Yankee Correspondence: Civil War Letters between New England Soldiers and the Home Front (review)

BOOK REVIEWS255 tial" books on Lee's military career, focusing principally, but not exclusively, on his time with the Army of Northern Virginia. Gallagher's battle anthologies are included, of course, as are almost all serious works that devote a substantial number of pages to Lee. Gallagher is to be commended for this carefully crafted edition. Although much of this material is not new, many of the primary sources have not been easily available, and the secondary essays provide a solid context for renewed debate on Lee. The copious endnotes and the explanatory captions that accompany the interesting variety of illustrations further enhance the utility of this volume. Many questions will be raised concerning items included and excluded by Gallagher in his editorial choices, as well as what Parrish did and did not put in his bibliography, but that is the purpose of this effort: to serve as a starting point for renewed discussions ofLee's martial prowess or lack thereof. There is more than enough ammunition here for several generations ofhistorians to take plenty of potshots at one another. Richard B. McCaslin High Point University Yankee Correspondence: Civil War Letters between New England Soldiers and the Home Front. Edited by Nina Silber and Mary Beth Sievens. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996. Pp. 205. $29.95.) In selecting and editing these letters, Silber and Sievens have provided students of the CivilWar with a new and important source for studying common people's views of the war. The letters represent every New England state, writers of urban and rural background, white officers and enlisted men, black soldiers, female nurses, teachers, and housewives.The editors have included helpful background information but have kept annotation to a minimum in order to let the writers speak for themselves. Twenty-two photographs and illustrations embellish the text. Silber and Sievens divided the letters into six chapters, each centering on a specific theme.Although such an approach necessarily leads to overlap, on balance this format is a useful one. Chapter 1, "The Military Experience," contains vivid descriptions of military life, its monotony, excitement, horrors, and pathos . These themes have been explored before; however, the remaining chapters offer a great deal of fresh material. In chapter 2, "The Meaning oftheWar," soldiers expressed their interpretation ofthe war's purpose and the role of government . They supported enthusiastically the goal of reunifying the nation, and many endorsed emancipation ofthe slaves. Robert H. Kellogg of the 16th Connecticut Volunteers wrote in 1 862, "We must free the blacks or perish as a nations " (70). Chapter 3, "Views of the South," reveals the limits of New Englanders' vision . While many soldiers sympathized with slaves, especially after meeting 256CIVIL WAR HISTORY and speaking with them, few believed in racial equality and many were vehemently racist. George M. Turner of the 3d Rhode Island Artillery expressed a common viewpoint: "The plan of having negro soldiers is very well in some cases; but ... I am not willing to fight shoulder to shoulder with a black dirty nigger" (87). New England soldiers also commented disparagingly about white Southerners , their crude homes, drinking habits, and alleged tendency toward sloth. Chapter4, "Politics on the Home Front," contains letters on a range of topics, from Abraham Lincoln's policies to Copperhead philosophy, to the war's blurring ofgender roles. In several letters, women demonstrated their political awareness by commenting on the Emancipation Proclamation. In another, a Connecticut doctor expressed his belief that women might influence voters to reject peace candidates. In chapter 5, "The Personal Sacrifices ofWar," soldiers and their families discussed the economic benefits that the war created for some Northern businesses and the economic dislocation families endured due to uneven and inadequate military pay. The final chapter, "The Morse Family Correspondence ," includes letters ofaVermont family with two men atthe front. While it reveals the family and financial tensions caused by the war, this brief chapter is somewhat difficult to follow because of a complicated family tree. Yankee Correspondence will assist students and scholars in their continuing efforts to interpretthe war's role in shaping the lives and views ofaverageAmericans . If, as Walt Whitman believed, "the real war will never get in the books," volumes such...