Civil War books and authors

We all know that the Battle of Gettysburg has been the subject of literally thousands of books. There are books about every aspect of the Battle of Gettysburg, ranging from books about Jenny Wade to microtactical histories. There are few aspects of the battle that have not been addressed, probably to the point of being ad nauseum.

There are, in fact, too many books about the Battle of Gettysburg, to the exclusion of numerous other battles that have long needed good tactical treatments. There are any number of engagements and/or campaigns that come to mind as needing a really good modern study, to-wit, in no particular order:

Petersburg (the entire campaign)
South Mountain
Bristoe Station
Five Forks
Mine Run
Atlanta (the entire campaign and all of its component parts)
Charleston (1863-1865)
Mill Springs
Morgan’s Indiana and Ohio raid of 1863 (no, I don’t consider the recent book worth owning)
Westport
Mine Creek
Pilot Knob
Jackson’s 1861 Valley campaign

Please feel free to contribute more ideas for this list; perhaps we can stimulate someone into doing something with some of these overlooked campaigns.

It would certainly be nice to see someone tackle some of these.

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I believe that I’ve lost the right to claim the title as most prolific Civil War historian working today. My friend Scott Mingus now gets to claim that title. Scott has published five books on the Civil War since 2007, and his sixth book is due out this fall. That’s really a remarkable track record and some really remarkable productivity.

Scott’s next book looks particularly interesting, as it provides in-depth coverage of the role of one the best-known Confederate units in the Gettysburg Campaign. The book is titled The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 , and will be published by the Louisiana State University Press in October. Amazon.com is currently offering a 30% pre-order discount, so, if it’s of interest, you might want to avail yourselves of the substantial savings being offered.

Good luck with it, Scott–and keep up the good work.

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Many of you are familiar with the incredibly detailed and accurate artwork of Don Troiani. However, you may not be aware of the incredible collection of artifacts–mostly uniform pieces and accouterments–that Don has accumulated over the years.

In an e-mail dialogue with Don over the weekend, I learned that among the items in his collection are one of the bloody gauntlets that Ully Dahglren was wearing when he was killed, as well as his sash. The sash has two bullet holes in it, which tells us where at least two of the fusillade of bullets that killed Ulric Dahlgren found their mark.

Don was kind enough to offer to photograph the gauntlet and sash for me, to give me permission to use the photo in the upcoming bio of Dahlgren, and to grant me permission to post the photo here. Don himself took the picture that you see here.

What a find. And with just barely enough time to still include it in the book. Thanks for you generosity, Don. It’s greatly appreciated.

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I’m pleased to announce the publication of the fifth volume in Ironclad Publishing’s The Discovering Civil War America Series. The latest volume is Scott L. Mingus, Sr.’s excellent study of the Confederate expedition to the banks of the Susquehanna River in the days just before the Battle of Gettysburg, Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Gordon Expedition, June 1863. Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon’s Georgia brigade of Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early’s division actually made it to the Susquehanna in time to try to prevent the great wooden bridge at Wrightsville from burning up before being recalled to join the Army of Northern Virginia, which was concentrating around Gettysburg. Thanks to Brad Schmehl for permitting us to use his excellent painting “Columbia Bridge Burning” as the cover illustration for Scott’s book.

Scott has done a tremendous amount of research and has written an excellent book. Like the rest of the volumes in the series, it covers little-known engagements, such as Jubal Early’s engagement with the 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Infantry west of Gettysburg on June 26, 1863, the death of George W. Sandoe, of the Bell’s Adams County Cavalry, who was the first Union soldier to die at Gettysburg, the engagement at Witwer’s Farm, the capture and occupation of Gettysburg, the capture and occupation of Hanover, and the capture and occupation of York. It’s a well-written story that fills some significant gaps in the coverage of the Gettysburg Campaign. The book features lots of good maps drawn by Scott, lots of illustrations, and several driving tours that allow the reader to follow in Gordon’s footsteps all the way to the Susquehanna. The book also includes a foreword by yours truly.

I want to acknowledge Scott’s employer, the Glatfelter Paper Co., which donated the paper upon which the book was printed. Glatfelter is the world leader in providing the paper upon which books are printed, and we were honored to be the beneficiary of Glatfelter’s generosity. Glatfelter has a program that we at Ironclad wholeheartedly support, which is called Permanence Matters. Advocating the use of acid-free, high quality paper (not cheap papers based on groundwood) for the printing of books to ensure that they will be around without deteriorating from within, Glatfelter contributed its high quality paper for the publication of Scott’s book, which we appreciate. We at Ironclad endorse Glatfelter’s initiative and commend it for its dedication to ensuring that books will be permanent parts of our libraries and lives.

Check out Scott’s website for his book, as well as his Cannonball! blog, and please check out Flames Beyond Gettysburg. There’s a nifty photo gallery of persons and places that play a prominent role in this story on Scott’s website that is worth a visit all on its own.

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Last week, Amazon released its Kindle 2 wireless reading device. The concept works like this: the device, which is 1/3 of an inch thick, is like a big IPod, only for books. The idea is that you download digital files of books onto the thing, and you then take it with you and not large, bulky books. According to Amazon, the Kindle can hold 1500 books on the device.

I have really mixed feelings about this. David Woodbury is excited about it because of its convenience and because it’s a nifty gadget perfect for travel. Rene Tyree bought one and really likes it. She also points out that there are a number of public domain books available for free or for minimal cost, all of which are useful to the researcher (Harry Smeltzer says he may buy one to use as a reader for public domain books downloaded for free from Google Book Search). The Author’s Guild has criticized it as being another variation of an audiobook which will threaten authors’ income streams.

The thing is not cheap. It retails for $359, which is nearly twice as much as an IPod Classic, and once you’ve bought the gadget, you still have to pay to download content to it. It’s a proprietary technology, and all files downloaded have to be converted to the proprietary format in order to read them. That sort of digital rights management ALWAYS irritates me; I’m a BIG believer that this stuff should be based on open source technology available to all (which, by the way, also applies to the IPod. Fortunately, Apple has decided to allow customers to pay more to download songs that do not include digital rights management). Amazon has been smart about one thing: it has elected to permit individual publishers to determine whether they want their books to be available in a text-to-speech format, which reflects some indication that Amazon is being somewhat sensitive to the concerns of authors and publishers and to the substantial audiobook market as well.

I love gadgets. I have my fair share. I have had a series of laptops dating back to 1995. I have a smart phone. I have an IPod. I have Bluetooth devices. However, I just cannot wrap my arms around the idea of buying one of these gadgets and actually reading a book on one. I love the feel and look of books. I like turning pages. I like dust jackets. I like illustrations and maps. I just love everything about books. I can’t get my arms around the thought that what I’m reading on this electronic gadget is a book.

At the same time, I have many more books than I do places to store them at this point, and I am very conscious of the fact that books take up a lot of space. You should see the piles of books all over the floor in my home office/library because I have nowhere else to put them. Relieving that problem would certainly be a Godsend, and one of these gizmos can help to do that to some extent.

I am also a publisher. As some of you may know, I’m the president and part owner of Ironclad Publishing. As the publisher of niche works, I’m always looking for means and opportunities to sell more books. These things may well change the way books are sold, and as someone who tends to be resistant to change, it worries me. At the same time, a downloadable electronic file has a much lower cost of good sold, so we can sell our products for a lower purchase price while bypassing our distributor altogether and still maintain or even increase our profit margin.

As an author, I am constantly left unhappy by the fact that unless I devote an inordinate amount of time to selling books by traveling and speaking and hoping somebody buys books (when my time bills at $225 per hour, I have to sell a LOT of books for it to be worth my while to be away from the office, and that is rarely the case), I don’t make dirt from selling books. We recently got the royalty statement for One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, July 4-14, 1863, and even though the book has sold well, my share doesn’t even begin to cover the cost of having the maps drawn and the book indexed, let alone to make money on the book. Please believe me when I tell you that I make next to nothing on sales of books, typically less than $1.00 per book, when a distributor is involved and I have a co-author. It becomes a function of doing cost/benefit analysis, and in most instances, it simply doesn’t make economic sense for me to be out of the office making a small profit on a book vs. billing paying clients at $225 per hour. So, I am eager to maximize revenues and make some money, and the Kindle offers another opportunity to do so.

This all becomes relevant to me because I will very shortly be bringing my first book, Gettysburg’s Forgotten Cavalry Actions, back into print after its being unavailable for a couple of years. I’ve decided to offer it both in its original softcover format as well as in Kindle format, as it would be really nice to make some money on this book again; it’s the only one I’ve ever done that brought about steady revenues. I also intend to discuss making a Kindle version of Scott Mingus’ new book, just published by Ironclad, with Scott to see if he’s interested in selling it this way too.

So, while I’m not keen on buying one of these gizmos, I understand that the publishing industry is in the midst of a sea change and that those who don’t get on board with new trends will be left at the train station. I have come to the conclusion that, in spite of my significant concerns with the copyright issues associated with the Kindle 2, it’s here to stay and that I need to avail myself of its benefits.

What say all of you?

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The fuzzy green fellow in the photograph below is the Phillie Phanatic. Anybody who has followed major league baseball over the last thirty years undoubtedly recognizes the best sports mascot there is. The Phanatic set the gold standard for sports mascots. He is a living legend.

Michael came up with the absolutely brilliant idea of asking Dave Raymond to write the introduction to the baseball book. We’d thought of lots of great ideas for the book, but had neglected finding someone great to the introduction. My initial thought was to ask former major league pitcher and ex-Seattle Pilot Jim Bouton to write the introduction for us, but Jim declined when I asked. Hence we were groping in the dark, hoping to find someone who could capture the essence of what we’re trying to do with this book. To his undying credit, Michael came up with the idea of asking Dave Raymond to do the introduction for us.

Dave spent sixteen years as the Phriend of the Phanatic, as he himself describes his role, and he was the first to bring the Phanatic to life. Today, he heads his own company, Raymond Entertainment Group, where he helps college and professional teams develop mascots, and then helps to train the men in the suits to be effective and funny mascots. He has the fabulous title–one I would love to have, by the way–of Emperor of Fun and Games. Personally, I can’t think of anyone better to write the foreword for us, and I am tickled to have him on board with the project.

The project continues to grow and morph each day, which is a big part of what makes it so much fun. Thanks, Dave, and welcome aboard.

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As I did with his excellent last book, Shenandoah Summer: The 1864 Valley Campaign, I’ve been working my way through the manuscript of the next volume in his trilogy on Sheridan’s 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. The second volume will cover Third Winchester and Fisher’s Hill. I’ve now read 11 chapters, and am nearly through the narrative on Third Winchester, and it’s every bit as good as the last book was. When Scott’s done, he will have given the Valley Campaign the same exhaustive treatment that Gordon Rhea has given the Overland Campaign. There won’t be much left to cover when he’s finished.

I also introduced Scott to Ted Savas, and I believe that Ted’s planning on publishing the second volume.

I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the second volume and then moving on to seeing how Scott treats actions like Tom’s Brook and Cedar Creek.

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I would remiss if I did not note–with sadness and regret–the passing of Al Gambone. From the December 24 edition of the Norristown Times Herald newspaper, here is Al’s obituary.

Albert Michael Gambone, age 69, passed away Monday, December 22, 2008 at Grand Strand Regional Medical Center.

Mr. Gambone was born September 29, 1939 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, a son of the late Frank Angelo Gambone and Jennie Asko Gambone.

Mr. Gambone was a U.S. Army veteran and a retired business owner.

He relocated from Connecticut to Myrtle Beach 13 years ago with his wife Nancy.

Mr. Gambone was a member of St. Andrew Catholic Church in Myrtle Beach and a longstanding member of the Lions Club in Connecticut.

His passion in life was the Civil War.

He authored seven books and lectured extensively on the Civil War.

Mr. Gambone was predeceased in addition to his parents by his son; Michael D. Gambone and his daughter-in-law, Debbie Gambone. Survivors include his wife, Nancy M. Gambone; his sons, Stephan Gambone of Erie, PA, Chad Turtoro and his wife, Julia of Goshen, CT; his daughters, Lynn Woodel and her husband, Ken of Erie, PA, Jennifer Mitchell and her husband, Craig of Oakdale, CT, Hallie Testo and her husband, Andrew of Stratford, CT; his sister, Joan Saraceni and her husband, Tony of King of Prussia, PA; his eleven grandchildren, his in-laws, Stanley ‘Best Buddy’ Marks and Susan Marks of Myrtle Beach, SC; his brother-in-law, Donald Marks and his wife, Maria of Providence, RI; and his beloved Jack Russell Terrier, Meggie.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 A.M. Saturday, December 27, 2008 at St. Andrew Catholic Church with Monsignor Joseph Roth officiating.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Community Kitchen of Myrtle Beach, 1411 Mr. Joe White Avenue, Myrtle Beach, SC 29578.

Al left us too soon at the age of 69, a time when he should have been enjoying his grandchildren and writing about the Civil War.

I had the good fortune to meet Al at a couple of Ted Alexander’s Chambersburg soirees. Al was inevitably a cheerful and pleasant addition to any program, and he brought a great passion and knowledge to his presentations. He was a gentleman and a fine historian.

Al wrote several excellent biographies, including books on Maj. Gen. John F. Hartranft, Brig. Gen. Samuel K. Zook, and Darius N. Couch. He also wrote an excellent study of the role played by his fellow Norristown native, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, at Gettysburg, and finally, a useful volume on Ohio memorials at Gettysburg. All of Al’s books are part of Butternut & Blue’s Army of the Potomac Series, and all are still in print.

Our Civil War community is a little bit worse off today due to Al’s passing. Condolences to his family on its loss.

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Reader Don Hallstrom left the following comment this morning:

Hello Eric

I believe you are reviewing posts prior to them getting to your blog. I hope so as this is off subject, but wanted your opinion and wasn’t really sure how to contact you other than the blog. I certainly don’t want to clutter the blog up. If you could respond to the email listed, I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve been checking in with your blog weekly for about a year and also reviewing the archive. I’ve really enjoyed the information.

At one point you and fellow blogger Drew Wagenhoffer over at his blog have both commentted about White Mane Publishing and their products.

I’ve been collecting Civil War books for over 20 year and I’m in the process of getting the collection appraised and doing a little culling. I have a number of White Mane books and earlier in my collecting I wasn’t very picky. However, as time has gone by and I’ve found more resources of information, I’ve become a stricter collector. Below are the titles I have. I bought some because I liked the subject and others because there wasn’t anything written about the subject. There certainly are some duds in the list!

I recently came across a title I wasn’t aware of and wanted you opinion of this title and another I was looking at.

1. Hoosiers Honor The Iron Brigade’s 19th Indiana Regiment – Venner, William ( I have a history of same regiment by Dunn from Guild Press).

2. Stopping Pickett The History of the Philadelphia Brigade – Gottfried (Gottfried is coming to our next Rocky MTN Roundtable Sympossium)

Are there any White Mane Titles you would recommend? Always looking for good material

My White Mane Purchases:

INTO THE FIGHT, PICKETT’S CHARGE – PRIEST
VICTORY WITHOUT TRIUMPH – PRIEST
ANTIETAM SOLDIERS BATTLE – PRIEST
BEFORE ANTIETAM, SOUTH MOUNTAIN – PRIEST
NOWHERE TO RUN – PRIEST
RED DIAMOND REGIMENT – JORDAN
LAW’S ALABAMA BRIGADE – LAINE
THE STRUCK EAGLE, MICAH JENKINS – BALDWIN
PUT THE VERMONTERS AHEAD – PARSONS
THE SOUTH’S FINEST – TUCKER
WE SHALL MEET AGAIN – MCDONALD
THE LITTLE JEFF – HOPKINS
FROM SELMA TO APPOMATTOX – LABODA
27TH INDIANA INFANTRY – JONES
PICKETT – LONGACRE
DISTINCTION IN EVERY SERVICE BIO. OF GEN. CLINGMAN – BRAGG

Regards and have a happy holiday season

Don Hallstrom

I answered Don privately. The gist of it was to reiterate something I’ve said more than once, which was that if I had to choose between having White Mane publish one of my books and never publishing another word again for the rest of my life, I would readily and easily choose never publishing another word again for the rest of my life. Poor production values, thin, cheap paper, no editing to speak of, crappy, cheap binding, no marketing to speak of, White Mane turned out a lot of really terrible books and a handful of good ones. Don’s list mentions a few of the better titles, such as the history of the Jeff Davis Legion and some of John Michael Priest’s stuff.

One of the best books that White Mane published was George Rummel’s Cavalry on the Roads to Gettysburg: Kilpatrick at Hanover and Hunterstown, which definitely deserved a better fate than White Mane.

Its demise was not lamented by me or by anyone who really knows anything about quality books. It’s an old cliche that even a blind squirrel will find an acorn every now and again, and the same was true about White Mane. Interspersed among the legion of terrible books that they published, there were a handful of good ones over the years, books that really deserved better publishers.

My view of the demise of White Mane is good riddance to bad garbage.

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Some of you have asked about when Scott Mingus’ new book, Flames Beyond the Susquehanna: The Gordon Expedition will be published by Ironclad. I anticipate that the book will be out in mid-November, if all goes well. It’s an excellent book, and one that will be a welcome addition to the body of knowledge about the Gettysburg Campaign.

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