Recent Acquisitions to My Library

While I gained a much better understanding of Civil War medicine from reading Shauna Devine's Learning from the Wounded: The Civil War and the Rise of American Medical Science, that volume focused on the efforts doctors went to document and gather knowledge from all of the deaths caused by both Civil War battlefield wounds and diseases. I am hopeful that Civil War Medicine: Challenges and Triumphs will particularly include additional information and define the symptoms of the many camp diseases soldiers suffered from. 

If you've read many of my posts over the past several years, you probably know that I find anything related to John Brown fascinating. Just about every phase of the life of "Old Brown" has been examined rather thoroughly, other than his final days. Now with this volume by Louis DeCaro, Jr., even that topic has finally received the coverage it has so long deserved. I am looking forward to learning more about Brown's days in his Charles Town, Virginia, jail cell and his trip to the gallows. Myth has shrouded much of Brown's last days, but if DeCaro's other works on Brown are any indication, he will present solid evidence to help debunk those with this work.
  

A couple of years ago while making several trips back and forth from Kentucky to Virginia, I listened to The Widow of the South by Robert Hicks on audio CD. I found it an intriguing novel about some of the people affected by the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee. If not totally based in fact, it was a rather good story. Hicks follows up The Widow of the South with a postwar story by following some of the same into the Reconstruction years.

So much of the interest in Civil War memory studies centers on how Americans have chosen to honor the dead of our nation's greatest tragedy since the guns fell silent. The loss of so much life and the need to commemorate their deaths naturally tears off the scabs of healing and exposes raw nerves, often limiting the success of reconciling the belligerent sections. Memorialization efforts and commemoration services still trouble us into the 21st century with many questions of inclusion, exclusion, unification, and division.

When I came across this title, my first thought was what a great subject for historical examination. My next thought was, why hasn't anyone explored this topic before? You don't have to read too many soldier's letters to encounter one that mentions the darkness they experienced, the sleep they were often deprived of, and the dreams of loved ones back on the home front. Dr. White, a professor at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, has graciously agreed to come to give a talk on this book at Pamplin Historical Park on October 7, so I'm looking forward to both reading the book and hearing his presentation on this fascinating subject.