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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Biggest Bargain in CW Literature, March 3, 2000
This review is from: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War V1 - The Opening Battles (Hardcover)
The four volumes of the famous Battles and Leaders series constitute one of the essential collections of Civil War source material and the next step up for the casual and interested reader of Civil War literature. It includes lavishly illustrated (photographs, sketches, maps) accounts of the battles by the men who fought them, the great generals, the staff officers and other observers. Nothing is omitted and the price is unbelievably low for books of this sort. The only caveat is that accounts are sometimes self-serving, especially when written by a losing general. Nonetheless things balance out and I doubt if anyone will ever regret buying the set.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Battles& Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles, September 19, 2002
This review is from: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War V1 - The Opening Battles (Hardcover)
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles edited by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel from the editorial staff of "The Century Magazine." This is volume one of a four volume set, being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers, based upon "The Century War Series." This lead off volume begins with a realistic view of Washington,D.C. on the eve of the war as the preparation for war in the North and South begins. There is an excellent account of the fall of Fort Sumter along with detailed accounts of the operations in Virginia. This book is NOT limited to just ground action, but has naval battles and conflicts along the island waterways. What I found to be interesting aside from the eyewitness accounts, were the excellent maps and engravings. This series was originally conceived in 1883 and is refered to as source material in other writings about the Civil War. Grant, Bauregard, Longstreet and Sherman are just a few of the stories and accounts represented in this volume as the opening battles begin and the pages of history were forever changed. Written by the men who fought these battles makes this book very interesting as we read these accounts you begin to feel all of the emotions that bring to bear on these men as war becomes a reality where death and wounding become all too common. We read about battles in Missouri, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, South and North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas as the war heats up and the opening slavos begin.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Civil War Encyclopedia Without an Index, August 14, 2009
This review is from: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War V1 - The Opening Battles (Hardcover)
This volume is the first in a set of four whose contents are primarily memoirs of officers on both sides of the conflict. These collected reprints, organized more-or-less chronologically, are from a series of magazine articles published in the late 19th century. Various helps such as photographs, line drawings, diagrams, and charts also appear.
While any one of these volumes represents a rich resource for history buffs, the set is not without its shortcomings. For example, none of the the first three volumes includes an index. (So far, I own only the first three, so cannot say whether the final volume contains a general index.) Additionally, the front of each successive volume contains an errata list for the previous volume, raising the question of whether the reader is simply "stuck" with the errors that appear in the 4th and final volume. Finally, while in a querulous mood, I'll note that the publisher scrimped substantially on the quality of the paper, which will be browned and brittle before the next generation of readers takes it up.
If you have the least interest in the U.S. Civil War, you'll be glad to have this book in your library. But buy it knowing it's a large pulp masquerading as a hardcover.
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