In the beautiful Southern autumn days, a war was becoming bloodier and bloodier by the day. Howard Bahr’s The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War takes place in the most tranquil time of the year in 1864. Bushrod Carter, a young Confederate rifleman, leaves his Mississippi town to fight in the Tennessee Army under General John Bell Hood. The story follows Bushrod and a few of his fellow Confederates through the months leading up to the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864. Bahr writes the story with great historical accuracy and vivid imagery. The story documents the fear, suffering, and close bonds created with fellow soldiers through every part of the battle including the eve, during, and its aftermath. Bushrod’s luck runs high as he has never once gotten seriously wounded or shot. However, he becomes wounded in one of the Confederate charges and he is taken to a makeshift hospital where he comes under the care of Anna Hereford. She has already lost two potential romances to the war, but Bushrod attempts to form somewhat of a courtship even though he is in the middle of a terrible war that will not be settled for sometime.
This type of novel is recommended for anyone interested in the Civil War. Not too many books explore the southern battles, especially from a Confederates soldier’s point of view. Bahr does an excellent job at capturing the essence of the Civil War and its affects on the people involved. The novel was nominated for several awards, earning the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Gettysburg College, won the Book-of-the-Month Club, and was a New York Times Notable Book. The book showed some popularity and sold 10,000 copies, but was heavily overshadowed by another...
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..., Nebo takes Bushrod to his grave. “ ‘Well, old Bushrod,’ he said, ‘it’s mighty quiet now.’ He touched Bushrod’s hand. It was cold and stiff, but Nebo closed his own around it anyway. He was sitting like that, still holding hands,” (Bahr 265). This tear-jerking moment shows how close these soldiers become and the death of one of them is also a death of oneself.
This magnificent novel is a definite must read for military men because Bahr effectively combines the interesting history of the Battle of Franklin with the psychological affects of battle. Though the novel inherits some natural flaws, the pros outweigh the cons. This short read becomes very satisfying as the story progresses. Also, Bahr shatters the concept of the Confederates being hicks and cruel slave owners, but that they are actual people too, who experience war just the same as someone form the Union.
The novel, “Shiloh” by Shelby Foote is a fictional recreation of the bloody battle. The story begins with the soldiers of the Confederate Army heading towards Pittsburg Landing. The men are marching in terrible conditions. It is pouring down rain and they are dragging their tired legs through the mud. The troops come to a halt so the commanders can talk to General Johnston. General Johnston says the only way they might have a chance is if they plan a surprise attack. As the sergeants hand the men their guns, they are told to check the powder in case it got wet in the rain. A group of soldiers test their guns out on a deer running close by. At the same time the shots were fired, the sun came out and the soldiers started to scream and cheer. These noises combined were more than enough to alert the Union soldiers of the Confederates advance. Palmer remembers what his life was like before going to war. He attended the Louisiana State Military Academy when the Confederacy seceded from the Union. One of his professors predicted the south did not have a chance of winning the war. That night Palmer dreams of holding Sherman at gunpoint making him admit that he was wrong. Prior to the battle, the commanders create a battle plan. Palmer is assigned a part in this process. When the plan fails, Palmer learns that planning a battle is more difficult than it seems because the commanders on the ground face challenges that do not exist on paper.
Stephen W. Sears’ Landscape Turned Red is an account of political and military plans. Especially General Robert E. Lee’s Maryland Campaign as well as the Battle of Antietam. Sears frames his work around the pending support of Great Britain and France to the Confederate cause due to cotton. Landscape Turned Red covers the battle of Antietam. It offers a vivid account of both armies, the soldiers and officers, and the bloody campaign. It analyzes the impact of Antietam on the Civil War as a whole. Sears' use of diaries, dispatches, and letters recreate the Battle of Antietam. You experience the battle not only from its leaders but also by its soldiers, both Union and Confederate. Sears attempts to examine the tactical moves of both Lee and General George McClellan. He also talks about the foolish decisions that troubled both the Federal and Confederate forces. Sears' use of traits, political pursuits, and tactical preferences, explain the thoughts of many. Some of these include President Lincoln, General Halleck and General McClellan, and their subordinates. Stephen Ward Sears is an American historian specializing in the American Civil War. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and an attendant to a journalism seminar at Radcliffe-Harvard. As an author he has concentrated on the military history of the American Civil War. Such as the battles and leaders of the Army of the Potomac. He was an editor for the Educational Department at American Heritage Publishing Company. American Heritage Publishing two of his ten books.
Book summary: Confederates in the Attic addresses the life of Tony Horwitz: a man from the North, who decided to take an expedition down South to figure out how the Civil War affected America. As Horwitz illustrates in Confederates in the Attic, the Civil War is far from over. Horwitz, determined to find the answers to this conflict, treks through the South, seeking to explain man's longtime obsession with a war that divided the nation. Speaking to historians and Civil War reenactors of all kinds, he finds that people are still contemporarily split when it comes to the war and current complications in society. On his endeavour, He collects an abundant amount of information, which created a challenge when attempting to draw a broad conclusion. Horwitz learns how contrasting the views of the war are between the north and south. He learns the way people use history to suit their own personal needs, and explores the problems of race. While I believe Confederates in the Attic is an excellent calligraphy on the ongoing history ...
As the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner and the wife of an assistant to the confederate president, Jefferson Davis, chestnut always found herself surrounded by the wealthy and high-end confederacy’s gentlemen and their views on the civil war. Mary recorded her most significate impressions of the conflict from the begging when the first shot in Charleston South Carolina went off. Mary Chesnut's diary is a glorious and rich with vivid comments on race, genders, wealth status, and power from those who had enough but wanted more within a nation divided Mary Boykin Chesnut was an incredibly intelligent woman, whose wartime experiences brought to live intimate and important details of southern culture. Since its publication in 1905, Chesnut’s diary has become compelling reading. Chesnut’s wartime diary begins when Mary learns of Lincolns election in 1860 later catching more focus when she grew to worry about her husband’s well-being and who was in charge of giving and following Jefferson’s orders without any hesitation. Mary’s carries her persona as a feminist but she seems sad that women are not able to do nothing outside the husband’s hands in one passage
This Newberry award nominated book, written by Irene Hunt, tells the story of the “home life” of her grandfather, Jethro, during the Civil War. Not only does it give a sense of what it is like to be in the war but also it really tells you exactly what the men leave behind. Jethro is forced to make hard decisions, and face many hardships a boy his age shouldn't have to undergo. This is an admirable historical fiction book that leaves it up to the reader to decide if being at home was the superior choice or if being a soldier in the war was.
Shaara’s novel Killer Angels shows the battle of Gettysburg through a number of unique viewpoints. Shaara offers a more intimate view of the battle than other Civil War novels. A reader can see the battle through the eyes of both Union and Confederate leaders. Through the novel the reader is able to see why each character is fighting and what they hope to gain from the war. Readers can also see the effect that the war has on the different characters. I will examine the war through the eyes of several different characters from Shaara’s novel.
To support his thesis he uses firsthand accounts on forms of diaries letters that were sent to the soldiers from home. He wanted to make sure that the readers would know exactly what the soldiers were feeling at that exact moment. He thoroughly illustrates what the common soldier was feeling and thinking as they fought the battle of the Civil War. One of the hardest and most important battles for America. I would totally recommend this book to another that is a must read for historian and avid
In the Foreword, before the battle begins, Shaara starts with a list of the principle players in the upcoming tragic drama of the battle at Gettysburg. Like in a program to a stage play, the armies and the characters are listed before they take the stage. As the curtain opens, the first actor who appears on this stage is the Confederate spy, Harrison, who is actually an actor by profession. Through this solitary and seemingly insignificant man, the reader is taken backstage to witness the drama unfold in person.
Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a
The next four years were spent traveling the states fighting in some of the most well known battles of the Civil War . Ambrose Bierce’s experience during the Civil War where he faced the dangers of nature and man influenced his writing.
The novel starts with a preamble that actually pace sets the panorama for the proceeding actions and is split into two sections. The first section defines two different kinds of armies. They are armies of Northern Virginia that are headed by Robert Lee and managed to go through Potomac which was located at Williamsport and attacked the Northern areas. All this occurred in the year 1863. The major objective of the attack was to dare the Union army into a war and defeat it. Towards the end of June that year, the Potomac army and Union army that had at least eighty thousand men decided to advance northward on the heels of the rebels who had somehow stopped at Gettysburg. In the next section, a description of the main characters is done. On the confederate side, Robert Edward Lee, James Longstreet, George Pinkett, Richard Ewell, Ambrose Power Hill, Lewis Armistead, Richard Brooke Garnett, J.E.B. Stuart, Jubal Early are mentioned. On the union side, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, John Buford, John Reynolds, George Gordon Meade, Winfield Scott Hancock are also named.
“All up and down the lines the men blinked at one another, unable to realize that the hour they had waited for so long was actually at hand. There was a truce…” Bruce Catton’s Pulitzer prize winning book A Stillness at Appomattox chronicles the final year of the American Civil War. This book taught me a lot more about the Civil War than I ever learned through the public school system. Bruce Catton brought to life the real day to day life of the soldiers and the generals who led them into battle.
Book Title: The American Civil War: A Handbook of Literature and Research. Contributors: Robin Higham - editor, Steven E. Woodworth - editor. Publisher: Greenwood Press. Place of Publication: Westport, CT. Publication Year: 1996
The novel that I had picked was Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt. The reason why I had picked this novel is that it is a Civil War- causes, military leaders, and battles. Across Five Aprils is about a unforgettable story about a young kid whos name is Jethro Creighton, who comes of age during the turbulent years of the Civil War. In the beginning of the story Across Five Aprils Jethro doesn't have an understanding of what war is really about. During the war Abraham Lincoln in his worthy to keep Jethro brother and family out of trouble by law. Across Five Aprils then opens up by telling how Joseph Hooker who is before Robert E. Lee. The war had then escalated and taken to the point to where the author can no longer continue writing about the historical events of the Civil War.
Turner, Thomas R. 101 Things You Didn’t Know about the Civil War. Avon: Adams, 2007.