This Wicked Rebellion

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Wisconsin Civil War Soldiers Write Home

Edited by John Zimm

Foreword by Michael Edmonds

Experience the hardships, the fears, the hopes, and the sorrows of the Civil War through the words of everyday citizens who joined the fight to save the Union.

240 pages, 6 x 9
Hardcover: $22.95 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-504-0
Ebook: $15.99 | ISBN: 978-0-87020-589-7
Publication Date: 10/24/2012

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Description

More than one hundred and sixty years after it began, the Civil War still fascinates us—the vast armies marching to war, iconic leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee, the drama of a nation divided. But the Civil War was also about individuals, the hundreds of thousands of ordinary men and boys who fought and died on either side and the families and friends left at home. This Wicked Rebellion: Wisconsin Civil War Soldiers Write Home tells this other side of the story. Drawing from more than 11,000 letters in the Wisconsin Historical Society’s Civil War collection, the book gives a unique and intimate glimpse of the men and women who took part in the War for the Union.

Follow Wisconsin soldiers as they sign up or get drafted, endure drill and picket duty, and get their first experiences of battle. Join them as they fight desperation and fear, encounter the brutality of slavery, and struggle with the reasons for war.

From impressions of army life and the South to the hardships of disease and battle, these letters tell the story of the war through the eyes and pens of those who fought in it. This Wicked Rebellion brings to life the heroism and heartache, mayhem and misery of the Civil War, and the powerful role Wisconsin played in it.

Author Bio

John Zimm

John Zimm received a BA in history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and formerly worked as an editor with the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. His articles have appeared in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, and he is the author of Blue Men & River Monsters: Folklore of the North and The Wisconsin Historical Society: Collecting, Preserving, and Sharing Stories since 1846.

No one writes about the Civil War better than the soldiers themselves. Reading these letters written in camp and on the battle line, you actually begin to hear their voices. An important look at Wisconsin in the Civil War. Simply first-rate.

Lance Herdegen

Author of “The Iron Brigade in the Civil War: Bull Run to Gettysburg to Appomattox”

“Drawn from an unparalleled collection of Civil War letters, This Wicked Rebellion reminds us that Wisconsin’s participants in that great conflict were not anonymous players but real individuals with whom we share common bonds and human inclinations. A splendid volume, destined to be a Civil War classic.”

—Michael Telzrow, former director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum

“Written at a time of great division in our country, these letters awaken in us a deeper understanding of our past, a greater empathy for our predecessors, and an appreciation of the sacrifices they made. Reading the words, thoughts, and opinions of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances allows us to get as close to our history and the people who inhabited it as possible. Suddenly, those staged, two-dimensional, sepia-toned photographs become real people very much like us—with the same hopes, dreams, and fears.”

—Dan Joyce, former director of the Civil War Museum in Kenosha, Wisconsin

“Nicely contextualized and usefully arranged, these highly literate letters trace Wisconsin soldiers’ transformations from farmers and clerks, seamen and lawyers, into citizen soldiers. Readers will come to appreciate their patriotism and political ideals, including their complicated attitudes about race, and to understand more fully the war’s costs to them and to their families. Filled with poignant details and expansive contemporary interpretations of the war and its legacies, This Wicked Rebellion provides a moving commemoration of the Civil War’s sesquicentennial.”

—James Martin, professor and chair of the History Department, Marquette University, and author of Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America