Secessionville, Part 1

Secessionville: Assault On Charleston by Patrick Brennan

I’ve owned Secessionville for quite some time, although I’m just now getting around to reading it. After reading over the Introduction and Prologue and skimming through the book, I’m looking forward to starting. The author, Patrick Brennan, is a musician by trade but an apparently avid and knowledgeable Civil War buff. I’ve seen some of his work in the excellent Civil War magazine North & South recently. The edition I have is a second edition published by the now defunct Savas Publishing Company, which has been succeeded by Savas Beatie LLC. There are 23 maps and also 23 illustrations scattered throughout the text, and the maps look pretty good. They go to regimental and sometimes company detail, which is good for a battle of the size of Secessionville. However, the scale is not on the map, and the graphics look a little “computerish”. I’ve been told that this omission (along with the typos in the book) is a direct result of Savas Woodbury Publishing changing to Savas Publishing. This was the very last book done with that company calling itself Savas-Woodbury.

The Prologue details the situation as it stood in the Spring of 1862 along the southeast Atlantic coast near Charleston and Savannah. The Federals had taken Hilton Head and Beaufort and reduced Fort Pulaski. Now Gen. Hunter was looking to take out Charleston.