Civil War scholars have long used soldiers' diaries and correspondence to flesh out their studies of the conflict's great officers, regiments, and battles. However, historians have only recently begun to treat the common Civil War soldier's daily life as a worthwhile topic of discussion in its own right. The View from the Ground reveals the beliefs of ordinary men and women on topics ranging from slavery and racism to faith and identity and represents a significant development in historical scholarship -- the use of Civil War soldiers' personal accounts to address larger questions about America's past. Aaron Sheehan-Dean opens The View from the Ground by surveying the landscape of research on Union and Confederate soldiers, examining not only the wealth of scholarly inquiry in the 1980s and 1990s but also the numerous questions that remain unexplored. Chandra Manning analyzes the views of white Union soldiers on slavery and their enthusiastic support for emancipation. Jason Phillips uncovers the deep antipathy of Confederate soldiers toward their Union adversaries, and Lisa Laskin explores tensions between soldiers and civilians in the Confederacy that represented a serious threat to the fledgling nation's survival. Essays by David Rolfs and Kent Dollar examine the nature of religious faith among Civil War combatants. The grim and gruesome realities of warfare -- and the horror of killing one's enemy at close range -- profoundly tested the spiritual convictions of the fighting men. Timothy J. Orr, Charles E. Brooks, and Kevin Levin demonstrate that Union and Confederate soldiers maintained their political beliefs both on the battlefield and in the war's aftermath. Orr details the conflict between Union soldiers and Northern antiwar activists in Pennsylvania, and Brooks examines a struggle between officers and the Fourth Texas Regiment. Levin contextualizes political struggles among Southerners in the 1880s and 1890s as a continuing battle kept alive by memories of, and identities associated with, their wartime experiences. The View from the Ground goes beyond standard histories that discuss soldiers primarily in terms of campaigns and casualties. These essays show that soldiers on both sides were authentic historical actors who willfully steered the course of the Civil War and shaped subsequent public memory of the event.
The View from the Ground
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From Booklist
The 10 essays in the third volume of the New Directions in Southern History series deal with such topics as white Union soldiers' views on slavery and race, Confederate perceptions of the enemy, religious compromises and conflicts, and Pennsylvania soldiers' reactions to the antiwar movement. Relying on thousands of diaries and letters written by soldiers and their families, as well as evidence gathered from regimental newspapers, the essays show, as Sheehan-Dean says in the introduction, that "soldiers on both sides were autonomous historical actors." He indicates that these essays show the war as a subject of study, holding real promise for new and insightful research, and that by exploring the connections between the experience of the war and the larger world of nineteenth--century America, they demonstrate how rewarding that research can be. Readers would think that with all the books written on this subject, there would be nothing new to reveal, but these essays use the soldiers' personal accounts to examine their beliefs and practices, creating a most readable treatment of this horrendous conflict. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"These essays use the soldiers' personal accounts to examine their beliefs and practices, creating a most readable treatment of this horrendous conflict." -- Booklist
""The overall effect of this collection is refreshing and two-fold: First, soldiers are given their due agency; they shape, and are in turn shaped by, the realities of the war they made. Second, soldiers are firmly connected to their wider context. As an extension of their homefront societies, Civil War soldiers were political, spiritual and individual beings, struggling with all their might to remain connected to former selves and former lives, even as they remade America. Taken together, these essays make a convincing case that the war was what the common soldiers made it. They led, and the nation followed."" -- Stephen Berry, author of All That Makes a Man: Love and Ambition in the Civil W
""Taken together, the essays are particular interesting and informative in revealing the various ways in which the participants remembered this bloody conflict, revealing soldiers and civilians through their experiences as political, spiritual, and individual beeings" -- Choice
""The View from the Ground, a collection of essays edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, enhances our understanding of these nineteenth-century combatants. Collectively, these essays reinforce the importance of studying military history beyond technology, battles, and leadership."" -- Ohio Valley History
""These nicely crafted and thoroughly noted essays do indeed represent well the recent scholarship on the Civil War soldier and his world."" -- The Journal of Southern History
""This collection of essays is a valuable contribution and a useful tool in the classroom as well."" -- Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
""The View from the Ground offers readers a look at some of the most cutting-edge scholarship on Civil War soldiers, demonstrating how far the field has progressed."" -- Lesley J. Gordon, University of Akron, Civil War History
""Readers will find much to ponder and learn from this fine collection."" -- Lesley J. Gordon, University of Akron, Civil War History
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More About the Author
Kevin Levin is a historian and educator currently living in Boston. From 2000 to 2011 he taught American history at the St. Anne's - Belfield School in Charlottesville, Virginia. His published work in the area of Civil War history and historical memory can be found in popular magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals. He is currently researching the history of the 55th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.
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By Dwicker
Format:Hardcover
I have finished reading a great book called," The View from the Ground: Experiences of civil war soldiers. I thought that it is an amazing way to get into the heads of the soldiers from the civil war. I am a big fan of the history about war. The Civil War is one of the most famous. This book has actual notes, journals and interviews straight from the front lines of war. It has very detailed and twisted writings from the soldiers. It puts you right there with them through the good and the bad. I really like how it has views and journals from both sides of the war. The North and the South are brought back alive with this amazingly detailed collaboration of civil war soldiers. It is crazy to learn so of the things they had to go through and see with their own eyes. The soldiers talk about war plans and being stumped by the other side or even intimidated by the other side. These men went through so much on either side of the line. They would go without food, water, and see a close friend die next to them. Horrible things they all went through. Seeing women and children injured and even some killed. Hearing some interesting facts that answer questions I've had for years. This really a great book and I will enjoy reading it again and again. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys history, guns, war, or even just reading the truth about a topic you really like the civil war.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This excellent collection of essays moves away from the "grand man" approach to Civil War history which focuses too often on generals and politicians to refocus on the common soldiers who actually endured the war. The basic assumption of the collection's authors, according to editor Sheehan-Dean, is that "soldiers are real historical actors who have the potential to shape, not simply respond to, their environment."
So, for example, the various authors argue (1) that Northern soldiers, disgusted by their firsthand experience of slavery as they moved southward and recognizing that slavery was a key point of Southern resistance, began to advocate for emancipation long before the Northern public; (2) that Southern soldiers grew in hatred for their Northern enemies as the war took on "total" qualities, and that tales of fraternization between Rebs and Yanks are much exaggerated; (3) that Christian soldiers on both sides were religiously ambivalent about their participation in the horrific killing of the war, often undergoing religious crises in their efforts to reconcile religious rhetoric encouraging holy war and Christ's commands to love one's enemies; (4) that after a certain point in the war, southern soldiers tended to be so trapped in their own horrible world of fighting, privation, and diminished hope that they misunderstood and resented civilians who complained about their own (very real)hardships; (5) that the voluntary nature of the northern and southern armies stamped many soldiers in the ranks with a self-confident autonomy that ill-tolerated self-important by-the-book officers; and that (6) the rough conditioning of the battlefield left at least some Northern troops with few inhibitions about calling for the exile or death of Copperheads.
Now, all this is fascinating, and the essays that defend these theses are well-written and well-researched. But there seems a crucial tension in all this that I wish the authors had explored. Granted, Civil War soldiers were historical actors, not simply pawns. In fact, given the voluntary nature of the armies, they probably exerted more autonomy than any U.S. soldiers since. But at the same time, they were also the same men who allowed themselves to be slaughtered time and again by stupid or foolhardy or enraged officers who ordered them to make impossible or unnecessary assaults. What is needed is more thought on this unbearable tension between autonomy and powerlessness in the Civil War soldier's experience. I look forward to the authors in this collection taking on such a project.
So, for example, the various authors argue (1) that Northern soldiers, disgusted by their firsthand experience of slavery as they moved southward and recognizing that slavery was a key point of Southern resistance, began to advocate for emancipation long before the Northern public; (2) that Southern soldiers grew in hatred for their Northern enemies as the war took on "total" qualities, and that tales of fraternization between Rebs and Yanks are much exaggerated; (3) that Christian soldiers on both sides were religiously ambivalent about their participation in the horrific killing of the war, often undergoing religious crises in their efforts to reconcile religious rhetoric encouraging holy war and Christ's commands to love one's enemies; (4) that after a certain point in the war, southern soldiers tended to be so trapped in their own horrible world of fighting, privation, and diminished hope that they misunderstood and resented civilians who complained about their own (very real)hardships; (5) that the voluntary nature of the northern and southern armies stamped many soldiers in the ranks with a self-confident autonomy that ill-tolerated self-important by-the-book officers; and that (6) the rough conditioning of the battlefield left at least some Northern troops with few inhibitions about calling for the exile or death of Copperheads.
Now, all this is fascinating, and the essays that defend these theses are well-written and well-researched. But there seems a crucial tension in all this that I wish the authors had explored. Granted, Civil War soldiers were historical actors, not simply pawns. In fact, given the voluntary nature of the armies, they probably exerted more autonomy than any U.S. soldiers since. But at the same time, they were also the same men who allowed themselves to be slaughtered time and again by stupid or foolhardy or enraged officers who ordered them to make impossible or unnecessary assaults. What is needed is more thought on this unbearable tension between autonomy and powerlessness in the Civil War soldier's experience. I look forward to the authors in this collection taking on such a project.
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As a non-American, my knowledge of the American Civil War is very limited. To be quite honest; I don't know a whole lot of it, besides that the two sides were the Union in the north with soldiers wearing blue uniforms, and the Confederacy in the south with soldiers dressed in gray. The slave issue wasn't the only matter fought over - even though it was obviously a very important matter indeed - and throughout the war several of the great battles of military history were fought, for instance the battle at Gettysburg, which also became the turning point of the war.
This is, in a nutshell, basically all I knew and thought of whenever someone mentioned the American Civil War. (Okay, fine... I also thought of Patrick Swayze's character Orry Main from TV-series North and South. Well, actually, the one I really thought of was the lady he secretly dated. And especially her cleavage. But don't blame me, I was young and impressionable.)
This highly limited knowledge - combined with the fact that when it comes to books about war and war history I find it much more stimulating to read about the ones who actually fought the war instead of what tactics the leaders used and the politics behind their decisions - resulted in me eagerly anticipating to get started on The View From the Ground.
Because this book does indeed focus on the soldiers who were maimed and killed on the battlefields. The reader is invited to share the thoughts and feelings of these men about such issues as slaves and race relations, the image of the enemy, the conflict at large, the civilian population, and the multitude of religious and moral dilemmas that soldiers of faith had to deal with.
At large, all ten contributions are highly interesting; especially since the reader realizes that the war wasn't exclusively about the issue of slaves and that many of the Union soldiers didn't care too much either about the non-whites. However, the two contributions that really stand out are David W. Rolfs' "No Nearer Heaven Not but Rather Farther Off: The Religious Compromises and Conflicts of Northern Soldiers" and Kent T. Dollar's "Strangers in a Strange Land: Christian Soldiers in the Early Months of the Civil War", two essays dealing with the bizarre compromise where faithful Christians were able to justify the ritualized and sanctioned mass-killings that active warfare, when it comes down to it, actually means.
The book contains no photographs or illustrations whatsoever, and that's definitely most unfortunate.
This is, in a nutshell, basically all I knew and thought of whenever someone mentioned the American Civil War. (Okay, fine... I also thought of Patrick Swayze's character Orry Main from TV-series North and South. Well, actually, the one I really thought of was the lady he secretly dated. And especially her cleavage. But don't blame me, I was young and impressionable.)
This highly limited knowledge - combined with the fact that when it comes to books about war and war history I find it much more stimulating to read about the ones who actually fought the war instead of what tactics the leaders used and the politics behind their decisions - resulted in me eagerly anticipating to get started on The View From the Ground.
Because this book does indeed focus on the soldiers who were maimed and killed on the battlefields. The reader is invited to share the thoughts and feelings of these men about such issues as slaves and race relations, the image of the enemy, the conflict at large, the civilian population, and the multitude of religious and moral dilemmas that soldiers of faith had to deal with.
At large, all ten contributions are highly interesting; especially since the reader realizes that the war wasn't exclusively about the issue of slaves and that many of the Union soldiers didn't care too much either about the non-whites. However, the two contributions that really stand out are David W. Rolfs' "No Nearer Heaven Not but Rather Farther Off: The Religious Compromises and Conflicts of Northern Soldiers" and Kent T. Dollar's "Strangers in a Strange Land: Christian Soldiers in the Early Months of the Civil War", two essays dealing with the bizarre compromise where faithful Christians were able to justify the ritualized and sanctioned mass-killings that active warfare, when it comes down to it, actually means.
The book contains no photographs or illustrations whatsoever, and that's definitely most unfortunate.
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