Virginia Secedes: A Documentary History. Edited by Dwight T. Pitcaithley. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2024. Hardcover, 308 pp., $48.00. Reviewed by John G. Selby Historian Dwight Pitcaithley continues his fine analysis of the state secession debates in the South during the winter of 1860-1861, with his most recent volume, Virginia Secedes: A Documentary History. In focusing on the Old Dominion, he annotates 43 critical primary documents drawn from the 9,000 pages of the Congressional Globe, the journal of Virginia’s state convention, the Washington Peace Conference, and the p ..read more

American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860. By Edward L. Ayers. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2023. Hardcover, 368 pp. $32.50. Reviewed by Evan Clapsaddle In American Visions, Edward Ayers presents a young America trying to find its identity while emerging from its founding era into an unknown and uncertain future. Progressing through the years 1800-1860, Ayers discusses how our country created a uniquely American identity through commercial pursuits, artistic and literary endeavors, as well as social and spiritual movements. These cultural outlets held potential ramifications re ..read more

Creating a More Perfect Slaveholders’ Union: Slavery, the Constitution, and Secession in Antebellum America. By Peter Radan. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2023. Hardback, 389 pp. $44.95. Reviewed by Kevin C. Donovan, Esq. The Civil War did not resolve the question of whether states had the right under the Constitution to secede. Rather, the war simply established that the Confederate States did not have the military power to enforce their position against a rival combination of states (the Union) that insisted that no right to secession existed. Secession as a legal doctrine on ..read more

Confederates from Canada: John Yates Beall and the Rebel Raids on the Great Lakes. By Ralph Lindeman. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishing, 2023. Softcover, 240 pp. $39.99. Reviewed by Robert Grandchamp A significant amount of scholarship has appeared over the years covering several of the Confederate operations in Canada during the Civil War. Canada, a British possession until Confederation in 1867, witnessed some 50,000 of its citizens serve in either the Union or Confederate forces during the conflict. Although the soon-to-be nation had been a beacon of freedom for enslaved people escaping n ..read more

In the Shadow of the Round Tops: Longstreet’s Countermarch, Johnston’s Reconnaissance and the Enduring Battles for the Memory of July 2, 1863. By Allen R. Thompson. New York: Knox Press, 2023. Softcover, 516 pp. $24.00. Reviewed by Peter Miele “What happened before the fighting started on July 2, 1863?” (26) This seemingly simple question ignited Allen Thompson’s book project, In the Shadow of the Round Tops: Longstreet’s Countermarch, Johnston’s Reconnaissance and the Enduring Battles for the Memory of July 2, 1863. The story of Samuel Johnston’s reconnaissance in the early morning hours of J ..read more

Decisions at Franklin: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle. By Andrew S. Bledsoe. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2023. Softcover, 280 pp, $29.95. Reviewed by Lee White Decisions at Franklin: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle by Dr. Andrew S. Bledsoe is a recent addition to The University of Tennessee Press’s ever-expanding “Command Decisions in America’s Civil War” series. The battle of Franklin, and the 1864 Tennessee Campaign as a whole, are particularly well suited for this type of study as both are rife with persistent myths and coun ..read more

The Boys of Diamond Hill: The Lives and Civil War Letters of the Boyd Family of Abbeville County, South Carolina (Second Edition). Edited by J. Keith Jones. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2024. Softcover, 253 pp. $39.95. Reviewed by Tim Talbott The Second Edition of The Boys of Diamond Hill: The Lives and Civil War Letters of the Boyd Family of Abbeville County, South Carolina serves as an excellent example of the fact that period primary sources continue to emerge from family and private collections to inform us about the lives and experiences of common soldiers and those on the home front. Includ ..read more

Thunder in the Harbor: Fort Sumter and the Civil War. By Richard W. Hatcher III. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2024. Hardcover, 239 pp. $32.95. Reviewed by Neil P. Chatelain There is no scarcity of writing regarding Fort Sumter, with entire manuscripts about the bastion’s role in April 1861 and many more analyzing the fort’s impact on 1863 campaigns. However, there is a gap in scholarship covering the fort’s entire history, from planning and construction, as a military outpost, and as a national park. Richard Hatcher’s Thunder in the Harbor: Fort Sumter and the Civil War addresses this ga ..read more

Decisions at Kennesaw Mountain: The Eleven Critical Decisions that Defined the Battle. By Larry Peterson, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2023, Paperback, 200 pp, $25.58. Reviewed by Robin Friedman Larry Peterson’s study of the June 27, 1864, battle of Kennesaw Mountain is part of the “Command Decisions of the American Civil War” series published by the University of Tennessee Press. The works in this series have the goal of identifying and analyzing the “critical decisions” made during a battle or campaign rather than presenting a detailed historical narrative. In Peterson’s definit ..read more

My Dearest Lilla: Letters Home From Civil War General Jacob D. Cox. Edited by Gene Schmiel. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press, 2023. Paperback, 260 pp. $ 34.95. Reviewed by Joseph D. Ricci Over the last decade, Gene Schmiel has contributed greatly to the understanding of one of the Civil War’s most overlooked figures, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jacob D. Cox. My Dearest Lilla, the latest addition to Schmiel’s catalog of works pertaining to Cox, peels back yet another layer to one of the war’s most fascinating participants. Throughout his life Cox was a student, soldier, statesman, educa ..read more