Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana

Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana PDF Author: Michael D. Pierson
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807164410
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
In July 1862, Union Lieutenant Stephen Spalding wrote a long letter from his post in Algiers, Louisiana, to his former college roommate. Equally fascinating and unsettling for modern readers, the comic cynicism of the young soldier’s correspondence offers an unusually candid and intimate account of military life and social change on the southern front. A captivating primary source, Spalding’s letter is reproduced here for the first time, along with contextual analysis and biographical detail, by Michael D. Pierson. Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana lifts the curtain on the twenty-two-year-old’s elitist social attitudes and his consuming ambition, examining the mind of a man of privilege as he turns to humor to cope with unwelcome realities. Spalding and his correspondent, James Peck, both graduates of the University of Vermont, lived in a society dominated by elite young men, with advantages granted by wealth, gender, race, and birth. Caught in the middle of the Civil War, Spalding adopts a light-hearted tone in his letter, both to mask his most intimate thoughts and fears and distance himself from those he perceives as social inferiors. His jokes show us an unpleasantly stratified America, with blacks, women, and the men in the ranks subjected to ridicule and even physical abuse by an officer with more assertiveness than experience. His longest story, a wild escapade in New Orleans that included abundant drinking and visits to two brothels, gives us a glimpse of a world in which men bonded through excess and indulgence. More poignantly, tactless jests about death, told as his unit suffers its first casualties, reveal a man struggling to come to terms with mortality. Evidence of Spalding’s unfulfilled aspirations, like his sometimes disturbing wit, allows readers to see past his entitlement to his human weaknesses. An engrossing picture of a charismatic but flawed young officer, Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana offers new ways to look at the society that shaped him.

Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana

Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana PDF Author: Michael D. Pierson
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807164410
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Get Book Here

Book Description
In July 1862, Union Lieutenant Stephen Spalding wrote a long letter from his post in Algiers, Louisiana, to his former college roommate. Equally fascinating and unsettling for modern readers, the comic cynicism of the young soldier’s correspondence offers an unusually candid and intimate account of military life and social change on the southern front. A captivating primary source, Spalding’s letter is reproduced here for the first time, along with contextual analysis and biographical detail, by Michael D. Pierson. Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana lifts the curtain on the twenty-two-year-old’s elitist social attitudes and his consuming ambition, examining the mind of a man of privilege as he turns to humor to cope with unwelcome realities. Spalding and his correspondent, James Peck, both graduates of the University of Vermont, lived in a society dominated by elite young men, with advantages granted by wealth, gender, race, and birth. Caught in the middle of the Civil War, Spalding adopts a light-hearted tone in his letter, both to mask his most intimate thoughts and fears and distance himself from those he perceives as social inferiors. His jokes show us an unpleasantly stratified America, with blacks, women, and the men in the ranks subjected to ridicule and even physical abuse by an officer with more assertiveness than experience. His longest story, a wild escapade in New Orleans that included abundant drinking and visits to two brothels, gives us a glimpse of a world in which men bonded through excess and indulgence. More poignantly, tactless jests about death, told as his unit suffers its first casualties, reveal a man struggling to come to terms with mortality. Evidence of Spalding’s unfulfilled aspirations, like his sometimes disturbing wit, allows readers to see past his entitlement to his human weaknesses. An engrossing picture of a charismatic but flawed young officer, Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana offers new ways to look at the society that shaped him.

Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana

Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana PDF Author: Michael D. Pierson
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807164402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
In July 1862, Union Lieutenant Stephen Spalding wrote a long letter from his post in Algiers, Louisiana, to his former college roommate. Equally fascinating and unsettling for modern readers, the comic cynicism of the young soldier’s correspondence offers an unusually candid and intimate account of military life and social change on the southern front. A captivating primary source, Spalding’s letter is reproduced here for the first time, along with contextual analysis and biographical detail, by Michael D. Pierson. Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana lifts the curtain on the twenty-two-year-old’s elitist social attitudes and his consuming ambition, examining the mind of a man of privilege as he turns to humor to cope with unwelcome realities. Spalding and his correspondent, James Peck, both graduates of the University of Vermont, lived in a society dominated by elite young men, with advantages granted by wealth, gender, race, and birth. Caught in the middle of the Civil War, Spalding adopts a light-hearted tone in his letter, both to mask his most intimate thoughts and fears and distance himself from those he perceives as social inferiors. His jokes show us an unpleasantly stratified America, with blacks, women, and the men in the ranks subjected to ridicule and even physical abuse by an officer with more assertiveness than experience. His longest story, a wild escapade in New Orleans that included abundant drinking and visits to two brothels, gives us a glimpse of a world in which men bonded through excess and indulgence. More poignantly, tactless jests about death, told as his unit suffers its first casualties, reveal a man struggling to come to terms with mortality. Evidence of Spalding’s unfulfilled aspirations, like his sometimes disturbing wit, allows readers to see past his entitlement to his human weaknesses. An engrossing picture of a charismatic but flawed young officer, Lt. Spalding in Civil War Louisiana offers new ways to look at the society that shaped him.

Scarred by War

Scarred by War PDF Author: Christopher G. Peña
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 141845544X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 518

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Book Description
Excluding the capture of New Orleans, the military affairs in southeast Louisiana during the American Civil War have long been viewed by scholars and historians has having no strategic importance during the war. As such, no such serious effort to chronicle the war in that portion of the state has been attempted, except Peas earlier book, Touched By War: Battles Fought in the Lafourche District (1998). That book covered the military affairs in southeast Louisiana that led to the five major battles fought in that region between fall 1862 and summer 1863. Beyond that point, little is chronicled, until now. In this thoroughly researched and authoritative book, Scarred By War: Civil War in Southeast Louisiana, Christopher Pea has revised and updated his earlier work and expanded the scope to include a study of the remaining two years of the war, a period filled with intense Confederate guerilla warfare. The literary result is a book that recounts the political, social, military, and economic aspects of the war as they played out in southeast Louisianas bayou country.

Garden of Ruins

Garden of Ruins PDF Author: J. Matthew Ward
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807182370
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
J. Matthew Ward’s Garden of Ruins serves as an insightful social and military history of Civil War–era Louisiana. Partially occupied by Union forces starting in the spring of 1862, the Confederate state experienced the initial attempts of the U.S. Army to create a comprehensive occupation structure through military actions, social regulations, the destabilization of slavery, and the formation of a complex bureaucracy. Skirmishes between Union soldiers and white civilians supportive of the Confederate cause multiplied throughout this period, eventually turning occupation into a war on local households and culture. In unoccupied regions of the state, Confederate forces and their noncombatant allies likewise sought to patrol allegiance, leading to widespread conflict with those they deemed disloyal. Ward suggests that social stability during wartime, and ultimately victory itself, emerged from the capacity of military officials to secure their territory, governing powers, and nonmilitary populations. Garden of Ruins reveals the Civil War, state-building efforts, and democracy itself as contingent processes through which Louisianans shaped the world around them. It also illustrates how military forces and civilians discovered unique ways to wield and hold power during and immediately after the conflict.

The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War

The Oxford Handbook of the American Civil War PDF Author: Lorien Foote
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190903058
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 697

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Book Description
Assembles contributions from thirty-nine leading historians of the American Civil War into a coherent attempt to assess the war's impact on American society

Slaves and Freedmen in Civil War Louisiana

Slaves and Freedmen in Civil War Louisiana PDF Author: C. Peter Ripley
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780783778198
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description


Scarred by War

Scarred by War PDF Author: Christopher G. Peña
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781418455460
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
At the height of its power, with the world watching, some in envy, others waiting to see the downfall, America is at a crossroads. Will the United States of America dominate the world scene for another hundred years or will internal decay and lack of a common course take it the way of other great empires in the past? Rome, Carthage, Greece, the Soviet Union, and many others who stepped onto the world stage have exited - some in infamy, others in ruin. Greider shows the rich history of America from those who left Europe to find opportunity and religious freedom, and were blessed in their efforts as long as they served God and revered the principles found in the Holy Scriptures. The Founding Fathers were deeply religious men who sought inspiration and received divine guidance. Forces at work today, including the pluralistic mix of our citizenry and the trend toward a post-Christian culture, are reshaping the American Ideal. In his book, America, Renewal or Ruin, Greider sees the potential for American youth to find and promote renewal in their quest for moral stability if guided by visionary leaders in a conflicted world. History has shown that reawakenings are possible. Now is the time, according to Greider, to call upon those whose roots are embedded in their Christian heritage to wake up and take back their country, resisting the forces of ruin. Perhaps our nation has gone too far in jettisoning the values upon which it was founded. If any culture is to survive, it must stand for something. If not, citizens will fall for anything that is served up in titillating packaging and played to the base appetites of the flesh. Our country needs a revival of spirit and a clear sense of morality and propriety. Greider shows in his book America: Renewal or Ruin that there is a cause for every effect and the cause of America greatness lay in the goodness of her people. The Founding Fathers were deeply religious men who claimed to owe their dependence and guidance on God and his Word. America is rapidly moving away from its Christian roots and the ominous signs of moral, social and cultural decay are ever present.

Rethinking Southern Violence

Rethinking Southern Violence PDF Author: Gilles Vandal
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
ISBN: 9780814208380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Vandal (history and political science, U. de Sherbrooke, Canada) analyzes the statistics of nearly 5,000 homicides over an 18-year period, as well as other sources, to provide a picture of the level of physical violence in Louisiana after the Civil War. Some of the themes addressed include rural versus urban patterns of violence; homicides in a gender perspective; and the black response to white violence. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Civil War in Louisiana

The Civil War in Louisiana PDF Author: John David Winters
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Louisiana
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description


Confederate Cities

Confederate Cities PDF Author: Andrew L. Slap
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022630020X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
When we talk about the Civil War, it is often with references to battles like Antietam, Gettysburg, Bull Run, and, perhaps most tellingly, the Battle of the Wilderness, which all took place in the countryside or in small towns. Part of the reason this picture has persisted is that few of the historians who have studied the war have been urban historians, even though cities hosted, enabled, and shaped southern society as much as in the North. The essays in Andrew Slap and Frank Towers s collection seek to shift the focus from the agrarian economy that undergirded the South to the cities that served as its political and administrative hubs. By demanding a more holistic reading of the South, this collection speaks to contemporary Civil War scholars and classrooms alike not least in providing surprisingly fresh perspectives on a well-studied war."