The Civil War Hunger

More than 620,000 soldiers lost their lives between 1861 and 1865 in the only war fought by Americans on American soil. Brother against brother, state against state. Lincoln told Congress, in remarks issued right before the Emancipation Proclamation: “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”
Independent publishers and university presses have new material to feed the cravings of Civil War buffs, aficionados, scholars, and students. Historical archives, diaries, government and state records, forgotten magazine articles, and personal documents are still surfacing and being scrutinized for sustenance. Beyond facts and prominent figures, today’s offerings delve into philosophical, sociological, economic, and political aspects of this time period. Here are some fulfilling titles.

Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Volume 5, edited by Peter Cozzens, University of Illinois Press (0-252-02404-4), is a thick hardcover sizzling with essays, testimonies, and writings about individuals and events that affected conflict outcomes of the Civil War. The historically significant selections include an interview with Longstreet; Chamberlain discussing the Fredericksburg battle; and U.S. Grant defending Porter’s actions at the second Bull Run battle. This rich compilation was gathered from original articles published immediately following the war. Far from dry, these are lively and obscure accounts, including an air balloon piece by George Custer.
In The War of the Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning in the Civil War, by Charles M. Evans, Stackpole Books (0-8177-1395-4), readers will find a complete documentation of the use of balloons for military recognizance. Although accused of devil association and Yankee trickery in his early years, Thaddeus Lowe was instrumental in creating a Balloon Corps for the Union army to observe troops, telegraph messages to ground forces, and help commanders view the topography for their military movements. A Confederate officer noted “that he was careful to keep the artillery out of sight . . . in the event that an elevated observer was in the area.”
Another book from Stackpole, War of Vengeance: Acts of Retaliation against Civil War POWs, by Lonnie Speer (ISBN ?????), focuses on an often downplayed part of this war. The mental and physical abuse of both North and South soldiers and the raw truth about cold-blooded, retaliatory executions are recorded in detail. A Union commander ordered that “for every soldier of the U.S. killed in violation of the laws of war a rebel soldier shall be executed.” These reports will shock those who staunchly believe that the Civil War was “history’s last ‘Gentleman’s War.’”
Civil War enthusiasts relish disagreements regarding battle strategies. The Cavalry Battle That Saved the Union: Custer vs. Stuart at Gettysburg, by Paul D. Walker, Pelican Publishing (1-58980-012-5), in addition to serving as an historical account of mounted warfare, attempts to answer the quandary of why Robert E. Lee sent Pickett on a suicide mission at the battle of Gettysburg. The author says that the “purpose of this book is to give proper recognition to and show the importance of America’s greatest Cavalry battle, which occurred three miles east of Gettysburg. . . .” If Lee’s plan had worked, this tragic battle might have been a turning point for the Rebels.
A biography of a Confederate colonel in the Cavalry, Blood Image: Turner Ashby in the Civil War and the Southern Mind, by Paul C. Anderson (0-8071-2752-3), focuses on the cultural perceptions of an “archetype of knight chivalry.” Ashby’s charm and Southern-gentleman demeanor earned him a legendary and ideal status on both sides of the war. The Conflicting Worlds series at Louisiana State University Press also includes They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War, by Deanne Blanton and Lauren Cook Burgess, (0-8071-2806-6), a book that explores the controversial issue of women disguising themselves in men’s uniforms and fighting as soldiers for North and South.
The perspective of Louisianians in the Civil War, edited with an introduction by Lawrence Lee Hewitt and Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., is supplied by the University of Missouri Press (0-8262-1403-7). These leading scholars of Civil War history bring together a variety of essays written on the troubles that Louisianians endured during and after the war. This study has appeal for a broad audience, as it deals with a multicultural society and the effects of warfare. The diversity of minorities ranges from sugar planters, slaves, Union sympathizers, and Cajuns to Jews, foreigners, unionized laborers, and free African-Americans.
This book buffet would be incomplete without reference to the driving issue of almost four million enslaved people. White Mane Books serves up Slaves Who Dared: The Stories of Ten African-American Heroes, by Mary Garrison, (1-57249-272-4), for young readers. The narratives are about “ten slaves who dared to risk their lives for freedom,” including Susie King Taylor, Robert Smalls, and well-knowns such as Frederick Douglass. Drawings, photos, graphics, and fact call-outs help illustrate the original recorded text to enlighten youth on this American plight.
Hardships endured on the home front of Alabama farmers are described in authentic, phonetic writing in Oh, What a Loansome Time I Had: The Civil War Letters of Major William Morel Moxley, Eighteenth Alabama Infantry, and Emily Beck Moxley, edited by Thomas W. Cutrer, University of Alabama Press (0-8173-1118-1). Many correspondences have been published from the Civil War, but this book brings to life non-slave-owning white farmers who simply wanted to do the right thing for their Southern state. The war was taxing on Moxley’s wife and she openly laments her troubles to her husband, who was also struggling with the disease, lack of food, and casualties of war. This is a refreshing look at what real people felt and experienced.
Another individual voice hails from the state of Florida. Southern Service on Land and Sea: The Wartime Journal of Robert Watson, edited by R. Thomas Campbell, University of Tennessee Press (ISBN ???????), offers a rare taste of the wartime days of a seaman in the Confederate navy. Originally written as three journals, the book maintains that style, with plenty of footnotes, introductory paragraphs, and appropriate chapter breaks. Watson participated in the battle of Chickamauga and then was a seaman on the ironclad Savannah. He writes intimately of W.T. Sherman’s army attacking: “the light of the explosion of the ironclad was so bright that they could see to pick up a pin eight miles away.”
A lengthy unraveling of the strengths and weaknesses of an American leader is clearly presented in Jefferson Davis, Confederate President, by Herman Hattaway and Richard E. Beringer, University of Kansas Press (0-7006-1170-3). Many photos, descriptions, selections from letters and speeches, a thorough appendix, epilogue, notes, and bibliography are provided in this intensely researched chronicle. Much military history is covered—necessarily—to understand the policies, domestic happenings, and other trying circumstances that the president handled. Davis was very popular in the U.S. Senate before the war; this book suggests that the Confederate government, rather than the man, was the true failure. The renowned historians carefully examine traditional evidence and also analyze Davis by today’s theory of presidential leadership.
To summarize the feelings of fascination, love, and the desire for more fodder about the Civil War, Somebody’s Darling: Essays on the Civil War, by Kent Gramm, Indiana University Press (0-253-34081-0), supplies the reader with a philosophical bone to chew on. The title is inspired by lyrics written in 1864, the refrain goes: “Somebody’s darling, somebody’s pride, / Who’ll tell his mother where her boy died?” Gramm intersperses his essays about Civil War battles and individuals with poetry, songs, and other art references. Triggering an aesthetic sense of the war beyond the intellect, he muses that “to share the Civil War generation’s experiences might lend our own lives some of the meaning the War gave to theirs.”

The appetite to know what this Great War was really like will remain part of America’s heritage. Books such as these provide a feast of meaningful answers.