Tom Taylor's Civil War by Taylor, Thomas Thomson

Tom Taylor's Civil War
by Taylor, Thomas Thomson

(#34056H4)

Hardcover University Press of Kansas, 2000
Description: xv, 256 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.
Dewey: 973.7; Audience: Adult

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Product Overview
From Follett

AVAILABLE FOR SALE IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY.;Comprises Taylor's diaries and letters to and from his wife, Margaret Taylor.;Includes bibliographical references (page 235-250) and index. Draws upon diary entries and letters to chronicle the Civil War experiences of Thomas Taylor, an Ohio lawyer and junior officer in the Union Army. Covers the military and personal aspects of his life, presenting correspondence with his wife and quoting his accounts of the battles of Vicksburg and Chattanooga and Sherman's march through Georgia.

From the Publisher
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 campaign--including accounts of the Battles of Atlanta and Ezra Church--and 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 attitudes: 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.
Product Details
  • Publisher: University Press of Kansas
  • Publication Date: January 1, 2004
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Series: Modern war studies
  • Dewey: 973.7
  • Classifications: Nonfiction
  • Description: xv, 256 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
  • Tracings: Castel, Albert E. ; Taylor, Margaret Antoinette White, -1913.
  • ISBN-10: 0-7006-1049-9
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-7006-1049-5
  • LCCN: 00-041162
  • Follett Number: 34056H4
  • Audience: Adult