Reminiscences of a Rebel

by Wayland Fuller Dunaway, Robert E.L. Krick

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

Genres: Civil War, History

145 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1913

Reviews

[Charles van Buren]

Charles van Buren

TOP 1000 REVIEWER

5.0 out of 5 stars

Quick and easy read

March 5, 2019

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

This review is of the free Kindle E-book.
Publication date: March 24, 2011
Language: English
ASIN: B004TP6EV6

A memoir of a Confederate officer who joined the colors as an enlisted man, quickly became a sergeant and then a lieutenant. At Gettysburg, he was a Captain in Brockenbough's Brigade. Dunaway fought in all of the major battles up to and including Gettysburg where he was captured. After the war he became a minister.

This is a good account of how things looked to the enlisted men and lower ranking officers. It is not a "gritty" memoir. Dunaway was a minister when he wrote this and he also must have been conscious that children and ladies would be among his readers. It was a different era with different rules of conduct.

[Les]

My e-copy of this book was published in 1913. Assuming that the work was written about the same time (I'm open to correction on this), and nearly 50 years after the events it describes, it probably explains its sketchiness. To be fair to the author, he doesn't pretend that it's much more than a partial work. However, its earlier part isn't much more than a listing of the actions that he was in. It isn't until Gettysburg, and his capture not long afterwards, that he goes into greater detail. Worth a read, but don't expect too many new insights into the subject.

[Julie Gavin]

I liked the inclusion of quotes from Shakespeare and Byron, etc at the beginning of each chapter. A nice recap of the Civil War from the confederate side, including several critiques of military strategy.

[M]

A very well-written, short account of one man's experience as a Confederate soldier.

[Terry]

A brief, personal biography of a member of the 47th Virginia, a Regiment from the area that I now live in.

[Michael Burhans]

I love that Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive are getting more and more of these long out of print soldier's memoirs from the Civil War up for us to discover once again.

This one was particularity well written, especially for a Southerner, whose words tend to be more rough. I had to laugh at the end as with all Confederate memoirs at the end he expresses shock for the idea Slavery had a thing to do with the war, and decried the idea that Southerners had anything but love for blacks, all the while complaining about being put into servitude to "African Negrotude" by giving them the franchise.

Well worth the read for students of the Civil War.

[Monte Lamb]

This is a short read. The style is much like a student's essay on "What I Did Last Summer". It reads easily and simply tells the author's experiences. It never gets involved with details and he only writes about what he saw and experienced. It doesn't give you any new information, but gives an interesting first person accounting of what he did and why. I enjoyed it.

[John]

Although I enjoyed the author's views on the leaders on both sides of this conflict I did not get much out of this book.