Customer Reviews

Touring the Carolina's Civil War Sites (Touring the Backroads Series)

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

 

 

This book is invaluable to the Civil War enthusiast when touring the battlefields and sites of the Carolina's. The tours are filled with surprises that are off the beaten path and the directions are life savers. Without this book I'd have missed some priceless sidetrips. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone taking a Civil War tour of the Carolinas and look forward to more such books from Clint Johnson in the future.

Maps and black-and-white photographs pepper Touring the Carolinas' Civil War Sites, a blend of history and travel guide to historic places in North and South Carolina. Now in an updated second edition, Touring the Carolinas' Civil War Sites features 21 tours. A user-friendly guide, Touring the Carolinas' Civil War Sites is enthusiastically recommended both for visitors to the Carolinas and for armchair travelers interested in vicariously re-living pivotal moments in American military history. Also highly recommended for Civil War tourists is Johnson's "Touring Virginia's and West Virginia's Civil War Sites", also in a newly updated second edition.

Simply put the book is well organized, well written and I have just about worn out my copy on my trips through the carolinas.

I really enjoyed reading Johnson's book about the important yet often overlooked events in the Carolinas during the Civil War, specifically the following:

1. Fort Fisher - the largest sea fort in the war that protected the vital town of Wilmington NC and the blockade runners so important for supplying Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
2. Charleston - where the whole shootin' match started.
3. Bentonville - the last large scale battle of the war.
4. Outer Banks - early Union victories here were vital to capturing many parts of Eastern North Carolina from which the Union could launch several offensives.
5. Sherman's March - the destruction of certain towns in both Carolinas (particularly South Carolina) further weakened the South's will to continue the struggle.

I also enjoyed reading about the locations of various gravesites of Confederate generals and their Civil War service.

Indeed, if not for this book, this native North Carolinian and long-time Civil War buff may never have learned of and visited the sites of some of the lesser-known sites other than those mentioned above.

Johnson's writing style is smooth without being overly simplistic and contains several anecdotes (some humorous ones too)of the interesting events which took place during the Civil War years.

Highly recommended!

This is a good book for the history explorer. The directions are well organized and easy to follow. My wife, who isn't a history buff, has been fascinated by the information at/about some of the sites.

William C Revels was not black. His Death certificate says Indian (native american). His wife was black. He was my great great great grandmother's brother.