Rave: Disunion, Civil War series on the NY Times

[bschulte]

Wow, I knew I liked Gateway Redbirds due to the uncommon level of intelligence for a sports message board, but I never thought I'd get to toot my own horn on something I love every bit as much as the Cards. I've been a Civil War buff since about the third grade. I'm talking hardcore, reading Shelby Foote's three volume trilogy in the fifth grade, thousands of books owned, Civil War love. I've been blogging on the Civil War since 2005 at TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog. I also have a web site on the Siege of Petersburg. That's about as niche as you can get, I know, but it's something I really enjoy.


If anybody wants some suggestions on good books for any Civil War topic, ask away. God knows I've read enough of 'em...

[fanforever]

Some other great readings of the Cival War is Shelby Foote's 3 volumes "The Cival War" and James McPherson's Batle Cry of Freedom

[Leroy]

Wow, I knew I liked Gateway Redbirds due to the uncommon level of intelligence for a sports message board, but I never thought I'd get to toot my own horn on something I love every bit as much as the Cards. I've been a Civil War buff since about the third grade. I'm talking hardcore, reading Shelby Foote's three volume trilogy in the fifth grade, thousands of books owned, Civil War love. I've been blogging on the Civil War since 2005 at TOCWOC - A Civil War Blog. I also have a web site on the Siege of Petersburg. That's about as niche as you can get, I know, but it's something I really enjoy.


If anybody wants some suggestions on good books for any Civil War topic, ask away. God knows I've read enough of 'em...

Long time no see. And for the intelligence, you're very welcome.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I'm going to put in a shameless plug for a fascinating Civil War memoir that was just published called "A Genteel Spy". It is the recollections of my step-mother's grandmother who was a little girl in Franklin Tennessee at the start of the war. They were forced into exile when her mother was caught spying for the CSA and their house was eventually the left side of the Union line in the Battle of Franklin. Many of the South's finest were cut down during the futile charges against those lines in the thorny hedge they'd put in around their house before the war. It was an irony that wasn't lost on them in the years afterward.

Here's the Amazon blurb:

Betsey Royce knows better than to say anything on that day in 1862 when she peeks around the upstairs bedroom door to discover her mother staring out the window with a pair of field glasses. Martha Royce sits watching and counting as men in blue uniforms march up Columbia Turnpike and into Franklin, Tennessee. The Mysterious "It" Martha had been warning her husband Moses about for a year has finally arrived. For Betsey, that can mean only one thing: the war has come to her doorstep. Soon after, her idyllic life is shattered. First, Moses enlists as a scout for Confederate General John Bell Hood's army. Then Martha, Betsey, and Betsey's little sister Sally are forced into exile from Franklin as a result of Martha's spying on Union forces. Alone and facing an uncertain future, the Royce women begin an arduous two-year journey through the tattered Southern landscape of the American Civil War. A Genteel Spy is Betsey Royce's remarkable, true memoir of those times. Written ten years after the events, while Betsey was in college, this story chronicles Martha's courage and determination to see her family through the trials and devastation of the war, even after Moses is captured by the Union army and sentenced to die. Sometimes funny, sometimes nostalgic, and sometimes unflinchingly raw, Betsey's memoir offers a unique insight into civilian life during America's bloodiest conflict. It serves as a reminder that sometimes, in the darkest hours, faith and determination are all that stand between life and death.

[bschulte]

Long time no see. And for the intelligence, you're very welcome.

Oh, I've been around the whole time. I just moved into the world of husband and dad, not necessarily in that order , and I find my ability to actively participate as much online has dwindled to a shell of its former self. This forum especially is one where I feel like reading the posts of others is going to benefit me a lot more than anything I might be able to add for others in return.

[bschulte]

I'm going to put in a shameless plug for a fascinating Civil War memoir that was just published called "A Genteel Spy". It is the recollections of my step-mother's grandmother who was a little girl in Franklin Tennessee at the start of the war. They were forced into exile when her mother was caught spying for the CSA and their house was eventually the left side of the Union line in the Battle of Franklin. Many of the South's finest were cut down during the futile charges against those lines in the thorny hedge they'd put in around their house before the war. It was an irony that wasn't lost on them in the years afterward.

Joe,

Very cool! I used to focus almost entirely on battle and campaign studies. Since I started on my Petersburg Campaign web site, however, I've spent a lot of time looking at memoirs, diaries, and letters from people who participated in the Siege of Petersburg. People ask me how I can spend so much time reading books about the Civil War, but the number of primary sources out there, just like your step-mother's ancestor, is endless...and endlessly fascinating. I can't imagine living in a time with so much upheaval to so many people in this country.

For anyone interested in reading the words of those who were there, I've been adding a lot of books to my Google Books Civil War collection with some notes on what each book is in some cases.

[Freed Roger]

4 years later, worth another look


http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/ca ... nion/?_r=0

[pioneer98]

I will have to take a look at that. I find that era fascinating. Reading through this thread...The Civil War was definitely caused by slavery, but it was really an economic question at first. The South relied heavily on slaves and wanted to keep it. The North was starting to industrialize, so they didn't need it as much. I guess the point is, the North didn't like slavery, but that didn't mean they were willing to wage a bloody war to end it. Lincoln eventually came around to that conclusion over time...with a lesser leader in office, the war easily could have ended with some other kind of stalemate or compromise that left slavery in tact in some form or another.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/arc ... nt/264125/

The fact that slavery was the crux and cause of the war did not mean, however, that Northerners were ready to fight and die to end slavery. In early 1862, Lincoln believed that most people in the North cared "comparatively little about the Negro, and [were] anxious only for military successes." As he reminded a visiting abolitionist toward the end of January: "We didn't go into the war to put down slavery. To act differently at this moment would, I have no doubt, not only weaken our cause but smack of bad faith. ... The first thing you'd see would be a mutiny in the army."

Also, I keep posting these links to Harper's even though it's behind a paywall...It's the only magazine I still read on a regular basis. They had an amazing article in December about how the Underground Railroad started. Just fascinating. In those days, even in Manhattan, there were bounty hunters roaming around looking for escaped slaves. They'd kidnap black people (whether they were escaped slaves or not) and take them to the South and make them slaves. The article is basically about Frederick Douglass:

http://harpers.org/archive/2014/12/gateway-to-freedom/

[Freed Roger]

Before he exited office, Governor Quinn posthumously pardoned three Illinois abolitionists.
including a dude from the old hometown.
http://www.wgem.com/story/27741157/2014 ... ears-later

Also, looking back at a few, they all are good - dangerous to start reading them. But this piece was particularly good on the liberated Charleston SC
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... ore-155902

the all-black Massachusetts 55th Regiment arrived, singing “John Brown’s Body” to the African-American crowds that cheered them on. “Imagine, if you can, this stirring song chanted with the most rapturous, most exultant emphasis, by a regiment of negro troops, who have been lying in sight of Charleston for nearly two years — as they trod with tumultuous delight along the streets of this pro-Slavery city,” Redpath wrote. Some of the men in the 55th “had walked those streets before as slaves,” noted Charles C. Coffin, a Boston Daily Journal correspondent. But now they were free, “soldiers of the Union, defenders of its flag.”

I can hardly imagine that

[sighyoung]

Also, looking back at a few, they all are good - dangerous to start reading them. But this piece was particularly good on the liberated Charleston SC
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/20 ... ore-155902

the all-black Massachusetts 55th Regiment arrived, singing “John Brown’s Body” to the African-American crowds that cheered them on. “Imagine, if you can, this stirring song chanted with the most rapturous, most exultant emphasis, by a regiment of negro troops, who have been lying in sight of Charleston for nearly two years — as they trod with tumultuous delight along the streets of this pro-Slavery city,” Redpath wrote. Some of the men in the 55th “had walked those streets before as slaves,” noted Charles C. Coffin, a Boston Daily Journal correspondent. But now they were free, “soldiers of the Union, defenders of its flag.”

I can hardly imagine that

Over half the human population of South Carolina was enslaved in 1865. Over half.