Love and Valor : Intimate Civil War Letters Between Captain Jacob and Emeline Ritner - Softcover

Larimer, Charles F.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0967386306 ISBN 13: 9780967386300

Publisher: Sigourney Pr Inc, 2000

Synopsis

Throughout the Civil War, Captain Jacob Ritner and his wife exchanged an extraordinary series of letters vividly depicting both life on the battlefield and at the home front.

Jacob recounts in compelling detail most of the major military events of the Western Theater: Wilson's Creek, Vicksburg, Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the Atlanta Campaign including the Battle of Atlanta, Sherman's March to the Sea, the Occupation of Savannah, and the Carolina's Campaign. Emeline movingly records the lives of those left behind.

Theirs is also the story of a family of Iowa abolitionists whose patriarch wrote on the day of the Emancipation Proclamation: "... if we as a nation refuse to acknowledge the rights of the black man then it may cost us our national existence."

Here is an unforgettable saga, a part of our national legacy.

About this title

About the Author

Charles F. Larimer, great great grandson of Jacob and Emeline Ritner, was born to an American father and Canadian mother in a U.S. Army Hospital in Trieste, Italy in 1953. He was raised in Sioux City, Iowa where he attended public schools, and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1975. Divorced, he now resides in Illinois with his son. Of Scot heritage, Larimer is currently at work compiling a book of Scottish stories collected from a distant uncle who lives near Loch Ness.

From the Back Cover

Civil War/Military History

War Story ... Love Story

Throughout the Civil War, Captain Jacob Ritner and his wife Emeline exchanged an extraordinary series of letters vividly depicting both life on the battlefield and at the home front.

Jacob recounts in compelling detail most of the major military events of the Western Theater: Vicksburg, Lookout Mountain, the Battle of Atlanta, Sherman's March to the Sea, and the occupation of Savannah. Emeline movingly records the lives of those left behind.

Theirs is also the story of a family of Iowa abolitionists whose patriarch wrote on the day of the Emancipation proclamation: "... if we as a nation refuse to acknowledge the rights of the black man then it may cost us our national existence."

Here is an unforgettable saga, a part of our national legacy.

"A TREMENDOUSLY MOVING AND LITERATE STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR ... Jacob's stunned emotions while walking through battlefields ... Emeline's trials of keeping the farm, raising four children, and dealing with family suffering, provide emotional views of life that set this book apart from other Civil War books. A MUST READ ..."

-Ken Russell, Paratrooper, 82nd Airborne (D-Day)

Featured in Stephen Ambrose's Americans at War and Citizen Soldiers

"Captain Jacob Ritner's letters provide a fresh look at General Sherman's campaigns ... the replies of Jacob's wife Emeline give a rare feminine view of the war and home front, making this both a valuable CIVIL WAR reference, and a COMPELLING LOVE STORY."

-Margaret Wayt DeBolt

Author, Savannah Spectres and Other Strange Tales

"For history buffs, Civil War devotees, Americana enthusiasts, or even those interested in a good old-fashioned love story, this is a dream come true. THE LETTERS ARE SUPERB, EXTRAORDINARY ... among the best of their kind that I have ever seen ..."

-Philip R. Hinderberger, Major, USMCR (ret.), Historian

"RICHLY TOLD. AN IMPRESSIVE WORK of research that all Americans can cherish as part of their national family inheritance. This tale of letters provides an intimate glimpse into our past."

-John M. Pellicano

Author, Conquer Or Die

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I walked over the battle field after the fight and saw the dead and dying, some places lying almost in heaps and some scattered round in almost all kinds of shapes, limbs torn off and bodies mangled in almost every manner, and was comparatively unmoved, because I knew they went down willingly in a good cause. But when I saw the men today exposed to the storm and could do nothing for them I had to go to my room and "take a cry." We have a large cabin on the boat with two stoves, large enough to accommodate half the regiment. But General Steele will allow no enlisted men to come into it, nor to occupy staterooms, but Steele [Company B's 2nd Lieutenant Samuel Steele] and I did take two into ours last night in spite of him. But I am getting ahead of my story.

-Jacob Ritner

I often lie awake at night looking at the moon and stars and thinking that they are the same moon and stars that shine on you. And then I think that maybe you are sitting in the door at the same time and looking at the same objects, or perhaps the same stars I am looking at are shining through the window into your nice room where you are sleeping in your snug bed, and then I feel very near to you and love you, Oh! so much! And then I think again that however this may be, there is one thing certain, we have the same kind Providence to watch over and protect us both, and the same Heavenly Father to call upon for help in time of need. I feel very grateful that I have a dear wife and kind friends at home who remember me in their prayers.

-Jacob Ritner

Dear Jake,

Where are you tonight, and what are you doing? Oh I would so like to know. I have got the blues most horribly tonight and the wind is blowing a perfect streak. Your old canteen is bumping & banging against the wall in the porch, trying to keep time with the howling of the wind, and the dismal patter of the rain. Oh how gloomy everything seems tonight! How I wish you were with us to chase away the melancholys, but where are you tonight and what are you doing . . ."

-Emeline Ritner

I must tell you what a big taking down I got today at church. I had my hat done over in the winter style and wore it to church today for the first time, and old Mrs. Burnett just raked me right before the people after meeting was over because I wore an "old ugly hat." She was so mean. She looked as though she could have stomped me with her feet. She said when people talked of soldier's wives dressing, she always held me up as an exception, but now I was as bad as any of them. Everybody that gets a new hat has to take a thrashing from her and so my time came today. I haven't got over it yet, but I don't intend to lay it by for her.

-Emeline Ritner

Edition details

• Publisher: Sigourney Pr Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0967386306
• ISBN 13: 9780967386300
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 453