Earl Schenck Miers (1910–1972)

From Goodreads:
"Here are the battles and the people of the Civil War presented from the point of view of the common soldiers who fought the battles and the common people who lived through the war.

Earl Schenck Miers is one of the best known among writers on the Civil War. In this book he proves not only his thorough familiarity with his subject, but also his understanding of young people and his amazing ability to present strictly factual material in so dramatic a fashion that it becomes more exciting and moving than any imaginative adventure story could be.

The author's aim in writing this book was to tell the story of the war objectively, with understanding and sympathy for both sides; to explain, simply, the strategy of the war; not only to give accounts of major battles, but to translate these into human terms. He also discusses the songs that were sung in the North and South, tells how they were inspired and what they meant.

Finally, and most important, Mr. Miers has brought the moral force of the war into focus and has made a great contribution to the healing of wounds. This is a book to be read and reread--a dramatic, moving story that gets into the hearts and minds of the people and reveals aspects of American history not to be found in any textbook. "… (more)

An excellent book for my needs. I wanted to read a shorter book on the American Civil War that didn't get bogged down in historical side issues. The story is focused on the final stage of the war when Grant was made Lt. General by Lincoln until its end. I never knew what happened to Grant, Lee, or Davis once the war stopped with Davis being captured. This book is poetic and fixed in what it wants to communicate. Written in the 1970's, it is a history book which tries to be fair and even handed as opposed to the currrent style of historical works which are wholly revisionist while condescending to mention minor persons and events for situational context.

This book is by no means exhaustive, and unfortunately it still manages to list far too many names which appear only once and then disappear.

By reading this book you get a sense of what type of losses the country suffered during the conflict. I didn't know that the Southern Confederacy considered itself another country and that they thought they could win the war by withstanding a siege against Richmond fighting only defensively. The South's Jubal Early was man I had never heard of before. His battlefield behind-the-lines adventures which were recounted and the lessons learned by the North from the entire conflct made this book's historical writer a person I am very grateful to. This has been such a positive experience, I now look forward to reading more material on the Civil War. The author is very respectful of Lincoln and his status as a preserver of the Union.
The book's construction is beautiful: stiff paper stock, sewn binding, yellow endpages, bibliography, readable Times font, maps, index.… (more)