A Politician Goes to War: The Civil War Letters of John White Geary - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0271013389 ISBN 13: 9780271013381

Publisher: Penn State University Press, 1995

Synopsis

This last known work of noted historian Bell Irvin Wiley reveals the private mind of John White Geary, a Union general from Pennsylvania, through his Civil War letters to his wife, Mary. Wiley had selected these roughly 200 letters for publication, but the unfinished manuscript lay undiscovered for twelve years after the historian's death. The letters provide a rare glimpse of the two main theaters of war through the eyes of a general officer. Geary saw action at Cedar Mountain and Gettysburg in the Virginia theater and in the major campaigns in the west—from lifting the siege at Chattanooga to marching with William T. Sherman through Georgia and the Carolinas.

The fascination Geary's letters held for Wiley, the quintessential scholar of the common person, is clear: the letters of an uncommon man reveal ordinary concerns about children, money, home, and religion that linked Geary to many on both sides of the war. Geary's letters also show another side of the officer, that of the consummate politician who knew that military service provided capital for future political campaigns. Through intense self-promotion, he had fashioned a reputation that served him well in gaining respected political posts both before and after the war: he fought in the Mexican War and served as the first mayor of San Francisco and as territorial governor of Kansas during the period known as "Bloody Kansas," in addition to winning two terms as governor of Pennsylvania after the war. Ultimately, the letters of John White Geary show how a political general plied his trade. They reveal the complexities of any historical figure, for Geary had both the admirable qualities of loyalty to the Union and the less attractive need to exaggerate his abilities to enhance his career.

About this title

About the Author:

William Alan Blair is an Assistant Professor of U.S. History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Bell Irvin Wiley's classic books include The Life of Billy Yank and The Life of Johnny Reb.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

From the book

Camp near Atlanta July 29th 1864 My Dearest Mary As usual I am writing you under a heavy cannonade. This is the fourth day of the siege, and throughout the live-long day the bursting of bombshells, the booming of Cannon, the rattling of small arms, the dead and the dying are features of the day and the night. But there are still worse features than these. War and pestilence I have witnessed, but my eyes have been spared until now from witnessing the emaciated and languid form of their skinny twin sister famine. To-day I saw a young mother with a starving child so poor as scarcely to live, seeking bread at our home. Her husband was a conscript in the rebel ranks, and this is but a specimen of Davis’ work. If there is one spot in hell hotter than another, why should it not be reserved for him who has brought such evils on his fellow man.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0271013389
• ISBN 13: 9780271013381
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Blair William A.