First Part of Volume 7 in “Unwritten Chapters of the Civil War West of the River” series. Illustrated, photographs, maps, bibliography, appendices, index, 218 pp., 2010, Camp Pope Bookshop, www.camppope.com, $17.95, softcover.

         In the years after the Civil War ended, veterans’ reminiscences proved to be popular material for newspapers around the country. Originally published in the St. Louis Missouri Republican between 1885 and 1887, this collection of articles examining events that occurred during the first year of the war vividly brings these early wartime actions alive.

         Gathering the postwar publications of veterans together for the first time, Confederate “Tales of the War” In the Trans-Mississippi is a wonderfully edited work that follows the course of the war from the viewpoint of privates and generals alike. Even different interpretations of the same events are included as the participants used their articles to argue about exactly how events transpired.

Divided into four chapters, the articles trace the early actions in Missouri, the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, the Battle of Belmont, and Missouri’s relationship with the Confederate government. The appendices include biographies of many of the major participants, the bibliographical information for the related articles not included in the work, and other supporting information.

         Allowing the original writers to speak for themselves, Banasik simply fills in holes for the 21st century reader. His expansive notes do not detract from the impact of the original authors and instead help make the work flow. As more volumes expected in this series are published, the wealth of primary source information on both the Union and Confederate experiences during the war in the Trans-Mississippi will explode.

  Reviewer: David Sesser

A former museum curator, David Sesser is Special Collections Curator and E-Resources Coordinator at the Huie Library, Henderson State University, Arkadelphia, Ark.