Review: Abraham Lincoln Civil War Stories:

Abraham Lincoln Civil War Stories:

Heartwarming Stories about Our Most Beloved President

Edited by Joe Wheeler

What can you say about Abraham Lincoln that hasn’t been said over and over again, again and again?  That’s the point of Joe Wheeler’s book “Abraham Lincoln Civil War Stories: Heartwarming Stories about Our Most Beloved President.”

Stories about Abraham Lincoln have been passed from person to person, first in orally and later written down, for a century and a half.  If one were to read them all they would have to search through many books, newspapers and magazines in libraries and archives to find them.  Mr. Wheeler has saved you the time and effort, collecting many of the most popular stories and poems in his book.  The stories span the breadth of Lincoln’s life and run from the humorous to the tear-jerker.  The book is split into four parts: The Frontier Years, Civil War – The Early Years, Civil War – The Later Years, and To Live on in Hearts is not to Die. 

I would venture to say that many of these stories are largely fictional, some more so than others, but all have some kernel of historical truth to them.  Included by Mr. Wheeler is one of my favorites, “The Perfect Tribute,” by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews, which was turned into a made for television movie in 1991 and starred Jason Robards as Abraham Lincoln.

This is a great book for people who don’t know much about the 16th President of the United States or the Civil War.  For those who have studied and know a great deal about Lincoln and the war this book may help to understand the folklore surrounding Lincoln.  The stories are simply written, and range in size from a two to twenty pages in length which are easily read in a short time, so that you can pick the book up when you have just a few minutes to spare or a couple of hours.

ISBN 978-1476702865, Howard Books, © 2013, Hardcover, 384 pages, Photographs, Illustrations, & Notes. $22.99.  To purchase this book click HERE.

Review: Hell or Richmond

Hell or Richmond

By Ralph Peters 

In a series of battles between May 4 & June 24, 1864 the Army of the Potomac directed by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and commanded by Major General George G. Meade clashed with the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee, in what would later become known as The Overland Campaign.  The ferocity and near daily combat during those two months shocked the divided and warring nation. The combined casualties of both armies totaled over 88,000 men killed, wounded, captured or missing.  It was the last year of the war, a baptism of fire that lasted four long years, the beginning of its cataclysmic end, that would forge a new, united nation from its warring factions.

Best-selling author, Ralph Peters, uses the backdrop of The Overland Campaign for his novel, “Hell or Richmond.”  From the battles at The Wilderness, and Spotsylvania Court House to The Battle of Cold Harbor Peters graphically covers much of The Overland Campaign.

Officers such as Ulysses S Grant, General-in-Chief of the United States Army; Major General George G. Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac; and Francis Channing Barlow, the Union’s Harvard-valedictorian “boy general,” as well as Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Major General John Brown Gordon, and William C. Oates, Colonel of the 15th Alabama Infantry take their places in Mr. Peters’ narrative beside the enlisted men of both armies.

Historical fiction fills the gaps where its counterpart, nonfiction, cannot go.  Peters’ narrative breathes life into his the men of our historical past, and viscerally reveals the life of a civil war soldier before, during and after a battle; the hunger, the dirt and grime, the smell, the blood and gore.  Where more often than not historical fiction authors fail, Peters excels and does not hold back with his bloody and gory descriptions of wounds received by 18th century projectiles.  His dialogue is sometimes salty and profane, but nevertheless rings true of combat veterans.

Ralph Peters’ “Hell or Richmond” masterfully combines descriptive narrative and coarse dialogue which doesn’t sound as if had been vetted for a prime-time television viewing audience, and successfully transports his 21st century readers to the unpleasantness of the summer of 1864 Virginia.

ISBN 978-0765330482, Forge Books, © 2013, Hardcover, 544 pages, Maps, $25.99.  To purchase this book click HERE.