The Wall Street Journal featured today a listing of the five best “Civil War Diaries, Blue and Gray” by Harold Holzer. The list is:
Beale, Howard K., ed., Diary of Gideon Welles (1960)
Jones, John B. A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital (1866)
Nevins, Allan and Milton Halsey Thomas, eds., The Diary of George Templeton Strong, 1835-1875 (1952)
Russell, William Howard. My Diary North and South (1863)
Woodward, C. Vann, ed., Mary Chesnut’s Civil War (1981)
These are all Civil War classics written by civilians, but I fear that this is just a foretaste of what is to come during the sesquicentennial. Reading only the above primary accounts would leave a reader with mostly an eastern-centric focus, and as you know, there was much more to the war than what happened in the east. I fear that the national media will place a heavy emphasis on the war in the east with only occasional, trivia like mentions of the war in the trans-Mississippi. To broaden out Mr. Holzer’s list somewhat, I have created my own, admittedly subjective and personal list. The six books that I have selected are all primary accounts written by soldiers, but they are not confined to the diary format; all relate, of course to the trans-Mississippi. Here are the first selections:
Alberts, Don E. Rebels on the Rio Grande: The Civil War Journal of A. B. Peticolas (Albuquerque: Merit Press, 1993).
A soldier illustrated account of the Confederacy’s invasion of New Mexico in 1862, A. B. Peticolas, an attorney in civilian life, served in the Fourth Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers during a campaign that covered hundreds of miles through the deserts of west Texas and finally into the mountains of northern New Mexico. Peticolas’ journal contains vivid accounts of fighting at Valverde and Glorieta. He also fully acknowledges the incredible human suffering caused by campaigning in a hostile environment.
Baird, W. David, ed., A Creek Warrior for the Confederacy: The Autobiography Of Chief G. W. Grayson (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988).
George Washington Grayson served in Creek Indian units throughout the war in the Indian Territory. Honey Springs, Flat Rock, 2nd Cabin Creek, and other small actions are documented in this small volume. An unusual feature of this book is that both the antebellum and the postwar periods were discussed making for a well-rounded account. Grayson’s narration reveals that he was an intelligent man and a careful observer. I like the little, revealing touches in the book such as “I had loudly encouraged and cheered my men from the first, speaking always in Indian, until my voice gave way under the continued strain, and was now only a whisper and could scarcely be heard at all” (p. 103).
