Books like The Little Bugler — picked by fans

I like this book because it is an outstanding collection of images and biographical information about real boys who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. 

I wanted to learn their stories so I could share them with others, in particular, my students–to teach them history through the lives of their peers. I found Keesee’s research extraordinary, a fascinating dive into the lives of real boys who were a part of America’s history yet are generally forgotten today. 

As a retired teacher, I continue to share what I’ve learned through my writings and presentations to library patrons and civic and historical organizations.

I love that Jay’s book focused on the youngest to serve, not just in the Union Army but also in the Confederate service. He also delved into a group not mentioned by other researchers, the Home Guard–kids usually 6-12 years of age, most prevalent in the South.  I also had the honor of several years of friendship with Jay Hoar by way of correspondence and phone calls.

I treasure his work as it allowed me to journey with these kids in their life stories and, when possible, to see who they were through their images, though many were from later in life. We exchanged our work, his nonfiction research for my historical fiction.

I loved how this book blended the experience of Cadet William Hugh McDowell, a cadet from the Virginia Military Institute who fought in the Battle of New Market during the Civil War, with fictional modern-day Benjy, a 20th-century boy who is visiting his grandmother in New Market during his summer vacation. This book blends Benjy’s fictional story with Hugh’s historic and nonfiction life experience.

As a teaching tool, I was able to clarify the difference between fact and fiction for my students in our study of the Civil War. I was later amazed to learn that an element of the story that Elaine had created to tie the two boys together turned out to really exist–the boy’s watch.

I found this book a fascinating look into the life of a boy who survived years in the most notorious prison of the Civil War, Andersonville, through his own writings. Not only did he survive imprisonment, but he also survived the explosion of the Sultana, the riverboat that carried thousands of prisoners north after their release following the war.

I lived Michael’s experiences through his words, saw the half-naked men and boys, their hair matted by the pitch smoke from their fires as they tried to keep warm, their bodies reduced to skin and bones through starvation diet, their numbers reduced as mortal wounds and illness cut lives short. Once released, I felt the heat of the burning water when the Sultana exploded and heard the cries of the dying consumed by the flames.  

I loved how fresh and lively it was to hear an outsider’s take on an American icon. A British travel writer travels through “Lincoln Country” to figure out how a guy with such humble origins became such a revered figure.

There have been literally thousands of books about Lincoln over the past 150 years. Still, few have been this breezy, and I was especially drawn in by the book's travelogue elements, comparing the small towns of his youth to their modern surroundings.

Catton was one of the Civil War’s great historians, best known for bringing the stories of individual soldiers into otherwise sweeping accounts of the American Iliad. Amid this work, he also wrote this little-known short novel, published in 1955, which today probably would be filed in the “young adult” section of your favorite bookstore. It tells the tale of Bob Hayden, a Michigan boy who lies about his age to join a volunteer company and rises to manhood while serving in Virginia with Gen. “Fighting Phil” Sheridan.

Former Confederate Admiral Raphael Semmes, commander of infamous Rebel commerce raiders Sumter and Alabama, presents a picturesque portrait of nineteenth-century war at sea and foreign lands with salty terminology well calibrated for landlubbers. He composes not only as a preeminent seaman, but as an accomplished international lawyer and superb narrator. He also is an unapologetic, unreconstructed Rebel. Semmes interprets his ships and men as personifying the conflict—its causes, progression, and outcome—discoursing over seamanship, meteorology, oceanography, geography, naval technology, strategy, diplomacy, international law, and constitutional theory. I found Memoirs of Service Afloat to be an erudite, compelling portrait of the Confederate mind well worth studying for its own sake as well as a great sea story. It ranks among the best Civil War memoirs.

Our next stop is Essex for a classic English village mystery. I knew from the moment I read the opening scene—the grisly discovery of a young man entombed in the crypt of the usually murder-free parish church—that I was going to love the story. And I did.   

I was delighted to see how the tranquility of the pastoral scenes—the thatched-roof cottages, the earthy smell of horses in the stable, the square, Norman-style church tower overlooking the village green—carried through the story and beautifully counterpointed the skullduggery at the heart of the mystery.

The quaint village atmosphere heightens the tension in this well-constructed first installment of what promises to be an exciting new mystery series.  

There are many published letters and diaries of Civil War soldiers, but far fewer from black men. This collection, penned by James Henry Gooding, a member of the famed 54th Massachusetts regiment, highlights the military service of a black man, born into slavery but later freed, educated, and keenly observant of the world around him. He enlisted in February 1863, recording his experiences in letters first published in the New Bedford Mercury. Here, they are assembled with insightful editing, illustrations, and an appendix featuring Gooding’s efforts to obtain equal pay for black troops. In September 1863, Gooding wrote President Lincoln, asking pointedly: “Are we Soldiers, or are We Labourers?” Gooding was later captured in battle and sent to Andersonville Prison where he died. His story and his words are invaluable windows into this tumultuous time.

Several of the seven former slaves brought to life in Richard Blackett’s classic work pursued trans-Atlantic reform long before American disunion. Nothing like this book has appeared since its publication, and so I find myself poking around, always with great pleasure, in the taut, dramatic stories of Black émigrés like J. Sella Martin, William and Ellen Craft, and William Howard Day. Their vivid lives demonstrate the unique value of stories told by those with first-hand experience of Southern slavery.

The polished biographies pair these freed people’s quest to impugn the Confederacy with other commitments and takes pains to place interest in America alongside a concern for Africa, the Caribbean, and for a Europe yet to provide color-blind justice for all.