The Civil War Reader

Participants in the Civil War describe the bitterness of the conflict and battlefield scenes of heroism and horror.

Carefully chosen and annotated selection of contemporary battle reports, general orders, letters, articles, sermons, songs, travel observations, much more. Wonderful self-portrait of the Confederacy. Illustrated.

A unique collection revealing the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians during the Civil War At least 8,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. A few served together in Jewish companies while most fought alongside Christian comrades. Yet even as they stood “shoulder-to-shoulder” on the front lines, they encountered unique challenges. In Jews and the Civil War, Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn assemble for the first time the foremost scholarship on Jews and the Civil War, little known even to specialists in the field. These accessible and far-ranging essays from top scholars are grouped into seven thematic sections—Jews and Slavery, Jews and Abolition, Rabbis and the March to War, Jewish Soldiers during the Civil War, The Home Front, Jews as a Class, and Aftermath—each with an introduction by the editors. Together they reappraise the impact of the war on Jews in the North and the South, offering a rich and fascinating portrait of the experience of Jewish soldiers and civilians from the home front to the battle front.

The Confederate & Union Readers are indispensable companions to anyone interested in the Civil War. Here the participants describe in their own words the bitterness of the conflict, battlefield scenes of heroism & horror, the very pulse of the war. Richard B. Harwell is a distinguished historian. He is author & editor of many books about the Civil War & has been director of libraries at Bowdoin, Smith & Southern Georgia colleges. In addition, he has served as curator of rare books & manuscripts at the University of Georgia.

In 1943, Bell Wiley's groundbreaking book Johnny Reb launched a new area of study: the history of the common soldier in the U.S. Civil War. This anthology brings together in one landmark volume over one hundred years of the best writing on the common soldier, from an account of life as a Confederate soldier written in 1882 to selections of Wiley's classic scholarship, and from the story of women who joined the army disguised as men to an essay on the soldier's art of dying.