3.0 out of 5 stars
An overpriced reproduction, May 28 2010
By Bradley Keefer "Historian" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Chattanooga and Chickamauga: Reprint of Gen. H. V. Boynton's Letters to the Cincinnati Commercial Ga (Paperback)
This slim volume, priced at nearly $14, is little more than a scanned facsimile of Union Civil War veteran and post-war journalist Henry V. Boynton's published missives supporting his idea to create a national park on the battlefields of Chickamauga, GA and Chattanooga, TN. The letters consist mostly of his version of the Army of the Cumberland's 1863 campaign that culminated the bloody battle of Chickamauga, where the Union Army barely escaped complete annihilation thanks to General George H. Thomas's heroic stand. The purpose of Boynton's letters was two-fold: one was to address some of the controversies left over from the campaign that were still being debated in the 1880s; the second was to promote the creation of a park that would serve to commemorate the heroic deeds of the soldiers on both sides who fought at Chickamauga. While Boynton's account of the campaign is biased towards his own army and its commanders, it serves to illustrate the Army of the Cumberland's efforts to solidify its place in the nation's memory of the war. He argues that since Chickamauga ranked among the war's greatest battles, its battlefield should be preserved along with those in the east--namely Gettysburg. While this volume reproduces the 1888 articles exactly, it provides no context, editing, or enhancements that help the reader understand the issues surrounding the battle or the plans for the park. Literally printed on the date that I ordered it, this Bibliolife reproduction has limited value, since copies of the original book are still available in many university libraries.
