DAVIS, William C(harles) 1946-

PERSONAL: Born September 28, 1946, in Kansas City, MO; son of Eual Edward (a salesman) and Martha (an accountant; maiden name, Joan) Davis; married Pamela S. McIntyre, July 22, 1969 (divorced); children: M. Jefferson, Rebecca M. Education: Sonoma State College (now University), A.B., 1968, M.A., 1969. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES: Office—History Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Major Williams Hall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061-0117. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Historian, writer, and educator. Historical Times, Inc., Harrisburg, PA, editorial assistant, 1969-72; National Historical Society, Gettysburg, PA, editor of American History Illustrated and Civil War Times Illustrated, 1972-76, president, 1976-82; Historical Times, Inc., Harrisburg, executive director, 1982-84, corporate editorial director, 1984-85, president of Museum Editions, Ltd., 1986-1990; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, began as instructor, became professor of history and Director of Programs for Virginia Center for Civil War Studies. Consultant for numerous Civil War television movie and documentary productions, including "Civil War Journal" series for Arts & Entertainment/History Channel, "The Blue and the Gray" mini-series for Columbia Pictures, "George Washington," "The Perfect Tribute," and a Florentine Production documentary for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Consultant for History Book Club, Easton Press Library of Military History, U.S. Intelligence Historical Society, and Eastern National Park and Monument Association for the National Park Service.

MEMBER: Southern Historical Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Jefferson Davis Award for the best book on Confederate history, Museum of the Confederacy and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, 1974, for Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol, 1991, for Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour, and 1994, for "A Government of Our Own": The Making of the Confederacy; Jules F. Landry Award for the best book on Southern history, literature, and biography, Louisiana State University Press, 1974, and Phi Alpha Theta Award for best first work in history, 1975, both for Breckinridge; Pulitzer Prize nominations, 1975, for Breckinridge, and 1978, for Battle at Bull Run; fellow, U.S. Army Military History Institute, 1975, for contributions to the study of American military history; honorary doctor of humane letters, Lincoln Memorial University, 1976; Fletcher Pratt Award, 1977; fellow, Royal Photographic Society, 1985, for "The Image of War" series; Reuben M. Potter Award, 1998, for Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis. Several of Davis's books have been selections of the Military Book Club, History Book Club, and Literary Guild.

WRITINGS:

Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1974.

The Battle of New Market, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1975.

Duel between the First Ironclads, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1975.

Battle at Bull Run: A History of the First Major Campaign of the Civil War, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1977, 2nd edition, Stackpole Books (Harrisburg, PA), 1995.

The Orphan Brigade: The Kentucky Confederates Who Couldn't Go Home, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1980.

The Imperiled Union, Doubleday (New York, NY), Volume 1: The Deep Waters of the Proud, 1982, Volume 2: Stand in the Day of Battle, 1983.

Brother against Brother, Time-Life Books (Alexandria, VA), 1983.

First Blood, Time-Life Books (Alexandria, VA), 1983.

Gettysburg: The Story behind the Scenery, KC Publications (Las Vegas, NV), 1983.

Civil War Parks: The Story behind the Scenery, KC Publications (Las Vegas, NV), 1984.

Death in the Trenches, Time-Life Books (Alexandria, VA), 1986.

Fighting Men of the Civil War, W. H. Smith (New York, NY), 1989.

Commanders of the Civil War, W. H. Smith (New York, NY), 1990.

The Battlefields of the Civil War, Smithmark Publishers (New York, NY), 1991, also published as The Battlefields of the Civil War: The Bloody Conflict of North against South Told through the Stories of Its Great Battles, Illustrated with Collections of Some of the Rarest Civil War Historical Artifacts, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1996.

Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1991.

Generals of the Civil War, Mallard Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Battles of the Civil War, Mallard Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Memorabilia of the Civil War, Mallard Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Weapons of the Civil War, Mallard Press (New York, NY), 1991.

The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers and Cowboys, 1800-1899, Smithmark Publishers (New York, NY), 1992.

Trivia of the Civil War, Mallard Press (New York, NY), 1993.

Soldiers of the Civil War, Mallard Press (New York, NY), 1993.

The Civil War Cookbook, Courage Books (Philadelphia, PA), 1993.

"A Government of Our Own": The Making of the Confederacy, Free Press (New York, NY), 1994.

(With William Marvel) A Concise History of the Civil War, Eastern National Park and Monument Association (Conshohocken, PA), 1994.

The First Battle of Manassas, Eastern National Park and Monument Association (Conshohocken, PA), 1995.

A Way through the Wilderness: The Natchez Trace and the Civilization of the Southern Frontier, Harper-Collins (New York, NY), 1995.

Brothers in Arms, Salamander Books (London, England), 1995.

The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 1996.

Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1998.

Lincoln's Men: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation, Free Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Portraits of the Civil War: The Men and Women in Blue and Gray, Smithmark Publishers (New York, NY), 1999.

An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 2001.

The Union That Shaped the Confederacy: Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens, University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), 2001.

Rhett: The Turbulent Life and Times of a Fire-eater, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 2001.

Portraits of the Riverboats, Thunder Bay Press (San Diego, CA), 2001.

Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America, Free Press (New York, NY), 2002.

EDITOR

The Embattled Confederacy, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1982.

Fighting for Time, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1983.

(With Bell I. Wiley) The Image of War, 1861-1865, Doubleday (New York, NY), Volume 1: Shadows of the Storm, 1981, Volume 2: The Guns of '62, 1982, Volume 3: The Embattled Confederacy, 1982, Volume 4: Fighting for Time, 1983, Volume 5: The South Besieged, 1983, Volume 6: The End of an Era, 1984, also published as The Civil War Times Illustrated Photographic History of the Civil War, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers (New York, NY), 1994, Volume 1: Vicksburg to Appomattox, Volume 2: Fort Sumter to Gettysburg, also published in one volume as Civil War Album:Complete Photographic History of the Civil War: Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Tess Press (New York, NY), 2000.

Touched by Fire: A Photographic Portrait of the Civil War, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1985-1986.

Diary of a Confederate Soldier: John S. Jackman of the Orphan Brigade, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 1990.

The Confederate General, six volumes, National Historical Society (Harrisburg, PA), 1990-1991.

(With Brian C. Pohanka and Don Troiani) Civil War Journal (edited scripts from the television program of the same name), Rutledge Hill Press (Nashville, TN), Volume 1: The Leaders, 1997, Volume 2: The Battles, 1997, Volume 3: The Legacies, 1999.

(With Meredith L. Swentor) Bluegrass Confederate: The Headquarters Diary of Edward O. Guerrant, Louisiana State University Press (Baton Rouge, LA), 1999.

A Fire-eater Remembers: The Confederate Memoir of Robert Barnwell Rhett, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 2000.

Author without by-line of Spies, Scouts, and Raiders, Time-Life Books (Alexandria, VA), 1986. Also author of introduction, Ed Porter Thompson, History of the Orphan Brigade, Morningside Press (Dayton, OH), 1974, and Paul M. Angle, A Pictorial History of the Civil War Years, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1980.

Contributor to books, including Encyclopedia of Southern History, Louisiana State University Press, 1979; Dictionary of American Military Biography, Greenwood Press, 1984; Rebels Resurgent, Time-Life Books, 1985; Above and Beyond: The Congressional Medal of Honor, Boston Publishing, 1985; Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War, Harper, 1986; The Cavalry (part of "The Wars of America" series), Boston Publishing, 1987; Civil War Battlefield Guide, edited by Francis H. Kennedy, Houghton Mifflin, 1990; Leadership during the Civil War, edited by Roman J. Heleniak and Lawrence L. Hewitt, White Mane, 1992; The Way of the Warrior, Time-Life Books, 1993; Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, edited by Richard N. Current, Simon & Schuster, 1993; Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, edited by Leonard W. Levy and Louis Fisher, Simon & Schuster, 1993; Lee the General, edited by Gary Gallagher, University of Nebraska Press, 1966; Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg, and the Civil War, Savas, 1999.

Contributor to journals and periodicals, including American Heritage, American History Illustrated, British Heritage, Civil War Times, and Smithsonian. Consulting editor for Great Battles of the Civil War, Publications International, 1989; The West: From Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee: The Turbulent Story of the Settling of Frontier America, Smithmark Publishers, 1994; Martin F. Graham, Richard A. Sauers, and George Skoch, The Blue and the Gray: The Conflict between North and South, Publications International, 1996.

SIDELIGHTS: William C. Davis has devoted his career to the history of the American Civil War and is recognized as one of the foremost historians of the period. He is the author of over thirty books on the Civil War and editor of, or contributor to, many more. In recent years, Davis has also branched out into other areas of American history, writing a joint biography of three famous men who died at the Alamo and two histories of the settlement of the American West. "I have gotten sufficiently jaded on the Civil War that now every other book I do is on some other era," he said in an interview with Dr. Stephen L. Hardin on the Alamo de Parras Web site.

Davis's early book, The Orphan Brigade: The Kentucky Confederates Who Couldn't Go Home, chronicles the Civil War activities of the those Kentucky soldiers who, unlike most of their fellow Kentuckians, elected to side with the Confederacy. Robert Kirsch of the Los Angeles Times noted that "Davis's intimate account captures the pride and loyalty of the regiments, brings individuals alive, draws heavily on the records and narratives left by the brigade under encouragement by Capt. Ed Porter Thompson, an amateur historian." Rory Quirk wrote in the Washington Post that "the battles are rich with detail," yet noted the book's lack of maps: "This absence of detailed maps is a regrettable omission in an otherwise informative, comprehensive and colorful account."

Davis's biography of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis (no relation) was described by David Herbert Donald in the New York Times Book Review as "the fullest and best biography yet written [of Davis], a work that will remain a standard, authoritative account of the life of the Confederate president." Jefferson Davis appears again in "A Government of Our Own": The Making of the Confederacy, a blow-by-blow recounting of the four-month-long discussion about the shape of the Southern constitution. The author's previous familiarity with Davis was no doubt an advantage; Booklist reviewer Brad Hooper noted how successfully the author "brings back to life and breath the personalities involved, particularly Jefferson Davis." The author also wrote about Jefferson Davis in "his finely drawn and highly readable" study of the sparring between Davis and Confederate Secretary of War John Breckinridge during the final days of the war, as An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government was described in Library Journal by John C. Edwards.

Davis has also written about the Union leader, Abraham Lincoln, in books such as Lincoln's Men: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation. According to Davis, Lincoln earned the respect of the rank-and-file soldiers by his obvious attention to them: Lincoln was known to personally commute the sentences of deserters, to put his own life in danger by visiting forward positions on the Union line, and to walk among the men telling jokes and stories after he had reviewed the troops. Davis also writes about Lincoln's personal thoughts about command, the roots of his sympathy for the soldiers in his own experiences during the 1832 Black Hawk War and in his historical memory of Washington as father figure during the Revolution. "Davis has cut directly to Lincoln's soul and discovered his genius," Randall M. Miller declared in Library Journal.

Davis's most famous non-Civil War book may be Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis. All three men fled failure in the East to try to reinvent themselves in the West, and all became legends, for good reasons, as Davis reveals. As Gilbert Taylor noted in Booklist, Davis's "integrated research . . . impress[es] the reader with a strange-but-true tone as he describes" Bowie's financial successes in smuggling slaves and conducting fraudulent land deals, for example. This "is a readable, stimulating and exceptionally well-researched narrative history," said Library Journal contributor Charles Cowling, who also noted that Davis was the first historian to draw substantially on the Mexican Military Archives.

In his most recent book, Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America, Davis examines the character of the Confederate nation beyond the battlefield. Jay Winik, writing in the National Review, identified Davis's thesis in the book: "Born out of conflict, the confederate nation was riven from Day One by endless bitter disputes and savage factional fighting." Calling the book "an important resource for students of the Civil War South," Winik pointed out that Davis "makes a convincing case that the Confederacy at home, much like its northern counterpart, was often dangerously divided, if not at war with itself." John Carver Edwards in Library Journal found the book a "penetrating analysis of the values and differences among the various factions of the Confederacy." "Davis eschews both present-mindedness and lost-cause romanticism in this rigorous but accessible history," wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "and does an excellent job depicting this early failed state from a variety of angles."

Davis described his writing habits in an interview with Stephen L. Hardin: "I adhere to a very strict writing schedule. . . . I take a brisk six-mile walk in the morning, which helps clear my head and arrange thoughts for the day's work. Then I start writing at precisely ten a.m. and stay at it until at least 6:30 usually with ninety minutes off at lunch. I do that seven days a week until the book is finished, and every day I produce fourteen pages of finished copy on the word processor, or two pages an hour. Most importantly, I do not answer the telephone or knocks at the door. A ten-second phone call from some boob telemarketing burial plots or insurance can cost half an hour or more if a train of thought is interrupted and has to be recreated.... Once I'm done writing, I usually sort the note cards for the following day's work, and then sit down in front of the fireplace and read a book or watch a British comedy on television."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

A. B. Bookmans's Weekly, October 5, 1992, review of The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers and Cowboys, 1800-1899, p. 1141.

American Historical Review, December, 1992, Steven E. Woodworth, review of Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour, pp. 1597-1598; February, 1997, Ronald L. F. Davis, review of AWay through the Wilderness: The Natchez Trace and the Civilization of the Southern Frontier, p. 177; April, 1998, Richard E. Beringer, review of The Cause Lost: Myths and Realities of the Confederacy, pp. 602-603; June, 2000, Joseph Allen Frank, review of Lincoln's Men: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation, pp. 928-929; February, 2002, Gregg Cantrell, review of The Union That Shaped the Confederacy, p. 198.

American History, February, 1999, Joseph Gustaitis, review of Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis, p. 14; December, 2001, Stephen Currie, review of An Honorable Defeat: The Last Days of the Confederate Government, p. 66.

American Spectator, July, 1992, Paul Johnson, review of Jefferson Davis, pp. 54-57.

Atlantic Monthly, March, 1995, Phoebe-Lou Adams, review of A Way through the Wilderness, pp. 128-129.

Booklist, September 15, 1992, Ray Olson, review of The American Frontier, pp. 118; November 1, 1993, Barbara Jacobs, review of A Civil War Cookbook, pp. 494-495; October 1, 1994, Brad Hooper, review of "A Government of Our Own": The Making of the Confederacy, p. 233; February 15, 1995, Dorothy Lilly, review of A Way through the Wilderness, p. 1056; June 1, 1998, Gilbert Taylor, review of Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 1712; November 15, 1998, Gilbert Taylor, review of Lincoln's Men, p. 563; March 1, 2001, Gilbert Taylor, review of An Honorable Defeat, p. 1220; March 15, 2001, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Union That Shaped the Confederacy: Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens, p. 1350.

Bookwatch, November, 1992, review of The American Frontier, p. 131; January, 1993, review of Fighting Men of the Civil War, Commanders of the Civil War, and Battlefields of the Civil War, p. 11; April, 1998, review of Civil War Journal, Volume 2: The Battles, p. 7.

Book World, October 25, 1992, review of Jefferson Davis, p. 1597; March 5, 1995, review of AWay through the Wilderness, p. 3.

Choice, April, 1997, review of The Cause Lost, p. 1403; November, 2001, J. D. Smith, review of The Union That Shaped the Confederacy, p. 576; January, 2002, R. A. Fischler, review of An Honorable Defeat, p. 945.

Christian Science Monitor, April 1, 1999, review of Lincoln's Men, p. 17.

Civil War History, September, 1992, Lynda Lasswell Crist, review of The Confederate General, Volume 1, pp. 246-247; June, 1993, Ludwell H. Johnson III, review of Jefferson Davis, pp. 156-158; June, 1997, Mary Munsell Monroe, review of The Battlefields of the Civil War, pp. 182-183; September, 1997, Gaines M. Foster, review of The Cause Lost, pp. 247-248; December, 1998, Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein, review of Civil War Journal, Volume 2: The Battles, p. 318; September, 1999, Michael Burlingame, review of Lincoln's Men, p. 275.

Civil War Times, May, 2002, Peter S. Carmichael, review of Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America, pp. 10-11.

Guardian Weekly, December 27, 1992, review of Jefferson Davis, p. 16.

Historian, autumn, 1995, John F. Marszalek, review of "A Government of Our Own," pp. 133-134.

History: Reviews of New Books, summer, 1997, review of The Cause Lost, p. 153.

Journal of American History, September, 1995, John David Smith, review of "A Government of Our Own," pp. 744-746; April, 1996, John McCardell, review of "A Government of Our Own," pp. 569-570; September, 1997, Ludwell H. Johnson III, review of The Cause Lost, pp. 668-669; December, 1997, W. Stitt Robinson, review of A Way through the Wilderness, p. 1041; March, 2000, J. Matthew Gallman, review of Lincoln's Men, pp. 1740-1743.

Journal of Military History, April, 1995, review of "A Government of Our Own," p. 336.

Journal of Southern History, August, 1992, Steven E. Woodworth, review of Diary of a Confederate Soldier: John S. Jackman of the Orphan Brigade, pp. 547-548; August, 1993, John M. McCardell, Jr., review of Jefferson Davis, pp. 554-555; February, 1996, George C. Rable, review of "A Government of Our Own," pp. 133-134; May, 1996, John D. W. Guice, review of A Way through the Wilderness, pp. 361-362; February, 1998, Daniel E. Sutherland, review of The Cause Lost, pp. 156-157; May, 2000, Roger A. Fischer, review of Lincoln's Men, pp. 420-421; November, 2001, Kenneth H. Williams, review of Bluegrass Confederate: The Headquarters Diary of Edward O. Guerrant, p. 862.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1991, review of Jefferson Davis, p. 1256; August 15, 1994, review of "A Government of Our Own," p. 1097; December 15, 1994, review of A Way through the Wilderness, p. 1535; September 1, 1996, review of The Cause Lost, p. 1290; May 1, 1998, review of Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 628; November 15, 1998, review of Lincoln's Men, p. 1642.

Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Book Guide, September, 1997, review of "A Government of Our Own," p. 37; September, 1999, review of The American Frontier, p. 39; February 1, 2002, review of Look Away!, p. 156.

Library Journal, September 15, 1990, Jason H. Silverman, review of Diary of a Confederate Soldier, p. 88; November 15, 1991, Randall M. Miller, review of Jefferson Davis, p. 90; September 15, 1994, Robert A. Curtis, review of "A Government of Our Own," pp. 78-79; February 1, 1995, Dorothy Lilly, review of A Way through the Wilderness, p. 87; June 15, 1997, William D. Bushnell, review of Civil War Journal, Volume 1: The Leaders, p. 82; May 15, 1998, Charles Cowling, review of Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 95; November 1, 1998, Randall M. Miller, review of Lincoln's Men, p. 109; February 15, 2001, John C. Edwards, review of An Honorable Defeat, p. 181; April 1, 2001, David M. Alperstein, review of The Union That Shaped the Confederacy, p. 113; February 1, 2002, Theresa McDevitt, review of Rhett: The Turbulent Life and Times of a Fire-eater, p. 114; March 1, 2002, John Carver Edwards, review of Look Away!, pp. 117-118.

Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1980.

National Review, May 6, 2002, Jay Winik, review of Look Away!, p. 46.

New York Review of Books, June 13, 2002, James M. McPherson, "Could the South Have Won?," review of Look Away!, pp. 23-25.

New York Times, January 12, 1992, David Herbert Donald, review of Jefferson Davis; August 16, 1998, Paula Mitchell Marks, review of Three Roads to the Alamo; July 8, 2001, Daniel Sutherland, "A Civil Ending?," p. 26.

Parameters: U.S. Army War College Quarterly, autumn, 1992, review of Jefferson Davis, p. 123.

Publishers Weekly, November 1, 1991, review of Jefferson Davis, p. 68; January 9, 1995, review of A Way through the Wilderness, p. 53; April 6, 1998, review of Three Roads to the Alamo, p. 64; November 23, 1998, review of Lincoln's Men, p. 52; March 12, 2001, review of The Union That Shaped the Confederacy, p. 75; February 4, 2002, review of Look Away!, p. 65.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 1993, review of The Battle of New Market, p. 11; May, 1999, review of The American Frontier, p. 55.

Reviews in American History, September, 1995, review of "A Government of Our Own," p. 444; September, 1999, review of Lincoln's Men, p. 414; March, 2002, Wallace Hettle, "'United We Stand, Divided We Fall': Examining Confederate Defeat," review of The Union That Shaped the Confederacy, pp. 51-57.

School Library Journal, March, 1993, review of The American Frontier, p. 240.

Times Literary Supplement, February 1, 2002, James M. McPherson, "Destroyed Utterly," review of An Honorable Defeat, p. 7.

Virginia Quarterly Review, autumn, 1996, review of Jefferson Davis, p. 141.

Wall Street Journal, November 8, 1994, review of "A Government of Our Own," p. A20; February 26, 1997, review of The Cause Lost, p. A16.

Washington Post, May 30, 1980; May 27, 2001, Ernest B. Furguson, "On the Run," p. T04.

ONLINE

Alamo de Parras,http://alamo-de-parras.welkin.org/ (May 30, 2001), Stephen L. Hardin, interview with Davis.

Virginia Center for Civil War Studies,http://www.civilwar.vt.edu/staff/ (August 18, 2002), profile of Davis.