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Reviews
The Civil War Soldier
A Historical Reader
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Edited by Michael Barton and Larry M. Logue
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(New York: New York University Press, 2002. Pp. xi, 515. Notes, tables, index. Paperbound, $24.95.)
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| One of Michael Barton's and Larry Logue's primary goals in assembling these twenty-seven articles and chapters is to introduce the non-professional reader to the past twenty-five years of Civil War research. Some earlier writings are also included by way of points of departure or foils for the newer scholarship. The focus is entirely on the ordinary soldier, and rarely are generals or politicians mentioned. The editors summarize their five-fold organization of the volume under the headings: "Who the soldiers were, how they lived, how they fought, how they felt, and what they believed" (p. 2). |
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In the introduction, the editors articulate their own scholarly predisposition. "In our own research we have been deeply interested in one overarching question: What were the essential social, cultural, and even psychological differences between Union and Confederate soldiers?" (p. 3). To bring out some of these differences, they include Logue's own contribution on the efforts to recruit young men in Mississippi. Unlike Northerners, these Mississippians were overwhelmingly preoccupied with "society's racial equilibrium: the fear of life with the bottom rail on top echoes through soldiers' explanations of why they were in the army" (p. 44). Logue also makes us aware of the reluctance of Southern youth who lived in the counties along the Mississippi River to sign up for military service. As often as not, they would disappear west of the River. |
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