Description
Book SynopsisA Quaker Colonel, His Fiancée, and Their Connections contains letters written during the American Civil War between a Union officer, his fiancée, and some of their connections. It opens a big window onto the lives of élite Northern women on the homefront during the Civil War. The pain of their separation from—and loss of—loved ones and friends at the front, their adaptation to unaccustomed work and acquisition of new skills, their labors for the soldiers at the front and in hospitals, their political involvement, not to mention elder- and childcare and illnesses, their almost morbid anxieties and indomitable wills, are revealed in these documents. Also, the experiences of their menfolk in the army are opened to view. The reader follows them into training camp and the Pennsylvania Reserves, into action for the salvation of Maryland for the Union, in the Army of the Potomac in its vicissitudes. Moreover, the principal male correspondent left the Army of the Potomac after the Battle of Fredericksburg, and became lieutenant colonel of a regiment of Pennsylvania Cavalry in Tennessee, seeing action in that state, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Evidence of the military-political-industrial complex that won the war is present throughout, as is evidence bearing on abolitionism and African-Americans.
Table of ContentsAbbreviations
General Introduction
Maps
Part I: 1861
Chapter 115 April 1861 - 18 August 1861
Letters 1 - 29
Chapter 219 August 1861 - 31 December 1861 (and 1 January 1862)
Letters 30 - 58
Part II: 1862
Chapter 33 February 1862 - 19 October 1862
Letters 59 - 87
Chapter 426 October 1862 - 31 December 1862
Letters 88 - 99
Part III: 1863
Chapter 58 January 1863 - 30 December 1863
Letters 100 - 112
Part IV: 1864
Chapter 65 January 1864 - 8 May 1864
Letters 113 - 152
Chapter 79 May 1864 - 31 July 1864
Letters 153 - 178
Chapter 81 August 1864 - 20 October 1864
Letters 179 - 204
Chapter 923 October 1864 - 31 December 1864 (and 1 January 1865)
Letters 205 - 237
Part V: 1865
Chapter 101 January 1865 - 17 February 1865
Letters 238 - 252
Chapter 1111 March 1865 - 27 June 1865
Letters 253 - 269
Photographs
