Attempts to document the day-to-day lives and routines of Civil War soldiers began almost as soon as the volunteer forces mustered into service. Numerous Northern and Southern newspapers published letters by soldiers — often written pseudonymously — detailing their day-to-day activities. Because the soldiers knew that their friends and families at home would read these letters, they were usually very accurate and very reliable, and they were typically contemporaneous to the events they described.
After the war, hundreds of memoirs were published, many by high-ranking officers, but also many written by common soldiers. The historiography of the Civil War is filled with superb first-person accounts, such as Sam Watkins' iconic Co. Aytch: Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment or, A Side Show of the Big Show, which provides a humorous but detailed view of life in a Confederate regiment, or Wilbur Hinman's fine book, Corporal Si Klegg and His “Pard”: How They Lived and Talked, and What They Did and Suffered, While Fighting for the Flag, which provides an accurate picture of life in a Northern regiment. John D. Billings' wonderful memoir, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, also provides the same sort of insight and humor.
Modern historians have also tried to capture the same essence, using modern historical methods and drawing on the vast array of sources that exist. Two of the best-known examples are Bell I. Wiley's two classic studies, The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy and The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union, both of which set the standard for this sort of study. Prof. James M. McPherson's For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War endeavors to understand what motivated men to leave their homes and families to go off and fight for a cause that they believed in. Civil War historiography is replete with solid modern studies that shed a great deal of light on the plight of the common soldier.
Few, though, have done it as well as Michael J. Varhola's 1999 book, Everyday Life During the Civil War: A Guide for Writers, Students, and Historians. Unlike so many others of its genre, Varhola's book is intended to be a handbook for those engaged in the study of the Civil War. It includes almost every conceivable category of information, glossaries of the terminology, descriptions of the applicable technology of the era, a timeline of pertinent events, and, perhaps most useful of all, a detailed bibliography and suggestions of other resources to pursue if the reader is interested in learning more about a given topic. In short, Varhola's book is an extremely useful and extremely valuable resource for anyone interested in learning more about almost any aspect of the Civil War.
And now, Mike Varhola has prepared a second edition of his book that substantially improves upon the original version. He has added and updated the contents, has created new chapters, and has made a valuable resource even more valuable by expanding and improving what was already a fine resource. Varhola's new edition is even more indispensable than was the first edition, and it should find a place on the bookshelf of any serious student of the Civil War, as well as the bookshelf of anyone interested in gaining a better understanding of the daily travails of the men who fought for causes that they believed in. I commend the new edition of Mike's book to you.
Eric J. Wittenberg » Columbus, Ohio