Blood: Stories of Life and Death from the Civil War (Adrenaline Classics) [Paperback]

Peter Kadzis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2000 | Series: Adrenaline Classics

The Civil War — the bloodiest, most dramatic moment in this nation’s history — also produced some of the country’s greatest literature. Blood reflects the violent hatred, love, patriotism, and heroism this conflict generated through the vivid stories of the men and women who were there. This collection includes Ulysses S. Grant (via the rumored pen of Mark Twain) recounting the taking of Vicksburg; Theodore Lyman watching Grant come into his own on his first drive toward Richmond; George Templeton Strong describing the horror of the New York Draft Riots; and plantation owner Mary Chestnut’s report on the final days before the fall of Atlanta. Also included are firsthand accounts ranging from Pickett’s Charge to Sherman’s March, from Lee’s Virginia campaigns to the heroism of African American foot soldiers, as well as excerpts from some of the most notable fiction on the subject.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This collection consists of 13 well-written adventure tales taken from books, magazines, and online articles published in 1999 and 2000. Prefaced with a pertinent photograph and a brief introduction of the narrative to follow, the pieces include "Into the Jaws of Destiny," writer Bill Belleville's account of diving with sharks, and "Being Prey," Val Plumwood's description of being attacked by a crocodile. Current as well as historic adventures are featured, including accounts of journalist Michael Finkel's travels with Haitian refugees in a leaky, 23' boat and an 1884 shipwreck that resulted in cannibalism. This anthology will no doubt interest adventure story lovers, but it most likely will not appeal to casual readers. Recommended only for larger public libraries.DAlison Hopkins, Queens Borough P.L., Jamaica, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Recognizable in numerous places in this anthology are selections used as voice-over scripts in the Ken Burns film The Civil War. In such cases, specifically Grant on Lee's surrender, Sam Watkins on foot-slogging in the Confederate army, Walt Whitman on the appearance of Abe Lincoln, or Lincoln on the Emancipation Proclamation, editor Kadzis provides the good service of reprinting the whole passage from which the selection was lifted. Beyond that, Kadzis trawled among the most popular writers of Civil War fiction, namely Michael Shaara, Stephen Crane, and Shelby Foote. In all, Kadzis offers 20 pieces, which as a whole evenly represent the combat and diary literature produced by the war, e.g., recollections of Union generals are balanced by several from Southern generals, a Southern woman's diary pairs with a Yankee woman's amazing flight through Mississippi in 1863. Northerners and Southerners still arguing about which side was the more ruthless can dwell on Sherman's description of his march or on a Union soldier's recollection of Andersonville. Browseable for the buffs. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth, Balliett & Fitzgerald (April 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560252596
• ISBN-13: 978-1560252597
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,767,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A strong anthology, July 28, 2000

By 

Mark Fordham (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood: Stories of Life and Death from the Civil War (Adrenaline Classics) (Paperback)

This book is in a series put out by Adrenaline books and each book contains certain selections chosen by the editor. The selections are generally either excerpts from books, excerpts from diaries and journals, short stories, or an occasional essay. I look at how good the writing is, and how good the stories are.

This is a strong anthology in many ways. It had a variety of civil war literature that helps to give a fuller picture of the civil war experience. There are many letters, stories, and diary entries and even a copy of orders given by a General. We get a picture of the inner workings of the war by people directly involved, as well as a picture of the world outside the war and how it was effected. We hear aspects of the war from multiple points of view. A soldier's fighting experience, a General's commanding view, letters to loved ones back home, the viewpoint of a young southern girl, life in a military prison. The reader gets to see not just the war, but the world it encompassed.

The anthology is made even stronger by the selections of famous people's writings. We get to read the words of General Ulysses S. Grant, Stephen Crane, Generals Pickett and Sherman, Abraham Lincoln, and even Walt Whitman (who worked in the hospitals treating wounded soldiers from both sides).

The only negative thing about this book is that it has no amazing powerful pieces. Almost all the selections are good (with two or three exceptions), but none are outstanding, in terms of either the writing or the story. There are no exceptionally well written pieces and no really incredible stories. This is unfortunate, but does not detract too much from the overall book. And also this volume includes some fiction, which generally does not exist in these series of books. Other than that the book is good and worth reading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very useful series of interesting primary sources., November 1, 2000

By 

Tim Johnson (Fremantle, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood: Stories of Life and Death from the Civil War (Adrenaline Classics) (Paperback)

I purchased this book without having any firsthand knowledge of it as a background source and I haven't been minutely disappointed. Kadzis assembled both primary and secondary sources either from the time of the Civil War or from more modern secondary source writings about aspects of that war. In any case the extracts were singularly well chosen and are valuable for my purposes. I would recommend Kadzis' compilation to any person searching for a single source of Civil War rememberances written at the time or of modern fiction writers using the events of that war around which to build their longer story. The writings he has selected are very useful and interesting.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sort of a mixed bag, March 19, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Blood: Stories of Life and Death from the Civil War (Adrenaline Classics) (Paperback)

I think this would have been a better anthology if the editor had spent more time finding sources. It doesn't really seem like he searched lesser-known documents; just about everything here is pretty well known. The quality ranges from excellent to somewhat pointless.