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Title: All for the Union : The Civil War Diary & Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes by Elisha Hunt Rhodes ISBN: 0-679-73828-2 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 July, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.93 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: There's something about letters written by hand
Comment: Letter writing (in one's own hand) is a dying and almost lost art. Historians obtain much of their research from perusing original letters; there is a human touch in writing not present in email where my "e" looks just like your "e" and my "Q" is a clone of yours.
The book of Reagan letters is an almost perfect example of understanding a man by reading his words in his own hand. The same can be said for Elisha Rhodes, a soldier from Rhode Island in the Civil War. Reading these words penned around a campfire or in a tent or out in the fields gives a literate person a deep sense of sadness. The richness of the language, the vocabulary and expressiveness, the descriptions and talks of morals and purpose and duty...in our hurried, wealthy lives it seems we have lost something precious, an ability to express ourselves in rational language.
One follows the trevails as they traipse from battle to battle. (Reading the list of battles this unit participated in inspires awe.) The everyday details of a soldiers life are featured in startling clarity. His true character is reflected in his life after the war. He married, went into business, organized various soldier's groups, was a Deacon at the Paxtuxet Baptist Church, became involved in civic duty and almost ran for governor. He died "at the age of 75...having spent his life in the service of his church, coutnry, state and fellow man." They don't make them like that anymore.
Rating: 5
Summary: An outstanding telling of the young soldier at work.
Comment: "All for the Union" is an outstanding story of a young soldier at work. Elisha Hunt Rhodes enlisted in the Army of the Potomac and fought in almost every major eastern Civil War engagement. This book is a compilation of his private diary and papers written at the time of these events. The book is one of the most insightful and honest glimpses into the life, hardships, motivations, and opinions of a young soldier that the reader is ever likely to find. Rhodes writes with clarity and candor; if you want to know what it was like to be a Union Civil War soldier, there is perhaps no better book.
The PBS Documentary "The Civil War" drew heavily on Rhodes' book. By the way, one of the things I really liked about the book is that it included some contemporary photographs of people that served with Rhodes in his regiment. Being able to match faces with his narrative was delightful.
What amazing times Rhodes lived through! As soon as he enlisted, he was sent to the Capitol to help guard it. On the way his regiment was booed and reviled by pro-Rebel citizens in parts of Maryland. Rhodes lived through battlefield defeats and victories--the reader can fully appreciate the signficance to a young soldier like Rhodes when the great Union victory at Gettysburg takes place. After all, there had been many Union defeats preceding it.
Rhodes comes through as a good and honest man, very intelligent, but in the beginning somewhat naive as twenty year olds are apt to be. This is an outstanding glimpse into the mind of one of the soldiers who helped to save and preserve the Union. After reading it, one can see that America was fortunate to possess thousands of Elisha Hunt Rhodes because that is what it took to win the war. As the South had many equally good men, equally motivated, the reader can understand why it was a hard and long war.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful.
Comment: This is the best war diary I have read, and for many reasons. Elisha Rhodes has an excellent, straightforward writing style with very good grammatical structure. This makes the diary easy to follow. He was involved in virtually the entire war fought by the Army of the Potomac, and so it is pretty much a complete history in that sense.
At the same time, this private who ultimately became a colonel (in his early 20s!) remains about as unaffected as a man could be. Nothing good or bad really changes his simple and honest view of the war's ultimate justice, and many times he refers to the sacrifices as being easily justified by the gain of saving the union and of freeing the slaves.
He is religious but not judgmental, and never does he develop any real hatred of the enemy. He does his duty with a minimum of fuss. He enjoys his army life, but is quite happy to return to civilian life at the end.
Maybe most interesting to me was his innocent myopia. He never really knew the "big picture" of how the overall war was being fought, or even what the importance of many of the battles he was involved in might have been. He was content to leave that to the generals, and especially to Grant, in whom he had a great deal of trust.
This is a great weekend read for any civil war buff.
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Title: Company Aytch: Or, a Side Show of the Big Show and Other Sketches by M. Thomas Inge, Sam R. Watkins, Samuel R. Watkins ISBN: 0452281245 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Co. Aytch: A Confederate's Memoir of the Civil War by Sam R. Watkins, Samuel R. Watkins ISBN: 0684833247 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $8.00 |
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Title: Through Blood and Fire at Gettysburg by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain ISBN: 1879664178 Publisher: Stan Clark Military Books Pub. Date: July, 1996 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Rebel Private: Front and Rear: Memoirs of a Confederate Soldier by William A. Fletcher, Richard Wheeler ISBN: 0452011574 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: March, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Mary Chesnut's Civil War by C. Vann Woodward, C. Vann Woodard, Mary B. Chestnut ISBN: 0300029799 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: February, 1983 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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