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The Plain People of the Confederacy (Paperback)
Bell Irvin Wiley; Introduction by Paul Escott (Professor of History, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA)
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R500
R447
Discovery Miles 4 470
Save R53 (11%)
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Wiley's most critical examination of the effects of the Civil War
on the lives of its participation Widely hailed for his realistic
portrayals of the common soldier of the Civil War, Bell Irvin Wiley
upset carefully cultivated, deeply held southern myths about the
Lost Cause with the 1944 publication of The Plain People of the
Confederacy. His engaging and timeless look at the Confederate
experience of soldiers, African Americans, and women also sparked a
debate about the reasons for southern defeat that continues among
historians to this day. Republished here with Paul Escott's new
introduction and fresh appraisal of the book's influence, this
classic work reveals a far more complex, conflicted, and intriguing
society than the unified and idealized version created and
perpetuated in the wake of surrender. Wiley broke new ground by
challenging southern myths about a contented and loyal slave
population, a self-sacrificing citizenry united in support of
states' rights, and a military unmarred by cowardice and vice.
Unearthing a wealth of correspondence, government documents, and
other firsthand accounts, Wiley brought to center stage the
question of popular morale and insisted on its importance in
shaping the fate of the Confederacy. He showed that the Confederacy
was racked by dissension and that the heart of the South's problems
lay in class resentments and poor governmental policy rather than
in military reverses.
Originally published forty years ago, Bell Irvin Wiley's The Road
to Appomattox marked one of the first efforts by a Civil War
scholar to identify the internal causes of the South's defeat.
Today this elegant little book remains one of the most penetrating,
thought-provoking works on the subject. In the book's three
chapters, Wiley treats three broad reasons for the failure of the
Confederacy: weak political leadership, low morale among the
populace, and four "internal influences" in the South. Those four
shortcomings stemmed from traits apparently endemic to southerners
in general, Wiley explains, and they included disharmony among and
between political and military leaders; the government's failure to
provide adequate public information systems; rigidity in outlook
and course of action; and poor judgment, especially of the North's
strength, the South's own strength, and Europe's dependence on
cotton. Recent years have witnessed a number of significant studies
dealing with Confederate defeat, particularly with the failings of
Davis as war leader and with the complex issue of the South's
dedication to the cause. Wiley was one of the first historians to
raise these issues and discuss then trenchantly. Those familiar
with The Road to Appomattox will cheer the reissue of this resonant
work; first-time readers will see why.
In this companion to The Life of Johnny Reb, Bell Irvin Wiley
explores the daily lives of the men in blue who fought to save the
Union. With the help of many soldiers' letters and diaries, Wiley
explains who these men were and why they fought, how they reacted
to combat and the strain of prolonged conflict, and what they
thought about the land and the people of Dixie. This fascinating
social history reveals that while the Yanks and the Rebs fought for
very different causes, the men on both sides were very much the
same.
"This wonderfully interesting book is the finest memorial the
Union soldier is ever likely to have.... Wiley] has written about
the Northern troops with an admirable objectivity, with sympathy
and understanding and profound respect for their fighting
abilities. He has also written about them with fabulous learning
and considerable pace and humor.
Rebel Private Front and Rear is a line soldier's account of the
Civil War without heroics. Private Fletcher tells how at Gettysburg
he was overcome by a "bad case of cowardly horror" when an order
came on the third day to get ready to charge. "I tried to force
manhood to the front, but fright would drive it back with a
shudder," he confessed. The attack of jitters lasted about fifteen
minutes, and then he fell asleep while awaiting the order to
advance. But Fletcher could be brave to a fault. He was restless
and venturesome and during the lulls between fighting would
sometimes ask for permission to go on dangerous scouts into enemy
territory. Once, just before Fredericksburg, he slipped out to a
haystack in the no-man's-land near the Rappahannock so that he
could watch the Yankees build a bridge. And in his last fight at
Bentonville he risked his life on a rash and futile impulse to
capture a whole squad of Federals. At Second Manassas, Fletcher was
struck by a bullet that grazed his bowels and lodged in his hip.
His detailed description of his subsequent sensations and
experiences is one of the most interesting portions of his
narrative. He begged the surgeons to operate, but when they started
cutting he howled so profanely that they threatened to abandon him.
His reply was: "It don't hurt as badly when I am cursing." Wounded
again at Chickamauga, Fletcher was incapacitated for further
infantry service and was transferred to Company E, Eighth Texas
Cavalry, and served with Terry's Rangers until the end of the war.
In north Georgia he participated in a number of thrilling
skirmishes with mounted forces of Sherman's command, and in one of
these encounters he lost his horse. A short time later, in a daring
effort to capture a mount from the Yankees, he was taken prisoner.
The story of the forming and execution of his plan to escape by
jumping from a moving boxcar is full of suspense and excitement.
Rebel Private also reveals Fletcher as something of a philosopher.
The narrative is sprinkled with dissertations on unexpected
subjects, such as God, justice, and war. He reflects on the
rightness and the necessity of "foraging," in home as well as enemy
territory, but he tells with evident relish how he and his "pard"
of the occasion "pressed" whiskey, honey, and chickens. Fletcher
set down his experiences some forty years after the close of the
Civil War. His story is told with the artlessness of the natural
raconteur. Though the style is unpolished, the memoir makes lively
reading because of the author's eye for detail, his straightforward
language, and his sense of humor. One of the most frequently cited
narratives written by soldiers of Lee's army, it derives its value
as a historical source mainly from Fletcher's honesty, his close
observations, the richness and variety of his experiences, and the
sharpness of his memory.
A Confederate artillery officer, William Thomas Poague fought in
General "Stonewall" Jackson's campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley
and at Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, and elsewhere.
After Jackson's death, Poague remained in the Army of Northern
Virginia. Gunner with Stonewall sheds light on a neglected aspect
of the Civil War, the role of the artillery in combat.
The notebooks containing these memoirs were edited by Monroe F.
Cockrell, an expert on the Confederacy and graduate of Virginia
Military Institute, and first published in 1957. A new introduction
by Robert K. Krick has been added for this Bison Books edition.
Krick is the author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain and
Conquering the Valley: Stonewall Jackson at Port Republic.
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