num_pages: 264
description: 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 campaignincluding accounts of the Battles of Atlanta and Ezra Churchand 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 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.
language: English
title: Tom Taylor's Civil War
publisher: University Press of Kansas