Leaving Home in Dark Blue: Chronicling Ohio’s Civil War Experience through Primary Sources & Literature edited by Curt Brown (review)

Although Ohio was invaded only once during the American Civil War (by Morgan’s Raiders in 1863), Ohioans were at the forefront of wartime participation. By collecting primary documents, this engrossing volume uses a unique approach to study the Civil War. It allows the reader to experience the horrors of the conflict through the eyes of various ordinary Ohio residents, most of whom were not at the top end of the political spectrum. All throughout the state, soldiers and civilians rallied behind the Union cause and strove to defeat the Confederacy. Too often, documentary collections of the war focus on the men in political power and ignore the experiences of ordinary citizens. In the foreword to this book, the editor stresses the importance of exploring the individual, human element of the war. This is accomplished through the selection of personal letters, government resolutions, poetry, and even fictional excerpts. What becomes apparent after reading these selections is that Ohioans involved with the conflict, both on the battlefield and the home front, made the best of an untenable situation and sought ways to survive and even thrive during wartime. Many of the documents selected are published here for the first time, while other material has been republished for the first time since its original nineteenth-century publication. This allows the reader to examine a part of American history that has often been hidden from view for more than a hundred years, and it offers hope that future historical works about the Civil War will follow this same pattern.

Each entry in this publication contains a proper citation, and it is apparent that a wide variety of sources were used to complete this text. The introductions and time line for the entries situates the documents within the trajectory and context of the larger war. By knowing exactly how and when wartime events occurred, even the general reader can make better sense of some of the passages as they pass through the four years of the conflict. The annotations supplied for some of the documents also add to the book’s appeal because they enable the reader to comprehend language common among nineteenth-century residents and specialists, but unfamiliar to modern general readers. Among the book’s strengths are the firsthand accounts of the changing attitudes toward combat. At the beginning of this confrontation, many soldiers went off to fight willingly with a great sense of pride and purpose. Many felt that it was their duty to fight for their country and try to restore the nation. However, as the realities of war became apparent, their outlooks slowly changed to a more negative view of the war. That sense is effectively captured within these pages from both soldiers and civilians as the language turns much more somber and the passages are heartbreaking at times.