Symposium 2011

I regret to inform you all that there will be no symposium in 2011. Due to a variety of reasons, but primarily financial, the roundtable leadership has decided to cancel the event. It might resume some other year, or maybe it never will, I just don't know.

I do know that I had a great time helping to put on the events. Some years I was more involved than others but despite the hard work it was a great time. I got to meet and talk with many amazing people including some historians whose work I really admire. Made some friendships along the way and generally learned a lot.

In the meantime the roundtable plans to bring in one speaker a year. We went this route in the years before the symposium and that success is what prompted us to dream a little bigger. Maybe the one speaker a year format will expand into two, or maybe it will expand back into the symposium again.

And 2011 was going to be a good year, no need to go into details on who was going to come but I was really excited about the panel. We were going to follow the 150th as best we could and 2011 was going to be an early Eastern Theater focus. Oh well

Catching Up

I'm back now. It took me awhile to figure out what happened with my blogger account. All I could do was sign into comment moderation, not actually moderate comments, just see what was being left. There was no method to leave a note here that I would return, that blogger was preventing me from getting full access. Plus I was pretty busy with other things so it was easy to ignore the errors I received from blogger. But whatever was wrong is fixed now and I can return to blogging 2-3 times a week.

Since we last connected my eldest son has become a Tiger Cub scout and I have joined him as one of the assistant den leaders. I was part of scouts way back when and am glad that my son is in and, more importantly, is enjoying it. I look forward to summer camping trips and teaching a dozen boys life lessons through scouting.

We're also looking for a new house, something with a fourth bedroom as we are seriously contemplating having a third child. But first our house has to sell, so if you're looking for a three bedroom, three bath house in Littleton Colorado let me know.

I also completed and sent to the publisher a manuscript I'm proud of that has the possibility of being part of a larger series. Wish I could share more details on the project but one of my writer/historian friends has passed onto me a reluctance to share information broadly until things are much more concrete. So going forward with the belief that there will be a series here I have started researching the book that would follow. I once again feel optimistic about a book project after my previous foray was quashed by a short sighted man. Its good to have that optimism back and hopefully its not misplaced.

The flow of review books from Civil War News has trickled down, guess there is not as much Western Theater stuff coming out as there was earlier in the year. So during the past month I've picked up Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series which follows Richard Sharpe's career in the British army during the Napoleonic years. Its very enjoyable but I'm not going to become a Napoleonic wars buff.

There were so few Western Theater books that the other day the book review editor at Civil War News sent me an Eastern Theater regimental history. I'm actually struggling with writing that review right now. There are a few things about the book that bother me, and not in a West vs East sense, but in a why is this regiment important sense. Plus there was not a single map at all. But it was a good book, very detailed and ultimately I did enjoy it.

But internally I am grappling with a philosophical question of the point to regimental histories. Should it be that going forward they should only exist for regiments that did something extraordinary or whose service was unique? Or that fill a gap in the historiography? For example the new book on the Louisiana Brigade in the Army of Tennessee fills a gap in that there is not many other Western Theater brigade histories published. Their service was not super unique, obviously every unit was unique aspects to their service but this brigade did not see service too different than other units. By the way its a tremendous book that I have reviewed in brief previously and my full review (that is similar to the review that appeared in Civil War News) will appear on here this week.

I also reviewed a book on the 1st Nebraska, a soldier's diary to be specific. Their service was unique in that they served in Arkansas-Missouri but not with the army that fought at Pea Ridge. They didn't achieve much, very limited combat, as I remember the soldier first fired his musket nearly 2 years into his service. He then was transferred to St Louis as a provost guard and remarked on the ship building being done. A fascinating book that looked at an aspect of the war usually forgotten, both the guard duty aspect and the small expeditions he was part of in Arkansas and Missouri.

The book I got the other day is for the 4th Michigan, a regiment that seemed to miss the bulk of the combat nearly every time. They were either left behind as a guard or served on a part of the battlefield that saw little action. They got into serious combat four times, and lost three colonels in those fights, which is remarkable. It is a good book, and the only drawback is the lack of maps. I will rate it favorably although I will make it clear that the lack of maps hurts, especially when locations are described with much detail. But I can't see the road on the map then enough a tremendous amount of detail does little to show me where they were. I need a map. Anyway despite my favorable feelings for the book I'm struck that by and large the regiment did not do something too unique or special. They suffered at Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, Gettysburg and the Wilderness. At other battles they saw limited action, suffering casualties one would equate with a skirmish even if it was a large battle. But at other times they were left well to the rear. At both Bull Runs they were left behind as a guard. At Antietam they stayed on the wrong side of the river. At Chancellorsville they were the far Union left. None of these were their fault but they certainly did not see as many fights as other regiments. So is the goal of regimental histories to eventually fill in all the gaps so that every unit in every major army has a regimental history? And in this endeavour the Eastern Theater is well ahead and widens its gap every year.

The symposium went very well once again. My involvement was very small after helping get the panel selected. I thought everyone did a great job getting it done. We've already got our panel for next year and I'll make a formal announcement about that soon as well, would do it right now but it should have its own posting and not be reduced to the end of this post.

Symposium only six weeks away

It seems like the Rocky Mountain Civil War symposium has snuck up on me this year. That's mostly because I'm not as involved this year as in previous years, especially last year. I knew my involvement would have to be severely curtailed with a baby at home. Some days it seems that getting anything accomplished at home is a big accomplishment, then other days multi tasking with a baby is a breeze. So I'm glad I don't have any symposium worries to also attend to. I'm sure next year I'll take on a few more tasks for the symposium but it might be awhile til I'm back to my normal workload.

In any case this is going to be a wonderful event that I'm glad to be attending. Although I work at every event (some more than others) I go to hear the speakers. Each year has had quite a good group, and this year is no exception. This year the theme is the making of Ulysses S. Grant as a commander.

There need to be a few battle themed presentations to show the growth of Grant and some of the obstacles he faced. The two battles picked were Shiloh and Vicksburg. Shiloh because it is really Grant's first major battle. Not disrespecting Fort Donelson but Shiloh is a much bigger battle. Vicksburg shows Grant overcoming many obstacles and growing as a leader to achieve one of the more important victories of the war. In my mind the top Shiloh authors are James Lee McDonough, Tim Smith, Larry Daniel and Wiley Sword. There are others of course but if we're looking to secure a major Shiloh historian these are the four I think of first. McDonough and Smith have spoken at previous symposiums and Sword will join them this year. Shiloh is my main interest so having had the opportunity to hear from three of the top Shiloh historians over the past few years is a real treat and hopefully we'll be able to get Daniels out in the future.

A large number of prominent historians have explored Vicksburg, especially recently it seems like Vicksburg is getting its due more and more. I'm excited that John Marszalek will cover this campaign for the symposium. I know Marszalek from his Sherman work but he is also now the Executive Director and Managing Editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, taking the reins after the departure of John Y. Simon. I'm sure his intimate access to Grant's papers will allow him to bring a unique perspective on Grant's handling of the campaign. Also Grant's papers have now been put online which is a fabulous researching tool.

Then its important to discuss Grant's work as general-in-chief. The two battle presentations have shown his growth as a commander so its only logical to have a presentation that covers the final year of the war when Grant had an impact on the entire war effort. Gordon C. Rhea seems like a great fit for this as his books covering the the 1864 Virginia Overland campaign are an incredible series, and Grant's impact is covered in each one. I'm not sure who better could fill this role.

At each symposium we have a presentation that doesn't follow the normal pace of battles. At the first event covering the Western Theater through Stones River it was a biography of Alexander Stewart, done by Sam Davis Elliott. Last year the theme was Lee's two Northern invasions and the extra presentation covered the differing methods of preservation utilized at Antietam and Gettysburg, by Tim Smith. This year the extra talk will be about the relationship between Grant and Rawlins by Peter Cozzens, another top notch Western theater historian.

Finally there needs to be an overview of Grant. There are a ton of biographers to pick from but my personal favorite is Brooks Simpson. One of my favorite books is his "Let Us Have Peace" which covers Grant's understanding of the politics of war. It changed my view of Grant as a commander and put me well onto the path that Grant's genius had more to do with winning the war than it being simply a matter of numbers. The first stories many of us read make it out that the Confederacy generally had better generals but that they lost due to the quantity of men the North could muster into service. Now I know that the Union was equal in quality as well, just suffered early in the war when its lesser talented generals faced the best the Confederacy had to offer (think Lee versus Pope at Second Manassas or Jackson in the Valley).

So the final panel consists of Brooks Simpson, Peter Cozzens, Wiley Sword, John Marszalek, and Gordon Rhea. Any one of them individually would be enough to entice me to attend the symposium, but having them all at one event makes this year a must see event (though to be fair there has not been one presentation previously that I did not want to see).

The day will end with a panel discussion and time for books to be signed. As always there will be a book room with a ton of good books and deals. I'll have a blog post showing all of the great books in a week or so. I saw the list the other day and was impressed with the variety of books. There is only one so far I want to get but that's because I already own every other book that will be there.

Tickets will be $50 again, which also includes a continental breakfast and lunch. Click here to order your tickets today. Tickets are selling at double the pace of last year. We're in a pretty big auditorium so I don't anticipate it being a sold out event but you should order your tickets today so that you do not run that risk.

If you have any questions please contact us at RockyMtnCWRT at aol dot com.

symposium ticket sales

Tickets for the 2010 Rocky Mountain Civil War symposium are now available for sale on the website. The event is October 2nd at the Community College of Aurora. It promises to be another great event. This year our theme will be Ulysses S. Grant.

Brooks Simpson, author of “Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822-1865,” will provide an overview of Grant the general.

Peter Cozzens, author of many books on Western Theater battles (among others), will talk about the relationship between Grant and Rawlins.

Although Grant led men in battle before Shiloh that battle is his first real test of army command in big battle. Wiley Sword, author of “Shiloh: Bloody April,” will discuss Grant's performance in this battle.

Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign is what really separates him from the rest of the prominent generals. John Marszalek, Executive Director and Managing Editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, will cover this complicated campaign. Grant's papers are also now available online.

Gordon Rhea, author “Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26–June 3, 1864,” rounds out the panel with a presentation on Grant as General-in-Chief.

The day will end with a panel discussion and time for books to be signed. As always there will be a book room with a ton of good books and deals.

Tickets will be $50 again, which also includes a continental breakfast and lunch. Last year we also gave away "The New Civil War Handbook" by Mark Hughes free to all attendees.

If you have any questions please contact us at RockyMtnCWRT at aol dot com.

Those Damned Black Hats!

Those Damned Black Hats! The Iron Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign.
By Lance J. Herdegen

I am a fan of the Iron Brigade. I would feel this way if its only significance was a heavy number of Wisconsin regiments but they then ended up being one of the better fighting units of the war. When I heard Iron Brigade historian Lance Herdegen was doing a book focusing on the brigade in the Gettysburg campaign my only question was when I would add this book to my library not if I would. Then last year Herdegen was one of the speakers at the Rocky Mountain Civil War Symposium so I decided to wait until the event to buy the book (helping the event’s sales and also to get it signed).

While the focus of the book is Gettysburg Herdegen also does a good job briefly explaining the activities of the brigade both before and after Gettysburg. The battle of Gettysburg is the meat of the book but it was good to also have coverage of the post war efforts at memoralization and the various battle anniversaries the brigade survivors attended.

And as far as the battle goes expect a ton on the events of July 1st. There is some coverage given to the brigade’s activities on the other days but after July 1st there were too few men left to do much of anything. The brigade went into battle with 1883 men but on the night of July 1st the brigade quartermaster only issued 500 rations. The 2nd Wisconsin lost 77%, the 6th Wisconsin lost 48%, the 7th Wisconsin lost 51%, the 19th Indiana lost 72%, and the 24th Michigan lost 80%. Officially they lost 189 killed, 774 wounded and 249 missing (leaving 671 survivors yet only 500 rations were issued so apparently close to 200 men were separated from the regiment that night.

The book itself was a pretty quick read. It has 33 short chapters, none is more than 15 pages long. So it was quite easy to read a chapter or two during the small batches of free time that I have as a husband and father.

The maps are wonderful (done by Bradley Gottfried of Maps of Gettysburg fame) and plentiful. There are also a good number of pictures of brigade veterans.

Symposium Presenters

First off let me apologize for not providing a full recap of what each presenter said. I took notes not to provide a verbatim account here, I took notes mostly of things I thought were important or thought provoking.

The first speaker was Russel Beatie and he covered the corps structure in the Army of the Potomac from the its beginnings through the battle of Gettysburg with some discussion of how it would look on the eve of the 1864 Virginia campaign.

Beatie said a few things I do not agree with, that's the beauty of an event like this, you can talk to him immediately about why he came to conclusions he did. The first thing he said I didn't agree with is that Lincoln was an "abomination as a military president." I think Lincoln did struggle figuring out how to be commander in chief, trying to be hands off at times but then thinking he needed to very hands on at other times. I'm not going to say he didn't make mistakes but he did pilot the Union to victory. Might it have come sooner if he made some better decisions? Possibly. Beatie pointed out that giving army commands to Pope, Hooker and Burnside showed Lincoln's poor personnel decisions, but on the other hand when he made those decisions he did not have a huge pool of leaders to choose from. Beatie also said that only experience identifies people who are qualified; Lincoln never figured it out while Grant and Meade did. Again, I don't think this is a 100% fair attack on Lincoln as some of his greater blunders in picking leaders came early in the war when the level of experience was low across the board. As the war progresses he does pick Meade and Grant for higher commands, so if Grant and Meade are his examples of leaders who picked good subordinates than shouldn't Lincoln get some credit for putting those two men in high command?

One thing Beatie said that I found somewhat funny is that Burnside was the worst performance at Antietam. I found this humorous because I don't agree with him, but also because the next presenter, Stephen Recker, said that Burnside was the hero of Antietam since he was the only corps commander to take the position he was ordered to take.

Recker used a prototype of Virtual Antietam during his presentation (Virtual Gettysburg is already done and sold well at the event) and it was amazing to see. If my own budget wasn't so tight right now I probably would have left with a copy of Virtual Gettysburg and had my name on a list for Virtual Antietam.

He focused on Burnside's final attack, calling it the Pickett's Charge of Antietam. Basing this on numbers involved and the ground covered. Another thing he said was that if the Union had captured Nicodemus Heights on the 16th there probably would not have been a battle at all. He thought this was probably the lost opportunity of the battle.

Next up was Bradley Gottfried who went through the best and worst performing brigades at Gettysburg. There were many reasons a brigade might fall into either category. They might benefit from a strong position on the ground, or have high moral. Or they might be fresh troops, attacking a tough position, or their commander might not be very good.

The slides moved too quick for me to take copious notes of the good and bad brigades but I did manage to write a few down. Gottfried gave high marks to Perrin, Vincent, Stannard, McCandless, Greene and the Iron Brigade. Some of the poor performers were Mahone, Smith, Fisher, Brockenbrough, Ames and von Gilsa.

Lance Herdegen then talked about the Iron Brigade from their inception through Gettysburg. This was a talk I was looking forward to as my family is all from Wisconsin and I've always enjoyed reading about the Iron Brigade's exploits. So I mostly sat back and soaked it all in and took very few notes. Luckily the college was videotaping the entire day so later I might be able to post some clips here.

Our final presenter was Tim Smith, a Western Theater historian who also has done a ton of work on the history of preservation and the formation of the battlefields into national parks. The method of preservation at Antietam, mainly buying roadways and not much other land, is usually called the Antietam Plan but Smith argues that it should be called the Chattanooga Plan as that is where it was first implemented. At Chattanooga it was the method used mostly because there were few large tracts left to buy in the 1890s, the town had grown over the battlefield already, while at Antietam the decision was based more on financial concerns. The other main method in the 1890s was buying close to 100% of the battlefield, as was done at Chickamauga (and later at Shiloh). Gettysburg was a bit of a hybrid of both methods as there are areas that large chunks of land were purchased and there are other areas were small strips were purchased.

Final Book Sales

The symposium is now over. We do have some books leftover and I wanted to let my readers have a chance at these great deals.

Brigades of Gettysburg by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $50.00

Artillery of Gettysburg - Gottfried by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $24.95

Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign June 3 – July 13 by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $39.95

Maps of First Bull Run by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $27.00, Retail Price $34.95


Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $20.00, Retail Price $32.95

On Many a Bloody Field: Four Years in the Iron Brigade by Alan D. Gaff (paper), Symposium Price $10.00, Retail Price $17.95


Iron Brigade: A Military History by Alan Nolan (paper) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $19.95


Dear Sarah: Letters Home from a Soldier of the Iron Brigade by Coralou Peel Lassen (cloth) - Symposium Price $10.00, Retail Price $24.95



Sherman's Horsemen by David Evans (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $27.95



McClellan's War by Etahn Rafuse (cloth) - Symposium Price $23.00, Retail Price $35.00


Myth of the Lost Cause by Gary Gallagher & Alan Nolan (cloth) - Symposium Price $13.00, Retail Price $19.95

Email me at shilohnick at msn dot come to place your order.

Symposium Review

The Community College of Aurora is a great partner in the Rocky Mountain Civil War Symposium because they give us a great space, and plenty of it.


This is our entry way, which should make it quite clear to anyone wandering in that this is a Civil War event, Lee is featured prominently and we had two Civil War prints for raffle set up right when they first came in.
On the other side of the entry way was our registration table and the food line, right now its set up for breakfast. Breakfast and lunch are included in the ticket price.

The big screen was working, technology is sometimes iffy but today it worked well.

A view of the auditorium as people start to fill in. This was pretty early, by the end we had almost 60 paid attendees.

Our book room, which had a ton more books for sale than last year. It also was a bigger room than last year.

Round table member Brent Brown set up a small part of his saber collection. I got my picture pretty late in the day, earlier there were tags on each saber identifying what it was.

Later I'll post more details of the talks but our schedule was:

Russel Beatie talked about the corps structure in the Army of the Potomac from its inception through Gettysburg.

Stephen Recker spoke about the 9th Corps at Antietam (and giving a wonderful view of Virtual Antietam).

Bradley Gottfried covered the best and worst performing brigades at Gettysburg.

Lance Herdegen reviewed the Iron's Brigades involvement in the Antietam and Gettysburg campaigns.

Tim Smith compared the differing preservation methods used at Antietam and Gettysburg.

Left to right is Tim Smith, Stephen Recker, Wesley Harris, Ted Savas, Russel Beatie, Bradley Gottfried and Lance Herdegen. Harris is a new author in the Savas-Beatie stable and Savas came out partly because we had so many of his authors speaking at the event. Only Recker has not been published by Savas-Beatie.

Ted Savas also spoke briefly during the lunch hour about some publishing related issues. He also showed off an advance copy of Dave Powell's "Maps of Chickamauga." This should be out in a few weeks so we took some orders at the event.

Near the end of the event we had a panel discussion that went well. I think we could have gone longer than an hour but an hour is probably a good length of time, don't want to over do it either.

And then we capped the day with an author signing.

Symposium thank yous

With any big project no one person does all the work. This year I was the symposium coordinator, a job I enjoyed and am willing to do again, however I think next year I might step aside and let someone else run the show. I worked with a lot of good people, both round table members and outsiders.

Among the outsiders were a good amount of publishers. We didn't end up ordering from all the publishers we could but this time around publishers seemed much more willing to deal with us. I'm not sure if that was part luck or due to the economy (and publishers looking for every dollar possible). I would like to thank Dino Battista at University of North Carolina Press, Brad Larson at Longleaf, Mary Beth Hass and Jennifer Coyle at Indiana University Press, Christina Lumbis at DaCapo, Kristin Hambleton at Stackpole and John Hussey at Kentucky University Press. There are two publishers though who have been much bigger parts of our symposium efforts, in both years. One are the good folks at the University of Tennessee Press, especially Tom Post and Tom Wells; besides ordering assistance they provided some giveaways for door prize drawings. The other is the Savas Beatie, which got involved in a much larger way this year partly because nearly every presenter has been published by them. I was helped greatly by Ted Savas, Sarah Keeney, Tammy Hall and Veronica Kane; they provided a ton of assistance, going above and beyond just ordering issues.

Our marketing efforts are always a source of concern. As I said the other day I know we will put on a good show, I worry about getting people to see that show. There are quite a few people who helped get the word out about our event but a few people did even extra work, helping to promote next year's event already. I would like to say thank you to Pat Anderson at Learning Academy, Erin Wilson at The Teaching Company, Barb Gibson at Four Mile House in Denver, Beth Godin and Matthew Borowick at Civil War News and Patricia Harris at Civil War Courier.

Additionally some of my fellow bloggers helped promote the event. Jim Rosebrock, John Hoptak and Mannie Gentile posted full descriptions of the event on thier blog and I'm grateful for the help. Anytime I can return the favor they just need to ask.

Among round table members we got a lot of support. Ian Duncanson, Jim Powers, Brad Edwards and Kathy Spruill helped run the book room. Ned Grauel and Gary Kurtz drove our presenters all around town and spent much of Friday at the airport. Dave Townsend was our liaison with the Community College of Aurora, a truly great event partner. We get an amazing event space through that partnership. Ron Berg made fabulous brochures. Any time I asked him for a brochure he'd always create a fantastic brochure well before any deadline (brochures for next year are already made in fact). Mike Lang was a fabulous emcee and also showed his award winning Antietam video during the lunch break, I heard many people say how great the video was. Len Bertagnolli ran our registration table and tallied the results of questionnaire (much quicker than I expected). Joe Serrano fixed up our website and allowed us to sell tickets online, which about a quarter of attendees used. Dave Armagast, Matt Spruill, Larry Peterson, Ray Polster and Craig Osieczanek also helped contribute to the final product, (I hope I didn't miss anyone, please accept my apologies if I did). Brent Brown volunteered to set up a display from his extensive saber collection, which was a nice touch. Also Tim Kissel, of Trailhead Graphics Maps, generously donated a portion of his day's sales to the round table. Its because of members like these that I know we can put on a fabulous event.

My wife was also a big help with the event. I know she got tired of me bouncing ideas off her but she was a huge help. She also got involved in the process by creating some fabulous gift bags that we gave to every presenter and also laying the ground work for our Friday night event. I'm sure she's as glad as I am that the event is over.

Sympsoium recap

I'm proud to say that the Rocky Mountain Civil War Symposium was a success. We are at the point where I have no doubt we'll put on a quality show, all I worry about now is getting people in to see the show. Attendance this year was a bit down from last year. We had 57 paid attendees, last year was 64. Its not a huge drop and we secured deals on hotels and airfare that meant the profit margin was about the same as last year, a final tally is not yet possible as book sales continue. But once we sell those final books we should be around where we were last year; we lose money but not too much. Next month the symposium committee will meet and figure out how to make the next event even bigger.

I'll post some pictures and a review of the presentations tomorrow. But today it feels good to have most of the symposium work done. Now its just a matter of tallying up the final bills, and returning the books we can return. Then I can take a break from symposium activities for awhile.

Symposium Book Sales

The symposium is about a week away so I wanted to post again about the book sales.



All of the book prices are for symposium attendees. If you don't come you won't get these deals. After the symposium we will extend those prices to anyone else out there, I'll post the list of what's left sometime the week after the event.



As you'll see symposium attendees will get a nice discount on these books. Just one more reason to come to the event. Every book is at least 15% off of retail price, one is 60% off of retail! The average discount is 26% off of retail. Click here to order tickets.



Let's recap what a symposium ticket gets you. One, admission to an incredible event with five nationally renowned authors. There are five presentations, a panel discussion and a book signing. Two, the first 50 attendees through the door will receive a copy of Mark Hughes "The New Civil War Handbook," a $15 retail value, for free. Three, the amazing deals in the book room which will include Trailhead Graphics' award winning maps and various CDs produced by Stephen Recker, including Virtual Gettysburg. Four, breakfast and lunch are provided. That is an incredible deal for $50.



Some of the books from Savas Beatie came autographed and that is now noted on this list. So we will have signed books from authors besides the ones appearing at the event. That was very exciting to see when I opened the boxes.



We also have a book, Chickamauga Memorial, so new its not even listed on amazon as available. While they are still taking preorders you can purchase a copy and get it signed.

No the roundtable did not actually buy a moving truck, but with all the books we ordered for the symposium it feels like we need one. The book selection will be much bigger than last year. There are no pre-orders, this post is just a teaser so you can plan your purchases the day of the event.

Brigades of Gettysburg by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $50.00

Artillery of Gettysburg - Gottfried by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $24.95



Maps of Gettysburg: The Gettysburg Campaign June 3 – July 13 by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $30.00, Retail Price $39.95



Maps of First Bull Run by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $27.00, Retail Price $34.95





Kearny's Own: The History of the 1st New Jersey Brigade by Bradley M Gottfried (cloth) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $36.95





Men Stood Like Iron: How the Iron Brigade Won Its Name by Lance J. Herdegen (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $19.95





Those Damned Black Hats! by Lance J. Herdegen (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95





McClellan's First Campaign, March - May 1862 by Russel H Beatie (cloth) - Symposium Price $36.00, Retail Price $45.00. There will also be copies of the first two volumes in the series available. Russel Beatie is bringing these himself and the price is not yet determined but it will be a substantial discount.





Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862 by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $20.00, Retail Price $32.95





Battle of Shiloh and the Organizations Engaged by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $33.00

Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $38.95





This Great Battlefield of Shiloh by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $19.95





Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield by Timothy B Smith (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $21.95



Chickamauga Memorial by Timothy B Smith (cloth) - Symposium Price $35.00, Retail Price $43. This is brand new, amazon only offers pre-orders, but if you attend the symposium you can pick it up and get it signed. I already bought a copy, have read it and will post a review of it here in the future.





On Many a Bloody Field: Four Years in the Iron Brigade by Alan D. Gaff (paper), Symposium Price $10.00, Retail Price $17.95





Iron Brigade: A Military History by Alan Nolan (paper) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $19.95

Lee Considered by Alan Nolan (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $22.50



Giants in Their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade by Alan Nolan & Sharon Vipond (cloth) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $29.95





Pickett's Charge in History and Memory by Carol Reardon (paper) - Symposium Price $15.00, Retail Price $19.95





Dear Sarah: Letters Home from a Soldier of the Iron Brigade by Coralou Peel Lassen (cloth) - Symposium Price $10.00, Retail Price $24.95





Major General Robert E. Rodes of the Army of Northern Virginia by Darrell L. Collins (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95 SIGNED BY AUTHOR





Sherman's Horsemen by David Evans (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $27.95



Fighting for the Confederacy: Recollections of Gen Alexander by Edward Porter Alexander (paper) - Symposium Price $20.00, Retail Price $26.00





One Continuous Fight: Retreat from Gettysburg by Eric Wittenberg, JD Petruzzi & Michael Nugent (cloth) - Symposium Price $28.00, Retail Price $34.95 SIGNED BY ALL THREE AUTHORS





Plenty of Blame to Go Around by Eric Wittenberg & JD Petruzzi (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95





McClellan's War by Etahn Rafuse (cloth) - Symposium Price $23.00, Retail Price $35.00





Myth of the Lost Cause by Gary Gallagher & Alan Nolan (cloth) - Symposium Price $13.00, Retail Price $19.95

Lee and His Army in Confederate History by Gary W Gallagher (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $20.95

Lee and His Generals in War and Memory by Gary W. Gallagher (paper) - Symposium Price $18.00, Retail Price $21.95





Complete Gettysburg Guide by J. David Petruzzi (cloth) - Symposium Price $31.00, Retail Price $39.95 SIGNED BY AUTHOR





Sickles at Gettysburg by James A. Hessler (cloth) - Symposium Price $26.00, Retail Price $32.95 SIGNED BY AUTHOR

Gleam of Bayonets by James V. Murfin (paper) - Symposium Price $21.00, Retail Price $24.95





Stand of the US Army at Gettysburg by Jeffrey Hall (cloth) - Symposium Price $25.00, Retail Price $34.95

General George E Pickett in Life and Legend by Lesley J Gordon (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $20.95





Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society by Thomas L. Connelly (paper) - Symposium Price $17.00, Retail Price $19.95





Ninety-eight Days: Geographer’s View of Vicksburg Campaign by Warren Grabau (cloth) - Symposium Price $38.00, Retail Price $48.00





Colonel John Pelham: Lee's Boy Artillerist by William Woods Hassler (paper) - Symposium Price $16.00, Retail Price $20.95