Cold Harbor to the Crater: Hot Off the Presses

forthcoming, September 2015The official release date is a little over a week away, but Amazon is currently showing Cold Harbor to the Crater: The End of the Overland Campaign as in-stock. This is the latest release in UNC Press’s Military Campaigns of the Civil War series following an eight year lull. This latest volume is edited by Gary Gallagher and Caroline Janney. The volume includes an essay of mine, which focuses on how white Union soldiers responded to fighting alongside USCTs at the Crater. This is research that should have made it into my book on the Crater.

Here is a list of contributors and the titles of their essays:

  • “The Two Generals Who Resist Each Other: Perceptions of Grant and Lee in the Summer of 1864 by Gary W. Gallagher
  • Repairing An Army: A Look at the New Troops in the Army of Northern Virginia in May and June 1864 by Robert E. L. Krick
  • “I Told Him to Go On”: Enduring Cold Harbor by Kathryn Shively Meier
  • “Breastworks are Good Things to Have on Battlefields”: Confederate Engineering Operations and Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign by Keith S. Bohannon
  • Francis Channing Barlow: From Harvard to Petersburg by Joan Waugh
  • Grant’s Disengagement from Cold Harbor: June 12-13, 1864 by Gordon C. Rhea
  • “We Will Finish the War Here”: Confederate Morale in the Petersburg Trenches, June and July 1864 by M. Keith Harris
  • “A War Thoroughfare”: Confederate Civilians and the Siege of Petersburg by Caroline E. Janney
  • “The Devil Himself Could Not Have Checked Them”: Fighting With Black Soldiers at the Crater by Kevin M. Levin
  • The Battle of the Crater in Recent Fiction by Stephen Cushman

I am honored to be included in this project. Gary and Caroline have been incredibly supportive of my research over the years. In fact, I was first introduced to the battle of the Crater in a summer teachers seminar taught by Gary at the University of Virginia back in 2001. Caroline was one of the two teaching assistants for the course and had just started graduate school.

At 360 pages this is a pretty big volume and having read most of the essays I can say with confidence that it is definitely worth your time. It’s also pretty cool to be connected as an author with UNC Press, whose books cover many of my shelves.

The series will continue with Caroline taking over sole editorial responsibilities. The next volume will cover the Petersburg Campaign to Appomattox before returning to the First Manassas Campaign.

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7 comments… add one
  • TFSmith Sep 17, 2015 @ 19:03

    Congrats – looking forward to reading it.

  • Pat Young Sep 17, 2015 @ 3:50

    Looks very interesting. I have read other volumes in this series, and they are enduring. Congrats.

  • Jim McGhee Sep 16, 2015 @ 17:36

    The eastern theater is not really my cup of tea, but I congratulate you on having your essay included in a collection composed of articles by some of the best civil war authors around today.

  • Brad Sep 16, 2015 @ 8:18

    Congratulations!

  • Annette Jackson Sep 15, 2015 @ 15:19

    Too bad the Kindle price is over $20.00! I had a sample sent to my Kindle, so I’ll comment after I read whatever I receive.

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