The Library of America's ambitious four-volume series continues with this entry that traces events from January 1862 to January 1863, an unforgettable portrait of the crucial year that turned a secessionist rebellion into a war of emancipation.
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The Library of America's ambitious four-volume series continues with this entry that traces events from January 1862 to January 1863, an unforgettable portrait of the crucial year that turned a secessionist rebellion into a war of emancipation.
Read Less
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In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, the Library of America is engaged in an ambitious project: it is publishing a lengthy volume of source material covering each of the four years of the conflict. The first volume covering 1861, "The Civil War: The First Year told by Those who Lived it" appeared last year [2011]. This new volume, "The Civil War: The Second Year Told by Those who Lived it" (2012) covers the second year of the conflict from January, 1862 through January, 1863. Civil War scholar Stephen Sears edited the volume, selecting the texts, writing and introduction, and introducing each selection with headnotes. Among other things, Sears has written on pivotal events of the War in 1862: the Battle of Antietam and on Union General McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, both of which receive extensive coverage in this book.
The book is lengthy and detailed, consisting of 750 pages of close text together with a detailed chronology covering January 1862 -- January 1863, biographical notes on the authors of the texts in the book, and informative notes on the texts and their selection. There are 148 separate selections of which 11 are published for the first time. The authors of the texts range from Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis to little known individuals.
Sears presents the entries chronologically. This approach allows the reader to follow the war as it developed and to see its many interrelated and complex threads. Thus the book intersperses the many important battles, in the eastern and western theatres and on the rivers and oceans, with political events. As far as the military history of the war, this presentation allows an overview of the actions on many fronts. In most studies of the conflict, this perspective is difficult to attain. In addition to the documents describing the battles, the book presents the political and social history of the era. In particular, this volume presents texts related to Emancipation and on how it gradually became a major focus of the war. Woven into the texts of this book are statutes such as the second contraband act, deliberations on Emancipation by the press, Lincoln's cabinet and the president himself. the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of September 22, 1862, and the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. Other entries include editorials and criticism of each step of the process in the papers, military, and by foreign press and governments. In the final entry of the book, dated January 8, 1863, Lincoln writes to a political general, John McClernand, about possible overtures from Southern military leaders to withdraw the Proclamation in exchange for peace. Lincoln wrote: "broken eggs can not be mended. I have issued the emancipation proclamation, and I can not retract it."
The various entries in the book consist of letters, speeches, diaries, newspaper and magazine articles, memoirs, poems, songs, military reports, and much more. The battles during 1862 were eventful and include Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Iuka, Corinth, Pea Ridge, the fight between the Monitor and the Virginia, the Peninsula Campaign, Second Manassas, Antietam, New Orleans, Perryville, Stones River and more. Sears presents each battle from a variety of perspectives, North and South, from generals and officers to troops in the thick of combat. Some of the sources will be familiar to students of the Civil War while others will be new. The sources in the book are all eyewitness accounts but some consist of memoirs and articles written years after the events they relate.
Reading a book of original source material offers both rewards and challenges. There is a great deal of documentation of the war and of 1862. Even a book of the scope of this anthology presents only a well-chosen sample. The book of course lacks the narrative flow of a secondary source -- such as a history -- that would cover this period. The nature of the book makes it more suitable for readers who have lived with and studied the Civil War for a long time rather than to newcomers. Students of the war will be able to place each document and to think about it in context. Nevertheless, Sears' Introduction to the volume, the headnotes to each entry, and the chronology at the end offer guidance and an overview of where the book is heading. These sources offer good guidance to the new reader.
Many of the individual entries in this book are highly insightful and revealing. The volume has a powerful cumulative effect when read from cover to cover. I learned a great deal about a subject that has fascinated me for many years and that continues to move many Americans. I look forward to reading the subsequent volumes in this Library of America series.
