The Continuing War

THE CONTINUING WAR by James I. Robertson, Jr. As the third year of the Centennial unfolds, state centennial commissions continue their lead in the field of Civd War publications. The Louisiana CWCC has sponsored a two-volume history of the Pelican State during die 1861-1865 conflict. Louisiana State University Press will publish the work late diis spring. Two weU-respected historians are currently researching for a centennial history of Alabama in die war. Publication is not slated for at least a year. Volume III of die excellent Massachusetts in the Civil War booklet series has just been released. Copies may be obtained by writing Miss Mary V. Darcy, Executive Secretary, Massachusetts CWCC, State Capitol, Boston. In December the Arkansas Commission published Arkansas and the Civil War. John R. Ferguson, the state historian, authored diis survey. Copies have already been distributed to libraries throughout diat state. The Tennessee CWCC has three publication projects underway: "Directory of Civil War Monuments in Tennessee" (due out this year), "Andiology of Tennessee in the Civd War" (a two-volume study edited by Stanley F. Horn and scheduled for publication in 1964), and "Mditary History of Tennessee in the Confederate War" ( a two-part wrap-up of Tennessee units and personnel which wiU be issued in 1965). The North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission is already demonstrating a commendable penchant for publication. Works already released include Glenn Tucker's Front Rank, a history of North Carolina in the war; A Johnny Reb Band: the Pride of Tarheelia, the story of the 26th Infantry's band; and Dixie Geography, a reprint of an 1864 Confederate textbook. A portion of die staff, under die direction of Louis H. Manarin, is now engaged in compiling a new and completeroster of North Carolina troops. The finished work wiU encompass ten volumes. The first volume, treating of cavalry, wiU be published late diis year. Local centennial committees in Virginia are also busy with compdations and new works. Forthcoming studies from the Old Dominion include "Henrico Home Front, 1861-1865," "The Minutes of the Richmond City Council," and a new, detailed index to the Southern Historical Society Papers. No release dates have been made as yet for any of these 95 96J AMES I. ROBERTSO N, JR. works. The District of Columbia CWCC recently published The Symbol and the Sword, a very weU-written account of civilian life in Washington during die turbulent war years. Scott Hart and Joseph Mitchell prepared this summary, which contains thirty-five illustrations as weU as text. Copies are available from the District Commission (Barr Budding, 910 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington ) at a nominal cost. Elsewhere, Auburn University's Malcolm C. McMillan is the editor of a newly released study, The Alabama Confederate Reader, which contains over a hundred selections of documentary material relative to die war. . . . Dr. Frederick Williams of Michigan State University is currently editing the Civil War letters of James A. Garfield. In addition, Professor Williams is also co-authoring a multi-volume edition of Garfield 's very revealing diary. No publication date has been set for either project. . . . Harper wdl soon release a picture and prose history of the Confederacy by the successful team of Bell I. Wiley and Hirst D. Millionen . Guide to Federal Archives Relating to the Civil War is die title of a new, clothbound work just released by the National Archives. The 721pagebibliography describes Federal records, dating mostly in die 1860's, available for research at the Archives and elsewhere. The listings are grouped under such headings as die Congress, the Judiciary, and the executive departments, and a full index facilitates use of the guide as a whole. All serious researchers will want copies of this valuable catalogue. . . . The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy at the University ofWisconsin published this winter a clothbound, unusual, but valuable study, Medicines for the Union Army: the United States Army Laboratories during the Civil War. George Winston Smith of the University of New Mexico is the author of this 119-page treatise, which includes several rare and interesting photographs. Allan Nevins is updating the history of the Civil War done a halfcentury ago by the great nationalist historian, James Ford...