scott had a tremendous influence of both South and Northern poets of the American civil war. This edition was undoubtably read by many soldiers at the time. Mark Twain would later write, “Sir Walter Scott had so large a hand in making Southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the war.”

At the height of the holiday shopping season of 1860, a bookseller in Richmond, Va., placed a telling advertisement in The Daily Dispatch promoting a selection of “Elegant Books for Christmas and New Year’s Presents.” Notably, the list of two dozen “choice books, suitable for Holiday Gifts” included five works by the late Scottish novelist and poet Sir Walter Scott in “various beautiful bindings.” Sir Walter Scott not only dominated gift book lists on the eve of the Civil War but also dominated Southern literary taste throughout the conflict.

Sir Walter Scott, more than any other writer, shaped Americans’ conception of manliness, bravery and combat in the period leading up to the Civil War. And his influence did not end once the fighting began.