A Civil War Gift List, 2012

A Civil War Gift List

From the stores the internet and the newspaper, I see the season for gifting is upon me.  Here is a list of gifts that a Civil War person might enjoy.  The list is for books, movies, games and miscellaneous items.  The price range is from about $65 to $10, depending on where you find the item.  Most of these items are on-line, keeping both of us out of the crush in the stores.

Books

Here is a selection of books looking at some of the battles and campaigns.

• Two in paperback from Stephen Sears, always a good choice, are Gettysburg and Chancellorsville.  These are in the stocking stuffer price range but you need a large stocking for them.
• The Complete Gettysburg Guide: Walking and Driving Tours of the Battlefield, Town, Cemeteries, Field Hospital Sites, and other Topics of Historical Interest from J. David Petruzzi and Steven Stanley is a great guidebook, full of color photographs and information.
• For Antietam the campaign and/or battle Thomas Clemens’ editing and commentary of Ezra Carman’s manuscript is the best choice.  These two books; The Maryland Campaign of September 1862: Volume 1, South Mountain and THE MARYLAND CAMPAIGN OF SEPTEMBER 1862: Volume II, Antietam are individual volumes that make a set.
• A great stocking stuffer is Fury on the Bliss Farm at Gettysburg by John M. Archer available at tenroadspublishing.com.  This small book is a tour and history of this almost forgotten event.
• Bradley M. Gottfried working with Savas Beatie has excellent books of maps.  For anyone complaining there are never enough maps in the book they are reading.
  • The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of the Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign, including the Battle of South Mountain, September 2 – 20, 1862
  • The Maps of First Bull Run: An Atlas of the First Bull Run (Manassas) Campaign, including the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, June-October 1861
  • The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3 – July 13, 1863 would solve that problem.
• David Powell’s work on Chickamauga is excellent.  The Maps of Chickamauga: An Atlas of the Chickamauga Campaign, Including the Tullahoma Operations, June 22 – September 23, 1863 is part of the Savas Beatie maps series.  Failure in the Saddle: Nathan Bedford Forrest, Joe Wheeler, and the Confederate Cavalry in the Chickamauga Campaign is an in-depth look at CSA cavalry operations during the campaign.
• The Fredericksburg Campaign Winter War on the Rappahannock by Francis Augustin O’Reilly is my choice for the book in this area.
• Steven E. Woodworth is the editor of Civil War Campaigns in the Hartland.  Respected historians write the articles producing a varied and thoughtful read.
  • The Chattanooga Campaign (Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland)
  • The Chickamauga Campaign (Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland)
  • The Shiloh Campaign (Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland)
• Corinth 1862: Siege, Battle, Occupation (Modern War Studies) by Timothy B. Smith is the newest work on that battle.
• THE IRON BRIGADE IN CIVIL WAR AND MEMORY: The Black Hats from Bull Run to Appomattox and Thereafter by Lance Herdegen could be the best book of 2012
• The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee by Earl Hess is on my gift list

Fiction

Nancy Dane has a series of excellent books on an extended family in Arkansas during the war.  The Arkansas Library Association, in 2011, gave the series the Arkansiana Fiction Award. Titles in the series are Where the Road Begins, A Difference of Opinion, A Long Way to Go, and An Enduring Union.

Francis Hamit has two books on Confederate spy Belle Boyd and Rose Greenhow, written for adults, the titles are The Shenandoah Spy and The Queen of Washington.

Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen have several fiction Civil War books that are worth reading. Their latest is The Battle of the Crater.  Gettysburg starts a three-book alternate history that I enjoyed.

Peter G. Tsouras is doing a series where Great Britain enters the Civil War in Britannia’s Fist: From Civil War to World War: An Alternate History and A Rainbow of Blood: The Union in Peril An Alternate History.

Movies, DVD and Blu-ray

• Gods and Generals the Two-Disc Extended Director’s Cut in Blu-ray Book Packaging is almost five-hours long.  It is in Wal-Mart’s remainder bin for $7.88 in my area.  This is a stocking stuffer for me.
• North and South the Complete Collection on DVD is available on a deep discount in many stores.
• Blue and Gray the Complete Miniseries is another one on deep discount.
• Mary Surratt’s revenge AKA The Conspirator is in any number of editions.
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is not history but I found it to be great fun.

PC Games

I am a great fan of HPS Simulations Civil War Campaign games.  They are on the net at hpssims.com.  Click on “Products” and scroll down to “Early American Battles”.  A search for “HPS Civil War” on Amazon will bring up the list of games too.

Other gifts

Blue & Gray magazine is always a welcome gift!  You can purchase a subscription or individual issues.  They have some of our best historians doing the articles.  Excellent writing, plenty of maps, color photos and tours make each issue a treat.

A donation to or membership in The Civil War Trust preserves our battlefields.  It helps ensure that in years to come “Hallowed Ground” will not be Condos and Shopping Malls.