The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy [Paperback]

Bell Irvin Wiley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1989

Wiley offers a rare but complete portrait of the ordinary soldier of the Confederacy during the Civil War, via extensive research of letters, newspaper stories, official records, and excerpts from diary entries.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bell Irvin Wiley (1906-1980) was professor emeritus of history at Emory University and one of America's preeminent Civil War historians. In recognition of Wiley's many outstanding works, historian Bruce Catton said, "Of all the books that have been written [on the Civil War] . . . the ones that will truly live are Bell Wiley's." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press (February 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807104752
• ISBN-13: 978-0807104750
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #942,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Research Work, February 17, 2004

By 

Weegee - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (Paperback)

This is an excellent book if you're looking to read about "The Life of Johnny Reb." For once, the title of the book reflects what it really is about ; )

Clearly Wiley has done his homework. You will walk away having learned pretty much everything there is to know about fighting for the CSA.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started reading as far as style went. I wasn't sure if it would read like a memoir or rather collection of memoirs. The style was actually more along the lines of a research paper. It's a very nuts and bolts portrayal of every day camp life with each chapter focusing on a certain element (Why, Who, How, etc.). You don't get the pit in your stomach or wind in your hair sort of sensation, but you do get a very accurate read of the life and times of those soldiers.

If you're looking for more of a "romantic" or spirited read, I think you'll be disappointed. You're probably better off going with a true memoir. "The Life of Johnny Reb" does not read like a story or memoir. What's great about it is that each chapter stands on its own, so it would be easy to pick up and read from time to time.

In any case, as I mentioned the research is impecable and clearly after reading I can say that I understand the common soldier of the CSA.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for the ages, March 23, 2001

By 

G. Ware Cornell Jr. "anotherlawyer" (Weston FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (Paperback)

Bell I. Wiley grew up in Tennessee surrounded by veterans of the Confederate Army. Around the front porch he learned the history of the Civil War from the men who had fought it.

After acquiring a Ph.D. at Yale, Wiley taught at Ole Miss where as he later told a class of Civil War students at Emory, "the only person I knew who was writing books was Bill Faulkner." Nonetheless Wiley undertook to write about the Civil War from the perspective of its true heroes, the common soldiers who endured the mud, marches, food, diseases, enemy, and officers.

Drawn from the letters and diaries of ordinary soldiers Wiley created an enduring work. Unlike most of the Civil War histories of its time, The Life of Johnny Reb refused to focus on the generals, or the battles, or the politicians or even the causes of the Civil War.

Rather, Wiley depicted the rock-hard life of lonely men. These farmers, masons and blacksmiths in gray were sometimes hungry, often cold, and always dusty. Capable of fiercely engaging in the most horrific fighting the world had ever seen, they remained loyal and devoted fathers, husbands and sons. For these men, this war was not about slavery for few of them were slave owners. Rather the war was about home and family and the land that their family plowed.

Can there be a scene more melancholy than that of Union and Confederate troops huddled around the night fires and singing songs and hymns out across battle lines to each other even as they prepared themselves and their weapons for the morrow and its carnage? While Civil War era soldiers were not always the best spellers or grammarians, they had no trouble depicting army life to those they left behind with candor, understatement, humor and occasional exasperation.

Bell Wiley rightfully deserves his place among the great historians of the Civil War. This, truly, is a book for the ages.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overlooked heroes, June 27, 2004

By 

Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (Paperback)

Bell Irvin Wiley seems to have been the first historian/writer to realize that the Civil War was not just about Lee, Pickett, Grant or Stuart or any of the other guys with stars on their shoulders. The real truth about what happened on those battlefields had to do with the guys in the tattered uniforms and the rotted shoes, trying to fight with defective rifles.

As in his companion book, "The Life of Billy Yank", "The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy" is an unflinching look at the seemingly endless plight of a Confederate soldier. This is a very sobering account, and some of the letters the soldiers wrote home are nothing short of heartbreaking. Even as defeat was becoming more and more apparent, the courage and determination of these men did not waiver. This is a truly admirable account of men who were more than common soldiers. I believe they were really common heroes.