About Five Shelves Worth of Civil War-related books
Dear Son,
We are fortunate that our library is strong in history, including the history of the U.S.' most defining war, the Civil War. But a note first about creating a history collection, which is to say, about studying history. One should have primary sources, secondary sources, personal narratives, philosophies, political and military strategies, art and so on. The books should acknowledge both leaders and common man and woman. Hopefully, a collection can also include items published during the actual time of the conflict. We have about five shelves of books devoted to the Civil War -- Dad has done a great job curating this portion of the library.
Time Life Books' Collector's Library of the Civil War
The first set of books I want to share is Time Life Books' Collector's Library of the Civil War which presents nearly 10,000 pages of personal narratives from the participants in the war -- a primary source. We have 29 of the 30-book series reprinted in 1993 from the 1908 edition. These are lovely gold-embossed, leather-bound books with the front cover embossed with images. Here are images from one of the books we have, PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF A CAVALRYMAN by J.H. Kidd:
Here is a list of the individual books (we have them all except for Mrs. Fannie A. Beers' Memories, A Record of Personal Experiences and Adventure During Four Years of War, which I highlight here to remind your father to go hunt for it):
Barber, Lucius W., Army Memoirs of Lucius W. Barber, Company 'D,' 15th
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, 1894
Beaty, John, The
Citizen-Soldier; or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, 1879
Beers, Mrs. Fannie A.,
Memories, A Record of Personal Experiences and Adventure During Four
Years of 'War,' 1888
Billings, John D. Hardtack and Coffee, or, The
Unwritten Story of Army Life, 1887
Cooper, Lieut. A., In and Our of
Rebel Prisons, 1888
DeLeon, T. C., Four Years in Rebel
Capitals..., 1890
An English Combatant, Battle-Fields of the South,
From Bull Run to Fredericksburgh..., 1864
Fremantle, Lieut.-Col. Three Months in the Southern States April-June 1863, 1863
Gordon,
Gen. John B. of the Confederate Army, Reminiscences of the Civil
War, 1903
Goss, Warren Lee, Recollections of a Private, A Story of
the Army of the Potomac, 1890
Headly, John W., Confederate
Operations In Canada and New York, 1906
Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, Army Life in a Black Regiment, 1870
Hitchcock, Frederick L.,
War From the Inside, The Story of the 132nd Regiment Pennsylvania
Volunteer Infantry... 1904
Kidd, J. H., Personal Recollections of
a Cavalryman With Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War, 1908
Jones., J.B., A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States
Capital, 2 Vols., 1866
McCarthy, Carlton, Detailed Minutiae or
Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1882;
McKim, Randolph H.,
A Soldier's Recollections, Leaves From the Diary of a Young
Confederate, 1910
Moore, Edward A., The Story of a Cannoneer Under
Stonewall Jackson, 1907
Pittenger, Lieut. William, Daring and
Suffering: A History of the Great Railroad Adventure," 1863
Porter, Gen.
Horace, Campaigning With Grant, 1897
A Richmond Lady, Richmond During the War..., 1867
Stevens, George T., Three
years in the Sixth Corps..., 1866
Stillwell, Leander, The Story of
a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865, 1920
Taylor,
Richard, Destruction and Reconstruction:..., 1879
Townsend, Geo.
Alfred, Campaigns of a Non-combatant...,1866
Watson, William, Life
in the Confederate Army, 1888
Wilkinson, J., "The Narrative of a
Blockade-Runner," 1877
Williamson, James J., Mosby's Rangers: A
Record of the Operations of the Forty-third Battalion Virginia Cavalry, 1896
Worsham, John H., One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry..., 1912
I look forward to sharing more details about our U.S. Civil War book collection.
Love,
Mom and Dad
