Forthcoming: Southern Citizen Soldiers and How They Felt During the War and Reconstruction

 Private Confederacies: The Emotional Worlds of Southern Men as Citizens and Soldiers, James Broomall, 240 pp., University of North Carolina Press, 5 illustrations, bibliographic notes, bibliography, index. Hardcover $90.00;  Paperback, $29.95.


 From The Publisher: How did the Civil War, emancipation, and Reconstruction shape the masculinity of white Confederate veterans? As James J. Broomall shows, the crisis of the war forced a reconfiguration of the emotional worlds of the men who took up arms for the South. Raised in an antebellum culture that demanded restraint and shaped white men to embrace self-reliant masculinity, Confederate soldiers lived and fought within military units where they experienced the traumatic strain of combat and its privations together--all the while being separated from suffering families.

Military service provoked changes that escalated with the end of slavery and the Confederacy's military defeat. Returning to civilian life, Southern veterans questioned themselves as never before, sometimes suffering from terrible self-doubt. Drawing on personal letters and diaries, Broomall argues that the crisis of defeat ultimately necessitated new forms of expression between veterans and among men and women. On the one hand, war led men to express levels of emotionality and vulnerability previously assumed the domain of women. On the other hand, these men also embraced a virulent, martial masculinity that they wielded during Reconstruction and beyond to suppress freed peoples and restore white rule through paramilitary organizations and the Ku Klux Klan.

 James J. Broomall is assistant professor of history at Shepherd University and director of the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War.

New and Noteworthy---William T. Sherman Versus Joseph E. Johnston; Wartime Enemies, Peace Time Friends

Worthy Opponents: William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston: Antagonists in War, Friends in Peace, Edward G. Longacre, 404 pages, 60 black and white illustrations, 8 maps, bibliography, index, $24.95, paperback, Oklahoma University Press, July 2017.

From The Publisher:  "You and I became reconciled in April 1865, [and] have remained so since. . . . All [others] who are willing to be reconciled can do it by simply becoming good American citizens." ―William T. Sherman in a letter to Joseph E. Johnston.

It was the most trying time of the United States' young history. Families suffered as their fathers and young men, often mere boys, went off to war. Soldiers were slain by the tens of thousands in brutal battles and entire towns were reduced to rubble and ashes. America was split in two.

But in the face of this horrific Civil War, friendships and lifelong bonds were forged―even across the lines of battle. Worthy Opponents is the parallel stories of two key leaders: Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. After their armies clashed repeatedly, it was only natural for these two commanding offers to become adversaries.

Yet as the war wore on, Johnston and Sherman came to respect each other. After the war they became close firends. In Worthy Opponents, award-winning author and Civil War historian Edward G. Longacre masterfully investigates the intertwining lives and careers of these two celebrated generals. He brings to life their personalities, their military styles, their history, and their ultimate respect and friendship in a readable and fascinating dual biography.

New and Noteworthy---Empty Sleeves: Amputation In The Civil War South

Empty Sleeves: Amputation In The Civil War South, Brian Craig Miller, University of Georgia Press, 280pp, 20 b/w illustrations, endnotes, bibliography, index, $29.95.

From The Publisher:    The Civil War acted like a battering ram on human beings, shattering both flesh and psyche of thousands of soldiers. Despite popular perception that doctors recklessly erred on the side of amputation, surgeons labored mightily to adjust to the medical quagmire of war.

 Brian Craig Miller shows in Empty Sleeves, the hospital emerged as the first arena where southerners faced the stark reality of what amputation would mean for men and women and their respective positions in southern society after the war. Thus, southern women, through nursing and benevolent care, prepared men for the challenges of returning home defeated and disabled.
 
Still, amputation was a stark fact for many soldiers. On their return, southern amputees remained dependent on their spouses, peers, and dilapidated state governments to reconstruct their shattered manhood and meet the challenges brought on by their newfound disabilities. It was in this context that Confederate patients based their medical care decisions on how comrades, families, and society would view the empty sleeve.

In this highly original and deeply researched work, Miller explores the ramifications of amputation on the Confederacy both during and after the Civil War and sheds light on how dependency and disability reshaped southern society.  Empty Sleeves: Amputation In The Civil War South reveals how amputation influenced definitions of manhood, allowing dependency to be recognized as part of southern masculinity

Brian Craig Miller is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of History at Emporia State University and the forthcoming editor of the journal Civil War History. Miller is the author of  John Bell Hood and the Fight for Civil War Memory (Univ. of TN Press, 2010) and A Punishment on the Nation: An Iowa Soldier Endures the Civil War (Kent State, 2012). He is currently working on an exploration of Walt Disney and Civil War Memory. His work has been supported by numerous fellowships, including a Mellon Fellowship from the Huntington Library, two Mellon Fellowships from Virginia Historical Society, a Ballard Breaux Fellowship from the Filson in Louisville, and the Reynolds fellowship from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Miller is an active member of several historical organizations, including the Southern Historical Association and the Society of Civil War Historians. When he is not writing, Miller enjoys running, as he is attempting to run a half marathon in all 50 states (and DC). He has completed 21 so far, most recently in Whitefish, Montana.

New And Noteworthy---Montana's Confederate Heritage

Confederates In Montana Territory: In The Shadow of Price's Army, Ken Robison, History Press, 192 pp.,49 illustrations, 4 maps, index, chapter bibliographies, $19.99. 

Montana was not an organized territory until the spring of 1864 and was over a thousand miles away from military operations in Kansas and New Mexico. During the first three years of the war the region that would become Montana was divided between the territories of Washington, Idaho and Dakota. During the war there were those Confederate soldiers that deserted or Confederate civilians who drifted into this region. In the southwest area one community wished to name itself Varina, in honor of Varina Davis, the wife of  the Confederate president. This was dismissed by a regional judge who was a native of Connecticut but did allow a substitute name, Virginia. In 1862, gold was discovered in the region and one strike was named Confederate Gulch. Such loyalty issues arose and caught the attention of Unionists in the region who brought it to the attention of the national government which remedied the situation by creating the Montana Territory.

Ken Robison, the author of Confederates In Montana Territory is a Montana native, historic preservationist, newspaper columnist, historian and retired captain of the U.S. navy's intelligence branch. He has authored four other books on Montana's early history and a frequent contributor to the Montana: The Magazine of Western History and other regional journals.

Confederates In Montana Territory: In The Shadow of Price's Army offers detailed and entertaining stories regarding Confederate veterans commanded by William Quantrill,  Bill Anderson, Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Mosby. Robison's focus includes particular cavalry regiments and the unique adventures that the Confederate veterans experienced during the war. The Moore brothers accompanied Jefferson Davis during his flight from Richmond, Virginia; others were veterans of the Confederate Marine Corps. Robison uniquely captures the lives of former slaves who migrated to Montana during and after the war. His work is a biography driven account of Confederate soldiers, civilians and contrabands living together on western frontier.   Confederates In Montana Territory: In The Shadow of Price's Army offers a clear and concise account which is a fine example of local and regional historical research done well.