Preview: Margaret Wagner,”The Library of Congress Illustrated Timeline of the Civil War”

An embarrassingly long while ago I received a copy of Margaret Wagner’s The Library of Congress Illustrated Timeline of the Civil War. Things having settled own somewhat I find myself with a little time to address a backlog of obligations, this being one of them. This coffee-table-size book (no legs included) uses illustrations – photos, engravings, drawings, paintings – from the LOC collections to aid in a chronological retelling of the major events of the Civil War, from February 4, 1861 and the meeting of delegates in Montgomery, AL to begin deliberations that would create the Confederate States of America, to May 29, 1865, when President Andrew Johnson’s proclamation granting amnesty and pardons to “all persons who directly or indirectly participated ‘in the existing rebellion’ – with some exceptions – upon the taking of an oath.” The illustrations including many of the less than iconic variety, which is a good thing. Nothing in the narrative jumped out as particularly noteworthy, but that’s to be expected.