Civil War Times April 2011

Inside this issue:

Letters:

• Ron Soodalter disagrees with Stephen Budiansky’s take on George Custer

Blue & Gray

• Gary Gallagher looks at The War’s Overlooked Turning Points and argues for the importance of the Seven Days’.

Collateral Damage

Your host writes about the Benson family and their compassion toward a wounded New Hampshire soldier at First Bull Run.  Thanks to a couple of readers who jarred my memory of this a while back.  Even though the house wasn’t and isn’t there (you’ll have to buy the magazine to figure that one out), it’s a great story that deserved retelling.  More on this in a later post.

Field Guide

• Robert Behre leads us around Charleston, SC.

Interview

• James I. “Bud” Robertson recalls the Centennial.

Letter from the Editor

• The Sesquicentennial kicks off

Features

• The Butcher’s Bill – Edward Bonekemper argues that U. S. Grant’s management of the war in Virginia wasn’t as bloody as represented.
• Eye on Arlington – Kim O’Connell’s text and Robin Holland’s photos document the ongoing renovation at Arlington House.
• First Blood at Big Bethel – John V. Quarstein on the June 10, 1861 battle in Virginia.
• Last Letter Home – Dana Shoaf presents a poignant communique from a 14-year-old Third Class Boy aboard USS Galena.
• Cradle of Secession – Joe Loehle photo essay on Charleston, SC.
• ‘Black Jack’ at War – Paul Bradley sketches John Logan’s war career.

Reviews

• The American Experience program Robert E. Lee, reviewed here.
• Ural on URLs features HMDB. Friend Craig Swain gets a mention.
• Stealing Secrets: How a Few Daring Women Deceived Generals, Impacted Battles, and Altered the Course of the Civil War, by H. Donald Winkler
• Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War, by Andrew F. Smith
• A German Hurrah! Civil War Letters of Friedrich Bertsch and Wilhelm Stangel, 9th Ohio Infantry, ed. Joseph Reinhart (I previewed this in my column for America’s Civil War)
• Shadow of Shiloh: Major General Lew Wallace in the Civil War, by Gail Stephens
• The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, by Eric Foner
• War News – Blue & Gray in Black & White: Newspapers in the Civil War, by Brayton Harris, previewed here.