruzzi

This author’s The Complete Gettysburg Guide: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest is generating very good comments (see April for information on the audio supplement).

A graduate of Pennsylvania State University with graduate courses at Dickinson University he has insurance agency among other businesses.  With a life-long interest in US history and Gettysburg a 3-hour drive, he started collecting “old ACW books”.  By 1998, he had a website on Buford’s Cavalry.  Increased the trips to Gettysburg, lead to meeting more people which lead to writing articles.  He and Eric Wittenberg started conversing on the internet; meetings at Gettysburg resulted in them doing books together.

Between managing his insurance agency and maintaining an active presence on Facebook he co-authored One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863 and Plenty of Blame to Go Around: Jeb Stuart’s Controversial Ride to Gettysburg.

He is married to Karen (Gens) Petruzzi, they have one child, Ashley.

********************************************************

An Interview with Charles Knight, author of

Valley Thunder: The Battle of New Market and the Opening of the Shenandoah Valley Campaign, May 1864

Valley Thunder is the first full-length account in nearly four decades to examine the sweeping combat at New Market on May 15, 1864—the battle that opened the pivotal 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Charles R. Knight recently discussed his upcoming book with publisher Savas Beatie LLC.

SB: Your book Valley Thunder contains a lot of primary accounts from soldiers, civilians, and politicians. Why do you think these are important to include in a battle history?

CRK: In telling of an event, no historian can fully capture or convey the emotion of someone who was actually there as witness to that event, so first-hand accounts are vital not just to battle studies, but to a study of any historical event. Often the after-action reports by the higher-ups ignore some aspects of the battle which they thought to be inconsequential or maybe were even unknown to them completely. Going to lower levels you find interesting personal anecdotes, and in some cases even humor on the battlefield as the bullets were flying thick and fast. And one must beware too of the all-too-present “spin” put on these reports by the commanders to paint themselves in as good a light as possible. When you look at accounts left by those who really had nothing at stake in the larger scheme of things, you do not find this restraint. And the closer to the event a memoir is written, usually the more accurate and detailed it is. And speaking of primary accounts, the official reports from both the Confederate commander, John Breckinridge, and his Federal counterpart, Franz Sigel, somehow did not find their way into the Official Records after the war, nor were they included in Broadfoot’s more recent Supplement to the ORs. Both reports exist: Breckinridge’s among his Chief of Staff’s papers in the New Market Collection in the VMI Archives, and Sigel’s in his extensive papers housed at the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland. Yet because they were omitted from the ORs, they are very seldom cited. So they are both included verbatim as appendecies in Valley Thunder.

SB: You mentioned some of the previously accepted “facts” of the battle being called into question by new sources. What are some of these?

CRK: As I mentioned before, I think the biggest is the role of the 23rd Virginia Cavalry. Source material for John Imboden’s brigade at New Market has always been sparse, so earlier writers have not had much to work from. Edward Turner and his 1912 book The New Market Campaign could have answered this question very early on, since Turner spoke and corresponded with many veterans of the battle, primarily Confederates. Yet he provides no definitive answer, indeed may not even have thought the question needed answering, since Imboden had addressed it in his own writings years earlier. Yet for more recent authors there were enough conflicting and confusing sources out there to make it possible that the 23rd fought dismounted during the battle. This is the conclusion Davis reached, and has been used by many subsequent authors based on Davis’ book. However, looking closer at the “old” sources as well as comparing them with “new” ones, it seems that the 23rd did not fight dismounted, remaining instead with Imboden and the 18th Virginia Cavalry. The confusion seems to arise from the fact that since Confederate cavalrymen were responsible for providing their own mount, unlike their Northern counterparts who received government issued horses, a good number of Imboden’s men were without horses in early 1864 – both in the 18th and 23rd regiments. Horseflesh was so hard to come by in fact that the 62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry was entirely dismounted in early 1864. The troopers without horses from the 18th and 23rd were formed into several temporary companies attached to the 62nd, and as these troopers acquired mounts they would rejoin their own regiment. Thus when a casualty report published in the Staunton newspaper a few days after battle included men from the 23rd, without other sources, it could be interpreted to mean the 23rd fought dismounted. But again, taking all known sources from Imboden’s brigade together, it shows – to me at least – pretty conclusively that the 23rd remained mounted. Of course, all the maps on the brochures and signs at New Market Battlefield State Historical Park show the 23rd in line with the infantry . . .

SB: Previously you worked at New Market Battlefield as a Historical Interpreter. What sort of insight does that give you that other writers might not have?

CRK: I actually lived for a summer on the park grounds in the original farmhouse there, which dates to about 1817. This has always made me feel a sort of connection to the battlefield. I spent many evenings wandering the park grounds, so I am intricately familiar with the terrain, especially the “not on the regular tour” parts of the park. In giving tours to school groups, visiting military VIPs, bus tours, and regular park visitors, I noticed quickly that many of them had some of the same questions, and most of these were not addressed anywhere in writing. The two most frequently-asked ones concerned the family whose farm comprises the core of the battlefield park today and was at the center of the hottest fighting during the battle, the Bushong family, and the other the history of the park itself. So one of the appendices in my book addresses in some detail the Bushong family, their farm, and how it came to be owned by VMI and operated as New Market Battlefield State Historical Park. Although the amount of literature about battles is in some cases legion, the story of the battlefields themselves is almost forgotten. Some recent works, Tim Smith’s books about Shiloh and Chickamauga in particular, have begun to look at how the land itself was preserved and interpreted, which is an important part of the historiography of the battle.

*****

Editor’s Note: Jim is a Top 500 Amazon.com reviewer.

Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online!

Check out Brett’s list of the Top 10 Civil War Blogs!

Read many Civil War Book Reviews here at TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog!

Did you enjoy this blog entry?  Subscribe to TOCWOC’s RSS feed today!

Please consider using the ShareThis feature below to spread the word.

Post from: TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog

March 2010 Civil War Book Notes

Related posts:

1. February 2010 Civil War Book Notes
2. January 2010 Civil War Book Notes
3. March 2009 Civil War Book Notes