19th century america
A01=Elsie Singmaster
A01=Lesley J. Gordon
Author_Elsie Singmaster
Author_Lesley J. Gordon
Category=FBA
Category=FJM
Category=FYB
Category=JWLF
Category=NHK
civil war
eq_anthologies-novellas-short-stories
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_modern-contemporary
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
fiction
novel
prose
stories
war between the states
Product details
- ISBN 9780817312794
- Weight: 333g
- Dimensions: 140 x 218mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jan 2003
- Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Gettysburg presents a group of related fictional characters whose stories illuminate various facets of the bloodiest engagement of the American Civil War. Ranging from the first day of the battle until after the turn of the 20th century, the stories explore bravery, loyalty, memory, and loss. They expose the wastefulness of war and its long-lasting effects, not only for the soldiers who struggled on the frontlines but also for the women who tended them, the children who were neglected in the upheaval, and other citizens and family members confined to the home front. Two residents of the town of Gettysburg - Mary Bowrnan and Hannah Casey - emerge as memorable heroines after being shocked that war could come to their quiet community. ""The Home-Coming"" tells the story of a frightened young soldier who realizes, as the battle rages, that he may die just yards from his boyhood home. ""The Battleground"" recounts President Lincoln's visit to the site to give his famous address and how his words strengthen Mary, who is distractedly searching for her husband's remains, her clothes still stained with the blood of the wounded. ""Victory"" is based on the actual wartime experiences of Frank Haskell, an aide to General John Gibbon. ""Gunner Criswell"" moves forward to 1910 and the dedication of a regimental monument on which a veteran cannot find his name. With these stories, Singmaster renders the painful and lasting ways in which the battlefield affects surviving individuals, both those able to bear the scars and those subdued by them. Sentimental glorification of the battle is not her aim. As Lesley Gordon explains in the introduction, ""The Civil War, like all wars, was gory, messy, and chaotic. Its effects were not entirely admirable, and its legacy remains contested. Works like Elsie Singmaster's Gettysburg are vital to our understanding this.
Elsie Singmaster was born in Pennsylvania in 1879, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Radcliffe, and died in Gettysburg in 1958. During her 40-year writing career, she published hundreds of short stories and 38 books, most notably Basil Everman (1921) and Bennett Malin (1922), Lesley J. Gordon is Associate Professor of History at the University of Akron and author of General George E. Pickett in Life and Legend.
