The Confederacy Is on Her Way Up the Spout: Letters to South Carolina, 1861-1864

Rating:
Summary: A useful book for the specialist, less for amateurs
Review: The value of this and similar primary sources to the specialist should be obvious. I did find that the way the letters were organized -- by year and then by writer -- was confusing. Perhaps it would be better to group all the letters by one author together.

The amateur may be disappointed by the fact that, like many if not most Civil War primary sources, these letters describe rather little action. The editors have left idiosyncratic spellings as is, which I like, but which does make the material a little more difficult to read.