It will not be a surprise to regular readers that my recent purchases were related to the historic places that I visited. I bought many of the National Park Civil War Series, which are available at the battlefield parks or at the web store at www.eParks.com. Each book retails for $5.95 and provides a good introduction to the battle including photos, paintings, illustrations and maps. The latter are particularly good as they show the troop movements during the course of the battle, and in some cases the campaign. Each book numbers about 50 pages written by various authors.

These books were supplemented by postcards, movies (on DVD and VHS) and other books. One of the books was the second edition of the Civil War Battlefield Guide (ISBN: 0395740126), which includes more information than the first edition that I bought years ago on a similar trip. The movies were part of a special park series that mix shots of ACW photographs, various battlefield tour points and re-enactments of the battle. I bought copies of Fredericksburg and Antietam. (I shall order the Wilderness and Chancellorsville DVDs later.) A well-known actor narrates each one. There was one that was not yet available for retail sale about Bull Run and was narrated by Richard Dreyfus. This particular movie cost about $400,000 to produce. I bought a third movie about Stones River (Murfreesboro: Bloody New Year in Tennessee), which features the 130 th Anniversary (1993) Re-enactment. A fourth movie was “Struggle for Vicksburg” that has a tour of the park, film footage of the 1917 veterans reunion and National Park Services footage of the salvaging of the USS Cairo.

The books purchased were:

Army of the Heartland Vol 1 Army of Tennessee (ISBN: 080712737X)
Autumn of Glory Vol 2 Army of Tennessee (ISBN: 0807127388)
Vicksburg (ISBN: 1893114007)
Civil War Stories (ISBN: 0486280381)
Shiloh: Bloody April (ISBN: 0890297703)
Artillery Through the Ages by Albert Manucy
Brother Against Brother (Town of Front Royal)
Shipwreck of Their Hopes (ISBN: 0252065956)
No Better Place to Die (ISBN: 0252062299)
This Terrible Sound (ISBN: 0252065948)
[These three above books are a trilogy covering the battles of Stones River, Chickamauga and Chattanooga]
Stones River (ISBN: 080493736)
The Battle of New Market by JWA Whtehorne
Battle Tactics of the Civil War (ISBN: 0300084617)
Battle in the Civil War (ISBN: 1869871006)
[These two books were written by Paddy Griffith and provide details on tactics and strategy of the ACW, plus other information useful to re-enactors and gamers]
Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga (ISBN: 0700605967)
Chickamauga (ISBN: 0803298021)
Confederacy’s Last Hurrah (ISBN: 0700606505)
Antietam: Crossroads of Freedom (ISBN: 0195135210)
Ninety-Eight Days (ISBN: 1572330325)
Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Shiloh (ISBN: 0962601829)
Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Franklin (ISBN: 0962601853)

Several audio tour and guidebook (field guides) packages were bought to help me recall some of the details of the park foot/vehicle routes. I used the Stones River and Chickamauga (the latter presented by Peter Cozzens, author of the Tennessee trilogy mentioned above) audiocassettes during my battlefield tours. I bought the Vicksburg field guide because it is narrated by Ed Bearss, the park historian for 10 years and author of probably the definitive books on the campaign.