THE WAREHOUSE SALE CONTINUES. DO NOT MISS OUT!

Civil War Regiments and Journal of the Indian Wars

Civil War Regiments was created in 1988 and Journal of the Indian Wars about a decade later.

Just $2.99 each (reg. $12.95). One low flat rate shipping price regardless of how many you order.

We ask that you NOT use any coupons or points

for these, because they belong to a separate company, and it is an accounting nightmare.

Click HERE for CWR to get copies while they last.

Click HERE for JIW and get copies while they last.

** Covers may vary from the website.

-- 6 x 9 paperbacks, acid-free paper, laminated covers;

-- 96 to 192 pages each;

-- Long footnoted original articles, original maps, photos, book reviews, and each 4-issue volume is indexed.

-- Most are very low in stock (100 or fewer) and others are sold out. Share the news. Thank you.

Congratulations to the

5th Annual Savas Beatie Sweet Sixteen Winner!

Free shipping and signed author bookplate

on Mackowski's The Battle of Jackson!

(April only, Use Coupon Code: Jackson)

The Maps of Spotsylvania through Cold Harbor Sets Record!

Brad Gottfried inscribed/signed/packed/ and mailed nearly 200 copies of his new atlas title! Once again it's obvious we have the hardest working authors in the business.

Thank you, Brad, and to all of you, for making it possible to continue to publish original and outstanding contributions to the literature of the Civil War.

The Maps of Spotsylvania through Cold Harbor continues Bradley M. Gottfried’s efforts to study and illustrate the major campaigns of the Civil War’s Eastern Theater. This is the ninth book in the ongoing Savas Beatie Military Atlas Series.

Shipping Confirmed. Will Arrive in June.

GETTYSBURG IN COLOR, Volume 2

Another Tasty Passage

Quoted from Dr. McMurry's New Book. . .

The Civil Wars of General Joseph E. Johnston, Confederate States Army

A reading of the documents inevitably leads back to the real source of the Rebels’ problem: the Confederate leaders had no clear-cut, plainly stated, fully understood idea of what they should have been trying to do in the West in the first half of 1863. Nobody ever faced and answered the basic questions:

Should General Holmes concentrate on Arkansas or help to defend the Lower Mississippi? Tennessee or Mississippi?

What changes had been brought about after mid-April when the Federal fleet ran by the Vicksburg batteries? What adjustments should the Confederates have then made? Hold Vicksburg and Port Hudson at all costs, or evacuate them to save their garrisons?

ALL of these matters (except the dilemma posed by the Federal gunboats in the Vicksburg-Port Hudson corridor) had come up in one form or another in the early weeks of 1863. In fact, they had surfaced at the Grenada conference in late December 1862, and had arisen several times in the months that followed. Never had the Rebels resolved or even addressed them.

Only one man could decide such matters, and President Jefferson Davis resolutely refused to do so.

--End of Chapter 11

Savas Beatie Author Joins Special Anniversary Tour

The Battlefield Tours of Virginia is hosting an anniversary event for the

160th Anniversary of the Battle of Chancellorsville with special guest

Savas Beatie author Michael Hardy.

The event includes Mr. Harding leading an afternoon tour of Chancellorsville;

following an author signing that morning.

Don't miss this event!

Tickets are going fast.

For more event & ticket information, visit: Battlefield Tours of Virginia

This month, our Five Things column features Frank Varney author of General Grant and the Verdict of History. This book was released last month. Here, Frank shares five facts he discovered while working on this book.

Take it away, Frank...

1) I was surprised at the amount of control the Grant men exercised over the War Department during the post-war years. Grant served as General-in-Chief from 1863-1868, and then was President for eight years.

Sherman was General-in-Chief from 1869-1884, Sheridan from 1884-1888, and Schofield from 1888-1895. For a period of thirty-four consecutive years, the highest military office of the US army was occupied by Grant or his closest subordinates. Together they had a great deal to say about how the war would be remembered, which officers would be rewarded and promoted and which would be shunted aside, and who would get favorable – or unfavorable – mention in their memoirs.

The memoirs of those four men have contributed a great deal to our understanding of the war today. They also had unlimited access to the official records of the War Department, and research for both this book and my previous one has shown that those records have been tampered with.

2) I was surprised to note how seldom any comment on George H. Thomas’s supposed slowness turns up in accounts by anyone other than the Grant men. Like pretty much everyone who has studied the Civil War, my opinion of Thomas reflected what I had read: that he was brave, steadfast, and admirable, but slow and somewhat ponderous. A deeper study indicates that is not entirely true.

His nickname, “Old Slow Trot,” is often used as an indicator of this supposed trait, but the nickname had nothing to do with his performance in battle. He served under William S. Rosecrans and Don Carlos Buell, among others, and neither of them was critical of his celerity. Both spoke of him in glowing terms, as did nearly everyone who served with him - except Grant and Sherman, who damned him with faint praise.

3) A major portion of the book deals with Grant’s treatment of G. K. Warren, and several things I learned amazed me. I marveled at the courage of the officers at Warren’s court of inquiry, for example. They knew that Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan all wanted a finding adverse to Warren. First Grant and then Sherman had refused to hold the inquiry until President Rutherford B. Hayes finally ordered it, and both Grant and Sheridan gave testimony very damaging to Warren.

In Grant’s case, his testimony was unsolicited: he volunteered to testify, in order to strengthen the case for Warren’s removal. At the time of the inquiry, Sherman was General-in-Chief, Grant was a beloved former President, and it was common knowledge that Sheridan – who had actually relieved Warren of his command, at Grant’s instigation as I would discover – would be the next General-in-Chief; but the active-service officers of the court still acquitted Warren of all charges, knowing full well that doing so would earn them the ire of their superior officers.

4) When I began my research at Olin Library at Cornell University, one of many sources available to me was a bound transcript of the Warren Court of Inquiry. I noticed in the publication a statement from Sherman, indicating that the court had proven conclusively that Warren’s removal was merited – a highly-misleading and simplistic statement. I also noted that the book had been donated to Cornell courtesy of Philip H. Sheridan.

At the time I found those two bits of information interesting, but not of particular note. As my research continued over the next several years, however, I was to discover that Sherman had provided an addendum to privately-printed books that were then distributed by Sheridan to university libraries, which of course were logical places for future historians to conduct their inquiries. So Sheridan, with Sherman’s help, was attempting to co-opt to a degree the finding of the court.

5) This last item falls into the heading of curiosity. During the Warren inquiry, Grant’s testimony ended with an unsolicited statement regarding the removal of an officer for, essentially, thinking for himself. If the statement were intended to apply to Warren – and given the context that would seem logical – then it actually somewhat contradicted several of the charges brought against Warren as the reason for his removal. The prosecutor had it stricken from the record, so it is not part of the official court transcript, but the Warren court was big news in New York City at the time, and Grant’s statement was reported in several NY dailies. Had it not been, it would not be part of our collective memory today. As it is, this statement by Grant, given under oath, is not a part of the official record of the proceeding: one more indication of the Grant cabal’s tendency to tinker with the history of the Civil War.

BONUS: Something I noted, while researching both this book and the first, was the wonderful degree of cooperation I received from archivists, reference librarians, historical societies, park historians, and employees of state and national historical sites. At every stop – Cornell, UCLA, the NY State Archives, the National Archives, the Huntington Library, Stones River, Chickamauga-Chattanooga, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Cold Springs Library, West Point, and all the others – the kind folks who work there could not have been more helpful. They went out of their way to help me find the materials I was looking for; gave me access to hard-to-locate files, provided me with workspace and copiers, and in two cases even assigned interns to help locate the material. Without the efforts of these often-unheralded people, this book would not have been possible.

Click here to preview this book. 

Gettysburg In Color: Volume 1: Brandy Station to the Peach Orchard, by co-authors Pat Brennan and Dylan Brennan

Six Miles from Charleston, Five Minutes to Hell: The Battle of Secessionville, June 16, 1862, by author James Morgan

It was another busy month of events for Savas Beatie authors, the hardest-working writers in the industry! Check out where they signed and presented their books.

Did you know you can bookmark our author event calendar?

Click HERE. 

Fresh from the printer, author Derek Maxfield (center front) shows off his new book Man of Fire surrounded by contributors Michael Gosselin (L), Tracy Ford (C), and Jess Maxfield (R).

Author Jim Hessler (above right) gave a presentation on his award-winning book Sickles at Gettysburg to the Kentucky Civil War War Round Table last month. President of the round table Kent Masterson Brown (above left) helped welcome Mr. Hessler to his enthusiastic and large membership.

Members of the Cape Fear Civil War Round Table in North Carolina enjoyed a detailed presentation on Robert E. Lee from author Charlie Knight and his award-winning book From Arlington to Appomattox.

Looking proud and happy is author Frank Varney holding his new book General Grant and the Verdict of History.

Author Jason Bohm is getting an early start presenting his June book release Washington's Marine. A large crowd was on hand at America's History, LLC's 10th Annual Conference of the American Revolution in Williamsburg, VA last month.

The audience at the Museum at Wrightsville expanded to over 140 people to hear author Scott Mingus present Flames Beyond Gettysburg.

Another night, another round table for award-winning author Jim Hessler. The members of the Lynchburg Civil War Round Table had the pleasure of listening to a comprehensive presentation on Gettysburg's Peach Orchard.

Did someone mention LAUNCH PARTY? Yes indeed! Author Derek Maxfield kicked off the arrival of his new book Man of Fire with a fun and well-attended book launch. On hand were customized bookmarks, t-shirts, and plenty of books to sign and sell. Fantastic event!

THIS. PHOTO. IS. PRICELESS. Last month, a launch party was held to kick off the new release of "No One Wants to be the Last to Die." In attendance were author Chris Caultins (seated), collaborators Patrick Schoeder (left), Melodyy Bage (center), and author Bert Dunkerly (right).

WATCH A TV INTERVIEW with Chris at the McLean house in Appomattox HERE.

Look at that smile! Doug Crenshaw the co-author of To Hell or Richmond is proud of the latest book in the Emerging Civil War Series.

Did you know we have excerpts posted on our website? Here are a few, and from now on we will have a list right here for you to view. Happy previewing!

Click here to read an excerpt from "If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania" Volume 2

Click here to read an excerpt from "The Bullets Flew Like Hail".

Click here to read an excerpt from John Brown's Raid.

Click here to read an excerpt from "No One Wants to be the Last to Die".

Click here to read an excerpt from General Grant and the Verdict of History.

Click here to read an excerpt from Gettysburg In Color: Volume 2.

Coming Soon in Audio

We have been busy selling audio rights and are pleased to announce that Edward Cunningham's Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 (Tim Smith and Gary Joiner, eds.) will be in audio this summer. Stay tuned!

Mobile Bay Battle of Spanish Fort, by Paul Brueske

The Battle of Drainsville, by Ryan Quint