Albert Nofi is not only a great author, but he also serves as a military commentator on radio and television. And if you attended last summer's Origins Convention in Forth Worth, Texas, you had the opportunity to meet him in person. "Al" has written other books pertaining to the Civil War, including The Valley Campaign, The Gettysburg Campaign, and A Civil War Treasury.

But for now I wanted to share with you my thoughts and some sample entries from The Civil War Notebook. I'd be surprised if you could find this one on the shelves at your local bookstore, so you are going to have to order it. I ordered my copy at Walden Books and it only took them one week to get it.

The book is divided into seven chapters: before the war, each of the five war years, and after the war. This makes it easier to locate the odds and ends of the topics you are interested in. Or just pick it up and start reading from any point, as each page contains about four separate facts, and it does not matter in what order you read this book. It also makes a great book just to lay out on your coffee table for guests to pick up and browse through.

I was impressed that Al covered all aspects of the war in his quest for these tidbits of knowledge. In this book you will read facts about the army, navy, and politics of the period. You will also read about some of the more unusual facts about your favorite (or most disliked) military commanders. Here is a sampling of some of the facts contained in this book:

• In 1836, Lieutenant Robert Anderson's star pupil in artillery tactics at West Point was Cadet Pierre G. T. Beauregard (who considered Anderson his favorite instructor), who, twenty-five years later, directed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, which Anderson commanded.
• In 1836 Cadet Lewis A. Armistead, who died leading a brigade in Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, was expelled from West Point for breaking a plate over the head of Jubal A. Early.
• When Ulysses S. Grant married Julia Dent on August 22, 1848, the best man was James Longstreet.
• Thomas J. Jackson, a profoundly religious man, is said to have once refused to use a particular batch of gunpowder because it had been procured on the Sabbath.
• Among the many technical innovations on the famed U.S.S. Monitor is the often overlooked fact that she was the first warship to have flush toilets.
• One day, finding that the entire Cabinet was opposed to a proposal which he had made, Lincoln smiled and said,"The measure passes by a majority of one."
• At the battle of Shiloh, all six of the division commanders in the Union Army of Tennessee were lawyers: Stephen A. Hurlbut, John A. McClernand, Benjamin M. Prentiss, William T. Sherman, Lew Wallace, and W. H. L. Wallace.
• The yacht America which captured the Queen's Cup in 1851 and began the famed series of races which still bear her name, served as a blockade runner during the Civil War and was sunk off Charleston in early 1862.
• During the attack on the Confederate forts guarding Hatteras Inlet on August 28, 1862, a Union warship, believing it was bombarding enemy cavalry, decimated a herd of beef cattle.

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