TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

Category: Civil War Book Reviews

  • Review: The London Confederates

    The London Confederates: The Officials, Clergy, Businessmen and Journalists Who Backed the American South During the Civil War John D. Bennett ISBN 978-0-7864-3056-7 photos, gazetteer, chronology, appendices, notes, bibliography, index 214pp. hardcover (7 x 10) 2008 $55 McFarland & Company, Inc. Jefferson, NC Former reference librarian John D. Bennett, who lives in Leicester, England, has […]

  • Review: 1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and the War They Failed to See by Bruce Chadwick

    Bruce Chadwick. 1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and the War They Failed to See. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, Inc. (April 1, 2008). 355 pages., notes, index. ISBN: 978-1402209413 $24.95 (Hardcover w/DJ). Why 1858? I found myself asking that question repeatedly the entire time I was reading this book. What made […]

  • Bilby’s Small Arms at Gettysburg Review

    Joseph Bilby’s Small Arms at Gettysburg is much more than just a look at the hardware used in America’s greatest battle. Bilby is unusual in having not only the hands-on skills as a long-time black powder shooter (as well as being a columnist for Civil War News) but the eye of a tactical historian as […]

  • Review: Army of the Potomac, Vol. 3 by Russel H. Beatie

    Russel H. Beatie. Army of the Potomac, Volume 3: McClellan’s First Campaign March 1862-May 1862. New York: Savas Beatie LLC; First Edition (2007). 723 pp., 36 maps, notes, index. ISBN: 1-932714-25-1 $45.00 (Hardcover w/DJ). Note: I’m getting around to viewing this one a little late. I thought I’d give readers some links to other reviews […]

  • Review: Armchair Reader Civil War: Untold Tales of the Blue and the Gray

    Various Authors. Armchair Reader Civil War: Untold Tales of the Blue and Gray. Lincolnwood, IL: West Side Publishing; First edition (August 15, 2007). 464 pp. ISBN: 978-1412715638 $15.95 (Paperback). What book would I give to my loved ones who know little to nothing about the Civil War? That’s a question I’ve often asked myself. This […]

  • Review: Chancellorsville and the Germans by Christian B. Keller

    Christian B. Keller. Chancellorsville and the Germans: Nativism, Ethnicity, and Civil War Memory. New York: Fordham University Press; First Edition (May 15, 2007). 244 pp., 4 maps, notes, index. ISBN: 978-0823226504 $65.00 (Hardcover w/DJ). How serious a blow was the Battle of Chancellorsville to the collective German-American psyche? Christian B. Keller attempts to answer precisely […]

  • May 2008 Book Notes

    Those that can’t write, review! May 2008 James Durney Book News First, let me correct something from the April column, The Maryland Campaign of September 1862: Ezra A. Carman’s Definitive Study of the Union and Confederate Armies at Antietam is not close to a thousand pages as reported but just under 600 pages. However, it […]