Our hurly-burly sagas of war often overlook the deep connections
between warriors and the families they left behind. In Tom Taylor's
Civil War, eminent Civil War historian Albert Castel brings that
familial connection back into sharp focus, reminding us again that
soldiers in the field are much more than mere cogs in the machinery
of war.
A young Ohio lawyer, Thomas Taylor was a junior officer who
fought under Sherman at Vicksburg and Chattanooga and on the march
through Georgia, and his diary and letters contain vivid
descriptions of numerous skirmishes and battles over four years. By
interweaving Taylor's words with his own narrative, Albert Castel
has fashioned a work on the Civil War as engrossing as a novel; by
also including letters from Taylor's wife, he has created a whole
new dimension for viewing that conflict.
Often written under adverse conditions, Taylor's descriptions of
military encounters are filled with vivid details and perceptive
observations. His passages especially provide new insight into the
Georgia campaign--including accounts of the Battles of Atlanta and
Ezra Church--and into the role of middle-echelon officers in both
camp and combat. Castel's bridging narrative is equally dramatic,
providing an overview of the fighting that gives readers invaluable
context for Taylor's eyewitness reports.
The book chronicles not only Taylor's military career but also
the strains it placed on his marriage. Taylor had gone off to war
both to fight for his Unionist beliefs and to enhance his
reputation in his community, while his wife, Netta, was a peace
Democrat whose letters constantly urged Tom to return home. Their
epistolary conversation-rare among Civil War sources-reflects a
relationship that was as politically charged as it was passionate.
Taylor's passages also reveal his changing attitudes: from
favoring
strong measures against the rebels at the beginning of the war to
eventually deploring the destruction he witnessed in Georgia.
"Tom Taylor's Civil War" is a moving account of one man whose
life was ripped apart by war and of the woman back home who
remained his anchor through it all. Combining the best features of
biography and autobiography, it paints a compelling picture of that
conflict that will stir the heart as much as the imagination.
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