The Civil War Shelf

The Women's Fight
Thavolia Glymph
University of North Carolina Press
116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808
https://uncpress.org
9781469653631, $37.50, HC, 392pp

https://www.amazon.com/Womens-Fight-Battles-Freedom-Littlefield/dp/14696536=
3X

Synopsis: Historians of the Civil War often speak of "wars within a war" --=
the military fight and wartime struggles on the home front, as well as the=
political and moral battle to preserve the Union and end slavery. With the=
publication of "The Women's Fight: The Civil War's Battles for Home, Freed= om, and Nation", Professor Thavolia Glymph provides a comprehensive new his= tory of women's roles and lives in the Civil War (North and South, white an=
d black, slave and free) showing how women were essentially and fully engag=
ed in all three arenas.

Professor Glymph focuses on the ideas and ideologies that drove women's act= ions, allegiances, and politics. We encounter women as they stood their gro= und, moved into each other's territory, sought and found common ground, and=
fought for vastly different principles. Some women used all the tools and = powers they could muster to prevent the radical transformations the war inc= reasingly imposed, some fought with equal might for the same transformation=
s, and other women fought simply to keep the war at bay as they waited for = their husbands and sons to return home.

Professor Glymph also shows how the Civil War exposed as never before the n= ation's fault lines, not just along race and class lines but also along the=
ragged boundaries of gender. However, Professor Glymph makes clear that wo= men's experiences were not new to the mid-nineteenth century; rather, many =
of them drew on memories of previous conflicts, like the American Revolutio=
n and the War of 1812, in order to make sense of the Civil War's disorder a=
nd death.

Critique: Informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a thi= rty page Bibliography, sixty-two pages of Notes, an eight page Index of Nam= es, and a fourteen page Index of Subjects, "The Women's Fight: The Civil Wa= r's Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation" is a unique and impressively wri= tten, organized and presented study that is a critically important and unre= servedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, and aca= demic library American Civil War and 19th Century Women's History Studies c= ollections, It should be noted for the personal reading lists of students, = academia, historians, and non-specialist general readers with an interest i=
n the subject that "The Women's Fight" is also available in a paperback edi= tion (9781469672502, $27.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.99).

Editorial Note: Thavolia Glymph (https://history.duke.edu/thavolia-glymph) =
is the Peabody Family Distinguished Professor of History and Professor of L=
aw at Duke University and the author of "Out of the House of Bondage: The T= ransformation of the Plantation Household".

Thirteen Months in Dixie, or, the Adventures of a Federal Prisoner in Texas
W. F. Oscar Federhen, author
Jeanine Honstein, editor
Steven A. Knowiton, editor
Savas Beatie
PO Box 4527, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
www.savasbeatie.com
9781611215885, $29.95, HC, 168pp

https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Months-Adventures-Federal-Prisoner/dp/16112= 15889

Synopsis: Oscar Federhen was a new recruit to the 13th Independent Battery,=
Massachusetts Light Artillery, when he shipped out to Louisiana in the spr= ing of 1864 to participate in the Red River Campaign. Not long after his ar= rival at the front, a combination of ill-luck and bad timing led to his cap= ture. Federhen was marched overland to Tyler, Texas, where he was held as a=
prisoner of war in Camp Ford, the largest POW camp west of the Mississippi=
River.

Co-edited by Jeaninne Surette Honstin and Steven A. Knowiton, "Thirteen Mon= ths in Dixie, or, the Adventures of a Federal Prisoner in Texas: Including = the Red River Campaign, Imprisonment at Camp Ford, and Escape" recounts Fed= erhen's always thrilling and occasionally horrifying ordeals as a starving = prisoner.

The captured Union Army artillerist tried his hand at escaping several time=
s and faced sadistic guards and vicious hounds before finally succeeding. B=
ut his ordeal was just beginning as the young soldier faced a series of cha= llenges as he made his way cross-country through northeast Texas to reach U= nion lines.

Federhen had to dodge regular Confederates, brigands, and even Comanches in=
his effort to get home. He rode for a time with Rebel irregular cavalry, d= uring which he witnessed robberies and even cold-blooded murder. When he wa=
s recaptured and thought to be a potential deserter, he escaped yet again a=
nd continued his bid for freedom.

Federhen wrote his recollections in lively engaging style not long after th=
e war, but they sat unpublished until Jeaninne Surette Honstein and Steven = Knowlton carefully transcribed and annotated his incredible manuscript. Num= erous illustrations grace the pages, including two from Federhen's own pen.

"Thirteen Months in Dixie" is not only a gripping true story that would hav=
e otherwise been lost to history, but a valuable primary source about the l= ives of Civil War prisoners and everyday Texans during the conflict.

Critique: After being hidden away for decades as a family heirloom, the inc= redible manuscript for "Thirteen Months in Dixie, or, the Adventures of a F= ederal Prisoner in Texas: Including the Red River Campaign, Imprisonment at=
Camp Ford, and Escape" is finally available, annotated and illustrated, an=
d published for the first time. A rollicking tale of adventure, captivity, = hardship, and heroism during the last year of the Civil War (and written in=
his own words), this is a very special and unique American Civil War memoi=
r and a prized addition to personal, community, and academic library Americ=
an Civil War History/Biography collections. It should be noted for personal=
reading lists that "Thirteen Months in Dixie, or, the Adventures of a Fede= ral Prisoner in Texas: Including the Red River Campaign, Imprisonment at Ca=
mp Ford, and Escape" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $1= 1.50).

Editorial Note #1: Jeaninne Honstein (https://jhonstein.com) is a conceptua=
l artist based in Princeton, New Jersey. Her paintings, sculpture, photogra= phy, and writing are influenced by her perception of history and antiquitie=
s. She is pleased to bring the story of her ancestor William Francis Oscar = Federhen to the attention of the reading public for the first time.

Editorial Note 32: Steven A. Knowlton (https://scholar.princeton.edu/steven= ..a.knowlton/biocv) is Librarian for History and African American Studies at=
Princeton University. His historical research has been published in many p= eer-reviewed journals. He is the recipient of the William Driver Award from=
the North American Vexillological Association and the Marshall Wingfield A= ward from the West Tennessee Historical Society, and has won the Justin Win= sor Library History Essay Award twice.

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