Albert Castel’s Decision in the West. In addition to illuminating that campaign for me (which I had never had a very good understanding of previously), it challenged the conventions of historical writing as I understood it, by virtue of being entirely in the present tense. I know of no other historical study, at least on the Civil War, written in that manner, and I would guess that Castel’s work was probably one of the first.

(1) “The Military and Civil History of Connecticut during the War of 1861-65″ by W.A. Croffut and John M. Morris. In 1961, my grandfather gave me the copy of this book that had originally belonged to my great-great-grandfather. It was written largely from newspaper accounts with generous extracts from regimental and battery battle reports. Besides interesting me in the experiences of the 14th Connecticut Infantry, a regiment which usually is close to the center of my Civil War focus, the supremacy of the Official Reports as primary source material was revealed to me.

(2) “A Stillness at Appomattox” by Bruce Catton confirmed me in my orientation towards the Union side of the story (I am, after all, a New England Yankee by ancestry and upbringing; and men from my family wore the Union blue), this book started my deep interest in the Overland and Petersburg Campaigns, and showed me that the story of the war could be told as a dramatic narrative of real literary merit.

(3) “They Fought for the Union” by Francis A. Lord began my interest in what might be called the background behind the story: the material and organizational side of things.

(4) “Pickett’s Charge” by George R. Stewart showed me what I still consider to be the best format for getting to the heart of a battle — a microhistory of events, going to the level of small units and even individual soldiers.

(5) “Battle Tactics of the Civil War” by Paddy Griffith spoke to my interest in the “how” of Civil War combat; I might not agree with everything Griffith had to say, but I found his iconoclastic approach wonderfully enlightening.

(6) “The Secret War for the Union: TheUntold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War” by Edwin C. Fishel revealed a new level of “the story behind the story” that I had never adequately considered before.

(7) “Breaking the Backbone of the Confederacy: The Final Battlse of the Petersburg Campaign” (or, “The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign: Breaking the Backbone of the Confederacy”) by A. Wilson Greene finally revelaed to me the nature of the final operations at Petersburg. Although I long had been reasonably knowledgeable about the first 9 months of the Petersburg Campaign, somehow the critical final week had remained a muddled vacuum — Somehow, Five Forks seemed to come out of nowhere and instantly led to Appomattox Court House, it seemed. Wil Green’s book finally put events into a proper context and revealed what other movements and operations were going on simultaneously.

An addendum to my list:

Garry Wills, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America.

A fine study of the Gettysburg Address.

Terry

That got me thinking about other personalities. I had the notion that maybe it was good to study on old Braxton Bragg and see if all these stories about him were on the level. Heck, maybe even Ben Butler had a good side? Well let’s not get carried away.

Maybe just short of an epiphany and far short of a paradigm shift. Maybe it was just a headspace and timing adjustment.

Reading Grant’s memoirs was the moment I moved beyond reading contemporary works like Sears and Catton. I replaced the filter of the modern historian for the lens of the participant, changing the way I approached the war. Now I spend more time reading ORs than I do recent books on the civil war.

The perspective of Lossing’s three part ‘Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War’ is very union centric and has a different narrative balance than is typical of modern stuff. As such it also pushed me away from the modern overviews like Foote and more towards looking at what was written at the time.

Grabua’s ‘98 Days’ opened my eyes to the issues of geography and logistics with his discussions of things like wagon capacity and range or the effect of weather on road conditions and visibility.

Newton’s ‘Lost For The Cause’ led me in new directions regarding troop accounting and thinking about the effect of detachments and straggling on force strength.

I’m glad you asked. Two authors on my list have had the biggest “shifting” impact on my thinking, and Carol Reardon is one of them. “Pickett’s Charge in History and Memory” caused me to reevaluate just about everything I had read up to that point ten or so years ago. If you’re not familiar with the book, it is one of the finest examples in the area of Civil War memory, and spawned numerous like-titled works. The book shows the importance of source evaluation, demonstrates that just about everything – especially what we call “primary sources” – is written with an agenda and the importance of being aware of those agendas. It helped me understand what memory and its effects are, that it’s not simply “time”, that it is immediate. A very important book, IMO.

Thanks again folks!

Add me to the Catton folks as well, as those were the first books I ever read about the Civil War. Have yet to read Freeman, but do have the trilogy here and will get to it eventually.

Not sure if any recall the National Geographic Society’s book on the CW that came out when I was a kid, but that was another one that got me interested.

As for recent books, those that stand out with me are David Evans’s book on Union Cavalry during the Atlanta Campaign, Donald Pfanz’s bio. on Ewell, John Waugh’s book on the 1864 election, Ernest Furgurson’s books on Richmond and DC during the war, and Gordon Rhea’s books on the 1864 Campaign in Virginia. Chris Fonvielle’s book on the Wilmington Campaign and Mark Bradley’s book on The Battle of Bentonville are 2 others I would include as impactful books here as I was not all that familiar with what took place at those places before I read the books.

Normally I would include books on Gettysburg, but the first book on Gettysburg I ever got was back in 1973, and it was a coloring book. I was 10 at the time, and did color in the whole book and even stayed inside the lines. :) Wish I knew where that book was now.

Hope all is well.

Steve