I do wish this cruel war was over : first-person accounts of Civil War Arkansas from the Arkansas Historical Quarterly / edited by Mark K. Christ and Patrick G. Williams.
Publisher:
University of Arkansas Press,
Copyright Date:
2014
Description:
xiii, 261 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 23 cm.
Not distributed; available at Arkansas State Library. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
"Prologue: "The Southern States must all stand together or fall together" -- "A holy and just cause" -- "These dismal mountains" -- "The atmosphere begins to smell a little gunpowderish" -- "This campaign was very destructive" -- "Lonely, hopeless days."
Summary:
"...collects diaries, letters, and memoirs excerpted from their original publication in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly to offer a first-hand, ground-level view of the war's horrors, its mundane hardships, its pitched battles and languid stretches, even its moments of frivolity. Readers will find varying degrees of commitment and different motivations among soldiers on both sides, along with the perspective of civilians. In many cases, these documents address aspects of the war that would become objects of scholarly and popular fascination only years after their initial appearance: the guerrilla conflict that became the "real war" west of the Mississippi; the "hard war" waged against civilians long before William Tecumseh Sherman set foot in Georgia; the work of women in maintaining households in the absence of men; and the complexities of emancipation, which saw African Americans winning freedom and sometimes losing it all over again"--[P. 4] of cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.