The Fletcher Pratt Award
At a meeting of the Board of the Directors held on June 19, 1956, James D. Horan proposed that a “Fletcher Pratt Award” be established as a memorial to a distinguished charter member and former president (1953-54), who had passed away nine days earlier. Unanimously approved as proposed, the award, in the form of an appropriate plaque, is presented to the author or editor of the best non-fiction book on the Civil War published during the course of the calendar year. The Fletcher Pratt Award is presented annually at the May meeting.
One of the founding members and the second president of the Civil War Round Table of New York, Fletcher Pratt was a prolific writer. Pratt authored 16 books, including six on the American Civil War.
Previous winners of this prestigious award have included such Civil War luminaries as Bruce Catton, Burke Davis, Allan Nevins, Harry Hansen, Shelby Foote, Clifford Dowdey, Edwin Coddington, John Y. Simon, David Donald, William C. Davis, William McFeely, Stephen Sears, Richard McMurray, Edward Longacre, James M. McPherson, James I. Robertson, Noah Trudeau, Steven Woodworth, Wiley Sword, Gary Gallagher, Gordon Rhea, Joseph T. Glatthaar, Amanda Foreman, Allen Guelzo, and Ed Bearss, just to name a few.
For more information on the Civil War Round Table of New York, please contact The Civil War Round Table of New York at our mailing address: 139-33 250th Street, Rosedale, New York 11422. Or, if you prefer, call 718-341-9811, or email us at cwrtnyc1@gmail.com.
(From Left to Right: Award Committee Member, Charles Mander; Fletcher Pratt Award Winner, Dr. James M. McPherson; Award Chairperson, Patrick Falci; Award Committee Member, William Finlayson)
Past Winners
2023 - Victor Vignola for Contrasts in Command
2022 - Kent Masterson Brown for Meade at Gettysburg
2021 - Stephen Davis for Into Tennessee and Failure (2 volumes on John Bell Hood)
2020 - Stephen Davis for Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta
2019 - Donald F. Miller for Vicksburg
2018 - Timothy B. Smith - The Real Horse Soldiers: Benjamin Grierson's Epic 1863 Civil War Raid Through Mississippi
2017 - Ron Chernow - Grant
2016 - John Strausbaugh - City of Sedition
2015 - Dr. James M. McPherson for "Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief"
2014 - Ed Bearss for The Petersburg Campaign - Volumes 1 & 2
2013 - Allen C. Guelzo for Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
2012 - Timothy B. Smith for Corinth 1862 - Siege, Battle, Occupation
2011 - Amanda Foreman for A World of Fire
2010 - Donald Stoker for The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War
2009 - William L. Shea for Fields of Blood
2008 - Joseph T. Glatthaar - General Lee's Army
2007 - Joan Cashin - First Lady of the Confederacy
2006 - Robert Tracy McKenzie - Lincolnites and Rebels
2005 - Ira M. Rutkow - Bleeding Blue and Gray
2004 - Michael J. Bennett - Union Jacks
2003 - Stephen W. Sears - Gettysburg
2002 - Grady McWhiney- Confederate Crackers and Cavaliers
2001 - Charles B. Dew - Apostles of Disunion
2000 - Gordon C. Rhea - To the North Anna River
1999 - Richard L. Kiper - Major General John Alexander McClernand: Politician in Uniform
1998 - Gary W. Gallagher - Lee and His Generals in War and Memory
1997 - James I. Robertson, Jr. - Stonewall Jackson, the Man, the Soldier, the Legend
1996 - Stephen W. Sears - Chancellorsville
1995 - Steven E. Woodworth - Davis and Lee at War
1994 - John C. Waugh - The Class of 1846
1993 - William J. Miller - Mapping For Stonewall
1992 - Wiley Sword - Embrace an Angry Wind
1991 - Rod Gragg - Confederate Goliath: The Battle of Fort Fisher
1990 - Steven E. Woodworth - Jefferson Davis and His Generals: The Failure of Confederate Command in the West
1989 - Noah Andre Trudeau - Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May - June 1864
1988 - Benjamin F. Cooling, Jr. - Forts Henry & Donelson
1987 - James I. Robertson, Jr. - General A.P. Hill: The Story of a Confederate Warrior
1986 - Edward G. Longacre - The Cavalry at Gettysburg
1985 - Joseph T. Glatthaar - Sherman's March To the Sea and Beyond
1984 - Larry J. Daniel - Cannoneers in Grey
1983 - Stephen W. Sears - Landscape Turned Red
1982 - Richard McMurray - John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence
1981 - William McFeeley - Grant: A Biography
1980 - Samuel Carter III - The Final Fortress
1979 - Stephen Z. Starr - The Union Cavalry in the Civil War (Volume 1)
1978 - Rowena Anita Reed - Combined Operations in the Civil War
1977 - William C. Davis - for continuing contributions to Civil War history
1976 - Richard Wheeler. Voices of the Civil War
1975 - David H. Donald (editor) -Gone For a Soldier: The Civil War Memoirs of Private Alfred Bellard
1974 - Shelby Foote - The Civil War: A Narrative (Volume 3)
1973 - John Y. Simon - The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant (Volume 5)
1972 - Robert M. Myers (editor) - Children of Pride
1971 - Thomas Connelly - Army of the Heartland
1970 - Frank Vandiver - Their Tattered Flags
1969 - Bruce Catton - Grant Takes Command
1968 - Edwin B. Coddington - The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study In Command
1967 - Glydon G. Van Deusen - William Henry Seward
1966 - Charles B. Dew - Ironmaker of the Confederacy: Joseph R. Anderson and the Tredegar Iron Works
1965 - James V. Murfin - The Gleam of Bayonets
1964 - Clifford Dowdey - The Seven Days: The Emergence of Lee
1963 - Shelby Foote - The Civil War: A Narrative (Volume 2)
1962 - Harry Hansen - The Civil War
1961 - Glenn Tucker - Chickamauga
1960 - Ernest & Trevor Dupuy - The Compact History of the Civil War
1959 - Allan Nevins - The Improvised War: 1861-1862
1958 - Philip Van Doren Stern - An End to Valor
1957 - Burke Davis - J.E.B. Stuart: The Last Cavalier
1956 - Bruce Catton - This Hallowed Ground