Students of the Civil War, especially those interested in the Confederacy, will be pleased to know that the classic In Tall Cotton has been reprinted and supplemented by the new In Taller Cotton volume. Proceeds from the sales of both will benefit battlefield preservation.
In his Introduction to In Tall Cotton, Richard Barksdale Harwell explains that his aim was to compile a list of 200 books that would provide a look at the war from every sidethat any "imaginary reader" might put in their "imaginary" collection.
The entries are given in alphabetical order by author and each contains the name of the publisher, publication date, page number and other important factual data. Each also provides short comments on the volume as well as the author's references such as Nevins, et at.' s Civil War Books or Freeman's A Confederate Book Shelf.
Many Civil War News readers will recognize such works as Alexander's Military Memoirs of a Confederate, Freeman's Lee's Lieutenants and R. E. Lee, Hotchkiss' Make Me a Map of the Valley, and so on. Reminiscences of the war are plentiful and include volumes by Raphael Semmes, Heros von Borcke, Jefferson Davis, Mary Boykin Chesnut and Alexander Stevens just to name a few.
Now, with the printing of In Taller Cotton, readers of Confederate history have been blessed with a list of 200 more volumes focusing on the Southern War for Independence . And these are not just volumes that have been published since the introduction of In Tall Cotton.
The compilers of this volume, Gallagher, Hughes and Krick couldn't have been a better choice for a project like this. All are highly regarded, knowledgeable historians of the war with their focus mainly on the Confederate aspect.
The volume is set up in a similar fashion to that of In Tall Cotton. The entries are in alphabetical order by author with the same information on content. In this case, however, the authors write a synopsis of each volume. Many present-day Civil War authors are included, such as James 1. Robertson Jr., Carol Reardon, Edwin C. Bearss and Michael Shaara along with some veterans of the war, John S. Mosby (his edited letters), Samuel Gibbs French (a New Jersey born Confederate) and William Wilson Chamberlaine.
These are two wonderful, fact filled volumes that I seriously urge readers interested in the Civil War, and not just the Confederacy, to purchase. Though not everyone will agree with all of the entries, these books are a source that will provide readers with a starting place to form their own library of Confederate history.
An added plus to these publications is that each is available in a limited edition for $200. The proceeds of the limited edition In Taller Cotton go to benefit the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust while the limited edition proceeds of In Tall Cotton go to benefit the Civil War Preservation Trust. |