Grant, Man of Peace

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Eireann

This Christmas, I treated myself to a few wonderful items from the PBS online store‘s bumper sale. (Caveat emptor: They will spam you endlessly if you buy anything. Spam is the pledge break of the digital age.) Ken Burns box set, his excellent Lewis & Clark series, American Experience’s Abraham & Mary Lincoln series (also fabulous), and the AE’s Lee & Grant box set, which I threw in on a whim because it was deep-discounted. The Grant set was terrific; broken into two discs for Grant the Soldier and Grant the President, they really gave you a feel for the quiet, retiring and kindly (if wholly inept as a politician) man.

My favourite quote was from a pre-war play-wrestling ritual with his young sons:

“Mister, do you want to fight?” Fred would ask, when his
father came home from the store.

“I am a person of peace; but I will not be hectored by a person
of your size,” Grant would reply.

I found the citation, oddly, in a “free book” which probably shouldn’t be free, as it was published in 1959. Still, it looks to be an excellent read, so take advantage: The General’s Wife: The Life of Mrs Ulysses S Granthttp://www.archive.org/details/generalswifethel010870mbp

Canada – Rogue State

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Eireann

Well, while we could never really be considered any cog in an Axis of Evil, Canada did offer harbour (complete with extraneous “u”) to Confederate agents during the war years. http://www.cfhi.net/WilmingtonsWartimeCanadianConnection.phpthe site I mentioned yesterday details some of the efforts of the Confederate Secret Service, who coordinated cross-border activities during the conflict, including the St. Albans’ Raid and the attempt to burn down New York City.

I’ve added yet another e-book to the Library, this one written by one of the New York conspirators, and goes into great detail on the planning and (failed) execution of this and other raids.

Confederate Operations in Canada and New York

Frank Thompson

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Eireann

A two-for-one posting: An interesting article that mentioned a memoir which I’ve added to the Library. A Canadian girl disguised herself as “Frank Thompson”, and joined the Union Army. Given this description from the article, the memoirs will be quite the Victorian potboiler:

How did Emma and 400 other male impersonators that served in the Union Army pass inspection? Since neither a physical examination nor proof of identity were required, it was easy to fool recruiters whose sole concern was putting warm bodies in uniform…

The beardless private was a model soldier, whose courage and devotion to duty earned an appointment as regimental mail carrier in March 1862. Next to food nothing mattered more to the foot soldier than letters from home. Emma took her responsibility seriously and did such a first-rate job that she was promoted to brigade postmaster.

But Emma did not want to spend the war playing post office. Itching for more action, she jumped at the chance to join the Secret Service.

Unsexed: or, The Female soldier. The thrilling adventures, experiences and escapes of a woman, as nurse, spy and scout, in hospitals, camps and battle-fields

http://smmercury.com/19299/bartee-haile-woman-pulls-off-civil-war-masquerade/

Nelson Miles’ Memoirs

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Eireann

Another free book added to the Library, and this one promises to be interesting: Nelson A Miles was a young volunteer who earned wounds, acclaim and medals (including the Medal of Honor, though in fairness these were handed out like candy during the Civil War) on his rise to a major generalship. Post-war, he became notorious for his (supposed) maltreatment of Jefferson Davis during the latter’s imprisonment at Fortress Monroe, and in the suppression and massacres of many native tribes in the West. As it’s a memoir, I don’t expect the full story to be told, but there have to be some nuggets in here.

http://www.archive.org/details/servingrepublicm00mile

More Freebies

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Eireann

I’ve uncovered a few more e-books on my travels. They’ve been added to the Library.

John Beatty’s The Citizen Soldier or, Memoirs of a Volunteer – http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20460

Finally, Richard W. Johnson’s A Soldier’s Reminiscences in Peace and War, also via Archive.org, has a handful of personal stories about Lincoln, as well as about several other generals of the war: http://www.archive.org/details/soldiersreminisc00john

Librivox

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Eireann

As regular readers have noticed, I am an enthusiast of “free” books – those texts out of the public domain which have been uploaded to Internet archives and digital libraries. I’m also a fan of audiobooks, which I’ve taken to playing while I clean, commute, or generally bum around the house (note reverse order of preference). Librivox is a mashup of the two: Public domain books read by unpaid volunteers. The downside, of course, is that the readings aren’t always on par with professional readers, but then, you get what you pay for, and the online catalogue is free.

Librivox’s official website is disappointing in layout – there’s no way to search for subjects, only titles and authors, but archive.org has helpfully broken down all the categories. A quick glance shows Sam Watkins and Mary Chesnut amongst the titles, and I’m going to listen to Leander Stillwell’s diary. All three were heavily quoted in the Ken Burns series.

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Civil%20War%22%20AND%20collection%3Aaudio_bookspoetry

Reminiscences of Fred Seward

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Eireann

Another free book added to The Library; Fred Seward’s Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman and Diplomat. Fred was the son and wartime administrator of William H. Seward, Secretary of State. He was gravely injured in the assassination attempt on his father, as part of the plot that killed Lincoln. I have no idea if this book contains much of interest, but given his proximity to the great men and his unwitting participation in that fateful night, I imagine there’ll be an anecdote or two worth reading.

12 Years A Slave

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Eireann

One of the less-discussed facts of slavery is that free blacks were at risk when travelling. The tale of Solomon Northup (whose autobiography I’ve added to the Library) is a prime example: Slave dealers coaxed the musician – a free black from New York – to DC under the pretense of arranging a concert, then kidnapped him and sold him South into slavery. Solomon was eventually freed when the governor of New York interceded on his behalf. One has to wonder how many blacks were imprisoned in this manner, and how few of them had the luck that Solomon had, to have been freed.

“150 years of blood in ink”

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Eireann

Here’s an interesting take on an article: Writing about the writing on the war. It’s not the most in-depth or philosophical piece you’ll read this week, but for such a well-covered conflict, it’s important to study the sources. Historiography as history.

Americans seem to have an inexhaustible appetite for everything ever written on the bloodiest episode of our history in which more than 600,000 Americans died on both sides of the conflict over Union, states rights, and slavery. The latter part of the previous sentence has, itself, generated its own body of literature on the true meaning of the conflict. Many experts argued that the meaning or mission of the conflict changed over time as the blood flowed and the stakes rose astronomically. Others maintain that states rights were either a cover for the real issue, slave-holders’ rights, or so intertwined with it that they were essentially the same thing.

In 2006 Harry S. Stout, a Yale professor of American religious history, wrote a “moral history” of the Civil War, Upon the Altar of the Nation in which he utilized traditional principles of the just war doctrine to critique the conflagration less for the justice of its cause (jus ad bellum) than for its conduct (jus in bello). Stout viewed the war through the screens of proportionality and discrimination between combatants and non-combatants, finding it more akin to total, i.e., immoral, war, again, in its conduct rather than its cause.

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/12/29/reading-the-civil-war

The Birneys

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Eireann

The Birneys are a Civil War family of whom I was only peripherally aware, but as this article points out, they had quite a history. The book, Apostles of Equality: The Birneys, the Republicans, and the Civil War, could be quite an interesting read.

Although unsuccessful in his presidential campaigns of 1840 and 1844 as the Liberty Party candidate, Birney shook the political landscape with his abolitionist determination and influenced a number of politicians, including Abraham Lincoln and the fledgling Republican Party, Rogers noted.

He also imbued five sons with his political savvy and anti-slavery convictions, four of whom fought in the Civil War, as did one grandson, Bay City native James Birney IV. Two of his sons, David Bell Birney and William Birney, although not Bay Cityans, had strong connections to Michigan and both became major generals during the war.

Rogers said three of the four Birney sons who saw combat died during the war. The only one to survive was Gen. William Birney, the distinguished commander of black troops in campaigns in Florida and South Carolina. The grandson, James Birney IV, was a heroic figure at Gettysburg, riding with the 7th Michigan Cavalry in the Wolverine Division under Gen. George A. Custer. He also commanded a company of the famed Buffalo Soldiers, black cavalry troops, in the 9th U.S. Cavalry after the war.

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/bay-city/index.ssf/2011/12/author_reveals_role_of_bay_cit.html

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