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Voices from Company D: Diaries by the Greensboro Guards, Fifth Alabama Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia
Studio : University of Georgia Press
by University of Georgia Press
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
Released : 2003-08
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours and eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780820325149
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 1 review)
List Price : $39.95
Our Price : $35.03
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Product Description |
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An unprecedented contribution to the field of Civil War history, Voices from Company D collects writings from the diaries of eight members of the Greensboro Guards, Fifth Alabama Infantry Regiment. Woven into a single chronological narrative, these writings provide a unique perspective not only on many of the war's battles and campaigns but on aspects of life and culture in the nineteenth-century South, including friendship and kinship, duty and honor, and commitment and sacrifice. As part of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Guards marched under Stonewall Jackson and Jubal Early and fought throughout the war in such battles as Seven Pines, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, and finally Petersburg, where all but one of the Guards were captured. While their diaries impart a wealth of information about these and other critical military engagements, they also convey the full range of the wartime experience: from terror to boredom, pride to regret, victory to defeat. About the execution of a deserter, one Greensboro Guard writes, "Sad & heart-sickening scene! I felt the moment after the volley was fired, an indescribable & mixed sensation of sickness & horror at the sight." Readers will find singular descriptions of the towns and countryside the men saw, of battlefields and camps, of civilians caught in the path of the war. The diarists also commented on such topics as politics, religion, the home front, the presence of slaves alongside the troops, prices and inflation, troop morale, and such leisure activities from reading to gambling. Voices from Company D is a companion volume to Guarding Greensboro, also by G. Ward Hubbs. Together the books tell a fascinating story of the Guards and their hometown, from the unit's first muster in the early 1820s through the postwar era. |
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Fascinating and Unique |
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The editor did a fantastic job of combining these diaries into a chronologically coherent narrative. Additionally he was very wise to preserve the non-standard spellings and minimize annotations. By doing this he preserved the spontaneous quality of the writing. The writing skills of these diarists is quite surprising. Time and again the reader will come across details and vignettes that are astonishing. In one instance the writer (a private) takes a late night stroll and in the moonlight passes another lone stroller...Robert E. Lee. In another instance a young doctor, fighting as a private, describes his heroic attempts to save his best friend from a protracted illness only to have him die in his arms. It may well be the most poignant thing I have ever read. Other descriptions will create images that will long remain with the reader. From now on when I hear bacon frying I will think of flying miniballs! This book is unlike anything I have ever read concerning the War Between the States. I highly recommend it. |
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