“A Very Fine Appearance:” The Vermont Civil War Photographs of George Houghton, by Donald H. Wickman

Donald H. Wickman’s  book focuses on Brattleboro photographer, George Houghton, and his photographs that captured the very marrow of Vermont soldiers’ experiences during the Civil War. With over 100 images, “A Very Fine Appearance” pairs photographs with excerpts from the personal diaries and letters of Vermont soldiers.

Abraham Lincoln and the Sleeping Sentinel of Vermont, by Waldo F. Glover

Reprint of the 1936 book on Vermont Civil War soldier William Scott, who was condemned to death for sleeping at his post on the Chain Bridge on the upper Potomac while on guard duty.

Army Life in Virginia:  The Civil War Letters of George G. Benedict, edited by Eric Ward

Medal of Honor recipient and editor/publisher of the Burlington Free Press after the Civil War, George Benedict’s letters offer the reader a rare glimpse into the life of a Union soldier in the 12th Vermont Regiment. Eric Ward, editor, also provides a history of Benedict’s regiment by detailing the 12th’s actions and movements.

The Battered Stars:  One State’s Civil War Ordeal During Grant’s Overland Campaign, by Howard Coffin

Coffin offers his readers this extraordinary account of General Grant’s overland campaign of 1864-65, and the unique role played by the troops from Vermont, during which the 1st Vermont Brigade had a greater number of battle casualties than any other brigade in the Union army.

Battle of Gettysburg, by Col. Fraklin Aretas Haskell

An eyewitness account of perhaps the most pivotal event in American history.  Haskell, from Tunbridge, died a Colonel in the 36th Wisconsin Volunteers at Cold Harbor, Virginia, a year after Gettysburg.

Diary of a Christian Soldier:  Rufus Kinsley and the Civil War, by David C. Rankin

Rufus Kinsley was a farmer from rural Vermont who became an officer in one of the nation’s first and most famous black Civil War regiments.  Kinsley’s diary reveals him as a dedicated abolitionist soldier who believed that the Civil War was not about saving the Union, but about freeing slaves.

Full Duty:  Vermonters in the Civil War, by Howard Coffin

Coffin records the effects of the Civil War in a personal way on Vermonters as well as the enormous effect Vermonters had in the Civil War. He creatively combines historical fact, personal letters and diary excerpts, and detailed descriptions of present day battle sites to aid those who seek out historic places.

Hard Marching Every Day:  The Civil War Letters of Private Wilbur Fisk, 1861-1865, edited by Emil and Ruth Rosenblatt

Wilbur Fisk, born 1839 in Sharon, tells of daily life with the Second Vermont Volunteers in letters written to a Montpelier newspaper throughout the war.

Letters to Vermont, From Her Civil War Soldier Correspondents to the Home Press, Volume 1, compiled and edited by Donald H. Wickman

Seven soldiers tell of Vermonters of their war service, including the flank attack on Pickett’s charge at Gettysburg, scouting Lee’s army in eastern Virginia, and garrisoning the defenses of Washington, D.C.

Letters to Vermont, From Her Civil War Correspondents to the Home Press, Volume 2, compiled and edited by Donald H. Wickman

Six individual stories of campaigns, bayou outposts, the defense of Washington, and riding with George Armstrong Custer.

Men of Color, to Arms:  Vermont African-Americans in the Civil War, by James R. Fuller, Jr.

A history of African-American soldiers who served the Union from Vermont during the Civil War. Includes personal biographies and eyewitness acounts of military life and battle descriptions.

Nine Months to Gettysburg:  Stannard’s Vermonters and the Repulse of Pickett’s Charge, by Howard Coffin

A story of the Second Vermont Brigade and its vital role at Gettysburg draws upon scores of soldiers’ letters and journals to relate how and why young recruits from Vermont flocked to the Union colors in response to Lincoln’s call in 1862.

Something Abides: Discovering the Civil War in Today’s Vermont, by Howard Coffin

A town by town guide to the Civil War in Vermont, highlighting places to visit and study.

A War of the People:  Vermont Civil War Letters, by Jeffrey D. Marshall

More than 140 letters, carefully selected, convey in very personal terms the combat experience of Vermonters throughout the war.

Yours in the Cause of the Slave: Vermont and the Underground Railroad, edited by Sarah Rooker

This packet provides primary and secondary source materials for the study of Vermont’s role in the anti-slavery movement. It contains explanatory essays on Underground Railroad activities and activists and helpful notes on the documents presented. This material is well laid out for the use of teachers in grades four through middle school and is a must for teaching Vermont history.

Children’s Books

The Black Bonnet, by Louella Bryant

In the 1850s, fugitive slaves and their pursuers came to Vermont, along the so-called underground railroad.  This is the story of two sisters who fled from Virginia and stayed in Burlington awaiting the final leg of their journey north.  Ages 8-12.

Mr. Lincoln’s Drummer, by G. Clifton Wisler

Based on the true story of a Vermont boy, too young to enlist, who became a drummer boy.  His fortitude during the trying Peninsula Campaign attracted the attention of President Lincoln who awarded him the  Medal of Honor.  Grades 5-8.

New Hampshire Bibliography

Men of Granite: New Hampshire’s Soldiers in the Civil War, by Duane E. Shaffer

This book focuses on the Granite Staters’ varied experiences through colorful anecdotes, graphic first-hand accounts and candid observations. Daily life and description of battles, as reflected in these accounts, are compelling. The author’s study is presented chronologically, starting with an introduction that explores the antebellum political and social climate of New Hampshire in relationship to the national scene. Following this, Shaffer proceeds to narrate the military campaigns in a readable style, successfully transitioning from one theater of operations to another. New Hampshire units played a prominent part in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, in the Department of the South and in the Mississippi Theater.

My Brave Boys, by Mike Pride and Mark Travis

Edward Cross grew up among New Hampshire’s breathtaking White Mountains, but as a young man he could picture nothing so thrilling as going off to war for his country. In 1861, he did. The regiment Cross led into the Civil War – the Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers – suffered more deaths in battle than any other regiment in the Union army. This is their story, told as they lived it – and died.

New Hampshire in the Civil War, by Bruce H. Heald

This volume includes more than 200 vivid and accurate pictures depicting heroic battles scenes, maps, camp life, and more than 40 portraits of the men who served New Hampshire in battle. These chapters contain accounts of battles from the first bombardment of Fort Sumter to the sinking of the Alabama. Also included are glimpses of camp life, with its frying pan meals of “slosh” and the illnesses accompanied by “cold clammy sweat,” and of the famous Libby Prison.

Soldiers, Sailors, Slaves, and Ships: The Civil War Photographs of Henry P. Moore, by Jeffrey Bolster and Hilary Anderson

A Concord photographer who began his career as an artist, Henry P. Moore traveled to visit the Third New Hampshire Regiment to South Carolina and Georgia in 1862 and 1863. On Hilton Head and other sea islands, he captured striking images of soldiers in camp, former slaves at work, Navy warships, and sailors.

The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby: 1862: A New Hampshire Teacher Goes to War by Marek Bennett

Marek Bennett’s comics adaptation of this actual Civil War memoir brings to life the dry humor and grim conviction of teacher-turned-soldier Freeman Colby. Fiercely proud of his Granite State heritage, Freeman Colby bows to no one – not the rowdy students of his rural one-room schoolhouse, not the high-handed Union army officers in town, and certainly not those Rebel traitors causing all that trouble down South. But Colby needs work, and his ne’er-do-well little brother Newton needs looking after, so the boys enlist with a new regiment promising three years’ pay and plenty of adventure in a growing war.

A Woman Doctor’s Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks’ Diary, Gerald Schwartz, ed.

The author of this diary was one of America’s first female physicians. Before the Civil War, she & her husband, John Milton Hawks, also a physician, had a practice in Manchester, N.H. In 1862, she joined her husband on the Sea Islands of S.C., to minister to black Union troops & newly-freed slaves as teacher & doctor. Her diary covers the Civil War & Reconstruction periods. The South she describes consists of carpetbaggers, occupation troops far from home, zealous missionaries, freed slaves & their hungry children.

The Wildcat Regiment Band, Volume 2: People & Places

This high-quality CD of brass music of the American Civil War includes performances of several pieces from the Port Royal band books in the New H