Gratuitous Literary Posting - Historickal Crossroads Division

Regular Llama fans will know that I always try to have at least one history in my reading rotation at any given time. (Indeed, I sometimes wonder whether I wouldn't have been happier as a history major in college instead of an English major. Perhaps a double? Or, with classics, a triple? Too late now.)

Anyhoo, lately I seem to have fallen into a definite Virginia Campaign vibe. Having first knocked off John J. Hennessy's Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas, I immediately followed up with Stephen Sears' Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam and am now about two thirds of the way through Sears' Chancellorsville. I've read Chancellorsville two or three times before, but the two prior books were first timers for me. Reading all of them in rapid succession has proved to be immensely rewarding, as the overall dynamic of the struggle between the Union and the Confederacy in Virginia and Maryland in 1862 and 1863 has really come out. ("But Tom," some of you are no doubt saying, "What about Fredericksburg?" Well sure, it was a bloody, horrific battle, well worth study. But I've always looked at it as something of an idiotic aside, a futile jab that had no real impact on the overall strategic picture and one that ought never to have been launched.)

Aaaaanyhoo, having come this far, I had begun to think that it was time again to read this:

High Tide at Gettysburg: The Campaign in Pennsylvania by Glenn Tucker.

Again, I've read this book probably four or five times, but it's been a few years and I'm sure picking it up again after reading the above trio in short order will be a rewarding experience. Also, it occurs to me that this would be an excellent time to, as it were, see out the Virginia campaign to its conclusion. For example, while I've got Grant's own memoirs and Bruce Catton's outstanding accounts of his service in both West and East, I don't have any books specifically about the 1864 campaign, including the battles in the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Court House. I figure these might make nice Christmas prezzies from Robbo's familly, all of whom continually moan and bitch that they haven't the slightest idea what to give me. (And, btw, any recommendations for books on these topics would be greatly appreciated.) I could then finish up with a more detailed account of the siege of Richmond, up to and including the surrender at Appomatox.

All well and good, right? Ha! Not so fast! Y'see, last evening my eye fell again on another book I recently acquired:

The Line Upon A Wind: An Intimate History Of The Last And Greatest War Fought At Sea Under Sail: 1793-1815, by Noel Mostert.

The title is pretty self-explanatory of the content. I have not yet read this book, and of course there is the argument that this is justification enough in itself to warrant putting it next on my list. However, if I do that, bang goes my Civil War thread. Furthermore, I'm afraid that plunging into this now will result in a renewed enthusiasm for the Royal Navy which will infect both my historickal thread (I have many books covering the period) as well as my other reading. So, for example, on the fiction front it would be goodbye Evelyn Waugh (and Anthony Powell, who is next) and hello (again) Patrick O'Brian. On the other hand, it is a subject near and dear to my heart.....

Decisions, decisions. But of a kind I truly love.