Customer Reviews

Frommer's The Civil War Trust's Official Guide to the Civil War Discovery Trail

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The book is simple and well organized. It is meant to be a catalog of sites. It's descriptions of sites and events are of the thumbsketch variety. Yet, it contains a wide variety of Civil War sites. The trail touches on the social and engineering aspects of the war. Most of the sites are military/battlefield related. I have found it to be a very good companion to either the Smithsonians Guide or Kennedy's Battlefields. This book is well worth the money.

While this book as no where near the historical information to guide you from behind the windshield, it certainly does have broad scope to direct you to the places where you can get that information. I found it well-organized and readable with some interesting side bars. This is a good glove box book.

THE CIVIL WAR TRUST'S OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE CIVIL WAR DISCOVERY TRAIL gives brief-but-accurate looks at over 400 sites in the United States, even those you thought weren't relevant to the Civil War. Time to discover your heritage! Grade: A+

Interesting volume. The focus is the Civil War Discovery Trail, more than 500 sites in 28 states. The Trail is designed to (Page ix) "to inspire and teach the story of the Civil War and its haunting impact on America."

One example: my home state of Illinois. There are several sites, from U. S. Grant's Galena home to the Alton prison for Confederate soldiers to General Logan's Museum in Murphysboro to the Bureau County Historical Society Museum (with many artifacts of the 83rd Illinois Infantry, which mustered for service in the Union Army to Abraham Lincoln's Tomb). What about my current state, Pennsylvania? Much richer than Illinois! The Gettysburg battlefield, of course. Also, the Army War College in Carlisle features the U.S. Army Military Institute, which features many holdings on the Civil War. Also featuring Civil War treasures--the State Museum in Harrisburg, Simon Cameron's mansion President James Buchanan's home in Lancaster, and so on.

All in all, a nice tour of Civil War sites. Not great detail. Only a handful of paragraphs are devoted to each. But this volume can help plan a Civil War-based visit.