The American Civil War emanated feelings of joy, exuberance, and glory, yet it substantiated loneliness, destruction, and death. In the antebellum South, nationalism and pride forged a new path, and society saw soldiers as heroic actors and war as their stage. While these actors played out their roles, the audience, the world, could see that their stage did not make them heroes, but war deprived them of body and soul. In Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier develops this excitement and progression to hardship in both Ada and Inman’s journeys. The progression, corroborated by historical evidence, shows that while the antebellum South held a Romantic ideal of war, war itself negated the romantic opinion and became destructive, monstrous, and deadly.
At the onset of civil war, a state of trepidation would be assumed; however, Cold Mountain shows that Southern society did not fear war but eagerly anticipated it. Inman and Ada show that people did not dread war, but instead school teachers spoke of the “grand wars fought in Ancient England” (5), and “ each night, there was music and dancing” (140). People did not live in fear, but instead, a “strange time of war fever” (140) and excitement was created. “Young men considered dull and charmless suddenly acquired an aura of glamour shimmering about them” (140), not because they were instantly revitalized by Athena, but because they were adding themselves to the glory and honor of the ideal Romantic war. Society in Cold Mountain did not fear death, but they spoke of the glory of war, and had parties celebrating the coming war. Mrs. McKennett, a woman Ada converses with, “[holds] opinions exactly in accord with every newspaper” (180), that the fighting is “glorious, tragic, and he...
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...inary Times of the Civil War Soldier. Ed. David Madden. New York: Simon & Schuster,2000.
Billings, John D. Soldier Life in the Union and Confederate Armies. Ed. Philip Van Doren Stern. New York: Bonanza Books, 1961.
Eaton, Clement. A History of the Southern Confederacy. New York: The Free Press, 1965.
Frazier, Charles. Cold Mountain. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.
Martin, Bessie. A Rich Man’s War, A Poor Man’s Fight. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003.
Ratchford, James Wylie. Memoirs of a Confederate Staff Officer: From Bethel to Bentonville. Eds. James E. Hansen II & Evelyn Sieburg. Shippensburg: Beidel Printing House, Inc. 1998.
Thomas, Emory M. The Confederate Nation: 1861-1865. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
Vinovskis, Maris, ed. Toward a Social History of the American Civil War. 1st. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1990.
The American Civil War is one of the biggest turning points in American history. It marks a point of major separation in beliefs from the North and the South and yet somehow ends in a major unification that is now called the United States of America. It still to date remains the bloodiest war in American history. The book “This Republic of Suffering, Death and the American Civil War” by Drew Gilpin Faust better explains the change in thought from the American people that developed from the unexpected mass loss of soldiers that devastated the American people. Throughout this review, the reader will better understand the methods and theory of this book, the sources used, the main argument of the book, the major supporting arguments, and what the author did well and what the author didn’t do well.
As he immerses his audience into combat with the soldiers, Shaara demonstrates the more emotional aspects of war by highlighting the personal lives of the men fighting. For example, when Shaara reveals the pasts of James Longstreet and Lewis Armistead’s, I started to picture them as the men that they were and not as soldiers out for blood. After suffering a devastating loss of three of his children to fever, Longstreet is tossed into battle. In Armistead’s case, he not only suffered the loss of his wife, but also of a friend fighting on the Union side, General Winfield Scott Hancock. Shaara saves his readers a front row seat to the inner turmoil of General Chamberlain regarding his hindering duty as a soldier clashes with his duty to family as he strived to serve the Union as well as protec...
Heidler, David Stephen, and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds. Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a
What This Cruel War Was Over evaluates the American Civil War through the eyes of both northern and southern soldiers. By examining the conflict through this lens, Chandra Manning delivers a narrative with intricacies that explore an in-depth perspective to a greater degree than other authors have in the past. Revealing how men thought about slavery and the Civil War frames her book, and the examples she utilizes to fulfill her goal in arguing her thesis conveys an original body of work. Additionally, several of the concepts established in the author’s book are also discussed through various methods in other books.
The book ‘For Cause and Comrades’ is a journey to comprehend why the soldiers in the Civil War fought, why they fought so passionately, and why they fought for the long period of time. Men were pulling guns against other men who they had known their whole lives. McPherson’s main source of evidence was the many letters from the soldiers writing to home. One of the many significant influences was how the men fought to prove their masculinity and courage. To fight would prove they were a man to their community and country. Fighting also had to do with a duty to their family. Ideology was also a major motivating factor; each side thought they were fighting for their liberty. The soldier’s reputations were created and demolished on the battlefield, where men who showed the most courage were the most honored. Religion also played an important role because the second Great Awakening had just occurred. Their religion caused the men who thought of themselves as saved to be fearless of death, “Religion was the only thing that kept this soldier going; even in the trenches…” (McPherson, p. 76) R...
McPherson, James M.; The Atlas of the Civil War. Macmillan: 15 Columbus Circle New York, NY. 1994.
In James McPherson’s novel, What They Fought For, a variety of Civil War soldier documents are examined to show the diverse personal beliefs and motives for being involved in the war. McPherson’s sample, “is biased toward genuine fighting soldiers” (McPherson, 17) meaning he discusses what the ordinary soldier fought for. The Confederacy was often viewed as the favorable side because their life style relied on the war; Confederates surrounded their lives with practices like slavery and agriculture, and these practices were at stake during the war. On the other hand, Northerners fought to keep the country together. Although the Civil War was brutal, McPherson presents his research to show the dedication and patriotism of the soldiers that fought and died for a cause.
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...
Volo, Dorothy Denneen, and James M. Volo. Daily Life in Civil War America. Westport, Conn.:
In the historical narrative Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, Nicholas Leman gives readers an insight into the gruesome and savage acts that took place in the mid-1870s and eventually led to the end of the Reconstruction era in the southern states. Before the engaging narrative officially begins, Lemann gives a 29-page introduction to the setting and provides background information about the time period. With Republican Ulysses S. Grant as President of the United States of America and Republican Adelbert Ames, as the Governor of Mississippi, the narrative is set in a town owned by William Calhoun in the city of Colfax, Louisiana. As a formal military commander, Ames ensured a
“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.
Davis, Curtis Carroll. "Companions of Crisis: The Spy Memoir as a Social Document." Civil War History 10.4 (1964): 385-400. Project MUSE. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.f.
Goolrick, William K., Rebels Resurgent, Time-Life Books Inc, 1985. Heidler, David S. and Jeanne T., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, And Military History Volume 2 D-I, ABC-CLIO Inc, 2000. McDonald, John, The Great Battles of the Civil War, Macmillan Publishing Co, 1988. McPherson, James M., Battle Chronicles of the Civil War 1862, Macmillan Publishing Co, 1989. Stackpole, Edward J., The Fredericksburg Campaign, Military Service Publishing Co, 1957.
Keegan, John and Richard Holmes. Soldiers: A History Of Men In Battle. New York: Viking Penguin Inc., 1986.
I found the author and guest speaker David C. Reavis’ presentation interesting and look forward to reading more about his Confederate heritage from my own copy of “Upon These Steps”. I also felt a sense of pride watching as new members, especially the young man and his father, were initiate in to the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Pride and respect for family lineage and history can be a significant shared human experience.