Excellent Homer, thank you for doing this. Come visit me at gettysburg whenever you are in central south pa. I live in hanover about 12 miles from there. Next Saturday im taking the battlefield test. An excellent source for the years before and during the civil war is a multi volume work by Allen Nevins.. Ordeal of the Union (1848-1860) and War for the Union (1861-65)
Yours is the second recommendation for Nevins' volumes. I guess I should check them out. My reading list is growing by the day.