Odyssey of a Border State. Dec. 4

Saturday, Dec.4, 2010

Odyssey of a Border State: Antebellum Kentucky During the Sectional Crisis 1845 – 1860

The LCWRT will welcome Gary Matthews tonight to speak on Antebellum Kentucky. Gary R. Matthews is an independent historian and free lance writer who resides in Lexington, Kentucky.Mr. Matthews is a native of Virginia who has studied history at the University of Virginia and law and economics at the Pennsylvania State University.He is the author of Basil Wilson Duke, C.S.A.: The Right Man in the Right Place (University Press of Kentucky, 2005) and “Beleaguered Loyalties: Kentucky Unionism,” in Sister States Enemy States: The Civil War in Kentucky and Tennessee (University Press of Kentucky, 2009).Mr. Matthews is currently working on book length manuscript that is intended to be an in-depth examination of the topics that will be addressed in his December 4^th lecture.

2010-2011 Preservation Grant Awarded

The 2010 – 2011 Louisville Civil War Preservation Grant has been awarded to the Civil War Preservation Trust for the purchase of land at Perryville.A check for $1450.00 was sent to the CWPT and will be matched 4 to 1 and goes toward saving 357 acres of historic ground.Thanks to everyone who contributed and to Holly Jenkins-Evans who is the chairperson of our preservation committee.

50 for the 50th

In honor of its 50th Anniversary, the Louisville Civil War Roundtable selected what it considers the 50 Essential Books on the Civil War. These works are not necessarily the best books on the era, but rather are the basic resources necessary for anyone to understand the period 1861-1865. The list is divided by categories and touches as much of the war as possible; no effort was made to rank the books within each category, or to decide the relative merits of each type of book. All of these titles are available today. Taken as a whole, they represent the Civil War and its myriad facets.

Battles/Campaigns:

Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas by John Hennesey
The Gleam of Bayonets: The Battle of Antietam by James Murfin
The Campaign of Chancellorsville by John Bigelow
The Campaign of Gettysburg by Edward Coddington
The Vicksburg Campaign 3 Vols by Ed Bearss
This Terrible Sound: Chickamauga by Peter Cozzens
Wilderness/Spotsylvania by Gordon Rhea
Shiloh: Bloody April by Wiley Sword
Stonewall in the Valley by Robert Tanner
Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 by Albert Castel

Biography:

RE Lee 4 vols by Douglas S. Freeman
The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans by William Lamers
John Breckinridge by William C. Davis
The Young Napoleon by Stephen Sears
Rock of Chickamauga: The Life of General George H. Thomas by Freeman Cleaves
Lincoln by David Donald
Lee the Soldier edited by Gary Gallagher
Jefferson Davis by William Cooper
Lincoln and His Generals by T. Harry Williams
Stonewall Jackson by James I. Robertson

Fiction/Literature:

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Unit Histories:

Lee’s Lieutenants by Douglas S. Freeman
Mother May You Never See the Sights I have Seen: The 57th Massachusetts by Warren Wilkinson
The Union Cavalry in the Civil War by Stephen Starr
Two Great Rebel Armies by Richard McMurry
The Army of the Potomac 3 Vols by Bruce Catton
The Orphan Brigade by William C. Davis
Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee by Stephen Woodworth
Army of the Heartland and Autumn of Their Glory by Thomas Connelly
The Stonewall Brigade by Bud Robertson
Education in Violence: The Army of the Cumberland by Francis McKinney

General Histories:
Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes by Francis Miller
Battles & Leaders Century Magazine
The American Heritage History of the Civil War (Old Version Bruce Catton)
Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson
The Civil War 3 vols by Shelby Foote
Virginia at War 4 vols edited by William C. Davis and James I. Robertson

Memoir:
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant
Memoirs of William T. Sherman by William T. Sherman
The Civil War Papers of George McClellan by Stephen Sears
A Confederate War Clerk’s Diary by John B. Jones
Fighting for the Confederacy by E.P. Alexander
Memoirs of a Dutch Mudsill: The “War Memories” of John Henry Otto 21st Wisconsin
by John Henry Otto
Company Aytch by Sam Watkins
A Diary From Dixie by Mary Boykin Chestnut
Memoir of Service Afloat During the War Between the States by Raphael Semmes
The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia in the Civil War by Charles Babcock Jones edited by Robert Meyer