Inside the November 2009 issue of America’s Civil War magazine:Ron Soodalter’s Fury in Vermont, the cover story on the 1864 Confederate raid on St. Albans; Gordon Berg takes a look at Ambrose Bierce’s series of stories on Chickamauga, and tries to separate fact from fiction; Tamela Baker’s article is on Sweet Subversive Scribes, three female journalists in Virginia who published the pro-Union Waterford News; John Stauffer contributes an adaptation of their new and controversial book , The State of Jones (see here for some spirited discussion ofthe book); and Jonathan A. Noyalas writes of the return of “Sheridan’s Veterans’ Association” to the Shenandoah Valley in 1883.
My Six-Pack column this time technically featured five new books and one old, though one of the new books is really a new paperback release of an eleven-year-old work. No Holier Spot of Ground: Confederate Monuments & Cemeteries of South Carolina is paired with Testament to Union: Civil War Monuments in Washington, D.C.; The Maps of First Bull Run with Gettysburg Day Two: A Study in Maps; and in a departure from the usual format, two new releases are reviewed together, General George H. Thomas: A Biography of the Union’s “Rock of Chickamauga” and Master of War: The Life of General George H. Thomas.
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Harry Smeltzer
Bull Runnings 
Harry looking forward to your six pack review. I would love to get the South Carolina book if you think it is worth having . Drag my friends to more memorials and graveyards around South Carolina in December when I go back for a month again.
So glad you liked Sarah Vowel’s book. It is a favorite of mine . I have given it to several friends as a gift. It was given to me as a gift from Susan Ogle director of the Drum.
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Parts of this issue read like a blog… from the commentary on the cover image to the article about Waterford, Va. There are challenges to traditional thinking of the Civil War… and I like it a lot! The piece on Waterford was like a surprise gift considering I’m digging through info on the Loudoun Rangers.
Robert @ Cenantua’s Blog
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If I was the editor or publisher of the magazine, I would take your observation as a compliment. America’s Civil War – Reads Like a Blog! I honestly think it’s a good way to differentiate ACW from CWT.
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The only “bummer” regarding the piece on Waterford was that there was no mention of Mean’s Loudoun Rangers. Co. A was made-up of many folks from Waterford, including Quakers. They may have taken a pacifist position in 1861, but by the spring of 1862 and the forming of the Rangers, some Quakers shifted from pacifism. I need to write a letter to the editor. Still, a really good piece.
I have some thoughts on the Blue-Gray reunion piece as well, and that may end-up in a blog post.
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Harry, I’m an 85 year old WWII vet and longtime reader of America’s Civil War.
I enjoyed your Smeltzer’s Six Pack page, but in your Gettysburg Day Two: A Study in Maps, last sentence–did you have to refer to the Day 2 battle as the “sexiest” day? How can any Civl War battle be described as “sexy?”
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Lee,
Thanks for your service, and thanks for stopping by. No, I didn’t have to say “sexiest”, but it’s what I meant, as in “most interesting”. If Days 1, 2, and 3 were in a bar, Day 2 would get all the chicks. Day 2 gets all the press, all the interest among folks afflicted with the disease that compels them to study that battle ad nausea. Kind of like I found Farrah Fawcett the most interesting of Charlie’s Angels, or maybe you found Ava Gardner the most interesting of Sinatra’s wives (I’m with ya there, if that’s the case). A little hip for a Civil War magazine I guess, but so is plastering my ugly mug on what appear to be beer cans, fer cryin’ out loud!
For what it’s worth, when it comes to Gettysburg I’m a Day 1 guy.
Again, thanks for reading the mag and the blog!
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