Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table

Tennessee’s Civil War Battlefields: A Guide to Their History and Preservation,

By Randy Bishop

Photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 456 pages, 2010, Pelican Publishing.

Mississippi’s Civil War Battlefields: A Guide to Their History and Preservation

By Randy Bishop

Photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 432 pages, 2010, Pelican Publishing.

Reviewed by John Mason, Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table

Although I was, unfortunately, unable to finish reading both of these books, I heartily recommend both of them (as well as Mr. Bishop’s similar study of Kentucky’s battlefields) to members of the TVCWRT. Mr. Bishop has created books which are suitable for either bed-side reading or as a field guide. Using maps of each battle area, first-hand accounts, and a plethora of other sources (footnoted and indexed), both of these publications provide a brief history of the area, a narrative of the battle(s) as well as the area’s current state of preservation (i.e. what you’ll see if you visit).

Regarding the book’s use as a field guide, I must confess that they are a bit bulky, at over 400 pages each, for carrying in the field. I was happy to find that the Mississippi and Kentucky books are available in e-reader versions, and I hope that an electronic version of the Tennessee book will be made available soon.

Randy Bishop is also the author of Pelican’s The Tennessee Brigade. In addition to teaching history at Middleton High School, he is an adjunct for Jackson State Community College. Bishop received the Teacher of the Year Award six times and was recognized in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. He resides in Middleton, Tennessee.