4 comments about Detailed Minutiae of Soldier Life in the Army of Northern Virginia, 1861-1865.

1. Worth the time and the money (affordable price) to read about some of the everyday life of a regular Confederate soldier. It's a fairly quick read, and quite interesting.



2. A quick, really great read on the everyday life of the Confederate soldier in the War for Southern Independence. The Whats, Whens, Hows, and Whys of the survival of the common man in the Army of Northern Virginia told in a very readable manner. Anyone interested in "the War" shouldn't go without reading this one! Too bad there isn't a hardback!



3. Nicely paced, reader-friendly account of the "minutiae" involved in the life of a Confederate soldier - more specifically, as a member of the Army of Northern Virginia. Along with Billings' Northern perspective as seen in Hardtack and Coffee, these two books tell just about all the "ins and outs" of the tedium and horror of war.



4. I found the book an easy read. It was informative to find out the day to day life of an average soldier in the Confederacy during the last part of the Civil War. In many ways though I wish the author would have been more specific with details, but I had to remember of the time (1882) in which he wrote. He was really a product of the time, the flowery language shows and I accept this. Still some of the descriptions seemed intentionally vague, as if he was scared at offending some one, or worse yet stirring up old emotions. I would however, recommend it to a person studying the day to day life of a soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia.

1 comments about Fear Was Not in Him: The Civil War Letters of General Francis C. Barlow, U.S.A (The North's Civil War).

1. Expertly compiled and edited by Christian G. Samito (editor of Commanding Boston's Irish Ninth), "Fear Was Not In Him": The Civil War Letters Of Major General Francis C. Barlow is an impressively informative anthology of American civil war correspondence from a young intellectual and lawyer, who entered the war as lieutenant and ended it as one of the North's premier combat generals. Revealing the horrors of battle, the terrible responsibility of command, and a reasoned examination of the war itself on both a small and large scale, "Fear Was Not In Him" is a superb primary source and a welcome addition to personal, academic Civil War Studies supplemental reading lists and library reference shelves.

2 comments about Marching through Georgia: My Walk along Sherman's Route.

1. This is a wondrous book filled with detailed Civil War history and the author's personal encounters with fascinating people as he walks across Georgia, following in the footsteps of Sherman. I felt like I was right there with the "bummers" who plundered Southern homes and burned them to the ground. At times terribly sad, this book is also enriched with heart-lifting humor. Highly recommended.



2. This book is a gem from the first page to the last, blending the past with the present in an unforgettable way. The use of quotes from Civil War diaries of soldiers on the March to the Sea and the contemporary stories from the people of Georgia make for a great heart-warming adventure. The author's own love story suggest the movie Cold Mountain. His first book, Walking the Trail, One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, is an even better read. He does what most of us can only dream about: hitting the road with a backpack and sleeping in a tent whenever the road spirit moves him. If you need a break from the daily world and a journey into the soul, laughter included, read this author's books.

No comments about A Black Patriot and a White Priest: Andre Cailloux and Claude Paschal Maistre in Civil War New Orleans (Conflicting Worlds).

No comments about Glittering Misery: Dependents of the Indian Fighting Army.

1 comments about Lone Star Confederate: A Gallant and Good Soldier of the 5th Texas Infantry (Texas a & M University Military History Series).

1. The collaborative effort of civil war enthusiasts George Skoch and Mark W. Perkins, Lone Star Confederate: A Gallant And Good Soldier Of The Fifth Texas Infantry is a collection of letters penned by a Confederate solider. Eyewitness accounts of bloodshed, aftermath, long marches, starvation and much worse fill the pages of this riveting firsthand testimony of the front lines of America's deadliest war. Lone Star Confederate is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to Civil War collections and reading lists.

3 comments about The Legend Of John Wilkes Booth: Myth, Memory, And A Mummy (Cultureamerica).

1. May 25, 2005
   Another attempt at being kept on; was deleted (accidentally)
   
   Many books have been written about John Wilkes Booth's participation in the Lincoln death. It is sad that so much blame was put on his shoulders.
   
   I have been interested in Lincoln's assassination for over twenty years, mainly because they hanged Mary Surrat, the first woman to be officially killed in this manner. It was at her boardinghouse where the conspirators met to discuss and plan killing Lincoln and others in his Cabinet.
   
   John Wilkes Booth, from a prominent acting family, was a Confederacy sympathizer. But that in itself does not make him guilty. He was denied his right to a trial. Most of the South were more than a little upset when Lincoln was inaugurated for the second time. They refused to accept him as "our" President. We had Jefferson Davis whose daughter married Zachary Taylor's daughter. I don't believe old Zach was a Rebel.
   
   "Killing Lincoln' as a one-man theatrical presentation, written by Amy Russell, originally premiered in Toronto, Canada. I emphatized with the young actor (who I thought was an old man, as he is such a good actor) who said, "I enjoyed playing off you." I told him the reason he held my complete attention was due to the fact that I had read so much about Lincoln and also sympathized with Booth's reasoning.
   
   Lincoln as it so happens was a Shakespeare fan and enjoyed going to Ford's Theatre. John Wilkes Booth (Brutus) as one of the most promising young Shakespearean actors of his day. Booth considered Lincoln an "American Caesar." He is sometimes called Booth "American Brutus."
   
   He was a very handsome man and, even though he broke his leg in the leap to the stage (instead of running down the back stairs), he eluded capture with the help of a Dr. Mudd for twelve days. He was not given a chance to tell his side and the complex, misleading reasons he did what he did. That took fortitude! He did not act alone! That's a major issue. He was cornered in that barn like an animal and burned (at the stake) by the vigilante cowards.
   
   He was never close to Lincoln as Brutus was to Jesus so the title is deceiving. He was merely a misinformed player who ended up "on his own" after the dasdardly deed. He deserves better than to be called a devil. To some, he was an avenging angel.



2. I bought this book because of its intriguing cover and title and because I have a fascination, like a lot of readers, with John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln's assassin. C. Wyatt Evans' work started out a lot different than the fun, mass audience-oriented book I expected. It reads like the over-analytical, pedantic works my professors forced me to read in grad school. Evans analyzes the long-running myth (both regional and national) that Booth was not fatally shot in a barn by Sergeant Boston Corbett's nervous trigger finger as government authorities claimed but had escaped and lived out his life in various ways depending on the storyteller. The suicide death of painter and drifter David George in 1903 in Enid, Oklahoma propelled the myth. George supposedly claimed he was Booth and his embalmed remains were put on display at various carnivals and exhibits for years. Evans' introduction is extremely pedantic to the point that I had to read very carefully and slowly (and sometimes several times) to follow along. A sample sentence: "Vernacular, counter, marginal, and associated terms serve as keywords in a cultural critical lexicon that employs them in a positive sense to connote the struggle of marginalized groups to preserve their identities in the face of the dominant group's rendition of the past" (p. 15). Much of the introduction reads this way and if it continued as such, I may have given up. Fortunately, Evans drops a lot of the intellectual buzz words and the rest of the book reads more smoothly. The following briefly describes the content per chapter:
   
   Chapter 1 takes a look at the David George story; why he was thought by some to be Booth and how his corpse ended up an attraction. In addition, Evans considers the history of Enid, OK including its famous land "runs." Chapter 2 explores the history of mummy exhibition in the United States and how the "Booth" mummy fits, for example, "Booth" represented the popular (curiosity of the notorious and horrific) and traditional (celebrated dignity) models of mummy displays. (p. 55). In chapter 3, Evans explains the northern origins of the Booth legend with a history of the assassination and press coverage. Chapter 4 shifts to the south and how many southerners regarded the assassination (relief, feigned mourning) and the legend of Booth's escape (a symbol of "white southern unreconstructedness").
   
   Finis Langdon Bates' 1907 book Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth is analyzed in chapter 5. Bates' attempt to document Booth's escape implicated VP Andrew Johnson but was done in a way to appease both North and South ("Booth" expressing regret for his deed). In chapter 6, the legend becomes a national phenomenon. The legend represented pre-modern views which clashed with the current times. He considers Lincoln's transition to national icon (p. 156), as well as Otto Eisenschiml and Izola Forrester's (who claimed to be Booth's granddaughter) contribution to the legend. Clarence True Wilson's historical and religious interpretation of the legend is examined in chapter 7. Wilson, a classic minister of reform who worshipped Lincoln, saw Booth's survival and sad existence as moral retribution for his act. Chapter 8 deals with the legend in contemporary America with the recent work Dark Union (2003) and 1977's book and film The Lincoln Conspiracy. In his conclusion, Evans states that "the legend's great lesson to the present is how subgroups in American culture appropriate deeply symbolic events for harmful purposes" (p. 218).
   
   As a history of the myth of Booth's escape, Evans' book is thorough, insightful and extremely well researched. I think he over-analyzes the legend, however. Sure, many people through history have considered the possibility of Booth's escape and designated meaning to it. It is a curiosity and, back in the day, a political incendiary. A famous actor killing and president during a bloody war between the states with suspicious government reaction, how can this not make for intrigue and conspiracy theories? Evans makes a lot out of this legend to put forth American cultural meaning, but it seems to me that the people most obsessed with the issue are the ones hoping to profit from it either through books or by exhibiting a mummy claimed to be Booth. It is an interesting story, of course, without the analytical stuff. I'm just not convinced it is much more than an intriguing footnote to history.



3. In response to one of the criticisms of this book, it should be noted that it is an adaptation of a Ph.D. dissertation, so it does read a little more difficult than most popular literature. I was a fellow student with Wyatt Evans and remember some of the process he went through in his years of research. His final conclusions are based upon meticulous research under the direction of a very demanding graduate school dissertation committee.
   So, I believe the fact that it reads a little bit difficult is a significant point in its favor. It is a thorough work, the conclusions of which are not to be lightly pushed aside.

No comments about The Specht Journal: A Military Journal of the Burgoyne Campaign (Contributions in Military Studies).

No comments about Black American Military Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary.

3 comments about Callow, Brave, and True : A Gospel of Civil War Youth.

1. I loved the poem Impressive Little Grown-ups. I have so enjoyed reading the biographys of these little boys and girls. I have a question for the author. On page five paragraph one it states that Clarence David McKenzie before departing read one chapter of the bilble to his folks before he left. Do you know which chapter that might have been? I am only curious to see which book was so important to Clarence.



2. This book is a dry, amateurishly presented report of the youngest participants of the Civil War. How valuable you find it depends on what you're hoping for: for statistics on the ages, regiments, and names of the war's youngest soldiers, it's probably the only source out there where all this information is compiled; but for an emotionally engaging or moving account of youth's experience of the war, you're better off elsewhere.



3. This book is a dry, amateurishly presented report of the youngest participants of the Civil War. How valuable you find it depends on what you're hoping for: for statistics on the ages, regiments, and names of the war's youngest soldiers, it's probably the only source out there where all this information is compiled; but for an emotionally engaging or moving account of youth's experience of the war, you're better off elsewhere.