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My Life on the Plains. Or, Personal Experiences with Indians (1874) General George Armstrong Custer

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Elizabeth Bacon Custer (April 8, 1842 - April 4, 1933) was the wife of General George Armstrong Custer. After his death, she became an outspoken advocate for her husband's legacy through her books and lectures. After her husband’s column was wiped out at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in June 1876, many in the press, Army, and government criticized Custer for blundering into a massacre. President Ulysses S. Grant publicly blamed Custer for the disaster. Fearing that her husband was to be made a scapegoat by history, Libbie launched a one woman campaign to rehabilitate her husband's image. She began writing articles and making speaking engagements praising the glory of her martyred husband. Her three books, Boots and Saddles (1885), Tenting on the Plains (1887), and Following the Guidon (1890) were brilliant pieces of propaganda aimed at glorifying her dead husband’s memory. Her efforts were successful. The image of a steely Custer leading his men against overwhelming odds only to be wiped out while defending their position to the last man became as much a part of American lore as the Alamo. (Wikipedia)

Boots and Saddles; or, Life in Dakota with General Custer (1885)

Following the Civil War The Century Magazine commissioned veteran Union and Confederate commanders to write their accounts of the battles they led, leading to an enormously popular series. Often including contrary accounts (even generals on the same side frequently disagreed with their fellow - or superior - commander's interpretation of events, and were rarely shy about saying so...) the series was later compiled in four volumes, frequently reprinted through the years. (A much more recent edition is pictured at left.) The reception of General U.S. Grant's (then also former President) four contributions to the series led to his decision to write and publish his memoirs.

Near complete archives of The Century Magazine can be found and read here.

An online version of the books with hyperlinked tables of contents from Ohio State University here.

All four volumes, complete with maps and numerous illustrations, are also below.

Volume 1:

Volume 2:

"His military and personal history, embracing a large amount of information hitherto unpublished" (1886) by A.L. Long

Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1875), Rev. John William Jones, DD. (Formerly Chaplain, Army of Northern Virginia, and of Washington College, Virginia. Published by authority of the Lee family, and of the Faculty of Washington and Lee University)

Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee by his son Captain Robert E Lee (1905)

Lee's Dispatches; unpublished letters of General Robert E. Lee, C.S.A., to Jefferson Davis and the War Department of the Confederate States of America, 1862-65

The Campaigns of Gen. Robert E. Lee (1872) an Address by Lieutenant General Jubal A Early

Volume I:

Volume II:

Author biography here.

Project Gutenberg version (text, html, other) here.

Free Librivox audiobook version here.

"THIS is a book of soldiers' tales, told, for the most part, by those who took part in the events they record. They are drawn from many branches of service and from many countries ; sometimes they are concerned with great and critical operations, but more often they deal with episodes and side-shows in the huge business of war."

Note: for completeness and online readability we recommend the Third (Webster) Edition below.

In 1875, ten years after the end of the Civil War, Sherman became one of the first Civil War generals to publish a memoir. His Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. By Himself, published by D. Appleton & Co., in two volumes, began with the year 1846 (when the Mexican War began) and ended with a chapter about the “military lessons of the [civil] war.”

Vol 1, First Edition (Appleton)

Vol 2, First Edition (British/Henry S. King & Company, London)

In 1886, after the publication of Grant’s memoirs, Sherman produced a "second edition, revised and corrected" of his memoirs with Appleton. The new edition added a second preface, a chapter about his life up to 1846, a chapter concerning the post-war period (ending with his 1884 retirement from the army), several appendices, portraits, improved maps, and an index. For the most part, Sherman refused to revise his original text on the ground that "I disclaim the character of historian, but assume to be a witness on the stand before the great tribunal of history" and "any witness who may disagree with me should publish his own version of [the] facts in the truthful narration of which he is interested." However, Sherman did add the appendices, in which he published the views of some others.

Vol 1, Second (revised) edition

Vol 2, Second (revised) edition

Subsequently, Sherman shifted to the publishing house of Charles L. Webster & Co., the publisher of Grant’s memoirs. The new publishing house brought out a "third edition, revised and corrected" in 1890. This difficult-to-find edition was substantively identical to the second.

Vol 1, Third (Webster) Edition

Vol 2, Third (Webster) Edition

After Sherman died in 1891, there were dueling new editions of his memoirs. His first publisher, Appleton, reissued the original (1875) edition with two new chapters about Sherman’s later years added by the journalist W. Fletcher Johnson.

Vol 2 (Appleton/"Fletcher Johnson" Edition)

Meanwhile, Charles L. Webster & Co. issued a "fourth edition, revised, corrected, and complete" with the text of Sherman’s second edition, a new chapter prepared under the auspices of the Sherman family bringing the general’s life from his retirement to his death and funeral, and an appreciation by politician James G. Blaine (who was related to Sherman's wife). Unfortunately, this edition omits Sherman’s prefaces to the 1875 and 1886 editions.

Vol 2, Fourth Edition (Webster/James G. Blaine)

In 1904 and 1913, Sherman’s youngest son (Philemon Tecumseh Sherman) republished the memoirs, ironically with Appleton (not Charles L. Webster & Co.). This was designated as a "second edition, revised and corrected". This edition contains Sherman’s two prefaces, his 1886 text, and the materials added in the 1891 Blaine edition. Thus, this virtually invisible edition of Sherman's memoirs is actually the most comprehensive version.

See also General William T Sherman: Additional Works and Correspondence

(See also: Memoirs of General William T Sherman)

General Sherman's official account of his great march through Georgia and the Carolinas, from his departure from Chattanooga to the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston and the Confederate forces under his command. To which is added, General Sherman's evidence before the Congressional committee on the conduct of the war; the animadversions of Secretary Stanton and General Halleck: with a defence of his proceedings, etc (1865)

Reply of Maj. Gen. Sherman to the mayor of Atlanta, and speeches of Maj. Gen. Hooker, delivered in the cities of Brooklyn and New York, Sept. 22, 1864. Letter of Lieut. Gen. Grant (1864)

Major-General Sherman's reports (1865)

Military orders of General William T. Sherman, 1861-'65 (1869)

Who burnt Columbia? : official depositions of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman and Gen. O.O. Howard, U.S.A., for the defence, and extracts from some of the depositions for the claimants (1873)

Special field order, no. 65 (1865) (Signed: By order Maj. Gen'l. W.T. Sherman; D.M. Dayton, A.A. Gen'l Announces and implements the military convention of surrender and pacification made on 22 April by W.T. Sherman and J.E. Johnston)

General W.T. Sherman as college president; a collection of letters, documents, and other material, chiefly from private sources, relating to the life and activities of General William Tecumseh Sherman, to the early years of Louisiana State University, and to the stirring conditions existing in the South on the eve of the Civil War, 1859-1861 (1912)

The Sherman letters : correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891 (1894)

Home letters of General Sherman (1909)

Author: Roosevelt, Kermit, 1889-1943
Subject: World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns Iraq; World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's sons

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Author: Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
Publisher: New York, Macmillan

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