Have a little hunting fun on our website here.

Where is the Savas Beatie blog on our home page?

Is it near the top of the page, on the side, or near bottom?

The first 50 (fifty) correct answers emailed to books@savasbeatie.com will get a cool $5.00 added to their SB account (you must open a free account to get the five bucks)!

Use it on anything in stock! It never expires! Hurry...! (Winning accounts will be credited on or before the end of October 2021.)

Don't miss out on these upcoming releases!

• Their Maryland: The Army of Northern Virginia From the Potomac Crossing to Sharpsburg in September 1862 by Alexander Rossino 
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• First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, the North’s First Civil War Hero by Brian F. Swartz 

Call the office at 916-941-6896, visit our website, or email us to order your copies.  

Rossino makes extensive use of primary sources to explore important questions, and in doing so reveals that many long-held assumptions about the Confederate experience in Maryland do not hold up under close scrutiny.

Groeling’s well-written biography is grounded in years of examining archival resources, diaries, personal letters, newspapers, and other accounts, detailing every facet of Ellsworth’s complex, fascinating life.

Last month we were pleased to share that From Arlington to Appomattox: Robert E. Lee’s Civil War, Day by Day, 1861-1865 by Charlie Knight made the Arlington House Recommended Reading List.

This month, more good book sharing news! Caught in the Maelstrom: The Indian Nations in the Civil War by the late Clint Crowe is the November pick for the popular Parks and Pages book program by the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park.

Read more about the event here and watch the Facebook Live event here in November. 

In the meantime, order a copy of the book here and dig in.

We’ve released A LOT of audiobooks this year. And before we feature the next batch (details soon!), we wanted to make sure you loaded your device with these popular titles.

Review the complete list of SB audiobooks available here (and be sure to browse the special Emerging Civil War Series section here). Don’t see a title you had your heart set on listening to? Email us your interest and we’ll tell you if it’s in the works or if we can make it so!

Any finally, congrats to the following new members of the Savas Beatie reader family, who won a free copy of the Sickles at Gettysburg audiobook last month: Karen C., Chuck P., David D., Sharon S., and Keith K.

The Boy Generals: George Custer, Wesley Merritt, and the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac

Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia

Tullahoma: The Forgotten Campaign that Changed the Civil War

This month, our Look Inside a Library continues with SB customer Phil L. sharing his library photos and answering the following questions. If you are interested in having your library featured, please email us. Take it away, Phil!  

1. How old were you when you got the Civil War “bug” and when did you begin collecting Civil War books?

I can’t give you an exact age, but it was certainly when I was in grade school in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s. I fell in love with history in general, and the Civil War was a natural subject to come to my attention. Like so many other students of the war, the first book I remember was the American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War with those wonderful battle maps. The other early book I recall was Gettysburg, a book for young readers by MacKinlay Kantor. I’m sure the next book was Glenn Tucker’s High Tide at Gettysburg; I still have that copy. (As usual, Gettysburg jumps immediately to the fore.) Civil War interest carried on through college, and then subsided somewhat as work and other things took up more of my time and interest. The flame was strongly rekindled though when I attended an alumni lecture series at the University of Washington by Prof. Tracy McKenzie (then of the UW and now at Wheaton College). From that point on, it was off to the races.

2. How many books do you have, and how do you organize your library?

According to LibraryThing, the cataloguing website that I use, I have a total of 2,100 books, of which about 1,200 are Civil War-related. That counts my Official Records and Southern Historical Society Papers sets as single “units”, not individual volumes, and it also includes books about the sectional crises of the 1850’s and Reconstruction.

Using the photos as a guide, and working roughly left to right and top to bottom, the bookcase in the first photo has general histories of the war, then Eastern Theater campaign/battle volumes. Those continue to the next bookcase, followed by Western Theater books. Then come reference and essay collections on military subjects. Lincoln has a shelf, and then in the next case we come to letters/diaries/journals/memoirs, grouped as Union and then Confederate. Union and Confederate biographies are next, and then various little groupings such as memory, commemoration, the Confederate nation, and so forth.

The final bookcase on the far right has antebellum, sectional crisis, and other “road to war” books. Oh, and there’s also a couple of bottom shelves for the Time/Life series on the Civil War, and space for oversized books. On top you’ll see OR volumes covering Eastern Theater activity. Mingled in are some Ron Tunison sculptures. And yes, that’s Scrooge McDuck you see - I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Uncle Scrooge. I should mention that one bookcase is devoted to my other area of interest - colonial and revolutionary America, and the early republic. Also, stacked between that bookcase and the window is what happens when the number of books finally exceeds the shelf space available to hold them all. Those boxes are labeled “OR”, “SHSP”, “Gettysburg”, “Biographies”, “Diaries/Memoirs”, and “Campaigns/Battles”.

There are also boxes for colonial/early America. Finally, in the interests of full disclosure there are two bookcases in another room with English history (particularly Tudor/Stuart), and WWII, with about three shelves devoted to Winston Churchill. A particular area of interest is George Meade in the Civil War, and particularly his time in command of the Army of the Potomac - Gettysburg, post-Gettysburg (hence the very welcome series of books by Jeffrey Hunt!) and the Meade/Grant relationship, which has always fascinated me.

3. I have the most books on ________ , and the count is up to ______.

I have the most books on Gettysburg (of course) (topic or subject), and the count is up to 65. (68 actually - I almost forgot the OR volumes.)

4. If you had to pick a special favorite collectible/rare/special book in your collection, what is it and how did you come to acquire it?

That’s a very tough one. I have a number of signed books - Ed Bearss signed my copies of his Vicksburg trilogy; Gary Gallagher has signed a number of his books for me, and Bob Krick, who has become a friend, has signed several of his books as well. One special book would be Bob Zeller’s history of the (then) Civil War Trust, Fighting the Second Civil War. It’s been signed by Zeller himself, as well as the surviving founders - Gallagher, Krick, and A. Wilson Greene (I hope to catch up to Dennis Frye by next year’s American Battlefield Trust annual conference) - as well as Clark Hall and Jim Lighthizer. David Duncan, who’s become a good friend over the years, is on my target signing list for that book too. 

5. I collect Civil War books because . . .

As Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1815, “I cannot live without books”. That probably sums it up as well as anything - leave it to Jefferson to get to the heart of the matter. And like most fascinating subjects, the Civil War is one of those where the more you learn reveals to you how much more there is to learn, how one answered question leads to more questions to be answered, or at least more attempts at an answer. And all that leads to the “gentle madness” - more books!

Passing Through the Fire: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in the Civil War

The Summer of '63: Gettysburg: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War

This month, our Five Things column features Dan Welch, co-editor of the recently released title The Summer of '63: Gettysburg: Favorite Stories and Fresh Perspectives from the Historians at Emerging Civil War. Here, he tells of five facts which he discovered or was reminded of along the way while compiling this book. (Dan does smile. Really. He does. A lot. :) )

Take it away Dan . . .

1. Gettysburg is probably the most published topic of all Civil War books.

2. Although Joshua L. Chamberlain and the 20th Maine at Gettysburg have been an extremely popular story since The Killer Angels and Gettysburg, our volume looks at many other engaging and emerging stories through the diligent and modern research of the work's authors. 

3. The battle of Gettysburg was just one part of a much larger campaign that lasted from June 3 - July 14, 1863.

4. Being able to collaborate with so many emerging historians was the best part of working on these volumes. The multitude of perspectives, niches, and writing styles make this a want-to-own collection.

5. I've spent more time calling, texting, emailing, and talking to Chris Mackowksi while working together on this project than my own wife!

Dwight Hughes and Neil P Chatelain took part on the US Civil War panel at the 2021 McMullen Naval History Symposium at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD -- the largest regular naval history conference in the world.

Neil presented on US Naval convoys to protect the Panama Route in the Civil War, and Dwight (a graduate of the academy) discussed the cooperation between Gen. U. S. Grant and Admiral David Porter in the Vicksburg Campaign. There were only THREE members on the panel, and TWO were Savas Beatie authors!

The current Civil War News is awesome, with in-depth features on the Savas Beatie Gettysburg Meet Up and ECW’s anniversary. Have you received and read the current issue yet? A big thanks to Civil War News for keeping the CW community updated, informed, and having fun reading about our passion.

• The Civil Wars of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston: Volume 1: Virginia to Mississippi, 1861-1863 by Richard McMurry

• Thunder in the Harbor: Fort Sumter and the Civil War by Richard Hatcher