Get Started On The Homefront In Civil War Missouri Conceived By James Erwin Available In Leaflet

interesting little book on The Civil War homefront with the brutal civilian consequences of guerrilla warfare, Each chapter could be read as an independent essay on slavery and emancipation, caring for the sick and wounded, guerrilla warfare, and the body politics during and after the war.
The author humanizes the war with stories dug out of the history of Missouri counties on the impact and scares that still haunt Native Missourians, After reading this book. I would argue this loyalty to North or South still haunts Missourians division in current political stances in the state's DNA, This book presents Civil War Missouri as “a turbulent, dangerous place to live, ” No doubt it was that, Confederate sympathizers saw it as an occupied land infested by hostile invadersYankee troops, They learned to keep their mouths shut or face arrest and military trial, Union sympathizers lived in constant fear of rebel bushwhackers, Neutrality was impossible. Everyone was forced to declare sides and there were only two sides, There was no privacy everyone knew which side you were on, People on both sides were subject to unwanted visits by foraging troops, including Federal troops, Neither law nor order was available, A nasty time and place to be alive, Horrible violence and suffering. The gravity of the situation is apparent in the portraits that illustrate this book, Every face has a grave and troubled expression,

I have read other books about Civil War Missouri and even wrote one myself, but this one offers details I had not seen elsewhere, Perspectives I had not considered, It draws on primary sources, including diaries of ordinary people, It covers the perplexing problems faced by the authorities, and the equally perplexing problems of ordinary people, white and black, free and enslaved, A very complicated war! There is a chapter about the supporting roles played by women and children,

This book presents Southern sympathizers in Missouri as an oppressed pariah class,

Could be clearer at times, but a readable and interesting account, This book should be, in my opinion, required reading for every high school student in Missouri, Filled with first hand accounts from letters and diaries, photographs and accounts in news paper articles from the areas closest to the battles, this book sheds light on the lives of Missourians, slave, soldier and civilian, as well as living conditions on and around the battle fields in the state.
Unsettling and educational, you will see civil war Missouri with a new perspective, Great subject matter, fascinating topic, But the presentation of the book is more of an overview term paper, rather than a nonfiction book, with little chapters covering different parts of the war, Personally, I would have preferred the book to have followed the people in the book more closely it was obvious the author had access to great source material and thereby ending up covering the same subjects, but in a more engrossing way.
If

I didn't have as strong an interest in the subject, it might have been a hard read, Over one thousand Civil War engagements were fought in Missouri, and the conflict could not be quarantined from civilian life, In the countryside, the wives and mothers of absent soldiers had to cope with marauders from both sides, Children saw their fathers and brothers beaten, hanged or shot, In the cities, a cheer for Jeff Davis could land a young boy in jail, and a letter to a sweetheart in the Confederate army could get a girl banished from the state.
Women volunteered to care for the flood of wounded and sick soldiers, Slavery crumbled and created new opportunities for black men to serve in the Union army but left their families vulnerable to retaliation at home, The turbulence and bitterness of guerrilla war was everywhere, .