The Civil War Battlefield Guide (review)

Abstract

book reviews185 Aside from these oversights, Dawson's work is a well-balanced reference source to this period in American military history. On the whole, it provides a good departure point for the study of the army's place in American society and the liabilities it faced as it attempted to execute its multidimensional mission in the post-Civil War era. James W. Geary Kent State University The Civil War Battlefield Guide. Edited by Frances H. Kennedy. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990. Pp. 317, $29.95 cloth; $16.95 paper.) Just at a time when interest in Civil War battlefields is receiving increased national attention, when battlefield preservation has become the "hottest " and most popular preservation issue in Washington, The Conservation Fund has brought forth an outstanding guide to some 65 Civil War battlefields and campaigns, using essays on the subjects from an outstanding array of Civil War historians and other less expected authors. U.S. Senators Sam Nunn of Georgia and John Heinz of Pennsylvania, and CIA Director William Webster (whose grandfather was mortally wounded at Perryville) join with historians of the caliber of James McPherson, James I. Robertson, Stephen Sears, Ed Bearss, Gary Gallagher , William C. Davis, Ludwell Johnson, Richard Sommers, Herman Hattaway, the father-son team of Harry and Donald Pfanz, and literally dozens of others to present the best one-volume coverage of Civil War battles ever available anywhere. Under the able editorship of Frances Kennedy, the director of the Civil War Battlefield Project of The Conservation Fund (the Virginia-based group that acted as agent for the recent Mellon Foundation gift of over one hundred thousand acres, including several significant Civil War sites, to the National Park Service), the book is eminently qualified for the hoary, cliched recommendation, "... deserves a place on every Civil War buff's bookshelf." This book, in fact, could easily form the core of any Civil War buff's bookshelf, for the person who is primarily interested in Civil War battles can find no better primer than The Civil War Battlefield Guide. Photos show modern landmarks compared and contrasted with those same scenes in the 1860s. The individual field maps are drawn on modernday U.S. Geological Survey topographical maps with troop movements colored in, while the maps for the seven "campaign essays" were reproduced using originals in the Library of Congress. Not only is the book excellent both in content and in presentation, but the price is a good one. Proceeds will go toward the preservation 186 CIVIL WAR HISTORY of the very battlefields this unparalleled guide will enable you to study and understand. Jerry L. Russell Civil War Round Table Associates ^tY Wm m ...