Confederates from Iowa had a rich variety of wartime experiences. To help me flesh out their stories, I’ve studied the war from a Confederate perspective. The following books are insightful and thought-provoking:
Copperheads
Hubert H. Wubben, Civil War Iowa and the Copperhead Movement (Ames, 1980). This scholarly work discusses the progression of Democratic opposition to the war and to President Lincoln. Wubben paints pictures of the home front in Iowa, including economics and social issues. I highly recommend this book.
David L. Lendt, Demise of the Democracy: The Copperhead Press in Iowa (Ames, 1973). Lendt compares the frustrations felt by protestors against the Viet Nam War in the 1960s with the emotions of Peace Democrats about a hundred years earlier. This brief book uses excerpts from newspaper articles to portray the dissenting Iowa press during the Civil War.
Frank L. Klement, The Copperheads in the Middle West (Chicago, 1960). Klement writes a clear, engaging, and persuasive narrative. Mark E. Neely Jr., author of The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties, writes of Klement: “The shrewd and painstaking work of historian Frank L. Klement over the last thirty years has proved, beyond any reasonable doubt, that no systematic, organized disloyal opposition to the war existed in the North.”
Southern Military College Education
Jennifer R. Green’s Military Education and the Emerging Middle Class in the Old South (Cambridge, 2008) offers descriptions and insights into the schools themselves. I was fascinated by her discussion of upper- and middle-class southern conceptions of honor.
Civil War Medicine
Michael A. Flannery, Civil War Pharmacy: A History of Drugs, Drug Supply and Provision, and Therapeutics for the Union and Confederacy (Binghamton, 2004). Flannery’s book is the best book I’ve ever read on Civil War medicine and disease. It is rich in detail and insights.
Civil War Religion
Herman Norton, Rebel Religion: The Story of the Confederate Chaplains (St. Louis, 1961). Norton uses anecdotes about Confederate chaplains to illustrate their roles and impact during the Civil War.
Foreigners in the Confederacy
I highly recommend Ella Lonn’s magisterial work, Foreigners in the Confederacy (Gloucester, 1965). Lonn offers statistics, stories, and analysis.
Confederates from Northern States
Ed Gleeson, Illinois Rebels: A Civil War Unit History of G Company, 15th Tennessee Regiment Volunteer Infantry (Carmel, 1996). Gleeson focuses on two Southern Illinoisans who joined with other residents of two counties in “Little Egypt” to enlist in the same Tennessee infantry company. He explains that many Southern Illinoisans had expected Congressman John Logan to enter the Confederate service, too.
Confederates as Prisoners of War
Robert Emmett Curran, ed., John Dooley’s Civil War: An Irish American’s Journey in the First Virginia Infantry Regiment (Knoxville, 2012). John Dooley was an articulate Confederate officer who was imprisoned on Johnson’s Island. Exchanged on March 3, 1865, Dooley describes the waning days of the C.S.A. and his desire to rejoin a Confederate unit. I highly recommend this book.
Trans-Mississippi Confederacy
Robert L. Kerby, Kirby Smith’s Confederacy: The Trans-Mississippi South, 1863-1865 (New York, 1972). This is a detailed and insightful survey of the Trans-Mississippi, state by state, year by year.
B.P. Gallaway, The Ragged Rebel: A Common Soldier in W.H. Parsons’ Texas Cavalry, 1861-1865 (Austin, 1988). Gallaway describes Confederate gunpowder-making, the dismounting of a cavalry unit, and the Confederate Conscript Bureau. Cavalryman Dave Nance states: “Like all boys in early life, I loved adventure, so that when the first call came for volunteer troops, I was crazy to go – yes, crazy, for that is the only way to describe a boy’s sentiment when he is anxious to go to war.”
Cynthia De Haven Pitcock and Bill J. Gurley, eds., I Acted from Principle: The Civil War Diary of Dr. William M. McPheeters, Confederate Surgeon in the Trans-Mississippi (Fayetteville, 2002). William M. McPheeters fled martial law in St. Louis and joined the Confederate Army. McPheeters records General Sterling Price’s “Grand Expedition” into Missouri (late 1864) and the subsequent retreat. McPheeters discusses civilian and military sentiment after Appomattox, and he justifies the decision to secede.
Confederate National Identity
Gary W. Gallagher, Becoming Confederates: Paths to the New National Loyalty (Athens, 2013). Gallagher persuasively argues that Confederate soldiers and civilians, by and large, formed a new national identity during the great stresses of wartime.
What about you?
Have you read any books on these topics that are well-documented and have compelling arguments? Please leave a comment!