Commanding Voices of Blue & Gray - by Brian M Thomsen (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The agony and anguish of the War Between the States affected all aspects of American life. Many quarters suffered, but one in particular seemed to prosper in the postwar aftermath: the publishing industry. Though the success of Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant (as published by Mark Twain) is a clear milestone in publishing's history of bestsellers, it was only one of many highly successful Civil War memoirs penned and published by veterans in the postwar years.

Never before in America had such a plethora of eyewitness accounts of a war existed, nor so many by those in a position of command.

Drawing on the best of these accounts, most of them long out of print, Commanding Voices of Blue & Gray presents in a single volume the personal words of these leaders and provides an overview of the command experience in the Civil War.

Selections include:

General William Tecumseh Sherman on his infamous march through Georgia

General George B. McClellan on the battle of Antietam and the legendary lost order that should have tipped him off to Lee's plans

General George Armstrong Custer's experience of going straight from studying at West Point to the Battlefield

General (CSA) James Longstreet on serving under Robert E. Lee

General (CSA) G. Moxley Sorrel on serving under General James Longstreet

Major (CSA) J. S. Mosby on the South's guerrilla campaign

General (CSA) Jubal Early's memoir of the last year of the war

Review Quotes

"For this anthology of Civil War leaders writings, editor Thomsen has ferreted out revealing and informative pieces that can't be plucked off the average bookshelf, such as Jefferson Davis's first inaugural address and two of Lincoln's 1861 policy statements. Plunging onto the field, he includes an excerpt from John Mosby's memoirs about the delights of being a Confederate Robin Hood who got to keep the loot and Captain Abner Doubleday's account of his own third day at Gettsyburg. George McClellan shows no awareness of how his own failures prevented the execution of a fine plan to quash Lee's army, and Lew Wallace tells the story of his command at Monocacy Junction, Virginia, in one of the most obscure decisive battles in American history ...Fine, readable fodder for Civil War mavens" --Booklist

About the Author

Brian M. Thomsen is a Tor Consulting editor who dropped out of pursuing a Ph.D. in English in favor of a career in publishing. He was one of the founding editors of Warner/Popular Library's Questar Science Fiction & Fantasy line, and the editor of C.J.Cherryh's Hugo Award winning novel Cyteen. He has also been a Hugo nominee, has served as a World Fantasy Award judge, and is the author of two novels and numerous short stories for such publishers as Tor, Daw, Ace, TSR, and others.

He was born in the borough of Brooklyn where he currently resides with his wife, Donna, and two talented cats named Sparky and Minx.