Maryland Books

What a great guide to the city of Annapolis! I loved learning about the city, and I used this guide the whole time.

As a newcomer to the area this map book has been invaluable. Unfortunately it is a small area (relatively speaking) - I found the Queen Annes County map book to be a bit more comprehensive, however this one is getting its far share of use (much better than a regular road map!)

The complete title of this book is "Antietam and the Maryland and Virginia Campaigns of 1862." Its author proudly proclaims himself to be Captain Isaac W. Heysinger, M.A., M.D. His book was published in 1912, a full half century after the events it describes.

It begins with this dedication: "To my comrades of the Army of the Potomac; and to my comrades of our other Armies, in the west; to the survivors of the Army of Northern Virginia, whom in idle hours we loved and in busy hours we fought...."

Captain Heysinger's book has become part of the general background of scholarship dealing with ... well, Antietam and the Maryland and Virginia campaigns of 1862. It tends to pop up in the bibliographies of many or even most subsequent books dealing with its subject matter. This is for two reasons. First, the book has simply been around for almost a century. Second, and far more important, it is the book of a man who was there.

The seventy-ish Heysinger of 1912 may have been well-educated officer and a medical doctor to boot, but the youthful Heysinger of 1862 was a lowly cavalry corporal with a massive case of hero-worship and a thin skin for criticism. He hadn't changed much in the intervening fifty years.

This current edition dates from 1987 and it appears to be a photographic reproduction of the original 1912 printing plates.

Let us be clear from the outset that this book is absolutely not a narrative of the ferocious and bloody Battle of Antietam. No, Captain Heysinger had quite another topic in mind, nothing less than the rehabilitation of the military reputation of his idol, General George B. McClellan.

I believe that the judgement of history on McClellan will not be too seriously distorted if I say that "Little Mac," as he was known by his adoring subordinates, was a general who possessed quite extraordinary skills in creating, building up and maintaining an army. He had an almost uncanny knack for generating loyalty and admiration for himself among the soldiers he commanded (unless, of course, they were potential rivals.) As a field commander, however, he was uncommonly timid by the standards of his day, being eternally convinced that he was heavily outnumbered by his Confederate opponents and the subject of endless intrigues directed against him from Washington. He utterly lacked the killer instinct or the will to battle to the death. He was the kind of man who loudly bragged that he had "driven the enemy [Lee] from our land" at a time when what Lincoln most wanted was a general who could say that he had destroyed Lee's army.

Heysinger will have none of that. Using his own first-hand experiences and a touchingly naive faith in the veracity of the official record of the war, the multi-volume "War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," that had been authorized by an act of Congress in 1874 and published between 1881 and 1901, he set out to prove that McClellan had been not only a great general but the greatest general of the Civil war ... just as he (and Little Mac) had always believed.

Heysinger was nothing if not diligent. By carefully collating recruiting boasts, troop returns, casualty reports and other items he had mined from the thousands of pages in the "War of the Rebellion," he proved to his entire satisfaction--if to no-one else--that McClellan had indeed been outnumbered at all times, not to mention outsupplied and just about out-everythinged by those populous and prosperous Rebs. And the conspiracies led by that arch-conspirator Secretary of War Stanton, sure, they were right there in print ... if you looked at them just right.

As a proud horseman in the underappreciated--to say the very least--cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, Heysinger takes great pains to prove that the showy, overpraised Confederate cavalier, JEB Stuart, never really managed to accomplish anything of military significance.

Heysinger was particularly incensed by Lincoln's remark that McClellan wasn't doing very much with the cavalry after the Battle of Antietam. He carefully pointed out that he, himself, had been present at a successful little skirmish between his regiment and a small portion of the retreating Confederate forces on the very next day following the battle. (His silence about any other accomplishments of the Union cavalry during this period is a curiously loud one.)

He is equally annoyed by the charge that McClellan was slow-moving. He carefully compared the times taken by Little Mac and his successors in command of the Army of the Potomac in covering comparable distances and demonstrated that his hero had been faster than General Meade alone or even when Meade was spurred along by Grant. Oddly enough, he never took note of the fact that McClellan's rapid movement took place only after five weeks of absolute inertia, during which time Lee's defeated forces had covered an even greater distance and had managed to refit, re-equip and build up fortified positions sufficient to stop Little Mac in his tracks.

If my comments seem disrespectful of Captain Heysinger, I assure you that they are not. I am, in fact, filled with admiration for the proud old man defending his army and the reputation of his beloved McClellan. I can almost see and hear the fierce old-timer saying, "You young whippersnappers don't know what you're talking about. THIS is what happened! I was THERE, see?"

Four solid stars.

I found Mr. Frye's book very informative. As an avid student of the Maryland Campaign, I learned plenty of interesting facts that are not part of the standard battle histories.

Mr. Frye breaks the Maryland Campaign into sections and then provides numbered lists that feature lots of facts and trivia in a very readable format. I read the book cover-to-cover. Great book at great price.

The esteemed author is an active preservationist, founder and first president of SHAF (Save Historic Antietam Foundation), and lectures extensively.

If you are looking for a great and factual book about the ponies of Assateague, this book will not disappoint you. The pace is rapid and yet quite informative- you will walk away knowing much more about the social structure of the ponies as well as their diet, range, and interactions with humans. This is not the book for you if you are looking for Misty tales, but a good read nonetheless. :)

If you're interested in this sort of thing as I am this book could be of great value however the price is unreal. I have a CD that does much the same for the entire country at a third the price of one state however this book is MUCH more accurate and shows county boundaries that only occured for as little as three days. The CD is also easier to use. That said I'll likely ask for the book as one of those Christmas presents I wouldn't buy for myself.

If you want to scratch below the well presented surface of Baltimore (Harbor Place, Camden Yards, Ravens Stadium, and the gentrified Fells Point and Canton), take a look at this book. Some of the socially and historically more important neighborhoods of Baltimore are given themed walking tours. Accompanying each tour is a historical and social narrative explaining why this particular corner of Baltimore mattered so much in the history and society of the city. It's a great way to find out new things about neighborhoods that have seen their ethnic charm and style replaced by affluent banality.

If you can read a map at all, you can find any address in Baltimore City or County with one of these. I keep a much used one in my car and have a more pristine copy in the house for referencing addresses, schools, parks, churches, hospitals, lakes. Anything you can think of is in here. Great to have too if you're in the market to buy a house, buy things from the classified ads or just want to map out your weekend yard sale route. There is also a spiral bound copy which includes Baltimore and the surrounding counties but the maps are a little smaller.

Ms. Letitia Stockett, a Baltimore teacher in 1928, was successful at giving a cultural view of how Baltimore, Maryland came into existence in her Baltimore: A Not So Serious History. The book is rich in imagery and detail.
Ms. Stockett's tour of the Baltimore region began on Charles Street at Mount Vernon Place. When she was finished with an intersection or neighborhood, she went on methodically to the next while covering the years 1500 to 1900. There was a great deal of overlapping and repetition which helped to connect events and people.
Ms. Stockett told Baltimore's story as if it were hot news or local gossip--the kind of telling where one wished they were a fly on the wall to be able to witness it for themselves. Her anecdotes were about real Baltimore citizens.
Hetty Cary was a famous female Confederate spy. Betsy Patterson married Jerome Bonaparte without Napoleon's permission, and was refused entrance to France in her pregnant condition. John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Lincoln, had a proud family lineage in Baltimore. Fires, riots, inventions, music, art, trees, origin of the Jones Falls, and yellow fever bouts added to the imagery and dispelled some mysteries.
But, there were also times when you couldn't tell if quotes belonged to Ms. Stockett or someone else. In her opinion, something historic always had to be destroyed for progress to come. However, no other religion except Christian (in a time of "freedom of religion") or any other race except white accomplished anything by Ms. Stockett's account.

Amy S. Greenberg, Cause for Alarm. (University of Princeton Press 1998). Amy S. Greenberg is an Assistant Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. She is tackling a largely male-dominated subject, but also one that is for the most part unexplored by historians. Her introduction is jam-packed with information. The introduction is set like that of a Greek drama, bringing the reader up to speed before the meat of the book is consumed. She does an excellent job of placing the volunteer fire fighter on a pedestal and then glorifying him as a demagogue. Later on we see the institution of volunteer firemen corrupted by several factors, and the firemen, like actors, take a great fall from grace due to their tragic flaws.

Greenberg covers several aspects of her work in the cities of Baltimore, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Social, political, and cultural aspects seem to be the main issue here. This book also marks the transition from volunteer fire companies to paid full-time departments as well as the change in the American way of thinking of how and who should fight these fires. It is demonstrated in this book how the volunteers appeared Superman-like on paper as well in the public eye.

The "power trip" some of these men experienced would contribute to their downfall. Always wanting to be the first company on scene, drinking and swearing, and other daralous behavior that the personnel engaged in helped put them out of business.

In an age with any out television, firefighting was a form of entertainment for these men. Simply put, modernization helped to rid the large cities of competitive volunteer fire companies, only to see them replaced by paid personnel. (Don't worry most firefighters of today are every bit as competitive as the ones portrayed in this book) "Firemen provided the stability and order that allowed for the growth of professionalism. And with that transformation, the volunteer fireman fell from grace." Here we see how volunteers started to be seen as a burden, rather than a help to society. Why would a shop owner want to lose his employees for several hours to fight a fire that did not endanger his livelihood? Or better yet why would he close the shop to go to the rescue of some one he had no vested interest in. These are the issues that are struggled with inside the book.

Several documents are used in this book as well as primary and secondary sources. R. N. Seiel gave a favorable review in Choice (January 1999). This book would contribute to anyone's understanding of this subject matter. Today most people would not understand the act of fighting fire and receiving no compensation for it. This book is, as advertised, a cause for alarm.