Helpful Score: 1
Want to learn more about the state of California's participation in the American Civil War? Then this book may not be the one you want to read. And that may also be the reason why the cover for this book was not displayed, until I uploaded it.
The cover displays a lithograph of a battle of the Civil War. On the title page---yes, the title page--- it states that the lithograph is of "one of the battles of Shiloh." I have to admit that after over 50 years of reading Civil War history, I was not aware that there was more than one Battle of Shiloh. Makes you wonder about mistakes in the rest of the book, of which there are many.
The back cover also states "California sent more than 17,000 volunteers to fight in the American Civil War, more than any other state in the Union." I am sure this comes as a shock to New York which sent 448,850 men to fight, Pennsylvania which sent 337,936, Ohio which sent 313,180, Illinois which sent 259,092, or any of the other 25 states which sent more troops to fight for the Union than California. (Source: The Civil War Book of Lists)
Obviously self-published through Stagecoach Publishing, I doubt whether anyone who knows much about the Civil War even reviewed this book. Surely, a book about California and the Civil War would have enough to say in 194 pages---especially with the text printed in a large font---without having to fill it out with chapters devoted to "Bloody Bill" Anderson in Missouri; horses of Civil War generals; the bugle call Taps; little known facts, none of which were connected with California; Civil War medicine; Civil War weapons, and other fillers.
Speaking of fillers, we are often presented with the same information in several chapters. And some of the sentences in the book are either meaningless or could have been written better. One of my favorite examples is "The young men who remained in San Francisco were enthusiastic advocates of ideas. They were not so old as to be inflexible in their thinking." (page 79)
The cover displays a lithograph of a battle of the Civil War. On the title page---yes, the title page--- it states that the lithograph is of "one of the battles of Shiloh." I have to admit that after over 50 years of reading Civil War history, I was not aware that there was more than one Battle of Shiloh. Makes you wonder about mistakes in the rest of the book, of which there are many.
The back cover also states "California sent more than 17,000 volunteers to fight in the American Civil War, more than any other state in the Union." I am sure this comes as a shock to New York which sent 448,850 men to fight, Pennsylvania which sent 337,936, Ohio which sent 313,180, Illinois which sent 259,092, or any of the other 25 states which sent more troops to fight for the Union than California. (Source: The Civil War Book of Lists)
Obviously self-published through Stagecoach Publishing, I doubt whether anyone who knows much about the Civil War even reviewed this book. Surely, a book about California and the Civil War would have enough to say in 194 pages---especially with the text printed in a large font---without having to fill it out with chapters devoted to "Bloody Bill" Anderson in Missouri; horses of Civil War generals; the bugle call Taps; little known facts, none of which were connected with California; Civil War medicine; Civil War weapons, and other fillers.
Speaking of fillers, we are often presented with the same information in several chapters. And some of the sentences in the book are either meaningless or could have been written better. One of my favorite examples is "The young men who remained in San Francisco were enthusiastic advocates of ideas. They were not so old as to be inflexible in their thinking." (page 79)
