December 2022 MBR The Civil War Shelf

The Civil War Shelf

The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865
William Royston Geise, author
Michael J. Forsyth, editor
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611216219, $32.95, HC, 240pp

https://www.amazon.com/Confederate-Military-Forces-Trans-Mississippi-1861-1865/dp/1611216214

Synopsis: The late William Royston Geise was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1970s when he researched and wrote The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861- 1865: A Study in Command in 1974. Although it remained unpublished, it was not wholly unknown. Deep-diving researchers were aware of Dr. Geise's work and lamented the fact that it was not widely available to the general public. In many respects, studies of the Trans-Mississippi Theater are only now catching up with Geise.

"The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865: A Study in Command"is an intriguing study that traces the evolution of Confederate command and how it affected the shifting strategic situation and general course of the war. Dr. Geise accomplishes his task by coming at the question in a unique fashion. Military field operations are discussed as needed, but his emphasis is on the functioning of headquarters and staff -- the central nervous system of any military command. This was especially so for the Trans-Mississippi.

After July 1863, the only viable Confederate agency west of the great river was the headquarters at Shreveport. That hub of activity became the sole location to which all isolated players, civilians and military alike, could look for immediate overall leadership and a sense of Confederate solidarity. By filling these needs, the Trans-Mississippi Department assumed a unique and vital role among Confederate military departments and provided a focus for continued Confederate resistance west of the Mississippi River.

Dr. Geise's work mining primary archival sources and published firsthand accounts, coupled with a smooth and clear writing style, helps explain why this remote department (referred to as "Kirby Smithdom" after Gen. Kirby Smith) failed to function efficiently, and how and why the war unfolded there as it did.

In the role of editor, Trans-Mississippi Theater historian and Ph.D. candidate Michael J. Forsyth (Col., U.S. Army, Ret.) has resurrected Dr. Geise's smoothly written and deeply researched manuscript from its undeserved obscurity. This edition newly published by Savas Beatie, with its original annotations and Forsyth's updated citations and observations, is bolstered with original maps, photographs, and images. Students of the war in general, and the Trans-Mississippi Theater in particular, will delight in its long overdue publication.

Critique: A skillfully edited and treasured contribution to the ever expanding library of American Civil War histories, "The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865: A Study in Command" by the late William Royston Geise is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. Nicely enhanced with the inclusion of numerous maps and photographs, "The Confederate Military Forces in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1861-1865: A Study in Command" is also available in a digital format (Kindle, $14.99).

Editorial Note #1: William Royston Geise graduated from the Missouri Military Academy in 1936 and was attending the University of Texas at Austin when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He joined what would become the Air Force and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1961. He earned Bachelor's in English from the University of Arizona and his Master's in English and Ph.D. in American History in 1974 from UT-Austin. Geise taught history at San Antonio College for 15 years and published articles in a variety of periodicals before passing away in 1993. (https://www.savasbeatie.com/the-confederate-military-forces-in-the-trans-mississippi-west-1861-1865)

Editorial Note #2: Michael J. Forsyth (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael-Forsyth) is a retired U.S. Army field artillery colonel and currently an assistant professor in the Department of Joint, Interagency, and Multinational Operations at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He is a veteran of Operation DESERT STORM, served three tours in Afghanistan, and is a Ph.D. candidate at the Royal Military College of Canada. Michael is the author of many articles and four books, including The Great Missouri Raid: Sterling Price and the Last Major Confederate Campaign in Northern Territory (2015).

Yours Affectionately, Osgood
Sarah Trace Burrows, editor
Ryan W. Keating, editor
The Kent State University Press
1118 Library, P.O. Box 5190, Kent OH 44242
http://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com
9781606354407, $58.00, HC, 350pp

https://www.amazon.com/Yours-Affectionately-Osgood-1862-1865-Interpreting/dp/160635440X

Synopsis: More than 3 million men served in the American Civil War. With the publication of "Yours Affectionately, Osgood: Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy's Letters Home from the Civil War, 1862 - 1865", co-editors Sarah Tracy Burrows and Ryan W. Keating have assembled a collection of letters from one of those soldiers -- Osgood Vose Tracy of the 122nd New York Infantry.

Sarah Tracy Burrows, a descendant of Col. Osgood Tracy, has compiled this expansive collection from her family's private papers. Paired with illuminating discussion and historical context from noted Civil War historian Ryan W. Keating, Tracy's letters home follow his journey as a soldier and prisoner of war from his enlistment in August 1862 through the end of the war in May 1865, as Tracy then readjusted to civilian life.

The letters in "Yours Affectionately, Osgood", were primarily written to his mother and provide a uniquely detailed perspective of everyday life in the Army of the Potomac, adding considerably to the existing literature on the experiences of citizen soldiers in America's Civil War.

A well-educated young man, Tracy offers his opinion on pressing social and political issues of the time, including his definite abolitionist sentiments; ruminates on the Union war effort and its campaigns; and demonstrates his deep commitment to family, as well as his sweetheart, Nellie Sedgwick, back home.

Tracy's letters constitute an incredibly rare primary source volume that will be both fascinating and foundational in the scholarly community and for more general interest readers of the history of the Civil War.

Critique: An invaluable contribution to the growing library of American Civil War History/Biography/Memoir studies, "Yours Affectionately, Osgood: Colonel Osgood Vose Tracy's Letters Home from the Civil War, 1862 - 1865" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library American Civil War collections.

Editorial Note #1: Sarah Tracy Burrows (https://sarahtracyburrows.com) is a graduate of Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a BA in English and history. She worked for CFO Publishing Corporation in Boston, Massachusetts, and is currently a trustee and chair of steering for the Jacob Leisler Institute for the Study of Early New York History, named for her 8x great-grandfather.

Editorial Note #2: Ryan W. Keating (https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/author/rkeating) is Professor of History and Director of the Office of Student Research at California State University San Bernardino, where he teaches and researches on the Civil War era. He is also the author of "Shades of Green: Irish Regiments, American Soldiers, and Local Communities in the Civil War Era" and "The Greatest Trials I Ever Had: The Civil War Letters of Margaret and Thomas Cahill".

Civil War Monuments and Memory
Jon Tracey, editor
Chris Mackowski, editor
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611216332. $29.95, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Monuments-Memory-Perspectives/dp/1611216338

Synopsis: The American Civil War left indelible physical and emotional marks on the country. In the century and a half since the war, Americans have remembered the war in different ways. Veterans placed monuments to commemorate their deeds on the battlefield. In doing so, they often set in stone and bronze specific images in specific places that may have conflicted with the factual historical record.

Erecting monuments and memorials became a way to commemorate the past, but they also became important tools for remembering that past in particular ways. Monuments honor, but they also embody the very real tension between history and the way we remember that history - what we now today call "memory".

Collaboratively compiled and co-edited by historians Ion Tracey and Chris Mackowski, "Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War" explores some of the ways people monumented and memorialized the war -- and how those markers have impacted our understanding of it.

This collection of essays brings together the best scholarship from Emerging Civil War's blog, symposia, and podcast (all of it revised and updated) coupled with original pieces, designed to shed new light and insight on the monuments and memorials that give us some of our most iconic and powerful connections to the battlefields and the men who fought there.

Critique: Unique, special, and unreservedly recommended compendium of erudite, informative, and insightful articles by experts in their fields, "Civil War Monuments and Memory: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War" must be considered a core addition to professional, community, and academic library American Civil War collections. It should also be noted that "Civil War Monuments and Memory" is also readily available for students, academia, and American Civil War buffs in a digital book format (Kindle, $13.49).

Editorial Note #1: Jon Tracey is a public historian focused on soldier experience, memory, and veteran life in the Civil War era. He holds a BA in History from Gettysburg College and an MA from West Virginia University in Public History with a Certificate in Cultural Resource Management. He currently serves as the chair of Emerging Civil War's Editorial Board, and works in historic preservation.

Editorial Note #2: Chris Mackowski, Ph.D., is the editor in chief of Emerging Civil War. He is a writing professor in the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University and the historian-in-residence at Stevenson Ridge, a historic property on the Spotsylvania battlefield. He has authored or coauthored more than a dozen books on the Civil War.

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