19 Facts About Bruce Catton

Charles Bruce Catton was an American historian and journalist, known best for his books concerning the American Civil War.

Bruce Catton won a Pulitzer Prize during 1954 for A Stillness at Appomattox, his study of the final campaign of the war in Virginia.

Charles Bruce Catton was born in Petoskey, Michigan, to George R and Adela M Catton, and raised in Benzonia, Michigan.

Bruce Catton's father was a Congregationalist minister, who accepted a teaching position in Benzonia Academy and later became the academy's headmaster.

Bruce Catton tried twice to complete his studies, but found himself repeatedly distracted by his newspaper work.

At the start of World War II, Bruce Catton was too old for military service.

In 1954, Bruce Catton accepted the position as founding editor of the new magazine American Heritage.

For Mr Lincoln's Army, the first volume, Catton recounted the army's formation, the command of George B McClellan, the Peninsula Campaign, the Northern Virginia Campaign, and the Battle of Antietam.

From 1961 to 1965, the Centennial of the Civil War was commemorated, and Bruce Catton published his Centennial History of the Civil War trilogy.

In Grant Moves South, Bruce Catton discussed the increasing experience of Grant as a military commander, from victories at the Battle of Fort Henry and the Battle of Fort Donelson, to the Battle of Shiloh and the Vicksburg Campaign.

In Grant Takes Command, Catton discussed Grant's career from the Battle of Chattanooga through the 1864 Virginia campaigns against Robert E Lee and the end of the war.

In US Grant and the American Military Tradition, Bruce Catton writes what many consider one of the best short biographies of the general.

In Banners at Shenandoah: A Story of Sheridan's Fighting Cavalry, Bruce Catton wrote for young people about Union cavalry commander Philip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley during 1864.

In Two Roads to Sumter, written with his son William, Bruce Catton recounted the 15 years prior to the war, as considered from the points of view of the two main politicians involved in the conflict: Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis.

Bruce Catton brought to his writing an extraordinary combination of scholarship, literary skill and intimate concern.

Bruce Catton died in a hospital near his summer home at Frankfort, Michigan, after a respiratory illness.

Bruce Catton was buried in Benzonia Township Cemetery in Benzie County, Michigan.

The Bruce Catton Collection is housed in the Archives of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina.

Since 1984, the Bruce Catton Prize was awarded for lifetime achievement in the writing of history.