A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut's Civil War, Lesley Gordon, Louisiana State University Press, 416 pp., 14 b/w illustrations, 2 maps, bibliographic notes, bibliography, index, $49.95.From The Publisher:
A Broken Regiment recounts the tragic history of one of the Civil War s most ill-fated Union military units. Organized in the late summer of 1862, the 16th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry was unprepared for battle a month later, when it entered the fight at Antietam. The results were catastrophic: nearly a quarter of the men were killed or wounded, and Connecticut s 16th panicked and fled the field. In the years that followed, the regiment participated in minor skirmishes before surrendering en masse in North Carolina in 1864. Most of its members spent months in southern prison camps, including the notorious Andersonville stockade, where disease and starvation took the lives of over one hundred members of the unit.
The struggles of the 16th led survivors to reflect on the true nature of their military experience during and after the war, and questions of cowardice and courage, patriotism and purpose, were often foremost in their thoughts. Over time, competing stories emerged of who they were, why they endured what they did, and how they should be remembered. By the end of the century, their collective recollections reshaped this troubling and traumatic past, and the unfortunate regiment emerged as The Brave Sixteenth, their individual memories and accounts altered to fit the more heroic contours of the Union victory.
The product of over a decade of research, Lesley J. Gordon's A Broken Regiment illuminates this unit's complex history amid the interplay of various, and often competing, voices. The result is a fascinating and heartrending story of one regiment's wartime and postwar struggles.
From The Publisher: Praise for A Broken Regiment
“In this fantastic microhistory of the Sixteenth Connecticut,
Gordon gives us an intimate portrait of war’s reverberating damage through the
eyes of men who were broken on the field, broken at Andersonville, and still
broken in old age as wounds of all kinds took their toll on minds, bodies, and
memories. The ‘regimental history’ was a lost genre—until now. This is just the
reboot the regimental history needs and deserves.”—Stephen Berry, author of
House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, A Family Divided by War
“In this deeply researched and wonderfully nuanced study,
Lesley Gordon examines how the damaged regiment fought to reconstruct its
memory for decades after the war. Throughout this often sad odyssey, which took
the regiment from Maryland to Virginia to the coast of North Carolina and
finally to the horrors of Andersonville Prison, the men of the 16th suffered,
endured, and found sources of honor in a war that brought them few moments of
martial glory. A Broken Regiment tells the gripping story of a regiment, and
also a war, in ways that we rarely contemplate.”—J. Matthew Gallman, author of
America’s Joan of Arc
“Gordon has written a regimental biography that embraces the
uncommon story of Civil War soldiers. Shifting our focus from heroic stories of
sacrifice at well-known battlefields, Gordon presents everyday men horrified by
their failure in combat; men who clamored to reclaim lost honor and rewrite
their story. A Broken Regiment challenges assumptions about civilians’
successful transition into citizen-soldiers and linear interpretations of Civil
War soldier motivation, home front and battlefront interactions, and Civil War
memory. Gordon has answered the call to challenge decade-old assumptions within
the field of Civil War scholarship by building on the best work of the past and
highlighting questions that new studies of Civil War soldiers will need to
consider.”—Susannah J. Ural, author of Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades: The Civil
War in the Words of Those Who Lived It
“Lesley Gordon’s ‘microhistory’ of the Sixteenth Connecticut
Volunteers is as compelling as it is revealing. Not content merely to describe
the wartime experiences of these men, Gordon proposes new ways to understand
how Civil War soldiers first survived then relived the conflict, both
collectively and individually, for decades thereafter. This is much more than a
portrait of a single regiment. It is a unique work, brilliantly
realized.”—Daniel E. Sutherland, author of A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role
of Guerrillas in the American Civil War
“In this beautifully written and deeply researched new book,
historian Lesley Gordon explores the emotional and physical roller coaster
endured by the men who served and suffered in the Sixteenth Connecticut. A
Broken Regiment reveals how a group of brave and optimistic soldiers faced a
disheartening and horrific trial by fire, bookended by military failure at
Antietam and six months of misery at Andersonville. The veterans who endured
the war forced their communities to comprehend that sometimes heroism and
suffering are synonymous in the midst of so much unprecedented chaos and
destruction. This is simply one of the finest regimental histories ever
produced.”—Brian Craig Miller, author of Empty Sleeves: Amputation in the Civil
War South
A Broken Regiment
The 16th Connecticut's Civil War
Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War
416 pages /
6.00 x 9.00 inches /
14 halftones, 2 maps
ebook available
Civil War
ebook available
Civil War
Hardcover / 9780807157305
/ November 2014
Found an Error? Tell us about it.
“In
this fantastic microhistory of the Sixteenth Connecticut, Gordon gives
us an intimate portrait of war’s reverberating damage through the eyes
of men who were broken on the field, broken at Andersonville, and still
broken in old age as wounds of all kinds took their toll on minds,
bodies, and memories. The ‘regimental history’ was a lost genre—until
now. This is just the reboot the regimental history needs and
deserves.”—Stephen Berry, author of House of Abraham: Lincoln and the
Todds, A Family Divided by War - See more at:
http://lsupress.org/books/detail/broken-regiment/#sthash.BeBctzd1.dpuf
- See more at: http://lsupress.org/books/detail/broken-regiment/#sthash.BeBctzd1.dpuf
“In
this fantastic microhistory of the Sixteenth Connecticut, Gordon gives
us an intimate portrait of war’s reverberating damage through the eyes
of men who were broken on the field, broken at Andersonville, and still
broken in old age as wounds of all kinds took their toll on minds,
bodies, and memories. The ‘regimental history’ was a lost genre—until
now. This is just the reboot the regimental history needs and
deserves.”—Stephen Berry, author of House of Abraham: Lincoln and the
Todds, A Family Divided by War - See more at:
http://lsupress.org/books/detail/broken-regiment/#sthash.BeBctzd1.dpuf
Praise for A Broken Regiment
“In this fantastic microhistory of the Sixteenth Connecticut, Gordon gives us an intimate portrait of war’s reverberating damage through the eyes of men who were broken on the field, broken at Andersonville, and still broken in old age as wounds of all kinds took their toll on minds, bodies, and memories. The ‘regimental history’ was a lost genre—until now. This is just the reboot the regimental history needs and deserves.”—Stephen Berry, author of House of Abraham: Lincoln and the Todds, A Family Divided by War“In this deeply researched and wonderfully nuanced study, Lesley Gordon examines how the damaged regiment fought to reconstruct its memory for decades after the war. Throughout this often sad odyssey, which took the regiment from Maryland to Virginia to the coast of North Carolina and finally to the horrors of Andersonville Prison, the men of the 16th suffered, endured, and found sources of honor in a war that brought them few moments of martial glory. A Broken Regiment tells the gripping story of a regiment, and also a war, in ways that we rarely contemplate.”—J. Matthew Gallman, author of America’s Joan of Arc
“Gordon has written a regimental biography that embraces the uncommon story of Civil War soldiers. Shifting our focus from heroic stories of sacrifice at well-known battlefields, Gordon presents everyday men horrified by their failure in combat; men who clamored to reclaim lost honor and rewrite their story. A Broken Regiment challenges assumptions about civilians’ successful transition into citizen-soldiers and linear interpretations of Civil War soldier motivation, home front and battlefront interactions, and Civil War memory. Gordon has answered the call to challenge decade-old assumptions within the field of Civil War scholarship by building on the best work of the past and highlighting questions that new studies of Civil War soldiers will need to consider.”—Susannah J. Ural, author of Don’t Hurry Me Down to Hades: The Civil War in the Words of Those Who Lived It
“Lesley Gordon’s ‘microhistory’ of the Sixteenth Connecticut Volunteers is as compelling as it is revealing. Not content merely to describe the wartime experiences of these men, Gordon proposes new ways to understand how Civil War soldiers first survived then relived the conflict, both collectively and individually, for decades thereafter. This is much more than a portrait of a single regiment. It is a unique work, brilliantly realized.”—Daniel E. Sutherland, author of A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War
“In this beautifully written and deeply researched new book, historian Lesley Gordon explores the emotional and physical roller coaster endured by the men who served and suffered in the Sixteenth Connecticut. A Broken Regiment reveals how a group of brave and optimistic soldiers faced a disheartening and horrific trial by fire, bookended by military failure at Antietam and six months of misery at Andersonville. The veterans who endured the war forced their communities to comprehend that sometimes heroism and suffering are synonymous in the midst of so much unprecedented chaos and destruction. This is simply one of the finest regimental histories ever produced.”—Brian Craig Miller, author of Empty Sleeves: Amputation in the Civil War South
- See more at: http://lsupress.org/books/detail/broken-regiment/#sthash.BeBctzd1.dpuf
No comments:
Post a Comment