Customer Reviews

Civil War Curiosities: Strange Stories, Oddities, Events, and Coincidences

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

One of the previous reviewers best described this book as a niche in the vast sea of Civil War literature available. This book is unique in that rather than focusing on the entire war, or a specific aspect of the war, this book floods the reader with a myriad of little known facts from numerous facets of the war.

The book is divided into 27 chapters. One of the nice aspects of the book is that each chapter is short enough so that they can be read in 15 minutes or under, thus giving the reader many opportunities to stop reading without stopping in the middle of the story. The chapters cover a plethora of topics including critters of the Civil War, the role of horses, stories of people before they were famous, the view of both sides regarding the use of Negro soldiers, and an amusing chapter on military officer appraisals. Some chapters I enjoyed immensely such as the chapters on new and outmoded weapons, how the abolition of slavery was not the North's goal initially, and the chapter on fate/chance. However, as with any book with this many subjects in it, there are chapters that an individual will not be as interested in. For this reason, occasionally the book seemed to drag on.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for non-conventional stories on the Civil War or anyone who is interested in American history in general. This book would be an excellent academic reference for a paper; however, I would think finding specific information might be difficult without reading the entire book. The book has a thorough index, but the chapters are organized in such a way that they do not have a specific timeline or geographical location, just information about the general subject described by the chapter's title.

This work was fascinating to read and was neither over dramatic or under written. The stories were lively and interesting and the additon of old photos and draqwings helped fill out the book.

This book won't bog you down in heavy reading, but it will liven your interest in the odd coincidences of the Civil War!

I have three of Garrison's books: The Amazing Civil War, Civil War Curiosities, and More Civil War Curiosities. I would recommend each and every book to anyone! The facts that Garrison writes about are both interesting and captivating and being a high school American History teacher, I plan on using the facts that I have found no where else to captivate my students and give them a perspective on the war that they may have never found otherwise

For this being the first book I have ever read on the Civil War, it wasn't that bad. I was expecting to be bored out of my mine while reading it and that it would be a struggle for me to get through the whole thing. It wasn't about the battles and how and why they happened. It was more about the interesting and unusual things that happened during these battles. So even if you wish to learn nothing about the Civil War you will be entertained with the peculiar and fascinating stories that are told.

The book is divided up into several areas of the war. Some areas are much more interesting than others. For me personally, I enjoyed reading about the women's effort to help in the war. The things that they would do, like dressing up like a man to be able to fight or going along with the troops to help those who were injured in fighting, showed their love for their country and for their husbands. However, I had a hard time getting through the section about the new weapons that came about during the war, because I know nothing about weapons so I couldn't really relate to it. If I read this book again I would not read the book from front to back but, rather, read the sections I was interested in because I feel that way I could get more out of the book if I was interested in what I was reading.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the Civil War because they will be entertained with new stories and happenings that they have not heard of before.

Webb Garrison's CIVIL WAR CURIOSITIES, subtitled "Strange Stories, Oddities, Events, and Coincidences", is his attempt to provide a compendium of such judged by brevity, interest, and novelty. The author pretty much succeeds at the first but, for the casual reader, more or less flops on the last two. However, Sgt. Joe Friday of the old TV cop series DRAGNET, wanting just the facts, would be pleased.

In twenty-seven chapters grouped under five parts, Garrison belabors such topics as soldiers' wives following their husbands into battle, the enlistment of Black soldiers, hostages, soldiers' pets, atrocities, gaudy uniforms, battle flags and their bearers, warships, Lincoln's appearance, outmoded and new weapons, the sounds of combat, and leaders' opinions of their contemporaries. Rather than pen a coherent and learned book on, say, the role of the fighting clergy, the author makes his point on the cheap with disconnected paragraphs and clusters of paragraphs about individuals. Taking as one of the shortest examples - Garrison does achieve brevity, if not particular interest - we read:

"A report published in the Memphis 'Bulletin' said that notorious Tennessee guerrilla leader Richardson had as his chief aide the Rev. Captain Burrow, an ordained minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church."

And, if novelty was a criterion for inclusion, then how can there be so many entries of a type? In the chapter about officers continuing or returning to fight while severely ill or after being crippled, one reads of at least sixty-six such Tough Guys. The entire chapter is a litany of factoids of which the following is representative:

"When Edward A. Wild's left arm was hit at Shiloh, he used his training as a physician to direct the amputation. As a brigadier, he later led black troops on raids and against guerrillas in North Carolina."

Mind you, there are occasional gems of interesting novelty, this one concerning the Rebel capture of the coal brig "J.P. Ellicott" by the "Retribution":

"When crew members of the captured vessel were replaced by Confederates, the wife of the Ellicott's mate was left aboard. As soon as the Retribution was out of sight, she broke out a store of rum and the captors became thoroughly drunk. Then the wife ... put irons on Confederates and sailed the bark into St. Thomas, where she delivered it and her captives to the U.S. consul." You go, girl!

Or, this one:

"According to the New York 'World' of September 12, 1861, any man near St. Louis in a Federal uniform was in mortal danger. 'Mrs. Willow and a free colored woman named Hanna Courtena were arrested yesterday for selling poisoned pies to the soldiers at Camp Benton'." Hmm, I may have had one of those once at a dysfunctional family Thanksgiving dinner.

And this:

"Lincoln's private secretary, John Hay, refused to deliver papers to (Secretary of War) Stanton unless ordered to do so by the president. 'I would rather make a tour of a smallpox hospital' than ask him for a courtesy, he said."

Though I'm not a serious student of the Civil War, I've read more tomes about it than any other conflict. For me, CIVIL WAR CURIOSITIES was nothing more than a collection of uncurious scraps brought together in a single binding to justify a book sale. If you're a Civil War fanatic looking for fodder for a trivia game among the like-minded, then this volume may be of some use. Otherwise, it isn't worth the effort in a lifetime challenged by too many books and too little time.

Civil War Curiosities uncovers those unusual persons, attitudes, and events that take you beyond a textbook understanding of the Civil War. A collection of fascinating anecdotes and colorful stories, this book covers a wide variety of subjects, including "newfangled' weapons that changed the nature of war, the press' outrageous inaccuracy in covering the conflict, the phenomenon of `silent battles, ` and various disguises, atrocities, and mix-ups.

Just one of the accounts which I loved told of when Sam and Keith Blalock joined the Twenty-sixth North Carolina Regiment, they claimed to be old friends who were distantly related. It was months before anyone discovered "Sam's" real name was Melinda. When Keith signed up to fight the Yankees, his wife put on a man's attire and went with him to war. I found this book to be very interesting reading.

This book made for interesting reading, and was just scholarly enough to convince, without being loaded with footnotes and references. I recommend it.

The Book told about tons of facts I never knew about and told more details about things I already Knew!!!!!!!!!

I picked this book up after reading a monster of a historical book and enjoyed it very much. It is written in anecdotal paragraphs, with each paragraph being relevant to the chapter it is included in. It has a very interesting chapter on hostages and also one on officers who were in the clergy. My favorite chapter was on quotes about officers from their contemporaries. I will warn the reader that the book seems to lean toward northern sympathies, which is just fine, but I like my history to be a bit more unbiased. Any casual student of the American Civil War should pick up this entertaining book. Advanced scholars will probably enjoy it as well, but the material is pretty light, and most of the anecdotes I am sure you will have come across before.

This provided some little known insights into the humanity and inhumanity of this epic war in America's history. Both sides were brutal, both sides compassionate in individual ways. A thoroughly enjoyable read.