Charles Carleton Coffin Books—Excellent for American History Study

My son has discovered a “new” book. Well, new to us. It was printed in 1896—the first printing in 1866. The book? The Boys of 61’ by Charles Carleton Coffin, a book about the Civil War.

My 12 year old son, Timothy, has finished nearly all of our biographies at home (We have quite a collection.). Yesterday I offered for him to continue reading in another popular historical fiction series that we have or to read The Boys of ’61 By Charles Coffin. Of course, I did a sales pitch for Coffin’s book telling him how he had been a reporter imbedded with the troops during the Civil War—just like the reporters for the war in Iraq. I really thought there was no way he’d go for this book that is over a hundred years old, but he did. I sent him off to read and then go to sleep that evening, wondering if he would find a new friend in Charles Carleton Coffin. Today I got his report. He said that it was a little challenging to read at first and at the same time he was surprised how much the same the language was then as now. He liked the way Coffin described the battles of the Civil War and was amazed that he’d actually met Abraham Lincoln a few times. He liked that fact that it was a first hand account, too.

If you want to check out Charles Carleton Coffin’s books online, check out www.archive.org. At this site they have many of Coffin’s books and one biography about him in various formats. The one I like is the “flip book”. Someone out there has actually scanned in the books and you can flip the pages and read the actual old book. It’s almost as good as holding it in your hand.