That's a Wrap! This Round
of Write Now! Classes End on a Great Note!
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If anyone would like to help me create short videos for Tik Tok, specifically designed for this writing class, please contact me. Keep an eye on the link and I look forward to another set of classes in late spring. Onward. | |
The 6th Annual Savas Beatie
Tournament of Books is HERE!
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All rounds will be available to view and vote on the
2024 Tournament of Books Facebook page!
March Starting Date TBD!
1 Tournament
8 Savas Beatie titles
4 Rounds
1 Championship
+ rounds of savings just for you!
Check out our prior Savas Beatie TOB Winners:
2019
James Hessler, Wayne Motts, Steven Stanley
2020
Gettysburg’s Peach Orchard: Longstreet, Sickles, and the Bloody Fight for the “Commanding Ground” Along the Emmitsburg Road
James Hessler and Brit Isenberg
2021
Too Much for Human Endurance: The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg
Ron Kirkwood
2022
Meade and Lee After Gettysburg: The Forgotten Final Stage of the Gettysburg Campaign, from Falling Waters to Culpeper Court House, July 14-31, 1863
Jeff Hunt
2023
The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863
Chris Mackowski
2024
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STOP THE PRESS!
A Wall Street Review!
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"In 'The World Will Never See the Like,' first-time author John Hopkins
offers a compelling, poignant and sometimes heartbreaking account of
the biggest gathering of the Blue and Gray since the Civil War."
-- Wall Street Journal, Feb. 24, 2024
| Congratulations to first-time author John Hopkins for landing a review for his book The World Will Never See the Like: The Gettysburg Reunion of 1913 in the Wall Street Journal. Click the button below to read excerpts and order the book! |
WE ARE MAKING CHANGES TO THE
Savas Beatie Essential Gettysburg Series!
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IT WAS A GOOD IDEA. THEN COVID STRUCK.
Alas, we have to face reality. The impact of COVID on publishing changed the availability of the special cloth and color we chose for this series, as well as the special end papers. The price to create a three-piece casebound book with our bells and whistles climbed almost 100 percent in the past two years (!)
We think we have found a good compromise that will allow us to continue the series.
The next book will be entirely bound in the beautiful dark blue Skivertex cloth originally found on the spine wrapping around to the side of Book 1 (Bliss Farm). We will be adding a dust jacket so we can introduce the book in a larger print run to the book trade at the same time, which will reduce our unit cost.
This means we will no longer be offering numbered copies. The volume number in the series, however, will appear printed on the spine of each book. You can remove the jacket if you like, and they will look the same on the shelf spine-out.
That means that you should cherish and hold onto the Bliss Farm edition, the first entry into this series, because there will never be anything like it again!
| Essential Gettysburg BOOK #2: Early Summer 2024 |  | |
"Strong Men of the Regiment Sobbed Like Children": The Defeat of John Reynolds’ I Corps at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, by John Michael Priest
Priest, who the legendary Edwin Bearss hailed as “the Ernie Pyle of the Civil War,” spent nine years researching this new study and walking the ground of the first day’s fight to immerse readers into the uncertain world of the rank-and-file experience. He consulted more than 300 primary sources, including letters, diaries, memoirs, newspaper account, recollections, casualty lists, and drill manuals, to present the battle from the ground up. Nineteen detailed regimental maps illustrate the ebb and flow of the battle. The result is a fast-paced narrative with some event not always in agreement with conventional views, something Priest thoroughly explains in the footnotes.
Readers will close the book fully understanding why a veteran New Yorker spoke for the survivors of both armies when he wrote, “Strong men of the regiment sobbed like children.”
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Essential Gettysburg BOOK #1 | |
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Book #1: fewer than 100 remaining.
The Struggle for the Bliss Farm at Gettysburg, July 2nd and 3rd, 1863, by E. Christ
All specs above, + facsimile of the original edition, 240 pp. Click the button below to read an excerpt and get your copy.
SERIES SPECIFICATIONS: 3-piece high-quality cloth case, with vol. # of series stamped on the spine / Series name stamped on front / 80# Rainbow hemp end sheets / sewn binding / 70-lb. matte white art paper / bound-in silk ribbon / matching head and foot bands.
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CWRT Congress
Friday Night Virtual Events
Join SB Authors and Host Mike Movius
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Friday, March 8, 2024
7:00 PM EST
Call Out the Cadets author Sarah Kay Bierle
When the opposing divisions clashed near the small crossroads town of New Market on May 15, 1864, new legends of courage were born. Local civilians witnessed the combat unfold in their streets, churchyards, and fields and aided the fallen. The young cadets rushed into the battle when ordered—an opportunity for an hour of glory and tragedy.
Register here: CWRT Congress - Bierle
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March 2024
2024 CivilWar Talk Virtual Events
Wednesday Nights
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Since 2020, Savas Beatie and CivilWar Talk have partnered to bring dozens of authors and their newly released books to the members and guests of CivilWar Talk. This month, we have the following books presented by these well-known authors.
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Wednesday
March 13, 2024
8:30 PM EST
Contrasts in Command
Victor Vigola
Vignola’s use of primary and archival sources, many of which have never been used, helped craft a wholly original tactical and leadership study that directly challenges conventional accounts.
This book is so important that it convinced the American Battlefield Trust to purchase land there to help preserve it!
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Wednesday
March 27, 2024
8:30 PM EST
We Shall Conquer or Die
Derrick Lindow
A deadly and expensive war within a war was waged behind the lines (and often out of the major headlines) in western Kentucky. In 1862, the region was infested with guerrilla activity that pitted brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor in a personal war that often recognized few boundaries. The partisan guerrilla fighting and efforts to bring it under control helped put the Civil War in the Western Theater in context.
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To join any of these Wednesday night virtual events, click below. | |
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SIGNED Book Deal Coming This Month!
Watch Your Email!
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We Shall Conquer or Die: Partisan Warfare in 1862 Western Kentucky, by Derrick Lindow.
Author Lindow spent years researching through primary source material to write this important study. The partisan guerrilla fighting and efforts to bring it under control helps put the Civil War in the Western Theater in context, and is a story long overdue.
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Dranesville! Miss Kenya's New Creation! | |
AT THE PRINTER. APRIL RELEASE!
Quint’s mostly forgotten tale uses overlooked or underused sources to sweep readers along from the White House and Secession Hall in Charleston to midnight ambushes and the climatic Dranesville action. A host of characters and commands that would become household names cut their teeth during these months, including Generals Jeb Stuart and Edward Ord and the Pennsylvania Reserves, whose baptism of fire at Dranesville set the Keystone State soldiers on a path to becoming one of the best combat units of the entire war.
Though soon eclipsed by larger and bloodier battles, Dranesville remained a defining moment for many of its participants—soldiers and civilians alike—for the rest of their lives.
Here, for the first time, shared through the eyes of those who lived it, is the story of Dranesville and the early war in Northern Virginia.
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Thank You for Your Interest Emails on These Classics!
Please keep them coming so we can reprint these books!
-- UPDATED NUMBERS THUS FAR NOTED BELOW --
We need 120 interest orders to go to print!
Click the red button and send us an email.
Please spread the word and share this info on social media.
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86/120
Ninety-Eight Days: Geography, Strategy, Politics, and Command During the Vicksburg Campaign, by Warren E. Grabau (original subtitle was "A Geographer's View of Vicksburg Campaign").
Out of Print for a couple of decades, this book is incredible: readable, fascinating, and original. Nothing like it exists. Ed Bearss told me it was "the best single volume on Vicksburg, hands down." 68 maps, 728 pp. Proposed price: $42.95
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58/120
The Maryland Campaign of September 1862: Volume II: Antietam, by Ezra Carman (Tom Clemens, ed.)
This went out of print nearly a decade ago!
Vol. 2 of the magnificent trilogy is the Battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg installment.
Maps, photos, 696pp. $42.95
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REMEMBER: We wll give you a $5.00 online credit back on each of the above books at the time of purchase, which lowers your actual price.
NO COMMITMENT, BUT PLEASE ONLY SERIOUS INQUIRIES.
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The Primary Source Publishing Projects! | |
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Thank you for your interest emails!
Please keep them coming so we can reprint these classics!
-- UPDATED NUMBERS THUS FAR NOTED BELOW --
NOTE: These are only available from Savas Beatie.
No wholesalers, no Amazon. Here is what is under development:
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The Carman Papers: The Maryland Campaign of 1862, 2 vols., edited by Thomas G. Clemens.
Think The Bachelder Papers of the Maryland Campaign--ONLY BETTER.
Vol. 1: Union letters and associated documents.
Vol. 2 Confederate letters and associated documents.
All were transcribed from longhand and fully footnoted by Dr. Clemens.
Incredible material, with dozens of hand-drawn maps supplied to Carman by various soldiers. This collection unlocks the key to the entire campaign and will be used to write books and articles on the Maryland Campaign from now to forever. (FALL 2024.)
162 preorders and climbing . . .
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The Chancellorsville Papers, 3 vols., edited by M. Chris Bryan. Several collections of letters and recollections all transcribed from longhand, annotated, and organized (again, think The Bachelder Papers and The Carman Papers, but for the Chancellorsville Campaign.) The third volume will be a helpful, happy surprise. (Ongoing, no pub date.) 1.4m words.
Vol. 1: Contemporaries records Or material not in OR, JCCW, Hooker Papers
Vol. 2: Campaign related papers Bigelow, Hamlin, Hotchkiss, Bates Papers Correspondence with veterans, high quality material.
Vol. 3: Writing on battle by vets CV SHSP, MOLLUS, Newspaper Accounts, NT. (200+ newspaper accounts)
121 preorders and climbing . . .
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The Campaign for Chancellorsville: A Strategic and Tactical Study, by John Bigelow, Jr. This desperately needs to be reprinted with all its color maps, but it is a complex job. It remains one of the finest campaign histories ever written.
We are working on it. Lots of handwork required. We will need your help.
62/150 preorders and climbing . . .
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The Union Generals' Reports, 4 vols., edited by M. Chris Bryan and Michael Harris. Some 320 reports (!) transcribed and annotated from longhand of wartime service (think of the Official Records, but these have never been published).
Almost no one knows about these gems, and they are rarely ever read or utilized.
76 preorders and climbing . . .
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BACHELDER PAPERS ARRIVING IN JULY/AUGUST | |
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We have placed the order for the final reprint of
THE BACHELDER PAPERS: Gettysburg in Their Own Words (Red and Silver Series)!
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Except for the Official Records volumes, this massive 3-volume set (some 2,200 pages) is the most important firsthand collection of accounts ever published on the Battle of Gettysburg. Anyone interested in the war in general, or Gettysburg in particular, will want a set.
High-quality materials, sewn bindings, and lots of extras. Click HERE to read more, including excerpts. If you want to reserve a set, there is no commitment and no advance payment needed. Just have a serious interest. Send an email HERE [books @ savasbeatie.com] and let us know. The books arrive this summer and we will simply notify you and you can pay us at that time.
Still time. We have only 70 sets unspoken for. Hurry.
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The Gettysburg Papers, Ken Bandy, editor. 2 vols.
Lovely sewn edition, high-quality library cloth binding, 50-lb. high-quality acid-free paper, head and foot bands. (Just 450 sets printed, only about 100 sets left.)
$85.00
The Antietam Official Records
2 vols. (vol. 19, pts. I and II)
Vol 1: 824 pp. and Vol. 2: 1,228 pp. Sewn edition matches the Gettysburg Official Records, high-quality library cloth binding, 50-lb. high-quality acid-free paper, head, and foot bands. With
The Carman Papers on Antietam coming, the Carman full-color maps with annotations,
a reprint of the Carman/ Clemens Maryland Campaign Trilogy, and a new study on the
Cornfield and vicinity, you will wish you had a set. (Only 350 sets printed.)
$109.00
The Gettysburg Official Records
3 vols. (vol. 27, pts. I, II, and III)
Sewn edition matches Antietam Official Records. The first printing sold out immediately. High-quality library cloth binding, Smythe sewn, 50-lb. high-quality acid-free paper, head and foot bands. (From 450 sets / down to about 70 sets left.)
$189.00
NOTE: We are your sole source provider.
They will not be available on Amazon or at a discount price anywhere.
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5 THINGS with Author John Hopkins | |
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This month, our Five Things column features author John Hopkins of The World Will Never See the Like. This book was released this past January! Here, John shares five facts he discovered while working on this book.
Take it away, John...
1. The veterans involved in planning the 1913 Gettysburg reunion included Joshua Chamberlain, Evander Law, and Dan Sickles. At their first general conference in October 1910, Sickles proposed that “a permanent Peace Monument of some kind” should be dedicated during the reunion. His fellow veterans warmly endorsed the idea as “by far the most important part of the proposed celebration” but their effort to gain a $500,000 Congressional appropriation quickly fizzled and it took another quarter century for the peace monument to become a reality.
2. Most northern states helped defray the cost of transporting their veterans to the reunion but among the former Confederate states, only South Carolina’s legislature voted any funds. The United Daughters of the Confederacy and several newspapers, including the Montgomery Advertiser and the Charlotte Observer, spearheaded private fund-raising efforts.
3. The U.S. Army was responsible for every aspect of the reunion camp’s operation, from its 173 field kitchens to the 13,000-seat tent where the main events took place. Among the officers and men assigned to reunion duty were two young lieutenants: Simon Bolivar Buckner, son of the Confederate general of the same name, served as liaison to the scores of reporters and photographers covering the event, while George S. Patton, Jr., whose great-uncle was mortally wounded in Pickett’s Charge, was there with a squadron of the 15th U.S. Cavalry assigned to patrol the roads crisscrossing the battlefield.
4. The reunion’s most iconic photo—a dozen old Yanks and Rebs shaking hands across the stone wall on Cemetery Ridge after their reenactment of Pickett’s Charge—had to be staged after the fact because hundreds of spectators pressed in so closely around the veterans that it was impossible for the photographers to get the money shot in real-time.
5. The question of African American veterans’ participation in the 1913 reunion has long been a subject of discussion. References in newspaper coverage and first-hand accounts of the reunion were few and vague, and photographic evidence non-existent, apart from one image reproduced in Barbara Gannon’s The Won Cause. But in my research, I discovered two more photos, among the hundreds in the Pennsylvania State Archives, in which black veterans are clearly visible. I also found contemporary newspaper accounts that reported more than 60 black veterans from three cities attending and was able to identify 16 of them by name.
Click HERE to read more on the book.
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Titles NOW Available as eBooks!
(Kindle and all formats)!
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It was another busy month for Savas Beatie authors, the hardest-working writers in the industry! Check out their happenings last month!
Did you know you can bookmark our author event calendar?
Click HERE.
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Sharing his recent title to the members of the Fredericksburg Civil War Round Table, co-author Robert Dunkerly presented Force of a Cyclone. | |
The Houston Civil War Round Table honored Chris Mackowski with the 2023 Frank E. Vandiver Award of Merit. This award recognizes the outstanding contributions to Civil War scholarship or preservation efforts by an individual or an institution. Congratulations, Chris! | |
Author Ed Longacre is surrounded by new copies of his recently released book J.E.B. Stuart. | |
A gathering with family and friends at a local pub provided an opportunity for author John Hopkins to share and sign copies of his new book The World Will Never See the Like. Pictured with John is his youngest daughter and wife. | |
Members at the Harpers Ferry Civil War Round Table were treated with a presentation from author Alex Rossino's book Their Maryland. | |
Did you know we have excerpts posted on our website? Here are a few, and from now on we will have a list right here for you to view. Happy previewing! | |
Corporal Kenya: The Cartoon | |
About Greg Sweatt: Greg has been drawing "Co. A" since 2003 to illustrate the humorous side of the Civil War soldier, both North and South--the missteps, absurdities, and impossibilities of their daily lives. The cartoons show the humor in the common soldier. Greg is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, with a BA and Teaching Credential and has written for Civil War Times, Illustrated, Civil War News, The Civil War Courier, and other periodicals. | |
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A Tempest of Blood and Iron: Spotsylvania Court House, by Chris Mackowski
Holding Charleston by the Bridle: The History of Castle Pinckney in the Charleston Harbor,
by Cliff Roberts and Matthew Locke
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