The Civil War Chronicle

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517221810 ISBN 13: 9780517221815

Publisher: Gramercy, 2003

In this moving day-by-day chronicle, we hear the real voices of the soldiers, nurses, farmers, laborers, slaves, and freed people who lived through America's most tragic conflict. This much-needed collection of the letters, diaries, speeches, telegrams, newspaper accounts, and official battlefield reports penned by those people presents an astonishing array of perspectives and conflicting accounts of this very personal war. Hundreds of period black and white images enhance the firstperson accounts and help recapture the texture of life at all levels and on both sides of the Civil War.

Review:

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States, winning less than the majority of the popular vote but 59 percent of the Electoral College. In the North, the Republican candidate's victory was widely, though not unanimously, hailed, while in the South it was roundly condemned. Horace Greeley, in an editorial reproduced in this excellent collection of primary documents, called Lincoln's record "an invincible attestation of the superiority of Free Society," whereas an Atlanta newspaper promised a Pennsylvania Avenue "paved ten fathoms deep with mangled bodies."

Drawing on journalistic accounts, memoirs, battle dispatches, and letters from actors large and small in the harrowing conflict, Gettysburg College historian Matthew Gallman gathers an indispensable day-by-day record of the Civil War, enlisting seven fellow historians (two of whom teach at West Point) to provide commentary that gives the documents needed context. In his introduction to the volume, the noted Reconstruction scholar Eric Foner notes that the war made a nation-state of what had been a far-flung congeries of states. It ushered in the first national currency, the first federal income tax, and a national banking system, among other innovations. As it was unfolding, however, the war lent itself to being seen with smaller-scale immediacy--and that urgency, with all its attendant chaos, shines through on every page. A welcome and useful addition to the libraries of scholars, Civil War buffs, and students. --Gregory McNamee

From the Back Cover:

"This unique chronological documentary of the Civil War is an immensely valuable addition to the literature on that much-studied subject. The Civil War Chronicle can be read as a vivid narrative of the war, consulted as a reference work, and used as the basis for additional research on any subject connected with the war. The documents are well selected, and the introduction to each of them succinctly combines context and interpretation."
-- James M. McPherson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom