On a lighter note, I would like to recommend some humorous reading about the Civil War, specifically a little book published in 1964, entitled, "Will Success Spoil Jeff Davis?" The book, By Thomas L. Connelly, is out of print and might be hard to find, but the full text is onbline at
http://www.archive.org/stream/...il010147mbp_djvu.txtMissing from the online version are the splendid cartoon-style illustrations by Campbell Grant, a prominent illustrator of that era, but the book is a nice, light escapist read that pokes gentle fun at the United Daughters of the Confederacy (the "Sobbin' Sisters of the Southern Secession"), Civil War historians, and the whole re-enactment thing.
A sample:
<<<The easiest way to publish something on the War is to submit an article to a historical journal. Better still, start your own journal. There are some two thousand in print and, judging by the tone of the articles, many of them are in need of material.
Journal writing has its advantages. If he cannot write good prose, the writer can bury himself in footnotes. The footnote is a clever device, designed to confuse the general reader and absolve the author of any lawsuits. For example, consider a typical footnote to
the statement "General Crumbley was a bastard."
34. Ibid, see also, Cornstalk, Bastards in Gray, loc. sic.*
op. sit., loc. site, sob. Many maintain that General Crumbley
was not a bastard. See Thirty Years 9 View by Mrs. Crum
ble y, op. sit., sic. hoc. Major Kumpley maintained that the
General may have been a bastard but that he was indeed
a "magnificent old bastard at that/* See diary of Isaac
Bumpley, Moose University Archives, XXCI, pt, 2, Sept.
21, 1863. In addition to being a bastard, the General was
also a Mason. See diary of Cornelius Kraut, 1st Wisconsin
Infantry, SWMVHR (XXI, Je. 45).>>>>
Do not misunderstand any of Connelly's work discussed here as a callous swipe at the South or at the war. Connelly, who died all too young, was a dedicated historian and the author of numerous scholarly, well-reviewed books on the Civil War. He served for a number of years as head of the history department at the University of South Carolina. He was my friend, schoolmate, and fellow prankster of many years growing up in Nashville, where his neighborhood contained several undisturbed earthworks from the Civil War period.
P.S. E-bay has this book:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...em&item=390038470101