Civil War America: Voices From The Home Front

The American Civil War was truly a "people's war, " where neighbor fought neighbor and brother fought brother. Families and friends were as painfully divided as North and South. What impact did the bloodiest and mostly costly war in American history have on civilians and their assumptions about race, government, and freedom? Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front describes the myriad ways in which the Civil War affected both Northern and Southern civilians. Through a unique collection of diary entries, memoirs, letters, and magazine articles, more than two dozen essays chronicle the personal experiences of soldiers and slaves, parents and children, nurses, veterans, and writers. Exploring such wide-ranging topics as Sanitary Fairs in the North, the "illustrated weeklies, " children playing soldier, and the care of postwar orphans, most stories communicate some element of change, such as the destruction of old racial relationships, the challenge to Southern whites' complacency, and the expansion of government power. While some of the subjects are well-known -- Edmund Ruffin, Louisa May Alcott, Henry Cabot Lodge, Booker T. Washington -- most of the witnesses presented in these essays are relatively unknown men, women, and children who help to broaden our understanding of the war and its effects far beyond the home front.