| Vol.
I, No. 8 | Gardening
/ Memorial Day | May
18th, 2001 |
Books
& Literature
Local Writing.
. Selected
Literature of the Civil War  | Walt
Whitman |
I
will put in my poems, that with you is heroism,
upon land and sea --
And
I will report all heroism from an American point
of view.
Starting
From Paumanok, Walt Whitman
The
following selections were chosen from among an enormous number of works as
somewhat representative of the literature of the Civil War -- The War of
Rebellion, as it was then commonly known in the North. ... We
make no claims as to these being 'the best', nor even the best examples, of the
literature of the period. But we made our selections with an eye to
several criteria: First, we wanted to cover the extent of the war -- from
the antebellum period, through the war itself, to the period of Reconstruction
which followed. Next we wanted works which were first written or published
during these periods, or those which were, at the least, retellings of personal
experiences from these periods. We also wanted to provide a variety of
examples -- letters, essays, stories, poems. Finally, where possible, we
wanted to offer works from writers whose names you will recognize not only in
the context of the war. ... We think, then, that these
pieces fulfill those criteria. ... We've followed a chronological
order by date of first appearance or publication. Each listing appears
with a brief excerpt. Simply click on any of the titles below to go to the
work cited. ... "Slavery
in Massachusetts," Henry David Thoreau
[July 1854]
This was an address given by Thoreau to an Anti-Slavery rally
in Framingham, Mass., after the conviction of a fugitive slave by the courts in
Boston. ... The law will never make men
free; it is men who have got to make the law free. They are the lovers
of law and order who observe the law when the government breaks it. ...
Excerpt
from Calamus, in Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman
[1860 Ed.]
This is a very brief excerpt from the long sequence of poems
entitled Calamus in Whitman's 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. ... One
from Massachusetts shall be comrade to a Missourian,
One from Maine or
Vermont, and a Carolinian and an Oregonese, shall be
friends triune,
more precious to each other than all the riches of the earth.
"The
North American Civil War," Karl Marx
[October 1861]
As we mentioned in the Book Worm this month, Marx's piece
may provide the most concise and informative overview of the history and events
leading up to the Civil War. ... Just as
the bombardment of Fort Sumter gave the signal for the opening of the war, the
election victory of the Republican Party of the North, the election of Lincoln
as President, gave the signal for secession. ...
"A
Day" from Hospital Sketches and Camp Fireside Stories, Louisa May
Alcott
[1863]
Alcott, who worked at hospital tending the wounded, wrote Sketches
based upon her experiences there. This excerpt is from Chapter 3. "Bless
you, no child; it's the wounded from Fredericksburg; forty ambulances are at
the door, and we shall have our hands full in fifteen minutes." ...
Excerpts
from Battle-Pieces, Herman Melville
[1866]
Melville was not known as a poet, neither before nor after the
publication of these poetic sequences. Battle-Pieces was blasted by
just about every New York paper that reviewed them. Only Harper's,
which also, as it happened, was the publisher of the work, seemed to give it a
favorable review. We include it to show how even as great an imagination
as Melville's can struggle with the task of writing about the war. Skimming
lightly, wheeling still,
The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded
days,
The forest-field of Shiloh --
...
"Reconstruction,"
Frederick Douglass [1866]
This
piece, which first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, had Douglass calling
for the 39th Congress to take on the difficult tasks which its predecessor had
failed to. The arm of the Federal
government is long, but it is far too short to protect the rights of
individuals in the interior of distant States. They must have the power to
protect themselves, or they will go unprotected, spite of all the laws the
Federal government can put upon the national statute-book. ...
"An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Ambrose Bierce [1891]
Bierce
enlisted in the 9th Indiana Volunteers in 1861 and fought in the war, including
service at the battles of Shiloh and Chickamauga. He was seriously wounded
in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in 1864, but he served until January of 1865. A
man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the
swift water twenty feet below. The man's hands were behind his back, the
wrists bound with a cord. A rope closely encircled his neck. ...
"The
Private History of a Campaign That Failed," from Merry Tales, Mark
Twain
[1892]
Twain, like any number of writers from the period, was
conspicuously silent about the war for some time. Finally, however, he
came out in this piece about his extremely brief stint with a self-appointed
group of some 15 souls who called themselves Marion's Rangers. ...
we listened to an old-fashioned speech from him, full of gunpowder and glory,
full of that adjective-piling, mixed metaphor and windy declamation which were
regarded as eloquence in that ancient time and that remote region; and then he
swore us on the Bible to be faithful to the State of Missouri and drive all
invaders from her soil, no matter whence they might come or under what flag
they might march.
"The
Million Dead, too, summ'd up -- The Unknown," from Memoranda During the
War, Walt Whitman
[1862-1866; this conclusion, before 1875]
Like Alcott, Whitman, too, had
first-hand experiences at the hospitals, where he visited and helped tend to the
sick and wounded. This selection, which provides the conclusion to the Memoranda,
was obviously written later some ten years after the war. Although written
before Twain's 'confession', we have saved it for last because it seems as near
a perfect summing up of the War of the Rebellion as is possible. ... ...
the numberless battles, camps, Hospitals everywhere pass'd away since that
War, and its wholesale deaths, burials, graves. (They make indeed the
true Memoranda of the War -- mute, subtle, immortal.) ...
For
additional links to Literature of the Civil War, check out this month's Links
to Books & Lit On-Line. ... . *******
******* If you'd like to submit a poem, short story or
literary essay for possible publication, please e-mail us at books@downstreetmagazine.com.
The e-mail should contain your name, address, and a phone number where we can
reach you. You may also send a copy of your piece. The text can
either be included in the body of the e-mail, or you can send it as an
attachment in just about any word processing format. Please be sure to
include any identifying information within the body of the work. ...
If your piece is accepted, we will pay a small honorarium for your interest
& your time. [See Freelancers
Wanted for more details.] *******
******* If you would like to advertise in this
section, or throughout the magazine, please visit our Advertising
Info Pages ... or call, write, or e-mail ads@downstreetmagazine.com. *******
*******
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