5 comments about A Call to the Sea: Captain Charles Stewart of the USS <I>Constitution</I>.

1. This book reads like an age of sail novel- but it's all true. It's a very informative and very exciting biography. You'll also learn alot about early U.S. Naval history. It amazes me that we have known so little about Charles Stewart!! The auhors have done a great job. I agree with the other Amazon reviewers- you won't be able to put this one down. Extraordinary!!



2. Delia Tudor Parnell, nee Stewart, did not die in 1892 or in Bordentown, New Jersey at Montpelier. She died at Avondale, Wicklow, Ireland (the Parnell home) in 1898 in a terrible accident; her dress caught fire and she died an extremely painful death.
   Charles Stewart, son of Admiral Charles Stewart, did not die in Paris in 1874. He died in Rome, Italy in 1872.
   These factual discrepencies do not give me much comfort that this biography is trustworthy.



3. I finally read this book that had been a Christmas present from my son. I was hesitant to read something marketed as a "real life Jack Aubrey" since I'm a fan of that series, but I was pleasantly surprised that it lived up to the book jacket.
   
   I found three minor faults with the work. First, as another reviewer mentioned, there were a few name/date inaccuracies; for example, in a discussion of the gunboat battle of the Barbary War, the book has 1803 instead of 1804. There were a few occasions in the book when the authors actually discuss various sources and their merits and they actually argue through why some sources and dates don't seem right. That leads me to believe it was either minor oversights or a failure in editing. Second, the authors overused the term "old schoolyard friends" when referring to Stewart, Decatur or Somers. Once or twice would have sufficed. Third, in the narratives about Stewart's facing off against two British fleets (Warren's and Collier's), it would have been helpful to have researched and explored the British perspectives more.
   
   That said, I thought this was a very strong biography in a traditional sense. As a retired Navy officer, I also found it refreshing for a naval biography to be written by two naval officers. They used extensive primary sources and they tell a great story. I had only barely heard of Stewart before reading this, but he led an incredible life. I was familiar with the Barbary Wars and War of 1812, but their telling of his time in the Pacific was entirely new to me - in fact I have not seen it told elsewhere except tangentially by Nathaniel Philbrick in "the Tale of the Whaleship Essex" - and the problems Stewart had with a State Department agent and his wife were almost hilarious had they not been so bad.
   
   If you want to read about the first six decades of the U.S. Navy told through the eyes of one officer's career, this book is it.



4. Fair, somewhat interesting but rather dull. Not well written, reads like it was patched together, same information restated numerous times.



5. Carefully researched and written by two Naval officers, this book is a biography of one man, Charles Stewart, but it tells you almost as much about the Navy as it existed in the early years of our country.
   
   Stewart served in the navy for sixty-three years, from age 19 to 83. He commanded eleven United States Navy ships, more than any other person.
   
   There have been three ships in the navy named for Capt. Stewart. The first USS Stewart (DD-13) was a Bainbridge-class destroyer which served from 1902 until 1919.
   
   The second USS Stewart (DD-224) was a Clemson-class destroyer which was commissioned in 1920. In early 1942 she was damaged by an Japanese air attack. She was further damaged while in dry dock for repairs. Demolition charges were then set off inside the ship and she was hit by another Japanese bomb. She and the drydock sank. The Japanese Navy raised her, repaired her and renamed her Patrol Boat No. 102. She served through the rest of the war, and re-entered the US Navy after the war, at which time there were two USS Stewarts in the Navy. DD-224 was later used as a target ship for aircraft and was sunk in 1946.
   
   The third Stewart (DE-238) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort that served from 1943 to 1947 - She later became a museum ship and was in Galveston, Texas, where she still may be.
   
   But back to the book. These authors have written this book so well that it almost reads like a novel. The thing to keep in mind, however, is that this story is true.

5 comments about My Life on the Plains: Or Personal Experiences With the Indians.

1. This book is a partial memoir of General George Armstrong Custer, of Little Bighorn fame. This work does not cover Custer's campaigns against the Cheyennes and Sioux, however, nor does it detail his flamboyant career in the Civil War. Instead, this book is literally an account of Custer's life on the plains, and covers his experiences with the Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, and Cheyenne Indians of the plains of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Despite the fact that this record is so incomplete a picture of Custer's life, however, this book is very valuable in that it covers the very controversial winter campaign of 1868-1869, which climaxed in Custer's attack of Black Kettle's village on the Washita River.
   
   The question of whether Black Kettle and his band were hostile at the time they were attacked, as well as the question of whether innocent women and children had been wantonly slaughtered in the attack, is one of the driving forces behind this book. In it, Custer attempts to describe life as he lived it on the Plains, and attempts to paint a picture of the army that would persuade people back East that his Seventh Cavalry had acted in good faith, both in the battle and in the rest of the campaign that year. Custer had a remarkable gift for storytelling, and his prose, though flowery and often somewhat extravagant (as I envision the man himself), is crisp and engaging. In addition, this book provides a valuable look at the life of an army soldier campaigning against the Indians after the Civil War. The book may be very biased, and it may in fact contain many points of exaggeration, but it nevertheless is a valuable resource for any study of the Indian Wars.



2. This book is a partial memoir of General George Armstrong Custer, of Little Bighorn fame. This work does not cover Custer's campaigns against the Cheyennes and Sioux, however, nor does it detail his flamboyant career in the Civil War. Instead, this book is literally an account of Custer's life on the plains, and covers his experiences with the Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, and Cheyenne Indians of the plains of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Despite the fact that this record is so incomplete a picture of Custer's life, however, this book is very valuable in that it covers the very controversial winter campaign of 1868-1869, which climaxed in Custer's attack of Black Kettle's village on the Washita River.
   
   Custer had a remarkable gift for storytelling, and his prose, though flowery and often somewhat extravagant (as I envision the man himself), is crisp and engaging. In addition, this book provides a valuable look at the life of an army soldier campaigning against the Indians after the Civil War. The book may be very biased, and it may in fact contain many points of exaggeration, but it nevertheless is a valuable resource for any study of the Indian Wars.



3. No one can read My Life on the Plains without coming away with a changed view of Custer as a military leader and an important historical figure. I often tell people that Custer was a great writer and direct people to read this book. I am occasionally met with laughter and suspicion--except by those who take my advice and read it. Amazingly well-written, and very descriptive.



4. Custer's autobiography, covering a very limited period of his life, is a remarkable document, first, as an important piece of historical information regarding the events covered, and second as an intriguing look at one of the most mythologized figures in US history. Being Native American on my mother's side, I was prepared to thoroughly dislike the man, but I was pleasantly surprised by the individual I met in the pages of this book.
   
   Custer is an excellent writer and storyteller, and his famous prankish sense of humor shows up on several occassions. The man had the ability to laugh at himself and was willing to tell tales on himself, which goes a long way to endear him to the reader. It's a powerful contradiction of the Myth of Custer, conventionally portrayed as a stupid, arrogant, racist, and humorless figure. It's hard to continue viewing him as the symbol of American Evil when he goes to battle against the Indians dressed in his bathrobe. (They attacked at night, darn them. He didn't have time to put on his uniform.)
   
   The comic relief is absolutely essential -- Custer's eyewitness account of the atrocities committed by Pawnee Killer will turn the stomach. Unlike every other author covering the Indian Wars, Custer presents the information in a straight forward matter and neither glosses over it nor demonizes the Indians. And, to the man's credit, he understood very clearly that the mutilated bodies he had to identify and bury were the work of a particular individual who happened to be an Indian, and did not let it prejudice him against the entire Native American race. The same cannot be said for most of his contemporaries. Custer clearly understood that Indians, like anybody else, were people who had to be judged according their individual actions, and not stereotyped and condemned in whole. In short, whatever his shortcomings might be, he does not deserve to be the poster boy for American Racism Against Indians.
   
   Custer, the man, is far more complex. He detailed his part in the first assault on Black Kettle's village; being the tracker assigned to trail Pawnee Killer, he knew that Pawnee Killer's trail did not go to Black Kettle's village and that Black Kettle and his people were peaceful Indians. When given the order to attack anyhow, he and other officers protested. General Hancock, the commanding officer, threatened them with court martial -- in those days that an order was immoral was not grounds for an officer to refuse to carry it out; a principle that was not established in the US Army until the public outrage over the massacre at Mai Lai during the Vietnam War. Custer caved in and did as he was told. If he had not, his military career would have been over. Certainly Custer was culpable of moral cowardice, but that is entirely different from the myth of reckless disregard for the humanity of others that clings to his name.
   
   In short, the real Custer is a fascinating, articulate, funny, tragic, complex, flawed, and ultimately human individual. His eyewitness account of the Indian Wars and his role in it are a riveting read. Anyone who has found the usual 19th century authors dreary beyond belief will find Custer's writing lively, wry, unflinching, and far more educational than his contemporaries.



5. Apparently this book, 'My Life on the Plains' was taken from magazine/newspaper articles Custer wrote on himself. As such, it is clearly self-appreciative but, still, it's an invaluable document written by one of America's most controversial figures. He descibes himself as an Indian figher par excellence...but...he relates nothing of his courtmarshal following the raid on an Indian village. Despite the success he describes in the raid, an isolated troop was abandoned and died to the man.
   
   This is reminiscent of the fight at the Little Big Horn where he reportedly told Reno that he would ride to Reno's support once Reno struck the south end of the village. He didn't. Custer's troop rode north, probably to cut off what he thought would be the retreating Sioux. Reno quite probably was used as an unknowing diversion. Reno managed to extracate himself with heavy casualties. Custer, of course, road into 'glory.'
   
   A very telling story embedded in Custer's chronicle is one that he, quite amazingly, tells on himself. In his first encounter with a buffalo he is determined to shoot it. He abandons his soldiers in a wild ride over the plains drawing close to the panicked animal. Several times Custer has the opportunity to shoot but doesn't because he's having so much fun. Finally, miles from his troop, he decides to shoot the buffalo. At the moment his pistol fires, his horse jerks his head in front of the barrel and the horse--not the buffalo--fall dead.
   
   I think this story tells everything we need to know militarily about Custer. He was a big kid, unfit for command.
   
   Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

2 comments about Household Baggage Handlers: 56 Stories from the Hearts and Lives of Military Wives.

1. What a wonderful compilation of stories! I couldn't put it down until I finished reading it cover to cover. Some of the stories gave great advice. Some made me laugh out loud and some made me cry. They all made me feel like I was a member of a sorority. After reading this book I look at all Army Wives like they are my sisters. When we are away from family and the comfort of our hometown and our husbands are gone; it helps to know we are not alone. The message of this book is inescapable. We aren't alone. We all go through PCSs, wierd weather, creepy critters, separations and deployments, and finally getting through the line at the PX only to discover we left our ID Card in the car. So go ahead. Grab a glass of wine and meet your new sisters!



2. My husband was a soldier of 24 years with 2 tours in Viet Nam. I absolutely loved being an Army wife and all these years later, I still wear an Army wife necklace. This book brought back so very many memories, laughter, tears, and emotions that had not surfaced in years. I loved each woman's story in that as different as they were, they were so alike. Being an Army wife is a sisterhood with which the civilian life has no comparison. I do hope that as people of all ages, stages in life, professions, read this book, they can begin to appreciate the vagabond life that we lead and the things that we take for granted from our soldiers. I still love to drive onto a military base, show my ID, read books like Marna's; the list could go on and on about things military that quicken my heart. The stories in Marna's book are so varied and yet they have that thread that ties us all together....we are/were military wives and if you are like me, you will forever be an Army wife. Read this book! It was written from many hearts that are in love with a man in a green uniform who is protecting you and me. No matter the era, no matter the war, we will forever be following that man wherever Uncle Sam leads us.

No comments about A Virginia Yankee in the Civil War: The Diaries of David Hunter Strother.

1 comments about The Conquest of the Missouri: The Story of the Life and Exploits of Captain Grant Marsh (Frontier Classics).

1. One of the best books I have read in a long time. If you are interested in the history of the Western American Frontier this is a great book to read. I am not going to go in vast detail about this book but it is about a river boat captain named Grant Marsh, one of the greatest riverboat pilots of all time.

5 comments about Jeb Stuart: The Last Cavalier.

1. This is the third civil war book by Burke Davis that I have read, and it is just as good as the others. Davis gives a complete and well researched account of the life of Jeb Stuart, but his main gift is that he can really tell a story. You will be interested from the beginning to the end, and in the process, you will realize that you have learned a thing or two.



2. Book rather good written, but as all books of the USA shipped, the printed paper and is of rather poor quality. In Europe we are used to recieve best quality. So also after many years you still can enjoy reading.



3. The book starts out very well, establishing basic background and geographical history in a very easy to read anecdotal style. The remainder of the book essentially details General Stuart's exploits on and off the battlefield.

   You certainly get the impression that he was a dashing figure, but unfortunatley the author does not delve deeper into the man as much as I would have preferred. You get a sense for him as a Confederate soldier who cared very much about his duty, but not why he cared so much.

   I gave it four stars because it is a good read, and for the perspectives provided of many of the eastern battles and the cavalry's part in them.




4. One of the most tedious and enervating reading is a book in which practically every second page is loaded with citations from letters written to, by or about the person who is the subject of the book. Frankly speaking, if I can return the book and get some refund, I would do it gladly. This is not a reaserch but a correspondant's report. In short- minus one star!



5. Burke Davis gives readers often-overlooked insights into the early life and career of the famous cavalier, including his courtship of his wife (whose father was a Union general) and his motivation to fight for Virginia. The Stuart-Cooke family is an excellent example of the bitter division of loved ones during the War, with Stuart and his brother-in-law choosing to fight for the Confederacy while his father-in-law continued to serve the Union. A fascinating account of the war as well as a great bio and a must-read for serious historians

5 comments about Unknown Soldiers: The Story of the Missing of the First World War.

1. When I agreed to review Neil Hanson's book, I expected something far, far different. Something perhaps more along the lines of an epistolary format or the utilization of a more conventional fictional format. What I got was a meticulously researched, well-written, captivating horrifying, narrative history that took me to the Somme in 1916. Hanson focused on three soldiers: A Briton, a German, and an American. "Their tracks, faint as smoke in the wind, intersect time and again, but they are united only in death, for each was killed on the Somme, within gunshot sound of each other."
   
   Hanson uses more than the diaries and letters to explain the cost of war from the soldier's point of view. He researched the heck out of this battle, topic, and time as evident by the 96 pages of footnotes.
   
   In an essence, Hanson is giving faces to the three million unaccounted-for soldiers from WWI. He also explains how the world remembers those unknown soldiers ever since. "The grieving families of such men were deprived even of the consolation of a funeral and a grave site, and for them, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier became the grave and the gravestone of their lost loved ones. In almost every combatant nation, an unknown solider was also buried at some national shrine and, just as in America, at once became the focus of a pilgrimage that continues to this day
   
   I admit that, as a predominately fiction reader, the quote marks around quoted passages versus dialogue sometimes tripped me, as did the switch in point of view with a sentence. I had to often re-read paragraphs, sometimes, chapters, to be sure of what was happening. But the structure works--well, very well. I came away from this book with a new respect for fighting men and women everywhere. I also came away with an intimate new knowledge of trench warfare that on one level I'm not sure that I wanted to know but on another level compelled me to keeping reading.
   
   I thought I kind of knew what WWI was like, but I had no idea. This book should be compulsory reading in every high school or college worldwide.
   
   Armchair Interviews says: An eye-opening story of the soldiers of World War I. Check his web site to see what else he has written.



2. This book was recommended to me by my best friend, and he is rarely off the mark, I bought the paperback edition, and I'm very glad I did. We are both very much interested in "bottom up" history with an emphasis on line soldier accounts, esp. when it is in their own words, and in this respect, Hanson does a terrific job.
   
   The stories of the three soldiers are sensitively told. The reaction of their families is also well done, and he expresses well the heart break that must have been theirs to learn that they would never know the final resting place of their sons.
   
   The back story of the evolution of monuments to Unknown Soldiers in Great Britain, France, and the U.s. is also very interesting. It was also very enlightening to see how many of Europe's leading statesmen and artists - writers, etc. - lost sons and brothers in WWI. It at least gives the impression that it was not a "rich man's war, poor man's fight."
   
   My only (minor) criticism is Hanson's habit of stringing quotes from disparate sources together in the same paragraph, without a hint as to who said them, without looking back in the endnotes.
   
   I highly recommend this book to all.



3. `The Unknown Soldiers' revealed how a brilliant and simple idea gave the families of those killed in WWI, but not located or identified, an opportunity to center their grief at a tangible location and get a measure of closure. Thousands of families suffered even the loss of the fallen bodies of their loved ones; then after the War, someone's mother had the idea of an unknown grave to symbolize ALL the missing. Though it was a little slow to catch on with the hierarchy, once it did, there was a ground swell of support and ceremony that was unprecedented in England, and the idea spread as well to their allies. The outpouring of the general population of the warring countries toward their `unknowns' was amazing and very moving. It was apparently an idea just waiting to happen. It reminded me of our experience of visiting the Vietnam War Memorial a couple of years ago on Memorial Day; it felt like being in church as families left notes and some cried at the wall, even though the Vietnam War had been over for more than 30 years!
   
   The book follows three very brave and articulate soldiers through the War until their deaths. An American, a Brit, and a German corresponded with their love ones about the hell that they were in, and gave some detail of what they were going through. It frankly made me angry when I read of the commanders well behind the lines feeding thousands of men in some cases to almost sure death for territory that could be measured in yards. Sometimes, the territory that thousands died for switched hands several times during the War so that their deaths were for naught. At some point for each of the three soldiers, the letters stopped, and the families knew that the worst had happened. It was heart-breaking to read about. It is hard to imagine what the vets went through, and for so long; and the vets were often very young, late teens or early 20's.
   
   This was a good, sobering book about a noble idea that came out of a terrible time in our modern history.
   
   
   



4. This was an excellent book , well researched and beautifully written. I felt I knew each of the soldiers , Paul, Alec and George and I grieved at their deaths and the waste of their young lives as though they were my own sons and not just men who died over ninety years ago.
   I was fascinated by the History surronding the burial of the unknown soldier , the building of the Cenotaph and indeed the story of the first Rememberance Day.
   I highly recommend this book to any who want to learn more about this period in history.



5. This is a fascinating book. It is by turns sad, gross, uplifting, and a constant reminder of what can go wrong. While some may find the details a bit overwhelming, they are part of the whole, and for me, could not be left aside. The author crafted a memorial to this era, and to this war.

No comments about Lest We Forget: The Grave Sites of the Union Civil War Generals Buried in the United States.

5 comments about General Lee: A Biography of Robert E. Lee.

1. I found this book to be wonderful. I used it in a research report and it was very helpful. It stood out among the other hundreds of Lee biographies



2. ...read and enjoyed this book. Being the recently acknowledged illegitimate child of General Lee, I agree that it is a worthy book.



3. I am a student of the civil war, and I've made most of my studies from Actual Memoirs of the event. I figured that I'd rather take the word of the people who were actually there than 3rd person commentary. I've read Grant, Sheridan, J.B. Gordon, E.P. Alexander, and of course, Sam Watkins, Frank Wilkeson, and Berry Benson, to name some of the best. Regrettably, Robert Lee died before he could record his own personal reminiscences. Through my desire to read about him in the same way I'd read about other participants of the war, I found this book-and I figured that Fitzhugh Lee's biography would be as near as I could get to the famed General, for Fitzhugh Lee was not only a Relative of the famed General's, but a General himself in the War of the Rebellion. Half way through the book, I felt thoroughly betrayed. After the first 70 pages, the book becomes the most average of monologues about the movements of troops during the civil war. The only difference between this book and the memoirs of certain other officers engaged in the same battles is the Fitzhugh Starts his recitations with, "General Lee's Order were that...", and has less maps, that usually ease the strain of describing obscure movements.
   I will say, though, that the author does spend at least a quarter of the book On the life of R.E. Lee outside of the civil war- the first 70 pages focusing on his Lineage, his training at West point, and his engagements in Mexico, and the Last 20 on his Presidency at Washington-Lee College. Also, sparsely placed throughout the book, Fitzhugh makes use of General Lee's personal correspondance with his wife and family. I would have appreciated seeing more of that, but people 150 years late to the party can't be choosers. Of the Author's style, it is mostly factual, highly romantic(though nothing like Gordon's memoir), and at times he makes allusions and references that let you know he's highly intelligent. This Book doesn't make any in-depth study of General Lee, and mostly considers his character to be untouchable....



4. As a the great-great-great-great grandson of Robert W. Lee and his slave/mistress Ophelia, I thought this book provided a profound insight into the life of the man who led the Army of Northen Virginia to so many improbable victories.



5. from the prospective that it does include personal letters from Lee. The recounting of the campaigns is prefunctory though Fitzhugh does come down heavily on Longstreet and eagerly takes up the cudgel for the Gettysburg-wasn't-Lee's-fault crowd.

5 comments about War Birds: Diary of an Unknown Aviator (Military History Ser. 6).

1. It was obvious from the wealth of information of those who served with the author that the identity is known. Why not disclose who wrote the diary? We share the experiences. We watch the aviator transform from a fun loving barn stormer to a machine that can only function when airborne. The end comes and you know it is coming, the author is crumbling, his attitude has changed, he operates by reflex and his judgement is impaired. (not by booze but battle fatigue has taken over} This is too real . . .



2. Although little is written of the truth to the Air War in WWI, it is often offered to history as a time of chivalry amoungst the "Upper Class Gentleman" of WWI. Most sucessful pilots, that being anymore that 5 kills, were showered with metals and given the highest honors from their fatherlands. Deeming them, The Knights of The Skies. The truth is far from reality. This book of one young man's personal, daily recolection in it's original, unaltered text, depicts the Air War as it really was. Not only can you feel the excitement and astonishment in his mind as he earns his wings in flight school, you also experience the sadness and despair as he watches his squadmates perish and learns the veracity of war and death. Illustrated by Clayton Knight, whose sketches and paintings went on to become famous after the war, this book is a must for anyone who is interested in the true reality of The Air War of WWI.



3. War Birds: Diary of an Unknown Aviator is a fascinating portrait of training and combat for a WWI aviator. It is unclear to me whether the book consists of an actual diary, or is a dramatization written by a friend based on letters written by the aviator main character (see http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/usa/springs.html). The aviator was a real person with real faults (he makes some racist statements), and this makes the story all the more personal. The story reminded me of Catch-22, but is more touching because the triumphs and deaths actually occurred.



4. The Diary of Lt John M Grider, KIA in France, 1918, as amended and edited by his friend E.W. Springs. Springs believed it would add to the value of the book if he kept it anonymous and mysterious. The book was serialized in a popular magazine in 1926 and created a scandal because it depicts the American boys as womanizers, drinkers, etc. (the racist attitudes of the flyers caused no comment at the time). Later Griders sisters forced Springs to admit that the book was based on their brothers diary, although apparently Springs also included considerable material from his own letters home. Springs was a Princeton graduate from a wealthy family. He was a top pilot and received the DFC, shooting down 5 enemy planes. He wrote some other books but none as popular as this one. This book is gritty and tough, and depicts very well the descent from idealistic recruit to hardened and battle weary veteran.



5. I first read this book aged 15. It made such an impression on me that I sought out copies in secondhand shops etc with no success. And now 50 years later I have read it again and found it just as powerful as a conveyance of the notion of adventure and the spirit of youth amidst the insanity of war. The insights into the scant training of the fighter pilots, the conflict between the U.S. and British hierarchy and the maverick attitudes of the pilots help to take us through the actual experience of war in contrast to the 'dates and events' fed to us through history books. What a privilege to be able to read such detailed and private writings of this young man.