The first book I read was A Visit to the Confederate States of America by Charles Girard. This book is a memoir, written to Napoleon III, describing what Girard saw as he toured the south during the war. His purpose was to study the Confederate States of America in order to understand why they were fighting for their independence. The book goes into great detail in describing the immediate causes of the Civil War, the Confederate Government, Manufacturing of Weapons, and also the new Confederacy after the war. Much of his information is accurate because he was actually there to see all of this first hand. For example, Girard describes the Tregadar Iron Works inside and out because he was given a tour by a "Mr. Tanner"(p. 57). He gives informati

Another book I chose was The Legacy of the American Civil War edited by Harold Woodman. This book is a collection of essays like David Donald's book, and also like it, they have some opinionated views. But all of the writers included in this book are scholars in their particular field and know how to write in a non-biased way, although sometimes they come across as if they are trying to sway the reader in a particular direction. The most valuable feature of this book is that the author's know what they are talking about and present it in an easily read and understood way, without putting to much statistical data dragging their writing to a boring halt. The writing flows easily without causing a brain hemorrhage in the process. This book would be a useful research tool because it covers so many topics about the Civil War. It contains 3 parts: Nationalism and Liberalism, Economic and Social Change, and Equality and Democracy. Under each section is between 6 and 8 essays!

The final book I read was The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War edited by Richard Ketchum and the narrative written by Bruce Catton who is a well-known expert on the Civil War. This book is not called a picture history for nothing, because their are literally hundreds of photographs and drawings included in this deeply involved book. The reason this book has so many photos and why photography was so important in this war in particular, was because it was the first major war since photography was invented. The result is an array of pictures ranging from almost every major military figure, such as majors, admirals, and generals involved in the war including Sherman and Robert E. Lee to pictures of the aftermath of some of the major battles. There is one haunting picture of a young boy named private Edwin Jennison, maybe 13 or 14 years old, dressed in his uniform ready to fight for the cause (p.167). Photos like that one bring the magnitude war into perspec!

on like what they were manufacturing such as steel for ships and ammunition, which the south always had a shortage of. He then goes on to say that it was recently destroyed by fire which "hurt the Confederate spirit at such a tum!

True Tales of the South at War is a book documenting stories of real Confederate soldiers as told by them. The author, Clarence Poe, spent 60 years gathering them together using everything from first hand accounts of soldiers to letters and diaries that were sent to him. This book has eleven chapters that separate the stories into sectio

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Approximate Word count = 1711
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)