Selected Bibliography, C.W. @ Charleston

Part of Civil War @ Charleston Website

A good general list on the war has been compiled, most of the major works are listed.

The Civil War in and around Charleston, SC

Wise, Stephen R., "Gate of Hell, Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863", U.S.C. Press, 1994. Selected best S.C. history book for 1994. See excerpt on the Swamp Angel."

Hunter, Alvah F., "A Year on a Monitor (Photo) and the Destruction of Ft. Sumter", U.S.C. Press, 1987. (A cabin boy's account of the naval war against Charleston..)

Martha A. Zierden, Steven D. Smith, and Ronald W. Anthony "Our Duty Was Quite Arduous": History and Archaeology of the Civil War on Little Folly Island. Charleston Museum Leaflet Number 32. by . 1995 "History of the Civil War on Little Folly Island"

The Siege of Charleston by Milby Burton, U.S.C. Press, Columbia, SC 1970. An excellent, detailed and engrossing book on the two year defense of Charleston. Detailed coverage on the Confederate defense of Ft. Sumter including the devastating underground fire there (see excerpt).

Pat Brennan Secessionville: Assault on Charleston published by Savas/Woodbury Hardcover. 232 pp. 6 maps. Published November 1996. On June 16, 1862, Union forces around Charleston, under the command of Gen. Benham, advanced inland on a reconnaissance mission that erupted into a major engagement with Confederates led by Gen. Evans. The fighting took place at the field works around Secessionville, a small hamlet on the James River. Yankee troops launched several attacks, but the Rebels managed to throw them back with heavy losses. Finally Benham was forced to retreat, and Charleston was once again safe. After the battle, the Confederate officers were praised for their efforts, but Benham was relieved of his command. This new book benefits from never before used resources. Read the details of its release in Charleston this fall.

Ethel Trenholm Seabrook Nepveux, Email ETSEABROOK@aol.com; George Alfred Trenholm and the Company that Went to War, Published by the Author, 717 Parish Road, Charleston, SC 29407 - 1994. A detailed study of George Trenholm and the Charleston shipping firm which was alleged to have imported hundreds of millions of dollars of war material into the Confederacy, including the powder and shot used at Shiloh. Read our short excerpt on Million Dollar Cargos.

Hagood, Memoirs of the War of Secession

Johnson, John; The Defense of Charleston Harbor, Including Ft. Sumter and the Adjacent Islands, Walker, Evans & Cogswell, 1890 (Reprinted by the Guild Press 1994, ISBN 1-5573-048-1

The annotated footnotes to Michael Harrington's John Whilden article give detailed references to many useful sources.

Battery Wagner

Wise, Stephen R., "Gate of Hell, Campaign for Charleston Harbor, 1863", U.S.C. Press, 1994. Selected best S.C. history book for 1994. See excerpt on the Swamp Angel."

Battery Wagner, The Siege, The Men Who Fought, and The Casualties. Written By Timothy Eugene Bradshaw, 1993, Published by Palmetto Historical Works, Columbia, SC. The book begins with the attack on Charleston, moves into the construction of Battery Wagner, the action on James Island, the first assault on July 11, and the grand assault of the 18th. These chapters are followed by the siege period and finish with the evacuation of the Confederate Garrision in September. Many of the photographs from Haas and Peale along with some first time published views of South Carolina soldiers are used. In the appendix there is the most complete list of casualties from both Confederate and Union Armies detailing the Names, Rank, Company, Regiment and in most cases, the nature of the wounds and / or death.

All the books on the 54th. treat Wagner extensively.

A Sketch of the Charleston Light Dragoons by Edward L. Wells, Charleston, 1888, reprinted by J. Fox Books, 9 Principice Rd. Camden, SC 29020, 1996, covers service of local cavalry unit dating from the Revolution through service with the 4th. SC Cavalry on the S.C. Coast and later, with Hampton in the Virginia theater during the overland campaign.

Women and the Civil War

Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Foust. University of North Carolina Press, due out in March 1996. 344 pp. 0-8078-2255-8 (An exploration of how the status of Southern Women changed during the war as they took over the management of Plantations.)

Mary Boykin Chestnut, Peter Wilkerson of the S.C. Historical Society had put up a page on her famous diary and its various editions.

A Woman's Civil War...A Diary with Reminiscences of the War from March 1862, by Cornelia Peake McDonald. It is edited, with an Inttroduction by Minrose C. Gwin. Published by the University of Wisconsin Press, copyright 1992. ISBN 0-299-13264-1

Massey, Elizabeth. Ersatz in the Confederacy: Shortages and Substitutes on the Confederate Homefront. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993, p. 106. The undisputed classic on how Confederate Women "made do" on the home front, Okra Coffee, handmade candles, recycled clothes and many other items.

Nepeux, Ethel Trenholm Seabrook; Sarah Hanry Boyce 1825-1901, A glimpse at a Remarkable Woman during the turbulant Civil War Era Published by the Author 717 Parish Road, Charleston, SC 29407, 1994, 76 pp. Boyce lived in Columbia, SC during the war and this careful collection gleaned from letters and secondary materials provides insight into her life and other South Carolina women of the era.

Burchard, Peter; Charlotte Forten, A Black Teacher in the Civil War, Crown Publishers, N.Y., 1994. This book, written for young readers, is a biography of a young African American who came South to teach the freed slaves at Port Royal, South of Charleston. Illustrated.

Books on Civil War Women from Shamrock Hill A list of Books compiled by the Civil War Bookseller. Orders can be accepted online.

10th. SC Infantry

Walker, Cornelius Irvine, Rolls and Historic Schetch of the 1oth. Regiment, S.C. Volunteers: in the army of the Confederate States, Stonewall House, 1985. (A histor by the Lt. Col of the Unit from its organization to the surrender at Durham Station with a roster of the men indicating their rank and if they survived the war. Also a schetch on Co. "A" of the Georgetown Rifle Guards and a fine introduction.

Watkins, Sam R., Co. Aytch, A Side Show of the Big Show. McMillian Publishing Co. 1962. Probably the best loved Memoir of the War. Sam Watkins fought in the same army as the 10th. SC and his funny, sad and amazing account of the war is told from the view of a private soldier. Sam may exaggerate, but we still love his stories.

African American and the Civil War, 54th. Mass.

Briggs, Walter DeBlois: Charles Edward Briggs, Civil War Surgeon in a Colored Regiment, Berkeley California, 1960.

Steven D. Smith. Whom We Will Never More See. South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia. 1993 "History and Archaeology of the 55th Massachusetts and Ist North Carolina on Folly Island during the Civil War" (Describes discovery and excavation of Union cemetary on Folly Island used by African American Troops and living conditions on the island.)

Cox, Clinton. Undying glory : the story of the Massachusetts 54th regiment, Scholastic Inc., 1991. (A good book on the unit for young readers.)

Black southerners in gray : essays on Afro-Americans in Confederate armies,: Southern Heritage Press, c1994. (Interesting account of black men in the Confederate army with a lot of new material, including the possible presence of a small group of black soldiers in Charleston, SC in 1861

Michael P Johnson and James L. Roark "Black Masters". Norton (N.Y.) 1984. (about black slave ownership)

Army Life in a Black Regiment by James Higginson, A good history of the 1st. SC Colored and its actions on the South Carolina Coast.

Charlotte Forten, a Black Teacher in the Civil War

Review of Gullah Statesman, a new book on Robert Smalls, the slave which ran the steamer Planter out to the Federal Fleet from Charelston Harbour, served as a federal river pilot during the war and later became a U.S. Congressman.

The Court Martial of Sgt. William Walker, 3rd. S.C. (U.S.) Colored Troops Bibliography

Gladstone, William A. United States colored troops, 1863-1867: c1990.

Gooding, Clarence, On the Alter of Freedom A remarkable collection of letters to the editor sent home by a black, enlisted member of the 54th.

Freedom, A Documentary History of Emancipation, The Black Military Experience, Edited by Ira Berlin, Cambridge University Press, 1982, 852 pp. This excellent book reprints hundreds of original documents with commentary. Part of a series of works which also cover non military aspects of emancipation. Well indexed and organized.

S Greene, Robert Ewell, 1931- Swamp Angels : a biographical study of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, true facts about the black defenders of the Civil War: BoMark/Greene Publishing Group, 1990. (This is an excellent annotated roster of the men of the unit, listing their ages, occupations, education, marital status, war record and other information. Some privates have several paragraphs, officers and NCOs even more.)

A Voice of Thunder.  The Civil War Letters of George E. Stephens  ed. by D. Yacovone Stephens's writings cross time to tell us what it was like to be a black soldier during the Civil War.  A Philadelphia Cabinetmaker and a soldier in the 54th Massachusetts, he was an important correspondent for the New York Weekly Anglo-African, the preeminent African-American newspaper of its time.  From the inception of the 54th early in 1863 Stephens was the unit's voice, telling  of its struggles and its quest to be paid as much as white troops.  His description of the July 18, 1863 assault on Battery Wagoner and his writings on the units 18 month campaign are gripping accounts of heroism in the face of oppression.

Jordan, Ervin L. Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia University Press of Virginia, 1995.

Luck, Wilbert H. Journey to Honey Hill : the 55th Massachusetts Regiment's (Colored) journey south to fight the Civil War that toppled the . . . Wiluk Press, 1976. This was the brother unit of the 54th. and served along side it in several battles including the 1864 assault on the James Island Lines.

McPherson, James M. Marching toward freedom : Blacks in the Civil War, 1861-1865 Facts on File, c1991.

Quarles, Benjamin, 1904- The Negro in the Civil War Little, Brown, c1953.

Review of a book on the THE LOUISIANA NATIVE GUARDS: The Black Military Experience during the Civil War

U.S. Military History Institute Bibliography on the 54th. Massachusetts. The institute has compiled bibliographies on many units that served during the war. This one contains some sources not listed here.

African American History Books Sale list from Shamrock Hill Books
Current titles from their catalogue, orders can be taken online.

27th. South Carolina Infantry

(also Charleston Battallion, 1st. S.C. Battallion, sometimes mentioned as 1st. SC, though another unit also has that designation)

Johnson Hagood, Brigadier General C.S.A.; Memoirs of the War of Secession From the Original Manuscripts, Guilf Bindery Press, P.O. Box 38009, Germantown, Tenn 38183, 1994 (Repreint of the 1911 Edition) ISBN # 1-55793-027-9. This book describes Hagood's Confederate service in Charleston and later command of Hagoods Brigade (including the 27th. SC) in Virginia and North Carolina. Good coverage of the Siege of Charleston, Overland campaign and Petersburg.

Horres, C. J.; Charleston's Civil War Monster Guns," The Blakely Rifles South Carolina Historical Magazine, April 1996, pp. 115-138. An intriguing technical article with illustrations on the 12.25 diameter British Made Blakely rifles mounted in Charleston for the defense of the city. Some of the most sophisticated large guns of their day, these rifles had the longest range of any weapon, Federal or Confederate, used at Charleston.

Manigalt, Edward; Siege Train, University of South Carolina Press (Library Society of Charleston) Columbia, SC 1986, ISBN# 0-87249-491-8. An account of Manigalt's units actions defending the S.C. Coast. Most of the coastal cavalry was ordered to other districts due to war needs, leaving artillary units to scout and defend the inner coast and protect the Atlantic Coast Rail Line. Good technical discussions of the performance of varios types of artillary and tactics in an environment giving unusual independence to artillary operations.

The Confederate Submarine Hunley

Ragan, Mark K., The Hunley: Submarines, Sacrifice & Success in the Civil War, Charleston, Narwhal Press, Inc., 1996

Youth and School Books

Small Planet Civil War Bibliography

Charlotte Forten, a Black Teacher in the Civil War

Educational and Teaching Items from Shamrock Hill Books.