Books: January 2008 Archives

Background post - Yorktown Square: York has produced its fair share of high-ranking naval officers.

Many leading Civil War generals who were quite famous in the 19th Century have slipped into obscurity, and today are only remembered by hard-core Civil War buffs. Ignored by the popular media, their contributions are largely forgotten. One such man was Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, a York native who rose by the autumn of 1862 to be one of the most powerful men in the Army of the Potomac, and yet, by the time of the Gettysburg Campaign, was an backdrop to the unfolding action.

General Franklin is the subject of an excellent book published in 2002 by another York native, Dr. Mark Snell, the chair of Shepherd University's Civil War Studies program. This outstanding biography, From First to Last: The Life of William B. Franklin, brings Franklin's contributions (and failures) back to life for the modern reader.

A few years ago, Rhode Island author Brent Nosworthy wrote an article for an early issue of my wargaming newsletter. He and I struck up a friendship, and I helped a little with his excellent book, Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War. Brent was kind enough to ask my counsel on a few matters for his new book Roll Call to Destiny: The Soldier’s Eye View of Civil War Battles, which will be in print in a couple of months.