In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

6 Do,Libby,Look on the Bright Side of Things april 1864 to april 1865 After Madison recovered from his broken leg,while on furlough in Minnesota, he returned to Little Rock, accompanied by new recruits to fill the ranks of the regiment. Still captain of Company F, Madison also began recruiting black soldiers for a colored regiment.He hoped that when the regiment was mustered in, he would gain a higher-ranking position with increased pay, prestige, and possibilities . Recruiting was diIcult,however,because of the lack of forward movement of the Union army in Arkansas.The Third Minnesota and other regiments were garrisoned at Pine BluJ,Devall’s BluJ,Little Rock,Helena,and Fort Smith, but these were defensive positions.While cavalry skirmishes and limited infantry engagements continued,the Third Minnesota suJered through the summer and fall from malaria,or ague,which Madison experienced recurrently.Regimental surgeon Dr.A.C.Wedge estimated that most of the new Minnesota recruits and draftees were stricken with malaria;eighty-nine recruits and thirty draftees died. Wedge commented,and Madison would have agreed,“I would much rather have been in a hard fought battle every week during the summer (in a healthy locality ) than to spend such a summer in that deadly locality.”1 Learning of Madison’s sustained illness,Lizzie could not understand why he would remain in the army.Although herworries about his health contributed to her waning support for the war, she also succumbed to the general war weariness experienced by the North from April through October 1864.With a military stalemate outside of Atlanta through the summer and bloody battles and an ongoing siege at Petersburg,Virginia,through the winter,the Northern public grew tired of the war.Democratic sentiment was at its height in the late summer,and 228   1. ForWedge’s report, see Andrews,“Narrative of the Third Regiment,” 174–75. For Madison’s desire to fight, see Joseph S. Bowler to James Madison Bowler, 1 September 1864, Bowler Papers. Joseph wrote,“You say that you wish you were in this Department to participate in the campaign around Richmond.Thank God,rather,that you have been kept out of it.Haven’t you seen enough of the ‘Horrors of war’ yet?” President Lincoln feared he would lose the fall election in 1864.Through all of this, most Union soldiers felt a renewed commitment to the war and chastised people at home for their lack of faith in its successful completion.2 Madison and Lizzie’s exchanges in the early fall demonstrate this strikingly. Another of Lizzie’s preoccupations concerned their farm.Although the farm was in her father’s name, Lizzie and Madison were responsible for paying the mortgage and maintaining it.Madison oJered advice but gave her full authority to make decisions and transactions regarding their financial matters.With Madison gone, Lizzie remained at her parents’ home and rented their farm out to Nininger farmerAlbert Poor,from whom they had purchased it earlier that year. Their arrangement was fraught with diIculties. Lizzie struggled to collect unpaid rent money from him.Poor stayed on the farm until October 1864,when at the last minute he moved onto a relative’s farm nearby,which left Lizzie to find new tenants before the winter.She rented their property to the county as a poor house for five dollars per month to house local war widows and their families. She also hired a local farmer to plow the land.Like many other Civil War wives, both Northern and Southern,Lizzie did her best to carry out her husband’s business until he returned, but with mixed success.3 Separated for all but three months of their nearly two-year marriage, the Bowlers agreed that they wanted to live together.By November 1,1864,however, Lizzie and Madison had come to an impasse about where that would be.Through the winter,they engaged in a verbal tug-of-war.Madison wanted Lizzie and Victoria to join him in Little Rock,whereas Lizzie argued that Madison’s primary responsibility was to return to his family in Minnesota.They each employed a variety of strategies to persuade the other to move,ranging from teasing,tempting , and innuendo to playing on guilt and notions of duty. Nininger April 21 [1864] My very dear husband . . . Oh!You cannot tell how lonely I have been since you left.I wish that I could blot this week out of any remembrance,for it has been a...

Share