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Download PDF Civil War Places Seeing the Conflict through the Eyes of Its Leading Historians Gary W Gallagher J Matthew Gallman Will Gallagher 9781469649535 Books

Product details Hardcover 216 pages Publisher The University of North Carolina Press (March 25, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1469649535

Civil War Places Seeing the Conflict through the Eyes of Its Leading Historians Gary W Gallagher J Matthew Gallman Will Gallagher 9781469649535 Books Reviews

• A nice collection of short personal stories from Civil War historians. Each takes a physical place associated with great war and gives some thoughts on its meaning to him or her. Each personal story is accompanied by a contemporary, and often compelling, photograph of the relevant physical place taken by the talented Will Gallagher.
  
  This book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in American history and race relations, as well as by those interested in what has served to spark the careers of some of our most talented scholars.
  
  As with any collection of essays, some are better than others; although, here most are very good. I especially enjoyed the writing skills exhibited by Professor Stephen Cushman.
• Civil War histories are often about battles and people. However, this new title of 25 fascinating essays concerns places and distinct memories. The monographs written by well-known individuals, have spent their lifetimes researching the Civil War. These men and women have carefully chosen one place connected to the clash between the North and the South and elucidate why they selected it. Each important site was photographed by Will Gallagher which enhances readers understanding of each location and improved the narrative. Each paper offers a concise, and approachable view of what happened at each meaningful location. The renowned group of contributors bring new insight on original aspects of their own personal, historical and political relationship to selected spots where history happened.
  
  The initial eight essays focus on Battlefields Places of Fighting. In “The Church in the Maelstrom”, Stephen Berry reminds readers of the chapel on the Shiloh battlefield that helps people think about the horrors of war. In “My Cave Life in Hospital”, Sarah Gardner recounts her recollection of a Vicksburg ladies’ period of war journal who was restricted by a stay in a local hospital. J. Mathew Gallman in, “The Triangular Field and Devil’s Den”, allows readers to realize that important locations on the battlefield did not necessarily look the same in 1863 as they do today and the ramifications to the combatants. A. Wilson Greene takes people on a tour of Camp Allegheny in his outstanding paper, which asks students to consider the importance of elevation and the weather to the intricacies of the Civil War combat zone. Carol Janney, writes an interesting essay in, “Bridge to the Past”, concerning the role and the importance of a photograph of Burnside’s or Rohrbach Bridge to her life, and career as well of its effects on Emancipation, soldiers and the war. One of the highlights of this excellent book is the outstanding writer, Peter Carmichael of Gettysburg College, provides in, “An Unknown Grave”, an understanding of Culp’s Hill as part of the bigger picture in the Battle of Gettysburg and the humbling experience visitors gain from viewing the burial pit. He allows the long-dead soldiers to provide a teaching moment for visitors to gain empathy and a greater understanding of modern questions concerning the Southern cause and Confederate monuments to the political left and the right. In “Boundaries of Memory at the Sand Creek Site”, Ari Kelman provides what differences the U.S. Government, the Park Service and Native Americans have over how and where the massacre happened as well as how the events should be observed. Aaron Sheehan-Dean in “Ceding the High Ground of Hindsight”, ascertain the importance of not only the reasons behind an important Union victory but an understanding of Southern combatants and Vicksburg residents.
  
  The second group of four narratives concerned Cemeteries Places of Mourning. Joan Waugh in “Hidden in Plain Sight The Los Angeles National Cemetery”, used numerous gravesites including her great-grandfather to discuss the meaning behind commemoration and memory. In A “Rightful Place” The Graves of George and Lasalle Pickett, Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia”, Leslie Gordon in her histography, articulated the changing view of the Confederate General and what changed over time to the remains of the Pickett’s and why. William Blair’s fascinating work,” Black Lives at Arlington Cemetery From Slavery to Segregation”, was truly enlightening in his story of the history of Arlington and the reason why certain “citizen “grave stones are located where they have been placed. “At Nathaniel Bowditch’s Grave”, Frances Clarke takes buffs to Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery to ponder what Nathaniel Bowditch’s grave expresses to us about such a brief and conflicted existence as well as the way we memorialize individuals and war.
  
  In the third collection of six interesting compositions, “Memorials Places of memory” deal with authors memory tied to their own childhood experiences and the meaning of physical places to academic’s students. Carol Reardon in” Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall A Place for Quiet Reflection”, recollects about how a youthful visit to Pittsburg’s Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall contributed to her interest in the Civil War and eventual chosen field. In “Sherman at the Plaza”, Stephen Cushman writes about his youthful journeys to Augustus Saint Gaudens’s statue of William Sherman at the Grand Army Plaza in Central Park and his point of view of the 19th century victory sculpture. Drew Gilpin Faust writes in “Memory Past and Future Harvard’s Memorial Hall”, about the meaning and lessons to the past, present and future. Gary Gallagher writes “In the Thickets of History and Memory Using Charlottesville’s Confederate Memorial Landscape”, about one of today’s most important and controversial Civil War related issues concerning monuments and their relevance to American History. In “The People for Whom He Saved the Union The Lincoln Memorial”, Judith Giesberg tells a personal story dealing with the role the Lincoln Memorial had on her life and the relationship commemorative spaces are contested by many different individuals and groups in the past and the present. Brenda Stevenson writes in “The Emancipation Oak Commemorating Freedom, Family, and Intellectual Pursuit”, about her memories concerning the regal Emancipation Oak on the lands of Virginia’s Hampton University and its significance to the African community and the global migration.
  
  In the final assortment of seven outstanding papers, Buildings “Enduring Places” concentrates on new perspectives and places where individuals visit, meet at and consider what happened at these important locations. Edward Ayers writes in “Forging the Confederacy, about the significance of the Tredegar Ironworks to the Confederacy and its history. In” Cedar Hill Frederick Douglas’s Personal Museum for a Public Man, David Blight expands on his current biography of Mr. Douglass and his life. Elizabeth Varon in Surrender Grounds The McLean House at Appomattox”, goes beyond the fairytale that the surrender was a place of healing but points out how it has served as a site of education, recreation and commemoration today. In “The Crimes of This Guilty Land Will Never Be Purged Away but with Blood John Brown at the Charles Town Court House”, Stephen Engle eminences about his hometown and how people can relate our history from the past to modern times. James Marten in “My Soldiers’ Home”, identifies how brave Civil War Union victorious veterans returned home to Milwaukee, Wisconsin only to be treated as people who needed a handout rather than as heroes. In “The Green-Meldrim House”, Jacqueline Jones covers the important meeting that twenty-eight African American leaders from Savannah met with Union General William Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton on January 12,1865 concerning the economic opportunities for families during the period of Reconstruction. Finally, Catherine Clinton recalls in her essay, “A Room of His Own”, how her perspective on the Petersen House and Abraham Lincoln changed drastically from her visits to Washington, Dc during her youth to when she became an important historian during her time as a doctoral student at Princeton University.
  
  This book is not the definitive work on the Civil War, but rather a series of scholarship on various features of different places and their meaning to many leading historians. Each is tremendously valuable in presenting notable understanding into the topics they cover, and significantly add to the literature of the Civil War. Each essay is accompanied by helpful notes. The writing is first rate and balanced, and the research and readability is
  excellent. Students, and buffs will gain from reading this outstanding title.
  
  “Seeing the Conflict Through the Eyes of Its Leading Historians” was a fast paced and interesting read. Twenty-Five outstanding scholars and historians have allowed students and enthusiasts to learn about places throughout the United States that was significant in the Civil War and the recollections of the individuals who took us on a wonderful journey. The authors have written about their reminiscences, and alternatives to different groups of people in the past, present, and future. Readers of this outstanding new volume will love the beauty of the many outstanding photographs that Will Gallagher took which enhanced the worthwhile narrative. Buffs should look forward to visiting places they have never visited and locate places discussed and photographed. Know that I will be visiting some great new historic places on my next road trip. Plain and simple, this is a beautiful book. Buy it, you will like it. Highly recommend this well written and enjoyable new tome.
• The Civil War continues to captivate, and it is excellent books like this that makes this war still speak so profoundly. This book is so very rare since it captures the personal stories of academic historians and their significant bond to a specific Civil War place. Whether it be Burnside's Bridge, Culp's Hill or a grand building, monument or quiet cemetery all across the country, the stories these gifted historians tell are a gift to all of us. Truth is all Civil War enthusiasts have places near to their heart that speak to them profoundly and give them inspiration to continue studying or visiting these hallowed sites. Every story in this book speaks deeply to the resonating meaning of this war, to the beauty of family, and to the awesome power of finding meaning out how this war still affects us everyday in this country. And the beauty of the book is that each essay will speak to readers in multiple ways and all are equally profound. Without diminishing any other of the pieces, I have my favorites that spoke and taught me in a splendid way. David Blight's piece on Frederick Douglass was fascinating. Gary Gallagher's piece on Charlottesville has immense meaning to today. Catherine Clinton's piece on Lincoln was a terrific way to end the book's essays. And Carol Reardon's Steel City piece was a thoughtfully educational and also a joy to read as entertainment. I sometimes feel guilty for taking so much pleasure from a war that killed 720,000 Americans. This book is medicine for that ill.
  
  As a photographer, I also appreciated the work of Will Gallagher in this book. The images, too, are about artful composition, telling a story and speaking to the continuing resonance of these places. The black and white images are rich in texture and detail as well, and they seem the perfect fit for the authors' essays. Perhaps it is not easily detectable to the eye to see the immense effort given to find each composition, but knowing how difficult this can be and the dedication required to accomplish this art, it is no small undertaking. Especially so when you shoot an image that must speak directly to what the historian as experienced and written. There is not much creative license when this is the case. The photographer ably succeeds and then some.
  
  This book is a marvelous volume. I hope there is another one in the future with more even more voices given a chance to speak. I truly savored this book. It speaks wonderfully in every way.