Civil War Soldiers

The soldiers on both sides of the Civil War were united by a common history and yet the legacy of this past was ambiguous upholding both rebellion and union. Union and Confederate men went to war as Americans convinced they fought an un-American savage enemy. The war they fought was as emotional and catastrophic as any in history a violent crucible that forged a new national identity. <i>Civil War Soldiers</i> is a fresh and compelling attempt to fathom the war's significance--then and now--and makes immediate the charged issues and bitter ironies of a nation torn by a conflict over the common ideals of liberty and justice. <p/>Drawing on diaries and letters the focus of this pioneering study is on the men who fought caught up in a conflict whose causes and consequences seemed as complex and contradictory to the soldiers themselves as they do to us. Reid Mitchell re-creates their experience and discusses the questions one would have most wanted to ask them: Why did you fight? How did you feel about slavery and race? What did you take home from the war? What legacy have you left us? <p/>Fresh insights startling descriptions and poignant human detail about the war from the men who fought it.--<i>Chicago Tribune</i>