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THE CONTINUING WAR byJamesI. Robertson,Jr. m the past, and for the benefit of our hundreds of book-collecting readers, each issue of "The Continuing War" has contained at least one "sleeper"—a book unknown or scarce that not only is a valuable study of thewarbutalso still obtainable. This column begins with one of thebest literary"finds"in recent years. Those well-versed in the literature of 1861-1865 are familiar with the J. P. Bell Company of Lynchburg, Virginia, for this firm published more than a score of now-classics on the war (such as The Long Arm of Lee and Diary of a Southern Refugee) in the years 1900-1920. Not only is this company still in business, but, more particularly, it can still supply new copies of four of its most well-known works—and at unbelievably low prices. For instance, W. H. Morgan's Personal Reminiscences of the War of 1861-65 axe the reminiscences of a Virginia private who served under Lee until his capture late in the war. Nicely printed and beautifully bound, it has commanded a top price on the secondhand book marketforyears. Bell's pricefornew copies: $2.50. A second work is Edward R. Turner, The New Market Campaign. Published in 1912, this study has long stood alone as the best treatment of that 1864 Valley engagement climaxed by the charge of the V.M.I. Corps of Cadets. Price: $2.50. No student of Virginia's role in the war can do research on its military leaders without consulting often Jenning C. Wise's MilitaryHistory ofthe Virginia Military Institute from 1839 to 1865. Personal memoirs, biographical sketches, and excerpts from wartime letters and diaries further enhance this anthology of the Academy that gave Jackson to the Confederacy. Price: $3.50 (less than one-third the present asking price). Those who have read Albert T. Bledsoe's Is Davis A Traitor?, a defense of a close friend by a University of Virginia professor of law, no doubt know also of his valuable treatise, The War Between the States, Or, Was Secession A Constitutional Right Previous to the War of 1861-65? As a commentary on constitutional law, this study is worth infinitely more than its price: $1.25. Only limited numbers of each of these four books exist, and, in fairness to all, Bell'spolicyis on a first-come-first-serve, remittance-with-all187 188JAMES I.ROBERTSON, JR. orders basis. Get your orders in quickly, and may the more avid Civil Warriors win! In the present literary field, Glenn Tucker is hard at work on a study of the Chickamauga campaign. His Hancock the Superb, a portion of which was published in the last issue of Civil War History, was an April Bobbs-Merrill release. . . . Little, Brown has issued a study of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, by Ruth P. Randall, the well-known biographer of Mary Todd Lincoln and Abe's children. Ellsworth led the "New York Fire Zouaves" early in the war and was killed in a famous incident in Alexandria, Virginia. Mrs. Randall is the widow of Professor J. G. Randall , whose The Civil War and Reconstruction is used as a text in many college classes. David Donald has completed a revised edition of this work for near-future release. . . . Longmans has published a centennial edition of G. F. R. Henderson's Stonewall Jackson in one volume. This brings to three the number of outstanding works on "Old Jack" in recent months. The University of Georgia Press can still supply copies of The Letters of Warren Akin, edited by Bell Irvin Wiley. Akin was a Confederate Congressman who wrote with an historical pen. . . . Ralph A. Wooster at Lamar State College is working on a history of state secession conventions . . . . Among the University of Chicago's May releases were Frank L. Klement's Copperheads in the Middle West and Eric L. McKitrick's Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction. . . . For background material on the 1861-1865 conflict, read Carleton Beals's Grass-Knuckle Crusade, a Hastings House release. This unrestricted story of the Know-Nothing Party and its attempts to attain political superiority in the period 18201860 goes far in showing the groundwork for...

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