The Home Voices Speak Louder Than the Drums - Dreams and the Imagination in Civil War Letters and Memoirs

"Soldier mortals would not survive if they were not blessed with the gift of imagination and the pictures of hope," wrote Confederate Private Henry Graves in the trenches outside Petersburg, Virginia. "The second angel of mercy is the night dream." Providing fresh perspective on the human side of the Civil War, this book explores the dreams and imaginings of those who fought it, as recorded in their letters, journals and memoirs. Sometimes published as poems or songs or printed in newspapers, these rarely acknowledged writings reflect the personalities and experiences of their authors. Some expressions of fear, pain, loss, homesickness and disappointment are related with grim fatalism, some with glimpses of humor.

List of contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

¿1.¿Playing for Keeps: Gods, Generals and Staff on the Battlefield

¿2.¿Artists and Music, Artists and Illustrators: Embedded Dreamers

¿3.¿Homesickness-"like fire in my bones"

¿4.¿Tenting Tonight: Dreaming of Home on the Old Campground

¿5.¿Dreaming of Children

¿6.¿"Just So" Dreams

¿7.¿Dreaming of Home-with a Smile

¿8.¿Precognitive Dreaming

¿9.¿"Sacred Soil is adhesive"

10.¿Families Dreaming at Home

11.¿Dreaming in Prison: Seven Occupants to Make a Shadow

12.¿Caring for the Wounded

13.¿Caring for Souls on the Battlefield

14.¿Dying Tonight on the Old Campground

15.¿Presentiment: I Have a Rendezvous with Death-or Life

16.¿Soldier's Heart

17.¿Slavery

18.¿Many Are the Hearts That Are Weary Tonight: Wishing for the War to Cease

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Historian Wanda Easter Burch is a retired site manager of an 18th century house museum. Her articles on 18th century history have appeared in various journals, her articles on dreams and imagery in various women's and self-help magazines. She lives in Glen, New York.

Product details

• Authors: Wanda Easter Burch, Burch Wanda Easter
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 18
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 05.06.2017
• EAN: 9781476665580
• ISBN: 978-1-4766-6558-0
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 178 mm x 254 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 490 g
• Illustrations: Raster,schwarz-weiss
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; USA, Diaries, letters & journals, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Diaries & Journals, Memoirs, LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Letters, HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), HISTORY / Military / United States, HISTORY / United States / 19th Century, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Early modern warfare (including gunpowder warfare), c 1860 to c 1869, Civil wars, American Civil War, HISTORY / Military / Early Modern Warfare (1500-1800), BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs, Published diaries, letters and journals