A People at War Civilians and Soldiers in America's Civil War

by Nelson, Scott Reynolds; Sheriff, Carol

• ISBN13: 9780195146547
• ISBN10: 0195146549
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

A People at War refutes the popular belief that during the American Civil War the citizenry bent to the will of the nation's great military and political leaders. Capturing how the war rocked the lives of all segments of society, it argues that conflicts off the battlefield splintered society in the North and South, creating widespread chaos, guerrilla warfare, urban riots, and unprecedented public outcry, which in turn drove the actions of the leaders who now define the era: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, and Robert E. Lee.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A People at War	p. VIII
From Compromise to Chaos: 1854-1861
The Road to Bleeding Kansas	p. 3
From Wigwam to War	p. 38
The Changing Faces of War: 1861-1863
Friends and Foes: Early Recruits and Freedom's Cause, 1861-1862	p. 61
Union Occupation and Guerrilla Warfare	p. 85
Facing Death	p. 105
Political, Military, and Diplomatic Remedies: 1862-1865
Two Governments Go to War: Southern Democracy and Northern Republicanism	p. 129
Redefining the Rules of War: The Lieber Code	p. 148
Diplomacy in the Shadows: Cannons, Sailors, and Spies	p. 162
The War Hits Home: 1861-1865
We Need Men: Union Struggles over Manpower and Emancipation, 1863-1865	p. 187
The Male World of the Camp: Domesticity and Discipline	p. 214
"Cair, Anxiety, & Tryals": Life in the Wartime Union	p. 231
War's Miseries: The Confederate Home Front	p. 260
Rebuilding the Nation: 1865-1877
A Region Reconstructed and Unreconstructed: The Postwar South	p. 295
A Nation Stitched Together: Westward Expansion and the Peace Treaty of 1877	p. 315
Acknowledgments	p. 333
Political Chronology	p. 337
Military Chronology	p. 343
Suggestions for Further Reading	p. 349
Index	p. 358
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