Of course, as far as American Presidents are concerned, it appears that Lincoln and Kennedy are the biggest sources of print and speculation. Garfield and McKinley seem to have been victims of bad luck rather than deep-dyed plots. In the same vein, there has been some interest in covert operations, North and South, particularly as they affect Lincoln and books have been written (and reprinted) on those subjects.

It may be time for CW authors to get away from endless discussions and disections of the minutia of well known and well documented battles and large strategic movements of forces and center their activities on individuals and smaller, less well known incidents that may have had much larger consequences than first appear to be the case. My own interest is in Confederate partisan commander John Singleton Mosby who operated in Northern Virginia whose activities – though apparently tiny in scope – had very real consequences in that theater. Indeed, some very responsible authors have linked ‘the invisible Mosby’ (as one author characterized him) with Lincoln’s murder. In the same way, Mr. Wittenburg’s latest endeavor – a biography of Col. Ulrich Dahlgren (whose last ‘small theater of action’ might also have influenced matters leading to Lincoln’s death) should also find an interested audience, myself being one.

To my mind, most of the books about large troop movements, strategies, battles etc. have been written and with considerable expertise – unless some unique memoir is found in some attic somewhere which reveals that Lee was drunk at Gettysburg or Burnside was in the pay of Jefferson Davis when he undertook ‘the mud march’. To my mind, now is the time to tempt those interested in the period with in-depth analysis as well as contemporary anecdotes, myths, legends and accounts of persons of interest in the war, especially those in the ‘lower echelon’ whose lives have been overshadowed by giants such as Lee and Grant. I am fortunate in that the subject of my interest has been well represented in print although I would dearly love to see more contemporary accounts republished – such as the newspaper editorials and letters to Presidents Lincoln and Johnson of Horace Greeley calling for Mosby’s hanging at the end of the war. God knows I have tried to locate copies of even one editorial. The newspapers still exist, but the editorials….. Although contemporary accounts are usually quite erroneous – sometimes egregiously so – they do represent ‘the tenor of the times’, that is, the way that people thought AT THE TIME which I feel is often underplayed in many accounts of the events taking place.

Interest in the CW is NOT declining, but there is only so much that can be made of Gettysburgh. Like any great painting or tapestry, it is the surrounding details that make the matter a thing of interest. An account of WWII that covered only the great battles and failed to bring to light that which was being played out both on and off the battlefield would lack interest except to scholars of military history. The thing that holds people’s minds and keeps their interest is not strategy and tactics (or at least not exclusively) but that human drama that makes us care what happened and why.

V. P.

Sadly, I think you’re absolutely correct. And that’s a sad statement, isn’t it?

Eric

As a followup, here’s another reason why I think cost-shifting will continue. This is just a feeling based on conversations I’ve had with publishers, authors, etc. Nothing scientific, just a hunch and purely anecdotal.

While the number of CW books being published and printed may be declining, as a response to declining CW readership, the number of writers seeking to have their manuscripts published is far from shrinking. If anything, it’s increasing. Thus we have a case of supply and demand. The supply of manuscripts is up, the demand for them is down, hence the “price” goes down as well. I’ve gotten the feeling at times that some smaller presses believe that the satisfaction of seeing one’s name on the spine of a book is partial payment in and of itself!

Paul

I hope you’re wrong, but I fear you’re not.

Eric

It’s difficult, mind-numbing detail work that is overwhelming if you’re not used to doing it and don’t know what you’re doing. The only author I know who does his own is Ed Longacre, and I genuinely don’t know how he does it.

Eric