Civil War Treasures: Outstanding Artifacts and the
Stories Behind Them
By Kenneth D. Alford
(November 2008 Civil War News)

Illustrated, endnotes, appendix, bibliography, index, softcover, 232 pp., 2008. McFarland, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640, $35 plus shipping..

Reviewer: Michael Russert
Michael Russert, a member of the North Shore Round Table of Long Island and the Company of Military Historians, has a MALS plus 60 hours in American Studies. He is Coordinator of The New York State Veteran Oral History Program.

Review:
Civil War Treasures, presented in a 7x10-inch soft cover format, details selective memorabilia from a variety of museums. Following a Preface by noted Appomattox historian Chris Calkins, the book begins with a brief sketch providing a chronological overview of the Civil War. Unfortunately, it is somewhat awkward reading since it is written in the present tense.

The Introduction explains the overall layout of the book. Civil War Treasures is organized by state, listed in alphabetical order. Within that framework, the author selected a museum or museums, which he locates and describes, and then he describes a unique item from that museum’s collection.

He notes its history, placing it in context with the war, and how it came to be located in that particular institution. For example, for the District of Columbia, he discusses the Winslow Homer etching for Harper’s Weekly, “Sharpshooter on Picket Duty” from the Library of Congress collection.

Homer’s own written commentary, which originally accompanied the etching, is presented along with an image of Hiram Berdan, organizer of the Berdan’s Sharpshooters. This interactive method makes the history of the object more real and alive.

Although author Alford states in his Introduction, “… it was not my goal to compile a definitive study of every Civil War museum treasure …,” there is a void in his study.

The reader may wonder why, for example, an obscure New Mexico museum is selected while nine notable states with vast Civil War holdings — Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Nebraska, New York and all of the New England states — were not selected.

However, while suffering from this fault of omission, Alford’s Civil War Treasures does serve as an overview of some unique artifacts of the Civil War period. His anecdotes accompanying the picture of each artifact and the related description are informative and well-written.

The book is what the author noted, a selective overview rather than a comprehensive presentation. It is interesting reading.