A Book about the Civil War

I picked this little book up at BJ's.  It was part of a series of informational books published by the Readers Digest.  It contains 169 pages of facts, stories and original photographs, all of which is presented in a wonderfully easy reading style (kind of Readers Digesty).

I Used to Know That -- CIVIL WAR   (stuff you forgot from school) by Fred DuBose  2011

ISBN 978-1-60652-244-8  US History..Civil War, 1861-1865

I have been a member of the Pipe Creek Civil War Roundtable for a couple of years and have developed a great interest in that war.  Action happened in this area around the Pipe Creeks (Big and Little) and also in my current hometown of Westminster, Maryland and its environs. However, the Index does not mention Westminster or Pipe Creek.  Nearby Gettysburg, of course, has prominent mention.

The point of the book is to outline the main events and personages of the fight, and get you interested in learning more.  I think it accomplishes that admirably.  There were a lot of gaps in my knowledge of the war and some of these gaps were filled in, and my interest  in the war has indeed been intensified.. 

The book covers three periods:

1.  The Antebellum Period:  1800-1860

2.  The War Between the States: 1860-1865

3.  The Reconstruction Era: 1865-1877

The book explains four key events in the 1850's that pushed the Nation toward disunion:

1. The Compromise Act of 1850 (which included the Fugitive Slave Law)
2. The publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1852.
3.  The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (which stipulated that the citizens of a territory could determine its free or slave state status.
4.  The Dred Scott Decision by the Supreme Court in 1857 (which stripped Congress' power to ban slavery in new territories.)

The book examines the conduct of the war by both North and South.

The book takes a good look at recontruction activity after the war.

There you have it.. all you ever wanted to know about the Civil War.

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However, you know me, I like to pounce on little known facts and utterances in the books that I read, so here are a few (out of chronological order) items from Part I, the Antebellum Period:

Both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born nine months apart in Kentucky.

Abraham Lincoln (the 6'4" Railsplitter) squared off with Stephen A. Douglas (the 5'4" Little Giant) in a series of debates when running for the Senate in 1858.  That must have been a marvelous scene.. Abe, speaking in the squeaky drawl of a country boy.. looking down on an eloquent sweet-tongued practiced orator.  Lincoln lost those seven debates, but what he said created great interest in him and  nailed down his anti-slavery credentials.

Jefferson Davis was a hell-raiser while at West Point.  He was average in grades, but way above average at breaking curfews, drinking hard liquor and disregarding the rules.  He did make it through in spite of a court-martial based on his participation in a student riot after drinking alcoholic eggnog.

Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland.  He was sent to Baltimore for a while, where he learned to read (mostly surepticiously).  After suffering whippings and beatings back in Talbot County, he returned to Baltimore and was trained as a boat caulker.  In 1838, when he was around twenty years old, he escaped along the Underground Railroad and eventually arrived in New Bedford, Massachusetts (my old hometown).

As an experienced caulker, he obtained a job on the New Bedford wharves, and became active in abolitionist activity, even though he still had the status of an escaped slave.  Eight years after his escape, British abolitionists bought his freedom from his Maryland "owners". 

Frederick joined the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and became a powerful lecturer and author. He published The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself  in 1845, at the age of 27. 

In 1859, abolitionist John Brown decided that an attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, by blacks and whites, would encourage slaves to escape from the south and join them in the Allegheny Mountains, where they would be trained as guerilla fighters.  Mr. Brown did succeed somewhat in capturing the arsenal, but Robert E. Lee led a Union military force that restored order and captured Mr. Brown, who was later hanged.

'In 1807 the Kentucky Abolitionist Society was formed as an offshoot of the Baptized Licking-Locust Association, Friends of Humanity confederation - emancipationist Baptist churches..." 

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Well, what do you think?  Has your interest been tweaked?  I've mentioned only a few interesting (at least to me) items from part one of this great little book.  Get a copy and spend an enjoyable couple of hours learning little-known aspects of this period of our country's life.  And enjoy the marvelously reproduced photographs scattered throughout.  Have fun!

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