Is my library complete?

    Many decades ago, in an old Dixie Gun Works catalog, I gained a bit of wisdom. The editor was writing about building a library. A library was more than a large group of books, he claimed. A library was a group of books that permitted a person to answer the questions that he or she had. To be honest, I write books (and blog posts) because I can’t find the answers to the questions I have. Having a good library at my fingertips allows me to access what information is available.

   Over the past forty years, I have sought to build a collection that permits me access to much of the information out there. I have my own set of the Official Records, Confederate Veteran, Battles and Leaders, Rebellion Record, and the Southern Historical Society Papers. Yes, many of these sets are online, but I really prefer turning papers. My library is Confederate specific. Yes, there are biographies on Federal generals, like Grant, Sherman, McClellan, and Burnside, and politicians, like Lincoln, Seward, and Stanton. And there are some Federal regimentals; I think Beatie’s first three volumes on the Army of Potomac a masterful work, and I wish he had lived to do more. But the vast majority of the library is Confederate in nature with numerous biographies on Lee, Jackson, Davis (along with Davis’s papers). While some people have more books on the battle of Gettysburg, my forty or fifty volumes suffice for the questions I have. There are biographies on other Southern politicians, like Stephens, Cobb, Benjamin, Yancey, and Vance. There are numerous regimentals, published letters, diaries, and reminiscences.

   Earlier this week, I picked up a set I had always wanted. In 1993, Simon and Schuster released the four volume Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. The price in 1993 was about $450 for the set, well beyond my means. I had not really thought much about the set over the years, but I found this set for $50 on an online site and added it to my collection. These volumes cover generals, politicians, battles, the roles of various church denominations, just a host of events and people. It is wealth of information right at the fingertips. It will look perfect right beside Long’s The Civil War Day by Way, Boatner’s The Civil War Dictionary, Eicher and Eicher’s Civil War High Commands, and The Library of Congress Civil War Desk Reference.

   Is my library complete? Well, not really. But I am comfortable in my collection, and it is much closer than in the past. Thanks to the work of Savas Beatie, I have been able to add the Bachelder Papers, the Carman manuscript, and will soon add Bearss’s three volumes on the Vicksburg campaign. I’d like to add biographies on each of the war-time Southern governors (I think I only have the biographies on Vance, but there are a lot of them). Of course, some of these men do not have biographies. But by and large, I have a good, solid, Confederate library. If a question can be answered by turning to a book, I might just have that book. Honestly, much of my collecting these days has turned to 18^th and 19^th century Southern politicians and jurists. That is the topic for another post.