The War for the Common Soldier: How Men Thought, Fought, and Survived in Civil War Armies

405 Pages·2018·11.32 MB·English

by  Peter S. Carmichael

The WAR for the
COMMON SOLDIER
+ + +
THE LITTLEFIELD HISTORY
OF THE CIVIL WAR ERA
Gary W. Gallagher and T. Michael Parrish, editors
This book was supported by
the Littlefield Fund for Southern History,
University of Texas Libraries
This landmark sixteen- volume series, featuring books by
some of today’s most respected Civil War historians, surveys
the conflict from the earliest rumblings of disunion through
the Reconstruction era. A joint project of UNC Press and
the Littlefield Fund for Southern History, University of Texas
Libraries, the series offers an unparalleled comprehensive
narrative of this defining era in U.S. history.
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How Men Thought, Fought,
and Survived in Civil War Armies
—
PETER S. CARMICHAEL
The UniversiTy of norTh Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
© 2018 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by Jamison Cockerham
Set in Arno, Goudy Bookletter 1911, Dead Mans Hand, and Scala Sans
by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Jacket illustration: Return from Picket Duty, Green River, Kentucky, February 1862, by
Adolph Metzner; courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member
of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
library of Congress CaTaloging- in- PUbliCaTion DaTa
Names: Carmichael, Peter S., author.
Title: The war for the common soldier : how men thought, fought,
and survived in Civil War armies / Peter S. Carmichael.
Other titles: Littlefield history of the Civil War era.
Description: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2018] |
Series: The Littlefield history of the Civil War era
Identifiers: lCCn 2018010258| isbn 9781469643090 (cloth : alk. paper) |
isbn 9781469643106 (ebook)
Subjects: lCsh: United States. Army—Military life. | Confederate States
of America. Army—Military life. | United States—History—Civil War,
1861–1865—Personal narratives.
Classification: lCC e607 .C26 2018 | DDC 973.7/13—dc23
lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010258
Portions of chapter 7 appeared in somewhat different form in
Joan E. Cashin, ed., War Matters: Material Culture in the Civil War Era
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018).
For
beTh
Quand je ferme les yeux, c’est à toi que je pense,
si belle dans le jardin du Luxembourg
—
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contents
Introduction 1
1 Comrades, Camp, and Community 17
2 Providence and Cheerfulness 66
3 Writing Home 100
4 Courage and Cowardice 132
5 Desertion and Military Justice 174
6 Facing the Enemy and Confronting Defeat 230
7 The Trophies of Victory and the Relics of Defeat 266
Epilogue 303
Acknowledgments 317
Notes 325
Bibliography 357
Index 381
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figures
John H. Pardington 4
In Front of Yorktown, by Winslow Homer 19
“Transformation into a Veteran” 24
Charles B. Haydon 29
Charles T. Bowen 34
Pay- Day in the Army of the Potomac, by Winslow Homer 51
“Rebel Deserters Coming with Union Lines” 80
William Shepherd and the Kenoshans in Taylor’s Battery 89
William Shepherd’s copy of Words for Men at Arms 92
David E. Beem 105
Sunken Lane at Antietam, Maryland 108
Adolph Metzner watercolor 117
Playing Old Soldier, by Winslow Homer 147
Trajectory of a minie ball 150
Attack in front of Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg 156