xiv, 386 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 354-372) and index.
Summary
The first narrative history of the Civil War as told by the very people it freed. Historian of nineteenth-century and African-American history Andrew Ward weaves together hundreds of interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs. Here is the Civil War as seen from slave quarters, kitchens, roadsides, swamps, and fields. Body servants, army cooks and launderers, runaways, teamsters, and gravediggers bring the war to richly detailed life. From slaves' theories about the causes of the Civil War to their frank assessments of major figures; from their searing memories of the carnage of battle to their often startling attitudes toward masters and liberators alike; and from their initial jubilation at the Yankee invasion of the slave South to the crushing disappointment of freedom's promise unfulfilled, this is a transformative vision of America's second revolution.--From publisher description.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [431]-438) and index.
Contents
August 20, 1862 to March 22, 1863, Missouri -- March 28 to September 24, 1863, the Vicksburg Campaign -- October 4, 1863 to July 24, 1864, Texas and Louisiana -- July 26, 1864 to December 25, 1864, Virginia -- January 9, 1865 to August 2, 1865, South Carolina, North Carolina, Iowa.
Summary
"While there are many collections of letters from Civil War soldiers to their wives, very few include such a rich trove of letters from the homefront. Together they paint an engrossing portrait of a soldier and husband who was trying to do his patriotic and familial duty, and of a wife trying to cope with loneliness and responsibility while longing for her husband's safe return. Beautifully edited and annotated...they bring to life a nation under siege and provide a rare look at the war's impact on both the common soldier and his family." [from the book jacket]
Prologue: America's Crisis -- 1. Slavery and States' Rights in the Early Republic -- 2. The Political Economy of Slavery and Secession -- 3. The Slave Power Seeks Foreign Conquest -- 4. Emergence of the Republican Party -- 5. The Confederate States of America -- 6. Mobilizing for Conflict -- 7. The Military Struggle -- 8. The War to Abolish Slavery? -- 9. Republican Neo-Mercantilism Versus Confederate War Socialism -- 10. Dissent and Disaffection - North and South -- 11. The Ravages of Total War -- 12. The Politics of Reconstruction -- 13. American Society Transformed -- Epilogue: America's Turning Point.
Summary
This book combines a sweeping narrative history of the Civil War with a bold new look at the war's significance for American society. Professor Hummel sees the Civil War as America's turning point: simultaneously the culmination and repudiation of the American revolution. A unique feature of the book is the bibliographical essays which follow every chapter. Here the author surveys the literature and points out where his own interpretation fits into the continuing clash of viewpoints which informs historical debate on the Civil War.
Keystone Confederates : Pennsylvanians who fought for Dixie / Christian B. Keller -- Avenue of dreams : patriotism and the spectator at Philadelphia's Great Central Sanitary Fair / Elizabeth Milroy -- "We were enlisted for the war" : ladies' aid societies and the politics of women's work during the Civil War / Rachel Filene Seidman -- "The world will little note nor long remember" : gender analysis of civilian responses to the Battle of Gettysburg / Christina Ericson -- The Avery Monument : the elevation of race in public sculpture and the Republican Party / Henry Pisciotta -- The Civil War letters of Quartermaster Sergeant John C. Brock, 43rd regiment, United States Colored Troops / edited by Eric Ledell Smith -- Sites of memory, sites of glory : African-American Grand Army of the Republic posts in Pennsylvania / Barbara A. Gannon -- "A disgrace that can never be washed out" : Gettysburg and the lingering stigma of 1863 / Jim Weeks -- "Magnificence and terrible truthfulness" : Peter F. Rothermel's The Battle of Gettysburg / Mark Thistlethwaite -- The brothers' war : Gettysburg the movie and American memory / William Blair.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [311]-332) and index.
Contents
"Lincoln and liberty": why an antislavery president meant war -- "Richmond is a hard road to travel": gaps between expectations and experience -- "Kingdom coming in the year of Jubilo": revolution and resistance -- "Mine years have seen the glory": the war and the hand of God -- "Many are the hearts that are weary tonight": the war in 1864 -- "Slavery's chain done broke at last": the coming of the end -- Conclusion: what this cruel war was over.
Summary
Chandra Manning uses letters, diaries, and regimental newspapers to take the reader inside the minds of Civil War soldiers-black and white, Northern and Southern-as they fought and marched across a divided country. With stunning poise and narrative verve, Manning explores how the Union and Confederate soldiers came to identify slavery as the central issue of the war and what that meant for a tumultuous nation. [from the publisher]
