A Soldier's Book: A Novel of the Civil War [Paperback]

Joanna Higgins (Author)

Book Description

Series: Harvest Book | Publication Date: November 4, 1999

In the spring of 1864 all prisoner-of-war exchanges between the North and the South had been halted. For captured soldiers, being condemned to the increasingly overcrowded prison camps was tantamount to a death sentence. A Soldier's Book opens as Ira Cahill Stevens, a young Union soldier, is on his way to the notorious Andersonville prison camp. Day by day, Ira shares the horrific details of a world that is growing ever more barbaric and absurd, with its "dead lines," starvation, cruelty, filth, and false rumors of exchange. Yet even in the face of terror and despair, Ira retains hope, and with the help of an impromptu family of fellow soldiers, he struggles to survive, only to witness each friend picked off by death or insanity. A powerful and historically accurate novel, A Soldier's Book leaves the reader not only with a richer sense of the Civil War but of the resiliency of the human spirit.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ira Cahill Stevens, a Union soldier captured in battle, takes you on a shocking, unnerving tour of life in Andersonville, the infamous Confederate prison. We follow Ira and his comrades from their ride in a packed train car to the hopes, dreams, delirium, and degradation of life in a stinking, disease-ridden enclosure where hundreds of men die daily and are stacked by the gate. The greatest possible hope is to be traded back to the Union in exchange for Confederate prisoners, but the likelihood is slim. A more probable fate for the men is death from starvation, disease, or even from their own countrymen: raiders who sweep through the camps at night stealing what little the others still own. In a place like Andersonville, even acts of mercy are nightmarish:

One surgeon tells the prisoner to lie on the floor. Another puts chloroform against his nose. The third surgeon, an old fellow, kneels alongside the man and in one quick move, severs flesh and arteries, then commences sawing the bone above the elbow.... They pour whiskey into him and then it's my turn.

Throughout the terror, Ira and his comrades try to maintain a sense of family, sharing their limited provisions, reading to one another from two now-priceless books that they managed to retain, and nursing one another through compounded illnesses for which the only medicine is persimmons-berry tea or bartered quinine. Joanna Higgins's excellent research makes this tale both a stunning fiction and a realistic historical account of the country's darkest war and the hell that was Andersonville. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

In this wrenching fictional diary of a Union prisoner battling to survive the malodorous conditions of a Confederate camp during the Civil War, Higgins demonstrates an eye for telling detail, a compelling narrative voice and psychological insight into the mind of a man who has endured hell. Ira Cahill Stevens, a young apothecary's apprentice from Montrose, Pa., was captured with hundreds of others during the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864 and incarcerated in the infamous Confederate prison of Andersonville, Ga., and later in Florence, S.C., from which few survivors ever emerged. Gnawed mercilessly by hunger, disease and vermin, on constant watch against the dreaded raiders who steal from other prisoners and besieged by the temptation to switch sides in order to get food and clothing, Ira finds the only things that nourish his will to survive are the illusory hope of exchanges, his valued Christian Soldier's Book for Leisure Moments and the friendships of his fellow soldiers. These menAnotably the loyal veteran preacher, Gus, and the incorrigible skeptic of man's folly, MarinusAare, one by one, picked off by death or madness, and Ira is tortured by the thoughts of being similarly extinguished. Moreover, Ira must settle his conscience for having turned in his employer (and father of his beloved) for dealing in contraband, an act that forced Ira to flee and enlist in the army under a false name. In tightly packed prose with expertly rendered bits of dialogue and telling details of daily hardship, Higgins, who wrote the much-praised short-story collection The Importance of High Places, brings to vivid life one of the most atrocious episodes in the history of warfare. While MacKinlay Kantor's Andersonville remains the classic account of that experience, Higgins's narrative is worthy of comparison. And, like Charles Frazier in Cold Mountain, Higgins manages to create through one small story a lyrical snapshot of an entire nation in mortal turmoil. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (November 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156007274
• ISBN-13: 978-0156007276
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A REMINDER OF THE NOBLE BENT OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT, March 5, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Soldier's Book (Hardcover)

Drawing from the daily journal of a Union prisoner of war, Joanna Higgins has crafted a spare, intense, incredibly moving debut novel, a Civil War drama in which historically accurate details bring fictional characters to resonant life.

It is not amiss to equate her offering with the quintessential record of those experiences, Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor for Ms. Higgins exhibits an estimable command of research, as well as a munificent gift for lyrical elegiac prose.

Scenes of prison camp life are heart-bruising as seen through the eyes of men struggling to survive in a morass of death and disease. "...there are eleven thousand of us in this pen of about twenty acres. And four of those swamp." Plagued by vermin, lack of sanitation, self-administered medical care, raiders (comrades who steal their scant possessions for barter) and the cruelty of guards, many captives soon die, even beg to be shot.

Yet, in spite of intolerable conditions there is a thread of hope - not Emily Dickinson's hope, "the thing with feathers," but the hope of those pushed beyond their physical and emotional limits: "The burn and pulsing of it. That is hope doing its work."

A young Union soldier and former apothecary's apprentice, Ira Cahill Stevens, is taken prisoner in 1864, during the time when passionate arguments have brought prisoner exchanges to a standstill. Thus, prison camps have become intolerably overcrowded and tantamount to a death sentence, abysmal sties where soldiers switch allegiance for food and clothing.

Incarcerated with only his "Soldier's Book for Leisure Moments," a small handbook "intended for the young Christian soldier going forth `in deference of his country,'" his father's pen, a silver spoon, and needle and thread, Ira is aghast and sickened, tenuously clinging to the prospect of a prisoner exchange.

Ira's sustenance is found in his ever present book, "...the only thing that helps me fall asleep," and his comrades. For guidance the young soldier looks to an older man, Gus, a preacher, who kneels to say his daily prayers then pats the ground and falls asleep. When Ira grows ill, Gus reads to him from the Bible. Ira hears "...words that don't mean a thing but the sound of `em nice."

Gus's counterpoint is Marinus, an incorrigible cynic, who relishes the sound of his own words. There is also Louie with his "ferrety laugh" who tries to tunnel to freedom, and Willy, "...skinny but with a little boy's plumped up face yet. Hair so red it makes his skin pink. Jug ears."

Eventually Ira is moved to a military prison in Florence, South Carolina, where he becomes a paroled prisoner volunteer in the hospital overseen by a compassionate Dr. Strother. Ira comes to hold the medic in such esteem that he vows not to try to escape, "...my word of honor that I will not violate my parole by going beyond one-half mile from the hospital limits."

But when he is sent into surrounding woods to forage for berries, he walks on "pine needles and mossy stone. I kneel down and claim it all for the Union." He is tempted to flee in the dense fog but returns to confinement, realizing, "Loyalty, it seems, is a prison strong as any."

Ultimately, that is the message of A Soldier's Book - choices. No matter how desperate the situation there are choices. As Ira increasingly opts for the humane when surrounded by inhumanity, he evolves into moral manhood. And this affecting volume becomes not only a harrowing reminder of the brutality we visit upon one another, but a memorable paean to the noble bent of the human spirit.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Marriage of Fiction and History, August 2, 2000

By 

Jeff Ford (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Soldier's Book: A Novel of the Civil War (Paperback)

This is a beautifully written book. The rare case of a historical novel where the importance of the characters does not get overshadowed by massive information dumps. History and story are elegantly intertwined. The writing puts you in the grim reality of Andersonville and shows how faith will fight to survive amid the horrors of war. One of the best novels of the year. Can't wait for Higgin's next one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Civil War Novel, October 9, 2002

By 

T. Bratz "gwfeds0" (Beaverton, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Soldier's Book: A Novel of the Civil War (Paperback)

I've read quite a few Civil War novels, and this is one of the best. It gives us a good look at what it was like to be stuck in what was probably the worst of the Civil War prison camps (and they were all horrible), and to start losing touch with reality.

I found myself wanting to help the main character out of his terrible predicament. This is one of those books you just can't put down, and one that you don't want to end. She's got a great story to tell, and her writing style is outstanding.

This is one of the best novels I've read in years.