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The Civil War #3
The Civil War: The Third Year Told by Those Who Lived It
After 150 years the Civil War still holds a central place in American history and self-understanding. It is our greatest national drama, at once heroic, tragic, and epic—our Iliad, but also our Bible, a story of sin and judgment, suffering and despair, death and resurrection in a “new birth of freedom.” The Civil War: The Third Year brings together letters, diary entries, speeches, newspaper and magazine articles, presidential messages, and poems to provide an incomparable literary portrait of a nation at war with itself, illuminating the military and political events that brought the Union closer to victory and slavery closer to destruction.
This third volume of a highly acclaimed four-volume series begins with the Army of the Potomac’s dismal “Mud March” in January 1863 and ends with Ulysses S. Grant’s appointment as Union general-in-chief in March 1864. It collects 149 pieces by more than eighty participants and observers, among them Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, William T. Sherman, Robert E. Lee, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Mary Chesnut, Clement Vallandigham, Henry Adams, Charlotte Forten, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, as well as Union officers Robert Gould Shaw, Charles B. Haydon, and Henry Livermore Abbott; Confederate diarists Catherine Edmondston, Kate Stone, and Judith McGuire; and Alabama soldier Samuel Pickens, Iowa housewife Catharine Peirce, and Kentucky preacher George Richard Browder.
The selections include vivid and haunting firsthand accounts of some of the war’s most famous battles—Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Fort Wagner, Chickamauga, Chattanooga—as well as the merciless guerrilla war in Missouri and Kansas; the Richmond bread riot and the New York draft riots; and the controversies surrounding the use of black soldiers and the curtailment of civil liberties in wartime.
The Civil War: The Third Year includes an introduction, headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, full-color endpaper maps, and an index. A fourth volume will gather writings from the final year of the conflict.
This third volume of a highly acclaimed four-volume series begins with the Army of the Potomac’s dismal “Mud March” in January 1863 and ends with Ulysses S. Grant’s appointment as Union general-in-chief in March 1864. It collects 149 pieces by more than eighty participants and observers, among them Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, William T. Sherman, Robert E. Lee, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Mary Chesnut, Clement Vallandigham, Henry Adams, Charlotte Forten, and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, as well as Union officers Robert Gould Shaw, Charles B. Haydon, and Henry Livermore Abbott; Confederate diarists Catherine Edmondston, Kate Stone, and Judith McGuire; and Alabama soldier Samuel Pickens, Iowa housewife Catharine Peirce, and Kentucky preacher George Richard Browder.
The selections include vivid and haunting firsthand accounts of some of the war’s most famous battles—Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Fort Wagner, Chickamauga, Chattanooga—as well as the merciless guerrilla war in Missouri and Kansas; the Richmond bread riot and the New York draft riots; and the controversies surrounding the use of black soldiers and the curtailment of civil liberties in wartime.
The Civil War: The Third Year includes an introduction, headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, full-color endpaper maps, and an index. A fourth volume will gather writings from the final year of the conflict.
905 pages, Hardcover
First published February 7, 2013
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About the author
Brooks D. Simpson
36 books23 followersBrooks Donohue Simpson is an historian who is the ASU Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University, specializing in studies of the American Civil War.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 20, 2024
The Civil War: The Third Year
The Library of America has been commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War by publishing individual volumes of primary source material for each of the four years of the conflict. The first two volumes covering 1861 and 1862 were published in their respective sesquicentennial years, The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It (Library of America #212),The Civil War: The Second Year Told By Those Who Lived It (Library of America). The newly-published third volume, "The Civil War: The Third Year Told by Those who Lived It" (2013) covers the eventful third year of 1863. The book's coverage in fact begins on January 20, 1863, with Union General Ambrose Burnside's ill-fated "mud march" at Fredericksburg, and it concludes on March 10, 1864, with Ulysses Grant's promotion to lieutenant general and commander of the Union armies. Brooks Simpson, Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University selected the texts and edited the volume. Simpson has written extensively of the Civil War, including books about Grant and Sherman.
In both its texts and its editing, this is a lengthy, informative, and fascinating volume. The book includes 736 pages of first-hand accounts of the military, political, and social history of the events of 1863 presented chronologically. There are 149 separate entries, some short and some extensive, from approximately 80 sources. The authors include famous figures, including Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Grant, Sherman, Henry Adams, Joshua Chamberlain, Whitman, Melville, and more for the Union and Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chestnutt, Lafayette McClaws, and more for the Confederacy. The volume includes as well many entries from historically obscure figures, including soldiers on both sides of the line, diarists, ministers, and observers.
The selections likewise range from the famous to the obscure. Lincoln's iconic Gettysburg Address, for example, is familiar to all readers. Some of the entries by famous individuals may, however, be new to many readers. For example, the volume includes several letters by Union general Sherman, including a letter to William Swayne dated June 11, 1863, to Sherman's wife dated June 27, 1863, to Henry Halleck, dated September 17, 1863, and to Roswell Sawyer, dated January 31,1864, in which he offers hard-edged, candid observations on nature of war, of the secession and on the coming Reconstruction. These letters remain provocative and thoughtful. Among the best of the documents included in the volume by an unknown author is an article by one Lois Bryan Adams written on February 8, 1864, for the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune. Ms. Adams describes her brief meet-and-greet with the President at a public reception day in the Lincoln White House. Her article includes as well a detailed depiction of the streets of downtown Washington, D.C. The writings in this volume, familiar or obscure, are almost always perceptive and articulate, and a pleasure to read.
Military events in 1863 focused on three pivotal battles: Gettysburg from July 1 -- 3, Vicksburg, which fell to the Union on July 4, and Chattanooga from November 23 --25. Each of these battles and the events leading to and following them are described in several articles and from a variety of perspectives. For example, the descriptions of Gettysburg include the diary entries of Arthur Fremantle, a British officer who observed the battle from within the Confederacy's lines and who had access to its high command, a report by Joshua L. Chamberlain on his defense of Little Round Top, diary entries by Confederate soldier Samuel Pickens, and letters from a Union nurse, Cordelia Hancock about her experiences in caring for the Gettysburg wounded. Other battles and campaigns, including Chancellorsville, Fort Wagner, Chickamauga, Mine Run, and others, famous and obscure receive coverage.
Political events discussed in the volume center upon the use of African American troops following the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. Frederick Douglass' speeches and writings play a prominent role in the book as do depictions of the heroism of African American soldiers at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, Port Hudson, Mississippi, and Olustee, Florida, among other places. For the Confederacy, the volume includes a January 2, 1864, memorandum by General Patrick Cleburne, signed by several other Confederate officers, recommending the emancipation and enlistment of African American soldiers as a way to boost the Confederacy's sagging military fortunes and to achieve independence. Civil rights and civil disobedience during the conflict, in both Union and Confederacy, also receive substantial discussion, including the prosecution of copperhead Clement Vallandingham, the New York City Draft Riots, and the Richmond bread riots. A long entry by Richard Cordley describes the sometimes overlooked conflict in Missouri and Kansas which included a bloody massacre in Lawrence, Kansas led by the infamous William Quantrill.
The book gains a great deal from Simpson's editorial apparatus. Short introductions to each entry help guide the reader through the many documents. Simpson's introduction to the volume places the events of 1863 in perspective in the context of the entire war. The book includes a dense, 15-page chronology of the 1863-- early 1864 time period covered by the volume which shows, among other things, the broad scope of the events of the year, some of which are not treated in the text. The volume concludes with informative endnotes and with short biographies of each of the individuals who wrote the texts included in the book.
There is a great deal to be learned from this volume and from the two earlier books in the series about American history and about the seminal part the Civil War played in it. The source material adds a great deal to the many narrative histories available about the War and furnishes almost limitless material for reflection and for further reading. I am looking forward to the final LOA volume in this series, scheduled to be published in 2014.
Robin Friedman
The Library of America has been commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War by publishing individual volumes of primary source material for each of the four years of the conflict. The first two volumes covering 1861 and 1862 were published in their respective sesquicentennial years, The Civil War: The First Year Told by Those Who Lived It (Library of America #212),The Civil War: The Second Year Told By Those Who Lived It (Library of America). The newly-published third volume, "The Civil War: The Third Year Told by Those who Lived It" (2013) covers the eventful third year of 1863. The book's coverage in fact begins on January 20, 1863, with Union General Ambrose Burnside's ill-fated "mud march" at Fredericksburg, and it concludes on March 10, 1864, with Ulysses Grant's promotion to lieutenant general and commander of the Union armies. Brooks Simpson, Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University selected the texts and edited the volume. Simpson has written extensively of the Civil War, including books about Grant and Sherman.
In both its texts and its editing, this is a lengthy, informative, and fascinating volume. The book includes 736 pages of first-hand accounts of the military, political, and social history of the events of 1863 presented chronologically. There are 149 separate entries, some short and some extensive, from approximately 80 sources. The authors include famous figures, including Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Grant, Sherman, Henry Adams, Joshua Chamberlain, Whitman, Melville, and more for the Union and Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chestnutt, Lafayette McClaws, and more for the Confederacy. The volume includes as well many entries from historically obscure figures, including soldiers on both sides of the line, diarists, ministers, and observers.
The selections likewise range from the famous to the obscure. Lincoln's iconic Gettysburg Address, for example, is familiar to all readers. Some of the entries by famous individuals may, however, be new to many readers. For example, the volume includes several letters by Union general Sherman, including a letter to William Swayne dated June 11, 1863, to Sherman's wife dated June 27, 1863, to Henry Halleck, dated September 17, 1863, and to Roswell Sawyer, dated January 31,1864, in which he offers hard-edged, candid observations on nature of war, of the secession and on the coming Reconstruction. These letters remain provocative and thoughtful. Among the best of the documents included in the volume by an unknown author is an article by one Lois Bryan Adams written on February 8, 1864, for the Detroit Advertiser and Tribune. Ms. Adams describes her brief meet-and-greet with the President at a public reception day in the Lincoln White House. Her article includes as well a detailed depiction of the streets of downtown Washington, D.C. The writings in this volume, familiar or obscure, are almost always perceptive and articulate, and a pleasure to read.
Military events in 1863 focused on three pivotal battles: Gettysburg from July 1 -- 3, Vicksburg, which fell to the Union on July 4, and Chattanooga from November 23 --25. Each of these battles and the events leading to and following them are described in several articles and from a variety of perspectives. For example, the descriptions of Gettysburg include the diary entries of Arthur Fremantle, a British officer who observed the battle from within the Confederacy's lines and who had access to its high command, a report by Joshua L. Chamberlain on his defense of Little Round Top, diary entries by Confederate soldier Samuel Pickens, and letters from a Union nurse, Cordelia Hancock about her experiences in caring for the Gettysburg wounded. Other battles and campaigns, including Chancellorsville, Fort Wagner, Chickamauga, Mine Run, and others, famous and obscure receive coverage.
Political events discussed in the volume center upon the use of African American troops following the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. Frederick Douglass' speeches and writings play a prominent role in the book as do depictions of the heroism of African American soldiers at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, Port Hudson, Mississippi, and Olustee, Florida, among other places. For the Confederacy, the volume includes a January 2, 1864, memorandum by General Patrick Cleburne, signed by several other Confederate officers, recommending the emancipation and enlistment of African American soldiers as a way to boost the Confederacy's sagging military fortunes and to achieve independence. Civil rights and civil disobedience during the conflict, in both Union and Confederacy, also receive substantial discussion, including the prosecution of copperhead Clement Vallandingham, the New York City Draft Riots, and the Richmond bread riots. A long entry by Richard Cordley describes the sometimes overlooked conflict in Missouri and Kansas which included a bloody massacre in Lawrence, Kansas led by the infamous William Quantrill.
The book gains a great deal from Simpson's editorial apparatus. Short introductions to each entry help guide the reader through the many documents. Simpson's introduction to the volume places the events of 1863 in perspective in the context of the entire war. The book includes a dense, 15-page chronology of the 1863-- early 1864 time period covered by the volume which shows, among other things, the broad scope of the events of the year, some of which are not treated in the text. The volume concludes with informative endnotes and with short biographies of each of the individuals who wrote the texts included in the book.
There is a great deal to be learned from this volume and from the two earlier books in the series about American history and about the seminal part the Civil War played in it. The source material adds a great deal to the many narrative histories available about the War and furnishes almost limitless material for reflection and for further reading. I am looking forward to the final LOA volume in this series, scheduled to be published in 2014.
Robin Friedman
October 14, 2020
Having read the first two books in this series, I can only say that they keep getting better. The third year of the Civil War was a time of many significant events. The letters in this edition, both from Confederate supporters and Union supporters, highlight the hardships, sacrifices and tragedies that this war brought.
It was during this third year that the siege of Vicksburg took place and one of the best known battles of the war happened in July 1863 at Gettysburg where Confederate casualties totaled about 28,000 and Union casualties totaled about 23,000. The simplicity and sincerity of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 is an example of how profound a speech can be that is only 3 paragraphs in length.
The letter of a nurse at Gettysburg, Cornelia Hancock, to her cousin brings into the focus the terrible suffering of soldiers and those who cared for them. In her letter of July 7, 1863 she writes, “There are no words in the English language to express the sufferings I witnessed today.”
Anticipating reading about the conclusion of the war in the fourth volume.
It was during this third year that the siege of Vicksburg took place and one of the best known battles of the war happened in July 1863 at Gettysburg where Confederate casualties totaled about 28,000 and Union casualties totaled about 23,000. The simplicity and sincerity of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 is an example of how profound a speech can be that is only 3 paragraphs in length.
The letter of a nurse at Gettysburg, Cornelia Hancock, to her cousin brings into the focus the terrible suffering of soldiers and those who cared for them. In her letter of July 7, 1863 she writes, “There are no words in the English language to express the sufferings I witnessed today.”
Anticipating reading about the conclusion of the war in the fourth volume.
April 30, 2023
A smattering preview. An abundance of southern lady essays. One such author continually repeats illusory rumors and reports of rebel success and hopes. Loss, disaster and a bad ending is all that is being indicated by events in reality.
Near the beginning of this volume there are presented 32 pages of the words of a “copperhead” (pro-rebel) northern politician. I looked for some possible hidden gems in the unusually lengthy chapter, and found none.
On the other hand, this particular editor presents more selections that illustrate the racism expressed seemingly more on the Union side in this volume (and the final one, by another editor), mostly when dealing with “contrabands”- refugee former slaves.
One very short chapter is prefaced by the editor referring to upland regions of some seceded states as “disaffected by the war and resistant to conscription”. These are given as eastern Tennessee, western N. Carolina, northwestern Georgia and northern Alabama. These areas were against secession from the outset and were not slaveholding regions, and even though the selection is a letter written from Forsyth, Missouri, a town bordering the Ozarks of Arkansas, describing dispossessed Unionist Arkansans fleeing yet another pro-Union area of a seceded state, western Arkansas, not listed along with the other Unionist southern regions here.
Harriet Jacobs reports improved conditions over the previous year for black refugees from slavery, and a white religious group that helped and one that focused on their morals negatively above all else, and the reverence by the refugees had for Union military men that was rewarded often with abuse. A subsequent entry by another aid-worker in a letter describes the desperate condition of ex-slave refugees: exhausted, badly wounded, infirm, diseased, without clothing. There is black victim of a near-fatal beating by Union soldiers. There is described a 39-year-old man with his master’s name carved on his forehead and carrying, says the writer, five instruments with which he was tortured in slavery which are described. Finally, there is the seemingly essential comment on their lack of morals.
Francis Lieber appears, discussing essential loyalty to a national government, dismissing and deriding southern sectionalism, the U.S. concept of states (their arbitrary origin) within The United States, and the idea there is “southern culture”. Reparations seem far from achievable, but Lieber specifies yet another white politician that inadvertently provided support for it: the pro-slavery ideologue Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina in a quote Lieber provides. There’s also a whiff of manifest destiny here from Lieber that made Domenico Losurdo mention Lieber often in his book “Liberalism” alongside others of similar thinking about European supremacy. I don’t think one will find Union General David Hunter in the great Statuary Hall of the U. S. capitol Rotunda, but he belongs there for the toughly-worded counterthreat he issues to the rebel slaveowner junta leader Jefferson Davis for the latter proclaiming trial and a possible death penalty for Union military that organized or trained former slaves. This was in addition to his earlier unilaterally proclaimed emancipation and then arming of slaves in the captured southern area where he was military government administrator.
The most expressive writing in this and other volumes is by the Union officer Samuel Fiske using a pen name for an Illinois newspaper. He writes in this volume of passing along the Potomac River with his unit headed north to the gathering major battle in Pennsylvania and finding numerous still-unburied and partially buried Union soldiers scattered among the springtime vegetation of the two Bull Run battlefields. The full paragraph describing the macabre scene is probably the eeriest passage found among the four volumes of this Library of America series.
Henry Adams, son and private secretary of the Charles Francis Adams, Minister of the U. S. Legation to Britain writes of privately relishing the effect of the “bucket of cold water thrown in the faces” of the British “upas”, the ruling class, by news of the dual Union victories of July 4, 1863 at Vicksburg cutting the rebel-held territories in half and near the town of Gettysburg ending the threat for good of any rebel incursion into non-slave states. The literal response of the British at a social soiree in London the night to the news were cold looks and silence. There had been an obstinate assumption as truth what they were being told by the Times of London of U. S. weakness and imminent failure.
The most one would ever want to know about the next major episode of the Civil War is by a witness to the massacre, sacking and burning of Lawrence Kansas by a rebel guerilla band led by a man named Quantrill. Richard Cordley described how the Federal authorities learned of rebel intentions to attack the town through undercover work but tragically kept it secret even while making preparations for it. The Quantrill gang was said to very likely have spies in the town, given the evident familiarity with it during the attack and with where notables could be found. A special wanton ferocity was applied by the gang to killing the “colored people” of Lawrence. Hollywood action movies were made about Quantrill and his gang that left out the massacre. In response to the slaughter, areas of Missouri bordering Kansas were cleared of inhabitants by the Union army.
There is presented a condensed version of how Charles Francis Adams in September 1863 forcefully and firmly ended British attempts to oversee the building of two ironclad ships the rebels intended to use as weapons of mass destruction against U. S. ports which would have prolonged the war with consequences that might have led to intended European recognition of the slavery junta regime. Previously three rebel attack vessels had been built in Britain and had been allowed to leave in the face of U. S. protests and went on to destroy U. S. shipping. A U.S. threat of war he presented to Britain once and for all ended active British hopes to aid this “confederacy”. This was also the final episode of the Adamses long history of successful confrontations with the British Empire by causing it to back down from devious tactics it had used in its strategy to benefit the rebel junta that began with treating it like a nation.
Later in 1863 two events that presage the climactic course of the Civil War, one a remarkable behind-the-scenes account of General Grant’s down-time before a great battle that seemed least to present the possibility of, but most called for, a decisive victory. That victory would open the heart of rebel-controlled territory to Union invasion. The other is a letter by General Meade about his final failure. This failure of command would lead to his replacement by General Grant as the overall commander of Union forces. The insights provided into the respective characters of the two are representative of the value of this series.
Near the beginning of this volume there are presented 32 pages of the words of a “copperhead” (pro-rebel) northern politician. I looked for some possible hidden gems in the unusually lengthy chapter, and found none.
On the other hand, this particular editor presents more selections that illustrate the racism expressed seemingly more on the Union side in this volume (and the final one, by another editor), mostly when dealing with “contrabands”- refugee former slaves.
One very short chapter is prefaced by the editor referring to upland regions of some seceded states as “disaffected by the war and resistant to conscription”. These are given as eastern Tennessee, western N. Carolina, northwestern Georgia and northern Alabama. These areas were against secession from the outset and were not slaveholding regions, and even though the selection is a letter written from Forsyth, Missouri, a town bordering the Ozarks of Arkansas, describing dispossessed Unionist Arkansans fleeing yet another pro-Union area of a seceded state, western Arkansas, not listed along with the other Unionist southern regions here.
Harriet Jacobs reports improved conditions over the previous year for black refugees from slavery, and a white religious group that helped and one that focused on their morals negatively above all else, and the reverence by the refugees had for Union military men that was rewarded often with abuse. A subsequent entry by another aid-worker in a letter describes the desperate condition of ex-slave refugees: exhausted, badly wounded, infirm, diseased, without clothing. There is black victim of a near-fatal beating by Union soldiers. There is described a 39-year-old man with his master’s name carved on his forehead and carrying, says the writer, five instruments with which he was tortured in slavery which are described. Finally, there is the seemingly essential comment on their lack of morals.
Francis Lieber appears, discussing essential loyalty to a national government, dismissing and deriding southern sectionalism, the U.S. concept of states (their arbitrary origin) within The United States, and the idea there is “southern culture”. Reparations seem far from achievable, but Lieber specifies yet another white politician that inadvertently provided support for it: the pro-slavery ideologue Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina in a quote Lieber provides. There’s also a whiff of manifest destiny here from Lieber that made Domenico Losurdo mention Lieber often in his book “Liberalism” alongside others of similar thinking about European supremacy. I don’t think one will find Union General David Hunter in the great Statuary Hall of the U. S. capitol Rotunda, but he belongs there for the toughly-worded counterthreat he issues to the rebel slaveowner junta leader Jefferson Davis for the latter proclaiming trial and a possible death penalty for Union military that organized or trained former slaves. This was in addition to his earlier unilaterally proclaimed emancipation and then arming of slaves in the captured southern area where he was military government administrator.
The most expressive writing in this and other volumes is by the Union officer Samuel Fiske using a pen name for an Illinois newspaper. He writes in this volume of passing along the Potomac River with his unit headed north to the gathering major battle in Pennsylvania and finding numerous still-unburied and partially buried Union soldiers scattered among the springtime vegetation of the two Bull Run battlefields. The full paragraph describing the macabre scene is probably the eeriest passage found among the four volumes of this Library of America series.
Henry Adams, son and private secretary of the Charles Francis Adams, Minister of the U. S. Legation to Britain writes of privately relishing the effect of the “bucket of cold water thrown in the faces” of the British “upas”, the ruling class, by news of the dual Union victories of July 4, 1863 at Vicksburg cutting the rebel-held territories in half and near the town of Gettysburg ending the threat for good of any rebel incursion into non-slave states. The literal response of the British at a social soiree in London the night to the news were cold looks and silence. There had been an obstinate assumption as truth what they were being told by the Times of London of U. S. weakness and imminent failure.
The most one would ever want to know about the next major episode of the Civil War is by a witness to the massacre, sacking and burning of Lawrence Kansas by a rebel guerilla band led by a man named Quantrill. Richard Cordley described how the Federal authorities learned of rebel intentions to attack the town through undercover work but tragically kept it secret even while making preparations for it. The Quantrill gang was said to very likely have spies in the town, given the evident familiarity with it during the attack and with where notables could be found. A special wanton ferocity was applied by the gang to killing the “colored people” of Lawrence. Hollywood action movies were made about Quantrill and his gang that left out the massacre. In response to the slaughter, areas of Missouri bordering Kansas were cleared of inhabitants by the Union army.
There is presented a condensed version of how Charles Francis Adams in September 1863 forcefully and firmly ended British attempts to oversee the building of two ironclad ships the rebels intended to use as weapons of mass destruction against U. S. ports which would have prolonged the war with consequences that might have led to intended European recognition of the slavery junta regime. Previously three rebel attack vessels had been built in Britain and had been allowed to leave in the face of U. S. protests and went on to destroy U. S. shipping. A U.S. threat of war he presented to Britain once and for all ended active British hopes to aid this “confederacy”. This was also the final episode of the Adamses long history of successful confrontations with the British Empire by causing it to back down from devious tactics it had used in its strategy to benefit the rebel junta that began with treating it like a nation.
Later in 1863 two events that presage the climactic course of the Civil War, one a remarkable behind-the-scenes account of General Grant’s down-time before a great battle that seemed least to present the possibility of, but most called for, a decisive victory. That victory would open the heart of rebel-controlled territory to Union invasion. The other is a letter by General Meade about his final failure. This failure of command would lead to his replacement by General Grant as the overall commander of Union forces. The insights provided into the respective characters of the two are representative of the value of this series.
May 25, 2013
This is an examination of the third year of the Civil War in the words of those who lived during this sanguinary time. The third year featured bloody battles--Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga--and two battles that severely harmed the Confederacy--Gettysburg and Vicksburg.
One senses the despair of people like Frederick Douglass, as he lashes out against President Lincoln on the subject of black soldiers (pages 431-434) and the frustration of troops like Thomas Dodge of General Burnside's ill-fated Mud March (as Dodge says [page 6]: "It seems that Mud is really King"). On the Mud March, it is poignant to read General George Meade's sense of pain for Burnside's failed maneuver. We read Lincoln's letter to General Hooker (pages 18-19), after having named Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac, in which he gently chides Hooker for his politicization, his naked ambition, and his statement that the government needed a dictator.
Gettysburg? We read General Williams' letter indicating his support for Meade's having been named to command the Army of the Potomac, after Lincoln accepted Hooker's resignation. One of the more interesting of the pieces are entries in the diary for July 1-4 made by English observer Arthur Fremantle. He noted General Longstreet's concern about Pickett's Charge--and the aftermath of that failed venture. Then, there is the correspondence between Robert E. Lee and President Jefferson Davis over Lee's offer to resign as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
The last entry is a letter from General Sherman to General Grant, in which Sherman implored Grant to stay in the West, away from the politics of Washington DC.
Some additional features--a chronology of the year and some biographical notes.
All in all, a nice compendium for those who wish to experience the Civil War through the eyes and ears of those who lived it.
One senses the despair of people like Frederick Douglass, as he lashes out against President Lincoln on the subject of black soldiers (pages 431-434) and the frustration of troops like Thomas Dodge of General Burnside's ill-fated Mud March (as Dodge says [page 6]: "It seems that Mud is really King"). On the Mud March, it is poignant to read General George Meade's sense of pain for Burnside's failed maneuver. We read Lincoln's letter to General Hooker (pages 18-19), after having named Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac, in which he gently chides Hooker for his politicization, his naked ambition, and his statement that the government needed a dictator.
Gettysburg? We read General Williams' letter indicating his support for Meade's having been named to command the Army of the Potomac, after Lincoln accepted Hooker's resignation. One of the more interesting of the pieces are entries in the diary for July 1-4 made by English observer Arthur Fremantle. He noted General Longstreet's concern about Pickett's Charge--and the aftermath of that failed venture. Then, there is the correspondence between Robert E. Lee and President Jefferson Davis over Lee's offer to resign as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
The last entry is a letter from General Sherman to General Grant, in which Sherman implored Grant to stay in the West, away from the politics of Washington DC.
Some additional features--a chronology of the year and some biographical notes.
All in all, a nice compendium for those who wish to experience the Civil War through the eyes and ears of those who lived it.
May 26, 2016
A fascinating book, but it was hard to get through; it felt like it took forever! Well-researched with good introductions before every piece. It gives a wonderful personal view of a critical time in U. S. history. I have given it three stars partly because it felt like I wasn't getting a complete picture. Often, I had to stop and check other sources for more background, like details of Pickett's charge, for example. Or I would want to check on some of the aftermath of something like Vicksburg's surrender. These are well-known events and I've studied them before, but a reader of this book would benefit from 1) reading a summary of the Civil War first; and 2) having a clear picture of who were the key Generals on either side. It would help put the various troop movements and battles in place. Finally, I imagine that reading the other books in the series might provide perspective, but that's up to the individual. It would be a lot of diaries, letters, editorials, and proclamations!
July 28, 2025
"To ask me to substitute you by some one in my judgment more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army, or of the reflecting men in the country is to demand an impossibility"- Jefferson Davis to Robert E. Lee after Lee's offer to resign after Gettysburg.
"You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm. But I think that during Gen. Burnside's command of the Army, you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country,....Neither you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army, while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward, give us victories"-Abraham Lincoln to Joe Hooker informing him he now has command of the Army of the Potomac.
The Civil War: The Third Year covers January 1863 to March 1864 providing a treasure trove of documents from various people who experienced the Civil War. I like that a brief note is given to explain the context and then you just read the primary source. The people themselves get to tell the story from various events that happened during this time from emancipation, recruiting African Americans, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga and other events. These books from the Library of America are just incredible and are worth reading. The first volumes were excellent and there is so much praise I can give. I am looking forward to the last volume.
"You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm. But I think that during Gen. Burnside's command of the Army, you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country,....Neither you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army, while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward, give us victories"-Abraham Lincoln to Joe Hooker informing him he now has command of the Army of the Potomac.
The Civil War: The Third Year covers January 1863 to March 1864 providing a treasure trove of documents from various people who experienced the Civil War. I like that a brief note is given to explain the context and then you just read the primary source. The people themselves get to tell the story from various events that happened during this time from emancipation, recruiting African Americans, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Chickamauga and other events. These books from the Library of America are just incredible and are worth reading. The first volumes were excellent and there is so much praise I can give. I am looking forward to the last volume.
November 21, 2020
11/21/2020
November 11, 2019
3/5 - goddamn the civil war is aggravating sometimes
May 5, 2014
This is the third volume in the Library of America's 4-volume compendium that coincides with the four years of the Civil War. Once again, the book is organized chronologically from January 1863 - March 1864. Included are diary entries, letters, speeches, newspaper articles, addresses (to Congress, etc.), etc.
As always, at the beginning of each entry is a brief history of what was occurring at this time during the war. Some things that grabbed my attention in this book:
The bugle call "Taps" was first played in July 1862 by Oliver W. Norton, who served as brigade bugler for the tune's composer, Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield.
Major General William Tecumseh Sherman became the commander of the 15th Corps in U.S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee in January 1863. From his camp across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg, Sherman wrote to his father-in-law and brother about the dangers posed by the press. Isn't it amazing how very little has changed?
Frederick Douglass' article on "Why Should a Colored Man Enlist?" was of particular interest, especially as the further I read, I wasn't sure that they should. A black man did no reap many benefits in the U.S. Military.
The American Freedman's Inquiry Commission, appointed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on March 16, 1863, was charged with investigating and reporting measures that would contribute to the "protection and improvement" of the newly emancipated "so that they may defend and support themselves."
I have always heard that the Battle of Gettysburg, which took place almost 150 years ago on July 1-3, 1863, was the turning point in the American Civil War, but I don't know that this was the only turning point. Equally important was the fall of Port Hudson, Mississippi, which took place a couple of days later, and gave the Union control of the entire length of the Mississippi River.
I have always loved the Gettysburg Address. So much is said using very few words. A copy of this address can be found on pp. 566-57.
Abraham Lincoln's Annual Message to Congress in December 1863 was enlightening to say the least. Included (but not limited to) are detailed financial receipts and disbursements for all of the US Government. Also, included is the report of the Secretary of War, which is of equal interest.
Finally, at the end of the book is a Chronology of Events, Biographical Notes (which I kept flipping back to), Note on the Texts, Notes, and an Index.
As always, at the beginning of each entry is a brief history of what was occurring at this time during the war. Some things that grabbed my attention in this book:
The bugle call "Taps" was first played in July 1862 by Oliver W. Norton, who served as brigade bugler for the tune's composer, Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield.
Major General William Tecumseh Sherman became the commander of the 15th Corps in U.S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee in January 1863. From his camp across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg, Sherman wrote to his father-in-law and brother about the dangers posed by the press. Isn't it amazing how very little has changed?
Frederick Douglass' article on "Why Should a Colored Man Enlist?" was of particular interest, especially as the further I read, I wasn't sure that they should. A black man did no reap many benefits in the U.S. Military.
The American Freedman's Inquiry Commission, appointed by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on March 16, 1863, was charged with investigating and reporting measures that would contribute to the "protection and improvement" of the newly emancipated "so that they may defend and support themselves."
I have always heard that the Battle of Gettysburg, which took place almost 150 years ago on July 1-3, 1863, was the turning point in the American Civil War, but I don't know that this was the only turning point. Equally important was the fall of Port Hudson, Mississippi, which took place a couple of days later, and gave the Union control of the entire length of the Mississippi River.
I have always loved the Gettysburg Address. So much is said using very few words. A copy of this address can be found on pp. 566-57.
Abraham Lincoln's Annual Message to Congress in December 1863 was enlightening to say the least. Included (but not limited to) are detailed financial receipts and disbursements for all of the US Government. Also, included is the report of the Secretary of War, which is of equal interest.
Finally, at the end of the book is a Chronology of Events, Biographical Notes (which I kept flipping back to), Note on the Texts, Notes, and an Index.
June 21, 2013
This is another terrific volume in Library of America's four-volume documentary history of the Civil War, and provides much fascinating reading. I have been thoroughly enjoying reading each volume on its publication. While the first two volumes were exemplary, however (and this is going to be a very slight caveat), this volume doesn't quite live up to the high editorial standards of its predecessors. This is mainly because of two factors. First, the material in this volume is overwhelmingly dominated by correspondence. Of course, there is a wealth of correspondence available for this era, and correspondence is an important source of primary material on events. But the viewpoint of soldiers in the field (or even officers) gives only a partial insight into the events that they witnessed (very important insight, but partial nonetheless). Letters were balanced in previous volumes by official government reports, speeches, memoirs, and (sadly lacking in this volume) descriptions of certain battles from the Century Book. This third volume does have representatives from all of these sources (except the Century Book), but their proportion is much, much smaller than in previous volumes, which causes a fragmentary comprehension of events, rather than a fuller, more complete picture. The other slight problem with this volume is that, while the previous volumes in the series presented accounts from both Union and Confederate sources of important battles, this is not the case in the volume. This problem is particularly noticeable in the cases of the siege of Vicksburg (told entirely from Union sources) and the battle of Gettysburg (told entirely from Confederate sources). The decision by the editor to do this is puzzling to me, since I'm sure there is a wealth of source material from both sides for these engagements. Despite these minor quibbles, this is a fine volume and I am looking forward to the publication of the final volume in the series.
March 2, 2014
This series from the Library of America is richly rewarding and has a place of honor in my library. I am trying to be patient as I await the last volume in the series.
Not everyone will want the minutiae that is included in this volume. Some passages are a bit dry, but on the whole, I can't conceive of a better way to really dig into what life was like—for presidents, generals, grunts, and common citizens—during the third year of the Civil War.
For anyone who loves digging into the details, this volume, and this series, is for you.
Not everyone will want the minutiae that is included in this volume. Some passages are a bit dry, but on the whole, I can't conceive of a better way to really dig into what life was like—for presidents, generals, grunts, and common citizens—during the third year of the Civil War.
For anyone who loves digging into the details, this volume, and this series, is for you.
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June 28, 2013973.7 C5827s 2013
August 25, 2013
I am loving these collections of primary source materials. What a year 1863 was.....The real turning point that is going to lead the way to the grinding death that was 1864.
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