A Leaf of Voices: Stories of the American Civil War in the Words of Those Who Lived and Died, 1861-65

by Jennifer McSpadden

Overview

During the American Civil the Wabash Intelligencer and the Wabash Plain Dealer frequently printed letters from Wabash County men serving in the Union army. The letter writers are a remarkable cast of characters: young and old, soldiers, doctors, ministers, officers, enlisted men, newspaper men, and a fifteen-year-old printers’ devil who enlisted as a drummer boy. These are not stories of generals or battle strategies; they are the stories of the ordinary soldiers and their everyday lives. They describe long tiring marches across state after state, crossing almost impossible terrain, facing shortages of rations and supplies, enduring extremes of weather where they froze one day and sweltered the next, and encountering guerrillas that harried the wagon trains. The correspondents wrote of walking over the bodies of fallen comrades and foes alike, of mules and their wagons sinking into muddy roads that became like quicksand, of shipwrecks, and of former slaves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871953766
Publisher:	Indiana Historical Society Press
Publication date:	01/12/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	405
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Jennifer McSpadden was born and grew up in England. Now a resident of Wabash, Indiana, she has worked as a volunteer at the Wabash County Historical Museum and is currently an active member of the museum’s board of directors. McSpadden was a reporter for the Wabash Plain Dealer from 1986 to 1997.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface Acknowledgments Prologue Chapter 1. The Newspapermen Chapter 2. "A Knight of the Quill" Chapter 3. Prisoners of War Chapter 4. The Families Chapter 5. "It is with regret . . ." Chapter 6. The Healers Chapter 7. From the Battlefields Chapter 8. Camp Life and Beyond Chapter 9. On the Move Chapter 10. The Drummer Boy Chapter 11. The Survivors Notes Index