The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865

by E.B. Long

"In all the vast collection of books on the American Civil War there is no book like this one," says Bruce Catton. Never before has such a stunning body of facts dealing with the war been gathered together in one place and presented in a coherent, useful, day-by-day narrative. And never before have statistics revealed human suffering of such heroic and tragic magnitude. The text begins in November, 1860, and ends with the conclusion of hostilities in May, 1865, and the start of reconstruction. It is designed to furnish the reader not only with information, but to tell a story. Here, in addition to the momentous events that are a familiar part of our history, the daily entries recount innumerable lesser military actions as well as some of the other activities and thoughts of men great and unknown engaged in America's most costly war:



- May 5,1864-a private in the Army of Northern Virginia writes at the beginning of the Battle of the Wilderness, "It is a beautiful spring day on which all this bloody work is being done."




- May 6,1864 -Gen. Lee rides among
his men and is shouted to the rear by
his protective troops.




- April 30, 1864- Joe Davis, five
year-old son of the Confederate
President, dies after a fall from the
high veranda of the White House in
Richmond.



THE CIVIL WAR, DAY BY DAY is divided
into months, each month preceded by a summary which helps to set the military and political facts in context of the time and reveals the attitudes of people, North and South, toward the war at that point. This unique volume's features include special studies, covering the facts and figures of population, casualties, and the economics of the war; an Index by Dates; and the complete bibliography of Bruce Catton's The Centennial History of the Civil War for which project E. B. Long served as director of research.

Genres: Civil War, History, American Civil War, Nonfiction, Reference, Military History, Military Fiction

1135 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1971

Reviews

[Diana Wilder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book that has you on the edge of your seat.

...Unless you are writing something set in the American Civil War and suddenly have the sinking feeling that you may have made a colossal error in date and time that will require rewriting an entire section and, possibly, scrapping your initial idea.

The setup is excellent, useful and easy to deal with. The writing style is not at all dry. I recommend this to anyone who is either a nit-picker, likes to know the order of things, or is interested in the progress of the American Civil War.

[Singleton Mosby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this book over four years ago and only now come to the last couple of entries.
Reading it day by day creates a whole new appreciation of the ebb and flow of this great struggle.
From the first year in which both sides where testing the water and not much happened, same for the Peninsular campaign which lasted for a long time to the rapidly escalating events of the Overland campaign and the long siege of Petersburg which follows. In no other way you get to understand how slow our quickly events evolved.

Another inters insight is the vastness of the Westernmost theater and the large number of skirmishes, raids and scouts which where fought all over the place.

Great read indeed and highly recommended.

[Robert Boissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reference work that every Civil War amateur historian, and perhaps professional historian, will want for consultation. You move from the excellent index in the back of the book, to the date of interest in the front portion of the book. Only those with a love of diaries will want to read this in a linear fashion. It is not a narrative; it is a reference tool, an almanac. I would hesitate to get very involved in any discussion of the order of events of the U. S. Civil War without this work close at hand. The short summaries at the start of each year and month of the almanac are welcome reminders.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history, showing what happened on each and every day of the war. There is also a special statistics section at the end of the book, covering the total number of soldiers and casualties on both sides, the economics of the war, etc. The 110 bibliography is probably not as useful nowadays, due to the number of Civil War books published in the last half in the last half century.

[Jocelyn Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great to be able to look up a certain date during the war and see what happened.