The Civil War letters of Joshua K. Callaway
By: edited by Judith Lee Hallock.
Contributors: Hallock, Judith Lee, 1940-
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Athens, Ga
Language: eng
Number of pages: 226
Subjects: Callaway, Joshua K. -- Correspondence.; Confederate States of America. Army. Alabama Infantry Regiment, 28th.; Soldiers -- Alabama -- Correspondence.; Alabama -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate.; Alabama -- Biography.
Description: From the Kentucky Campaign to Tullahoma, Chickamauga to Missionary Ridge, junior officer Joshua K. Callaway took part in some of the most critical campaigns of the Civil War. His twice-weekly letters home, written between April 1862 and November 1863, chronicle his gradual change from an ardent Confederate soldier to a weary veteran who longs to be at home.

Callaway was a schoolteacher, husband, and father of two when he enlisted in the 28th Alabama Infantry Regiment at the age of twenty-seven. Serving with the Army of the Tennessee, he campaigned in Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, and north Georgia. Along the way this perceptive observer and gifted writer wrote a continuous narrative detailing the activities, concerns, hopes, fears, discomforts, and pleasures of a Confederate soldier in the field.

Whether writing about combat, illness, encampments, or homesickness, Callaway makes even the everyday aspects of soldiering interesting. This large collection, seventy-four letters in all, is a valuable historical reference that provides new insights into life behind the front lines of the Civil War.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-217) and index.