10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Louisiana Tigers: Among The Very Best Brigade Histories, November 18, 2009
This review is from: The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 (Hardcover)
The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863, Scott Mingus, Louisiana State University Press, 352 pages, 8 maps, notes, bibliography, index, $34.95
Certainly The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 will be one of the highlights of both the Battle of Gettysburg and Civil War literature in 2009. Mingus' work advances both the history of the Louisiana Tigers and the history of the 1863 Pennsylvania Campaign. Reminiscent of the best brigade histories, such as Nolan's Iron Brigade, Roberston's Stonewall Brigade and Wert's dual history of the Stonewall and the Iron brigades, Mingus relies heavily on the soldiers' accounts of their travels and travails.
Wheat's Tigers, the predecessor of the Louisiana Tigers, is acknowledged in the first pages of the book. In 1861 Company B (The Tigers) of the 1st Louisiana Special Battalion took the nickname in New Orleans and fought in Wheat's Louisiana Battalion at the First Manassas. In the spring of 1862 the battalion was brigaded with the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Louisiana regiments. This brigade became the First Louisiana Brigade (Louisiana Tigers) on the Peninsula when the battalion was decimated and Wheat killed.
One of the strengths of Mingus' book is that it balances the Pennsylvania campaign's history with the brigade's history. The author describes the campaign to the extent that the brigade is fully in context at all times. Mingus never gives the reader more than is needed regarding the campaign. Having read Trudeau's, Sears' or Coddington's campaign histories, a reader will have enough background information to enjoy The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign.
In Mingus' book, the Louisiana Tigers never operate in a vacuum. When finishing the work, the reader will have a good understanding of the Tigers' opponents also. The march of the Tigers from Chancellorsville to the Potomac is succinctly covered. The Battle of Second Winchester is thoroughly described with Milroy and his weary Federal boys fully depicted. Mingus cites participants' recollection that of all the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia, Second Winchester was the best planned and executed of them all.
Mingus does not limit his account to the testimony of the Louisianians regarding themselves. The testimony of the civilian witnesses and the Federal soldiers who negotiated with and fought against the Tigers is regularly offered by Mingus. These primary sources are among the best descriptions in the book. The accounts of the Louisiana sharpshooter in the McCreary house, the death of the 8th Louisiana flag bearer whose canteen carried whiskey laced with gunpowder, the escape of a Louisiana deserter through a Rebel picket line on July 3, the lonely death of a sick and worn out campaigner in in the care of a Gettysburg doctor in an Adams County farm house are among the many anecdotes that lift The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 above the plethora of Gettysburg books that appear every year.
CWL appreciates Mingus' attention to the calendar and the clock throughout the story. Another strength are the appendices: order of battle, official reports, casualties, weather, chronology. The eight maps show the advance of the brigade from the Mason Dixon line to York, Pennsylvania and then to Heidlersburg, Adams County. Unfortunately other maps showing the fighting on July 1 and 2, the street fighting of July 2 and 3, and the retreat routes are not offered. In particular the July 2nd assault path of the First Louisiana Brigade from Winebrenner's Run to the east slope of East Cemetery Hill needs a map. Owners of Trudeau's Gettysburg: A Testing of Courage will have sufficient maps. Also the McElfresh watercolor map with the crops and fence lines of East Cemetery Hill is very helpful. There are no photographs or illustrations in the book. Portraits of Harry T. Hays, the rank and file soldiers, or civilian structures though not necessary are always helpful to a reader. Louisiana Tigers is a book to which this reader will often return.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding book on the Louisiana Tigers at Gettysburg, October 29, 2009
This review is from: The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 (Hardcover)
Having written five books on the Gettysburg Campaign, I have a pretty good grasp of what makes a good book and a not so good one. I really liked Mingus' Tigers book at many different levels. It does a great job of detailing the brigade's activities prior to Gettysburg. The brigade played a major role at the Second Battle of Winchester and it subsequently made long marches through the Pennsylvania countryside. The book really shines when it gets down to the Battle of Gettysburg, particularly the second day, when it successfully stormed Cemetery Hill. The writing is crisp and clear and definitely holds one's interest. Factually, it is first rate, and although I wrote a book entitled, "The Brigades of Gettysburg," I still learned some interesting facts. Several informative appendices complete the volume. In all honestly, I did contribute two maps to the volume, but that in no way has influenced my review. It is a top-notch book that belongs on the shelf of every Gettysburg enthusiast.
Brad Gottfried
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scott Mingus does it again!, November 27, 2009
This review is from: The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 (Hardcover)
This latest book by Pennsylvania native, Scott Mingus, is a well written account of the exploits of the famous Louisiana Tigers during the summer 1863 campaign against Winchester, Virginia and the invasion of Pennsylvania by the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
Scott Mingus has that rare talent of breathing life into his writing as he includes fascinating snapshots of personal interest in the words of individual soldiers, citizens of both Virginia and Pennsylvania, and newspaper accounts of the day. The reader develops a pretty good feeling of what it was like to march and fight with the Louisiana Tigers, a group that raised eyebrows among contemporary Southerners and Northerners alike, yet who fought like their namesake on many different battlefields.
The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign, June - July 1863 fills a definite void in the Civil War literary works and provides much new information about the Louisiana Tigers and their role in the Gettysburg campaign. I highly recommend it.
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