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Prison Pens: Gender, Memory, and Imprisonment in the Writings of Mollie Scollay and Wash Nelson, 1863–1866 (New Perspectives on the Civil War Era Ser.) Paperback – February 1, 2018
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Prison Pens presents the memoir of a captured Confederate soldier in northern Virginia and the letters he exchanged with his fiancée during the Civil War. Wash Nelson and Mollie Scollay’s letters, as well as Nelson’s own manuscript memoir, provide rare insight into a world of intimacy, despair, loss, and reunion in the Civil War South. The tender voices in the letters combined with Nelson’s account of his time as a prisoner of war provide a story that is personal and political, revealing the daily life of those living in the Confederacy and the harsh realities of being an imprisoned soldier. Ultimately, through the juxtaposition of the letters and memoir, Prison Pens provides an opportunity for students and scholars to consider the role of memory and incarceration in retelling the Confederate past and incubating Lost Cause mythology.
This book will be accompanied by a digital component: a website that allows students and scholars to interact with the volume’s content and sources via an interactive map, digitized letters, and special lesson plans.
- Print length160 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherUniversity of Georgia Press
- Publication dateFebruary 1, 2018
- Dimensions6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
- ISBN-10082035192X
- ISBN-13978-0820351926
Editorial Reviews
Review
Both the letters and the memoirs will be of interest to scholars and students alike, including issues of Confederate nationalism, Protestant faith, honor and manhood, gender and military occupation, white supremacy and race, and the destruction wrought by war. -- Laura Mammina ― The Journal of Southern History
Review
Both the letters and the memoirs will be of interest to scholars and students alike, including issues of Confederate nationalism, Protestant faith, honor and manhood, gender and military occupation, white supremacy and race, and the destruction wrought by war.
Review
Book Description
About the Author
EVAN A. KUTZLER is an assistant professor of history at Georgia Southwestern University. He is the author (with photographer Jill Stuckey) of Ossabaw Island: A Sense of Place.
Product details
- Publisher : University of Georgia Press (February 1, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 160 pages
- ISBN-10 : 082035192X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0820351926
- Item Weight : 8.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,215,343 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #895 in U.S. Civil War Women's History
- #2,818 in Southern U.S. Biographies
- #4,155 in U.S. Civil War Confederacy History
About the author

Evan Kutzler is a public historian and assistant professor of history at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Georgia.
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