Hard Marching Every Day

Hard Marching Every Day PDF Author: Wilbur Fisk
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
Letters from Vermont schoolteacher in the Union Army to the Montpelier Green Mountain Freeman newspaper.

Hard Marching Every Day

Hard Marching Every Day PDF Author: Wilbur Fisk
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
Letters from Vermont schoolteacher in the Union Army to the Montpelier Green Mountain Freeman newspaper.

A Grand Army of Black Men

A Grand Army of Black Men PDF Author: Edwin S. Redkey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107782465
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
The Civil War stands vivid in the collective memory of the American public. There has always been a profound interest in the subject, and specifically the participation of black Americans in and reactions to the war and the war's outcome. Almost 200,000 African-American soldiers fought for the Union in the Civil War. Although most were illiterate ex-slaves, several thousand were well-educated, free black men from the northern states. The 176 letters in this collection were written by black soldiers in the Union army during the Civil War to black and abolitionist newspapers. They provide a unique expression of the black voice that was meant for a public forum. The letters tell of the men's experiences, their fears and their hopes. They describe in detail their army days - the excitement of combat and the drudgery of digging trenches. Some letters give vivid descriptions of battle; others protest against racism; still others call eloquently for civil rights. Many describe their conviction that they are fighting not only to free the slaves but to earn equal rights as citizens. These letters give an extraordinary picture of the war and also reveal the bright expectations, hopes, and ultimately the demands that black soldiers had for the future - for themselves and for their race. As first-person documents of the Civil War, the letters are strong statements of the American dream of justice and equality, and of the human spirit.

The Imagined Civil War

The Imagined Civil War PDF Author: Alice Fahs
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807899291
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking work of cultural history, Alice Fahs explores a little-known and fascinating side of the Civil War--the outpouring of popular literature inspired by the conflict. From 1861 to 1865, authors and publishers in both the North and the South produced a remarkable variety of war-related compositions, including poems, songs, children's stories, romances, novels, histories, and even humorous pieces. Fahs mines these rich but long-neglected resources to recover the diversity of the war's political and social meanings. Instead of narrowly portraying the Civil War as a clash between two great, white armies, popular literature offered a wide range of representations of the conflict and helped shape new modes of imagining the relationships of diverse individuals to the nation. Works that explored the war's devastating impact on white women's lives, for example, proclaimed the importance of their experiences on the home front, while popular writings that celebrated black manhood and heroism in the wake of emancipation helped readers begin to envision new roles for blacks in American life. Recovering a lost world of popular literature, The Imagined Civil War adds immeasurably to our understanding of American life and letters at a pivotal point in our history.

Ten Years in the Saddle

Ten Years in the Saddle PDF Author: William Woods Averell
Publisher: Stan Clark Military Books
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
The discovered memoirs of cavalryman William Woods Averell, has been considered an important addition to historic literature. His memoirs captures the mood of America during a decade of growth and destruction, through West Point, the Indian Wars, the expanding West, and the Civil War. To complete the story of Averell's life, the editors have added an introduction detailing his early years, as well as an epilogue recounting his controversial removal from command by General Philip Sheridan and his later career as an entrepreneur and diplomat.

History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5

History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5 PDF Author: Samuel Penniman Bates
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Pennsylvania
Languages : en
Pages : 1354

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Book Description


Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee

Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee PDF Author: John William Jones
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Generals
Languages : en
Pages : 586

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Book Description


Letters from a Sharpshooter

Letters from a Sharpshooter PDF Author: William B. Greene
Publisher: Historic Publications (WI)
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description


A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie

A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie PDF Author: James King Newton
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299024840
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
"Unlike many of his fellows, [James Newton] was knowledgeable, intuitive, and literate; like many of his fellows he was cast into the role of soldier at only eighteen years of age. He was polished enough to write drumhead and firelight letters of fine literary style. It did not take long for this farm boy turned private to discover the grand design of the conflict in which he was engaged, something which many of the officers leading the armies never did discover."--Victor Hicken, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society "When I wrote to you last I was at Madison with no prospect of leaving very soon, but I got away sooner than I expected to." So wrote James Newton upon leaving Camp Randall for Vicksburg in 1863 with the Fourteenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. Newton, who had been a rural schoolteacher before he joined the Union army in 1861, wrote to his parents of his experiences at Shiloh, Corinth, Vicksburg, on the Red River, in Missouri, at Nashville, at Mobile, and as a prisoner of war. His letters, selected and edited by noted historian Stephen E. Ambrose, reveal Newton as a young man who matured in the war, rising in rank from private to lieutenant. A Wisconsin Boy in Dixie reveals Newton as a young man who grew to maturity through his Civil War experience, rising in rank from private to lieutenant. Writing soberly about the less attractive aspects of army life, Newton's comments on fraternizing with the Rebs, on officers, and on discipline are touched with a sense of humor--"a soldier's best friend," he claimed. He also became sensitive to the importance of political choices. After giving Lincoln the first vote he had ever cast, Newton wrote: "In doing so I felt that I was doing my country as much service as I have ever done on the field of battle."

For Cause and Comrades

For Cause and Comrades PDF Author: James M. McPherson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199741050
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
General John A. Wickham, commander of the famous 101st Airborne Division in the 1970s and subsequently Army Chief of Staff, once visited Antietam battlefield. Gazing at Bloody Lane where, in 1862, several Union assaults were brutally repulsed before they finally broke through, he marveled, "You couldn't get American soldiers today to make an attack like that." Why did those men risk certain death, over and over again, through countless bloody battles and four long, awful years ? Why did the conventional wisdom -- that soldiers become increasingly cynical and disillusioned as war progresses -- not hold true in the Civil War? It is to this question--why did they fight--that James McPherson, America's preeminent Civil War historian, now turns his attention. He shows that, contrary to what many scholars believe, the soldiers of the Civil War remained powerfully convinced of the ideals for which they fought throughout the conflict. Motivated by duty and honor, and often by religious faith, these men wrote frequently of their firm belief in the cause for which they fought: the principles of liberty, freedom, justice, and patriotism. Soldiers on both sides harkened back to the Founding Fathers, and the ideals of the American Revolution. They fought to defend their country, either the Union--"the best Government ever made"--or the Confederate states, where their very homes and families were under siege. And they fought to defend their honor and manhood. "I should not lik to go home with the name of a couhard," one Massachusetts private wrote, and another private from Ohio said, "My wife would sooner hear of my death than my disgrace." Even after three years of bloody battles, more than half of the Union soldiers reenlisted voluntarily. "While duty calls me here and my country demands my services I should be willing to make the sacrifice," one man wrote to his protesting parents. And another soldier said simply, "I still love my country." McPherson draws on more than 25,000 letters and nearly 250 private diaries from men on both sides. Civil War soldiers were among the most literate soldiers in history, and most of them wrote home frequently, as it was the only way for them to keep in touch with homes that many of them had left for the first time in their lives. Significantly, their letters were also uncensored by military authorities, and are uniquely frank in their criticism and detailed in their reports of marches and battles, relations between officers and men, political debates, and morale. For Cause and Comrades lets these soldiers tell their own stories in their own words to create an account that is both deeply moving and far truer than most books on war. Battle Cry of Freedom, McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning account of the Civil War, was a national bestseller that Hugh Brogan, in The New York Times, called "history writing of the highest order." For Cause and Comrades deserves similar accolades, as McPherson's masterful prose and the soldiers' own words combine to create both an important book on an often-overlooked aspect of our bloody Civil War, and a powerfully moving account of the men who fought it.

What They Fought For, 1861-1865

What They Fought For, 1861-1865 PDF Author: George Henry Davis `86 Professor of American History James M McPherson
Publisher: Turtleback Books
ISBN: 9780606265935
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For use in schools and libraries only. An analysis of the Civil War, drawing on letters and diaries by more than one thousand soldiers, gives voice to the personal reasons behind the war, offering insight into the ideology that shaped both sides.