A Gunner in Lee's Army: The Civil War Letters of Thomas Henry Carter

Civil War America

by Thomas Henry Carter, Graham Dozier (Editor), Peter S. Carmichael (Foreword)

In May 1861, Virginian Thomas Henry Carter (1831–1908) raised an artillery battery and joined the Confederate army. Over the next four years, he rose steadily in rank from captain to colonel, placing him among the senior artillerists in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. During the war, Carter wrote more than 100 revealing letters to his wife, Susan, about his service. His interactions with prominent officers--including Lee, Jubal A. Early, John B. Gordon, Robert E. Rodes, and others--come to life in Carter's astute comments about their conduct and personalities. Combining insightful observations on military operations, particularly of the Battles of Antietam and Spotsylvania Court House and the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign, with revealing notes on the home front and the debate over the impressment and arming of slaves, Carter's letters are particularly interesting because his writing is not overly burdened by the rhetoric of the southern ruling class.

Here, Graham Dozier offers the definitive edition of Carter's letters, meticulously transcribed and carefully annotated. This impressive collection provides a wealth of Carter's unvarnished opinions of the people and events that shaped his wartime experience, shedding new light on Lee's army and Confederate life in Virginia.

Genres: Civil War, American History, History

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Thomas Henry Carter was an artillery officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
He was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, studied medicine at the Universities of Virginia and Pennsylvania and practiced briefly at a hospital in Philadelphia before he returned to manage his father's plantation, after the overseer died.
In 1861 he joined the ANV as Captain of the battery, was promoted to Major of Artillery on 12 December 1862, Lieutenant Colonel on 2 March 1863, and Colonel on 27 February 1864. His battalion played an important role in the Battle of Gettysburg.
After the War he returned to running the family plantation. Later he became railroad commissioner of Virginia, served for several years as a member of the board of arbitration of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association, and finally became proctor and superintendent of grounds and buildings for the University of Virginia.

Reviews

[Mary Rounds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection of letters from a husband to his wife during the civil war!