The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Four Smoking Guns. By John C. Fazio. Philadelphia, Pen and Sword Books, 2023. Hardcover, 178 pp. $32.95 Reviewed by Gordon Berg Americans love a good conspiracy theory, especially if it involves the death of a prominent person. JFK, Princess Diana, the Lindberg baby, aviatrix Amelia Earhart, actress Natalie Wood, Judge Joseph Force Crater, Lord Lucan; the list goes on. The conspiracy theories that abounded around the assassination of Abraham Lincoln began even before his funeral train reached Springfield, Illinois. John C. Fazio, a lawyer by trade, is hard ..read more

Contrasts in Command: The Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31-June 1, 1862. By Victor Vignola. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2023. Hardcover, 254 pp. $34.95. Reviewed by Doug Crenshaw While the names Seven Pines and Fair Oaks are generally interchangeable for the May 31-June 1, 1862, battle outside of Richmond, they are actually two distinct parts of the battlefield. The York River Railroad divided the two areas, and the actions and results of the two halves were quite different. In Contrasts in Command: The Battle of Fair Oaks, May 31-June 1, 1862, author Vic Vignola puts most of his effort tow ..read more

We Fought At Gettysburg: Firsthand Accounts by the Survivors of the 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. By Carolyn Ivanoff. Gettysburg Publishing, 2023. Hardcover, 437 pages, $32.95. Reviewed by Brian Swartz With her first book, author Carolyn Ivanoff has set the Gettysburg experiences of the 17th Connecticut Infantry Regiment against the backdrop of campaign and battle, to the reader’s benefit and education. A historian and a retired high school administrator, Ivanoff drew her research heavily from the voluminous regimental archives collected by Pvt. William Warren, who intended to write a 1 ..read more

Righting the Longstreet Record at Gettysburg: Six Matters of Controversy and Confusion. By Cory M. Pfarr. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2023. Softcover, 204 pp. $39.95. Reviewed by Robert M. Dunkerly The Longstreet controversy at Gettysburg is an important topic in Civil War memory. Cory M. Pfarr’s, Righting the Longstreet Record at Gettysburg: Six Matters of Controversy and Confusion, delves into this topic with great detail. Critical of Lee after the war and joining the Republican party, Longstreet earned the ire of fellow Confederate veterans. Ever since, historians have debated his actions on ..read more

In Pursuit of Justice: The Life of John Albion Andrew. By Stephen Engle. University of Massachusetts Press, 2023, Paperback, 520 pp. $32.95 Reviewed by Gordon Berg Deval Patrick, the first African American governor of Massachusetts, followed custom and hung a portrait of a former governor in his chambers from which to draw inspiration.  Patrick chose John Albion Andrew. In his 2007 state of the Commonwealth address, Patrick justified his choice of this portly white man, saying, “At a time of great divide in America, [Andrew] demonstrated a willingness to change the status quo and encourag ..read more

Final Resting Places: Reflections on the Meaning of Civil War Graves. Edited by Brian Matthew Jordan and Jonathan W. White. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2023. Softcover, 384 pp. $34.95. Reviewed by Tim Talbott Death was central to the American Civil War. An estimated 750,000 soldiers died during the four year conflict from a host of causes. Untold thousands of civilians also died due to disease, hunger, and accidents directly related to the war. How Americans dealt with the loss of friends and loved ones on such as large scale, and how those deaths have influenced American’s memory ..read more

July 22: The Civil War Battle of Atlanta. By Earl J. Hess. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2023. Hardcover, 432 pp. $44.95. Reviewed by Patrick Kelly-Fischer In July of 1864, Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman closed in around Atlanta, beginning the process of cutting the several railroad lines that supplied the city. Sherman’s largely uncontested crossing of the Chattahoochee River, the last natural barrier, was the last straw for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He sacked Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, whose cautious and largely passive defense had preserved the Confederate Army of Ten ..read more

A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime: Antietam, Gettysburg and Beyond. By John Banks. Gettysburg: Gettysburg Publishing, 2023. 320 pp. $28.95 Reviewed by Sarah Kay Bierle The peaceful, harrowing, and adventurous feeling of “battlefielding” comes through the pages of John Banks’s book, A Civil War Road Trip of a Lifetime: Antietam, Gettysburg and Beyond. His creative, non-fiction writing takes readers to popular and obscure historic sites as he follows his favorite stories or quests for answers and meaning. Reminiscent of the late Tony Horowitz’s narrative explorations, the text offers pondering ..read more

Faces of Union Soldiers at Culp’s Hill: Gettysburg’s Critical Defense. By Joseph Stahl and Matthew Borders. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2023. Softcover, 176 pp. $23.99. Reviewed by Tim Talbott Few aspects of the Civil War help enthusiasts make connections to the people who lived 160 years ago quite like photography does. It is one thing to read a soldier’s biography, to hear about the challenges that person faced during their service, perhaps find out their motivation for enlisting, and then learn what ultimately happened to them. However, when one is able to add a photograph to a soldi ..read more

Charley: The True Story of the Youngest Soldier to Die in the American Civil War. By Brendan J. Lyons. Havertown, PA: Brookline Books, 2023. Softcover, 160 pp. $22.95. Reviewed by Kevin Pawlak Of the more than 23,000 casualties suffered during the Battle of Antietam, none were younger than 13-year-old Charley King. This boy’s death epitomizes the greater tragedy of the American Civil War. He was the youngest person killed in combat during the four years of the conflict. Beyond contemporary newspaper articles and postwar regimental histories, King’s story first came to the masses in a brief vig ..read more