As I’m sitting here pondering this thing called life. I realized that I haven’t got around to doing any recent blog posts let alone a book review. I haven’t done a book review since March 2010. Where I reviewed the book ” Final Resting Places: Orange County’s Dead & Famous” by Michael Barry.
So with that said the book review I’m doing today is on the book “The Gravesites Of The Civil War Generals: Confederate, Union, & breveted Generals Final Resting Places” by Ethan F. Bishop. The book retails for $22.00 the publisher is Heritage Books and has 175 pages.
There isn’t much I can really say about this title. Being that there isn’t much reading material in the book. The book is laid out in four parts starting with Section One: Confederate Generals; Section Two: More Confederate Generals; Section Three: Union Generals; and finally Section Four: breveted Union Generals.
While not giving very much to read in the form of biographical info on each general. The author Ethan F. Bishop does list citations if the particular general (union, or breveted) earned the Medal of Honor for courageous or gallant service in battle. The author also mentions several books you can read to gather further info. Most notably the indispensable Civil War volumes by Ezra J. Warner “Generals In Blue,” and “Generals in Gray”.
The generals in the four sections of the book are laid out in an alphabetical list format. Listing which cemetery they are in. I was unhappy to see that with as much research that went into this book compiling the info. The author did not list the sections in the cemetery these courageous generals rest in. As for photos there are none besides the photo on the cover. Another thing I’d like to point out I would have liked to of seen birth/death dates included for each general.
If your into visiting the gravesites of military personages most notably American Civil War generals from both sides of the conflict. You might be interested in this book. But keep in mind there isn’t really much offered in the form of graveside photos, or biographical info.
The book is a starting point if you plan on traveling around the country to visit the gravesites of these courageous men. While I think this book is not worth the retail price of $22.00 it would make a nice addition to your grave hunting or American Civil War library.
Thank you for your review of my book. I agree that the it is over priced, but that was the publishers doing. The book is simply intended to be a list of the burial locations of all the generals. This is the only book currently in print listing all four groups of generals. I left out the section and plot number because part of the fun in visiting the graves in the locating of them, visiting the office and looking them up. Photos were left out by the request of my publisher. I plan on putting some in the second printing, to be published elsewhere.