S. J. > Status Update

Chapter 9: The author does a good job of showing both sides of Sherman's March to the Sea. The people of Georgia and South Carolina have their say, but so too do people who experienced and/or showed kindness to the 'enemy'.

Atlanta burning is familiar to all who've watched Gone With the Wind, but reading true accounts of people who experienced it was amazing. It's sad to think of all that death and destruction.

Andersonville

I have no words.

Chapter 5: Seeing the Battle of Gettysburg from the point of view of the young civilians was eye opening. They'd had such normal lives that were blew apart by the devastation of war they witnessed first hand. Yet they and their families were kind to both sides and gave aid where they could.

Chapter 4: I'd never even thought that the South would have taken the time to throw out their texts pre-Secession and write their own. Though teaching children math with how many Yanks 10 Confederates can kill is...ghoulish. The 'history' text written in 1863 was really intriguing as well. I love how the South was completely blameless-those evil Abolitionists and voting their friend Lincoln. Truth is so...fluid, no?

Chapter 3: In some ways a hard chapter seeing how young people suffered through slavery and also suffered to gain permanent freedom. One of the hardest things to read concerned African-Americans who were in the border states which the Emancipation Proclamation did not touch. They were still slaves and several were treated worse as their owners feared their 'property' would be 'lost' next.

I love the amount of primary sources in this book.