New and Noteworthy: A People at War

A People at War: Civilians and Soldiers in America's Civil War, Scott R. Nelson and Carol Sheriff, Hardcover: 384 pages, Oxford University Press, $25.00

Claiming more than 600,000 lives, the American Civil War had a devastating impact on countless numbers of common soldiers and civilians, even as it brought freedom to millions. This book shows how average Americans coped with despair as well as hope during this vast upheaval.

A People at War brings to life the full humanity of the war's participants, from women behind their plows to their husbands in army camps; from refugees from slavery to their former masters; from Mayflower descendants to freshly recruited Irish sailors. We discover how people confronted their own feelings about the war itself, and how they coped with emotional challenges (uncertainty, exhaustion, fear, guilt, betrayal, grief) as well as physical ones (displacement, poverty, illness, disfigurement). The book explores the violence beyond the battlefield, illuminating the sharp-edged conflicts of neighbor against neighbor, whether in guerilla warfare or urban riots.

The authors travel as far west as China and as far east as Europe, taking us inside soldiers' tents, prisoner-of-war camps, plantations, tenements, churches, Indian reservations, and even the cargo holds of ships. They stress the war years, but also cast an eye at the tumultuous decades that preceded and followed the battlefield confrontations. An engrossing account of ordinary people caught up in life-shattering circumstances, A People at War captures how the Civil War rocked the lives of rich and poor, black and white, parents and children--and how all these Americans pushed generals and presidents to make the conflict a people's war.

Scott Nelson is Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Klan Violence, and Reconstruction and Steel Drivin' Man: The Untold Story of John Henry and the Birth of an American Legend. Carol Sheriff is Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. She is the author of The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862. (Text supplied by the publisher.)

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: The Pennsylvania Bucktail Brigade on McPherson's Farm

Gettysburg Battlewalks: The Bucktail Brigade, John Heiser, Pennsylvania Cable Network, 1 hour 35 minutes, dvd, 2005, $20.00.

Army of the Potomac, First Corps, Third Division, Second Brigade, in which 2 of every 3 soldiers are killed or wounded during the battle of Gettysburg. The Bucktail Brigade.

Like other brigades of the First Corps on July 1st, it was assigned an area too large for 1300 soldiers to cover. Assailed on both flanks by Rebel soldiers from two different divisions, this brigade of Pennsylvanians retreated to Cemetery Ridge.

The commander of this brigade, Colonel Roy Stone, orginally served with the 13th Pennsylvania Reserve, the original Bucktail Regiment. In the fall of 1862, Stone was given command of three Pennsylvania regiments un-related to the Pennsylvania Reserve division. Derisively known at the 'Bogus Bucktails' by the Pennyslvania Reserve regiments, the 143rd, 149th and the 150th Pennsylvania entered the army in late 1862 and saw their first combat at Gettysburg.

John Heiser, GNMP ranger who manages the park's library and crafts maps for Gettysburg Magazine, gives an enthusiastic tour over the McPherson Farm in the steps of the Pennsylvanians. Capturing and having their own flags captured, repulsing Daniels' CSA brigade and then being routed on two flanks, gaining a Medal of Honor and making the McPherson barn their hospital, the story of the Bucktail Brigade at Gettysburg is one of victory and defeat.

Though only about 90 minutes, this PCN tour is one of the more enjoyable. Heiser's perseverance during the July morning heat, the stories of Yankee tactics and valor are well told, and walking among the Bucktail Brigades three monuments along Chambersburg Pike, give a strong sense of place. The viewer would be well served to have a copy of the McElfresh July 1 map that shows crops, buildings, fences and woodlots while viewing the dvd. This PCN tour is recommended for both the new and more experienced Gettysburg visitors and readers.