I could get lost in this ten volume set of civil war photography and commentary for days. The Photographic History of the Civil War was published in 1911 by The Review of Reviews Company. If you’re anything like a civil war buff, you know about this set. It’s amazing. I did get lost in Volume 2 when I found the section on The Battle of Champion Hill and The Siege of Vicksburg. It’s part of our civil war display in light of this 150th anniversary and the event we had last week with Jeff Shaara for his second novel in a trilogy, A Chain of Thunder: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg. For those of you who need to brush up a little bit on what was happening around here 150 years ago, here are few photos and drawings plus some basic history notes. If you want more, we have a great civil war section!

Raising the Stars and Stripes Over the Capitol the State of Mississippi engraving from Harper’s Weekly, 20 June 1863 after the capture of Jackson by Union forces during the American Civil War

The Battle of Jackson, fought on May 14, 1863, in Jackson, Mississippi, was part of the Vicksburg Campaign in the American Civil War. Union commander Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Tennessee defeated Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston, seizing the city, cutting supply lines, and opening the path to the west and the Siege of Vicksburg. (from Wiki)

Battle of Jackson, Mississippi–Gallant charge of the 17th Iowa, 80th Ohio and 10th Missouri, supported by the first and third brigades of the seventh division / sketched by A.E. Mathews, 31st Reg., O.V.I.

Shirley White’s House at Vicksburg 1863

The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

When two major assaults (May 19 and May 22, 1863) against the Confederate fortifications were repulsed with heavy casualties, Grant decided to besiege the city beginning on May 25. With no reinforcement, supplies nearly gone, and after holding out for more than forty days, the garrison finally surrendered on July 4. This action (combined with the capitulation of Port Hudson on July 9) yielded command of the Mississippi River to the Union forces, who would hold it for the rest of the conflict.

The Confederate surrender following the siege at Vicksburg is sometimes considered, when combined with Gen. Robert E. Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg the previous day, the turning point of the war. It also cut off communication with Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department for the remainder of the war. (from Wiki)

It’s a grim title, but Murderland it was, a term coined by a New York reporter who had come to expose the story of the two feuding families on the West Virginia and Kentucky boarder. We have long been enamored with the story of the Hatfields and McCoys- our very own fair Verona tragedy, only more backwoods and less…well, fair. Recently the History Channel undertook this infamous generation-spanning inter-family squall in the form of a miniseries and companion documentary. Now Dean King has joined the ranks of committed researchers who have decided to sink their teeth into very often two-sided tale with his new book The Fued: The Hadfields & McCoys, the True Story.

The Fued reads beautifully, like fiction even, which isn’t a hard thing to believe considering that the whole story seems too bad to be true. King follows the two families from the first shot, to the rumored romance between Johnse Hatfield and Roseanne McCoy, all the way to the official peace treaty signed by Reo Hatfield and Bo and Ron McCoy in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. King experienced first hand how tense the situation is even today, as he wrote in the author’s note:

“On my first trip, in the summer of 2009, with the help of two forest rangers and my daughter Hazel, I bushwacked down to the mouth of Thacker Creek on the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River to see the place where Jeff McCoy had been shot and killed in 1886. We had not been there fifteen minutes when some locals let it be known in a feud-worthy fashion that they did not appreciate my snooping around…gunshots sprayed the river surface near us– making me, as far as I know the second chronicler of the feud (Creelman being the first, in 1888) to be warned off with rifle fire while researching the story.”

This is the best kind of “fly on the wall” book, and King has researched so thoroughly that it transcends dry history text and is transformed into a real story. In some cases, truth really is stranger than fiction, and maybe that’s why we love this story so much. The tragedy, passion, and longevity of this feud is irresistible to us- and I imagine it always will be.

The Hatfield clan

I guess I can’t expect for you guys to understand how much I love Abraham Lincoln because none of you have to hear me gush about him on a regular basis like my co-workers do. But gosh y’all. I love me some old Abe, which is why I was thrilled to find out that a new book was coming out about his life! Even though the list of books about Lincoln is dangerously close to numbering 1,000,000,000, every now and then one comes along that claws its way through the rest and rises to the top (see: Team of Rivals). I believe that The Hour of Peril by Daniel Stashower might just be one of those.

That’s Pinkerton to the left of Lincoln. This was the first meeting of their Fancy Hat Club.

You all know how Lincoln died– his is arguably one of the most famous assassinations that has ever taken place, but what you may not know is that he came dangerously close to the same fate in 1861 while on his way to his presidential inauguration in Washington. This is what Stashower’s new book is about! Intrigue! Enter Alan Pinkerton, Irish immigrant, sassy dancer (or so I imagine), detective extraordinaire. Hired to protect the president and thwart any devious plots during their trip to the inauguration ceremonies, Pinkerton did just that– he thwarted with the best of them. Pinkerton is everything you want in a hero– he’s gruff and grimy and will do whatever it takes to save the president of the United States, dang it! After getting wind of an assassination plot that was planned to take place during the train trip from Springfield, IL to Washington DC, he struggled to pull together clues wherever he could find them in order to do what he did best- thwarting, even if that meant putting Lincoln’s life at stake at one point in order to do so. (I’m not going to tell you how though. Spoilers.) You may have already figured this out for yourself, but he was very successful in saving Lincoln’s life, which is rather important when you think about it, because Lincoln still had some pretty big stuff to tackle.

If I haven’t already convinced you to read this book, allow me to introduce you to Kate Warne, America’s first female private eye. She assisted Pinkerton with his assassination-thwarting plot, and was generally awesome. In the picture to the left, it’s argued that the person standing behind Pinkerton with that baby-smooth face is Warne. Woah lady, good job on that whole disguise thing. Fancy hats off to you.

Basically Pinkerton is famous for not only saving Lincoln’s life with his cunning expertise, but also for being the first real private eye in America. Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency’s motto was “We never sleep” written around an open eye, which is terrifying, but also totally awesome. Good for you Pinky. I like that this book is hard to throw onto the mountainous pile of literature about Lincoln because when you think about it, this book isn’t really about only Lincoln, it’s about Pinkerton and the birth of a new era of crime-fighting. I’m super excited about this because it offers a glimpse not only into an earlier time in Lincoln’s political career but also introduces who I feel to be a pretty important character in our country’s history.

Over the last few years we’ve put some really nice train and railroad books on the shelf, but the one that caught my eye was just published this year. The black background and colorful logos of North American Rails just pop. The book doesn’t disappoint, either. After an introduction that’s more like an abbreviated history of railroads, the book goes alphabetically through the top 100 most historically significant railroad lines. The best part of the book, however, is the photos — everything from black-and-white images of steam trains and turn-of-the-century advertisements to fully labeled railway maps and gorgeous full-color modern trains.

I found myself with two books about Catherine the Great and was thrilled to have them because I didn’t know very much (besides the obvious) about her.  I always find it very interesting when different types of books come out on similar subjects.

The first book which is available for purchase now (and flying off the shelf) is Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie.

This narrative biography is up to par with all the Russian histories that this Pulitzer Prize winning author has previously written, Peter the Great, Nicholas and Alexandraand The Romanovs.

We learn about Princess Sophia Augusta Fredericka of Germany’s not to happy childhood with a mother who never showed much interest in her daughter until the possibility of a marriage between Sophia and Peter, the Grand Duke of Russia, came up.  Sophia had a natural curiosity and constantly questioned her tutors about all subjects and continued this love of learning well into her adult years.

After marrying Peter and becoming Catherine her life did not become much happier.  Her new husband paid little to no attention to her after the marriage and a heir to the throne was slow in coming which Empress Elizabeth blamed Catherine for.  Catherine soon learned that things in life can be worked to her advantage and continued to study especially works of Enlightenment philosophers, foreign policy and the ways of the Russian court.  She used all this when she ‘took’ the Russian throne from Peter to guide her decisions while ruling the backward Russian empire.

You will meet all those who were Catherine’s friends, favorites, family, lovers and of course enemies and who had the most influence over the decisions that turned a minor German princess who rose to become one of the most powerful and captivating women in history.

Also be on the lookout in January 2012 for a wonder historical novel, The Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak.  The story is told by Varvara and servant in the Russian court of Empress Elizabeth.  When Princess Sophie arrives at the Russian court Varvara (who is a spy or ‘tongue’) is given the task of befriending the young girl and reporting all she hears to the Empress. The two soon become fast friends and as the years go on Varvara makes the decision to side with the Grand Duchess as she makes her descent to the throne to become as we know her Catherine the Great.