CWL---Reading Through the Sesquicentennial

2011 is 1861. Here's a list of books. If you read these in order in twelve months, then 2012/1862 will become more clear. Let's play a little catch up first.

The 1860/2010 Reading List

November: Disunion!, Elizabeth Varon [a history of American secession movements through Spring 1861]
December: Border War, Stanley Harrold [verbal sparring, kidnapping, and murder in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois/Maryland,Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri


The 1861/2011 Reading List
January: A Government of Our Own: The Making of the Confederacy, William C. Davis [creation of the Confederate government]

February: The Baltimore Plot: The First Conspiracy to Assassinate Abraham Lincoln, Michael J. Kline [Lincoln travels to Washington, DC and yes there was a nearly successful conspiracy to assasinate him in Baltimore]

March: Lincoln and the Decision for War: The Northern Response to Secession, Russell McClintock [Lincoln’s motives and strategies]

April: Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War, David Detzer [Confederate motives and strategies] OR Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War by Maury Klein


May: Sister States, Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee, Kent Dollar, Larry Whiteaker, Calvin Dollar (Editors) [Border State session movements]

June: Rebels at the Gate, Hunter Lesser [Rebel attempt to keep Virginia Appalachian Mountains in the Union]

July: Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War, William C. Davis [first major military battle]

August: Wilson's Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It, William Garrett Piston [Missouri’s near secession and the military battle that kept it in the Union]

September: The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, Donald Stoker [how the generals saw the strategy and tactics of the coming war]

October: A Little Short of Boats: The Fights at Ball's Bluff and Edward's Ferry, October 21-22, 1861, James Morgan [the battle that changed the U.S. congress’ view of the war]


November: Over Lincoln's Shoulder: The Committee on the Conduct of the War, by Bruce Tap [created by Ball’s Bluff this political investigation lasted the entire war and had a huge impact on McClellan, Porter, Hooker, Sickles and Meade]

December: McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union, Ethan S. Rafuse [understanding McClellan’s over all notion of what the war was about and how it formed his strategy and tactics]