Bluegrass Confederate : The Headquarters Diary of Edward O. Guerrant

by DAVIS WILLIAM C. (ED)

• ISBN13: 9780807124116
• ISBN10: 0807124117
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

Edward Guerrant's massive, eloquent journal -- twenty-eight manuscript volumes -gathered considerable interest shortly after the Civil War among fellow veterans as a reliable source for reconstructing their shared ordeal. In the years to follow, however, the never-published diary gradually slipped from view. Now, "after a long while" of more than a century, Captain Guerrant's diary is brought to light again in Bluegrass Confederate. For historians as well as acolytes of Civil War memory, the author's scrupulous daily entries will prove valuable indeed.

Diaries by Kentucky Rebels are a rarity; the soldiers themselves were atypical. Essentially cut off from their homes and families back in the Union Bluegrass, they had only their personal reserves of spirit and will to keep their patriotism alive. Edward Guerrant, a teacher and habitual diarist, was motivated by love, first of one woman and then another, to record his wartime experiences, beginning January 30, 1862, and ending April 11, 1865. Exceptionally intelligent and well educated, Guerrant spent much of t

Author Biography

William C. Davis has written numerous history books. He lives in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Meredith L. Swentor received a B.A. in American history from the University of South Florida. She is a registered associate for Merrill Lynch and lives in Bradenton, Florida.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(13)
Off to the War	14	(25)
A Rude Awakening	39	(31)
War at Last	70	(27)
Friends and Rumors	97	(19)
Waiting and Watching from Afar	116	(25)
Kentucky at Last	141	(32)
Alarms and Frustrations	173	(21)
A Winter of Discontent	194	(20)
Kentucky Again?	214	(18)
A Change of Season	232	(26)
Off to Richmond	258	(20)
Westward Ho!	278	(22)
Living in a Cage	300	(19)
Another Campaign at Last	319	(21)
The East Tennessee Campaign	340	(24)
The Battle of Big Creek	364	(13)
Taking Leave	377	(15)
Hungry and Waiting in East Tennessee	392	(9)
Marching Back to Virginia	401	(16)
The Spring Campaigns Begin	417	(23)
``Good If True!''	440	(20)
The Battles at Mt. Sterling and Cynthiana	460	(35)
The Hot Summer Doldrums	495	(15)
The End of John Hunt Morgan	510	(14)
Holding on in Tennessee	524	(7)
The Battle of Saltville, Virginia	531	(19)
Preparing for an Unknown Fall Campaign	550	(6)
Into the Valley	556	(16)
Hurry Up and Wait!	572	(16)
Marching Out of the Valley	588	(11)
Defending Saltville Again and the Battle of Marion, Virginia	599	(17)
Christmas 1864	616	(6)
A New Year and a Welcome Furlough	622	(15)
Back to the Brigade	637	(9)
Mounting Tension and Disillusionment	646	(10)
Merciless Conscription	656	(9)
The Beginning of the End	665	(9)
``It Is Finished''	674	(17)
Epilogue: From the ``History''	685	(6)
Appendix: Selected Additional Correspondence	691	(10)
Index	701