A politician goes to war
Subtitle: the Civil War letters of John White Geary
By: edited by William Alan Blair ; selections and introduction by Bell Irvin Wiley.
Contributors: Blair, William Alan.; Wiley, Bell Irvin, 1906-
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: University Park, Penn
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 259
ISBN-13: 9780271013381
Subjects: Geary, John White, 1819-1873 -- Correspondence.; United States. Army -- Biography.; Generals -- United States -- Correspondence.
Description: This last known work of noted historian Bell Irvin Wiley reveals the private mind of John White Geary, a Union general from Pennsylvania, through his Civil War letters to his wife, Mary. Wiley had selected these roughly 200 letters for publication, but the unfinished manuscript lay undiscovered for twelve years after the historian's death. The letters provide a rare glimpse of the two main theaters of war through the eyes of a general officer.

Geary saw action at Cedar Mountain and Gettysburg in the Virginia theater and in the major campaigns in the west - from lifting the siege at Chattanooga to marching with William T. Sherman through Georgia and the Carolinas.

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The fascination Geary's letters held for Wiley, the quintessential scholar of the common person, is clear: the letters of an uncommon man reveal ordinary concerns about children, money, home, and religion that linked Geary to many on both sides of the war. These letters reveal contrasts between attitudes of soldiers of the eastern and western armies and how early intense battle was waged in northern Virginia.

Readers can also glimpse pieces of life on the northern homefront and the ways that relationships between men and women changed during the course of the war.

Geary's letters also show another side of the officer, that of the consummate politician who knew that military service provided capital for future political campaigns.

Through intense self-promotion, he had fashioned a reputation that served him well in gaining respected political posts both before and after the war: he fought in the Mexican War and served as the first mayor of San Francisco and as territorial governor of Kansas during the period known as "Bloody Kansas," in addition to winning two terms as governor of Pennsylvania after the war.

Ultimately, the letters of John White Geary show how a political general plied his trade. They reveal the complexities of any historical figure, for Geary had both the admirable qualities of loyalty to the Union and the less attractive need to exaggerate his abilities to enhance his career.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface / William Alan Blair; title: Introduction / Bell Irvin Wiley; title: Guarding the Potomac, July 1861-February 1862; title: Into enemy territory, March-December 1862; title: To Gettysburg and back, January-September 1863; title: Transfer to the West, October 1863-March 1864; title: The Atlanta campaign, March-September 1864; title: Through Georgia and the Carolinas, September 1864-April 1865