A Civil War Captain and His Lady

Download or read book A Civil War Captain and His Lady written by Gene Barr and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Barr’s engaging and revealing collection of letters from Lincoln country directly links the battlefield with the home front” (Randall M. Miller, editor of Lincoln & Leadership). More than 150 years ago, twenty-seven-year-old Irish immigrant Josiah Moore met nineteen-year-old Jennie Lindsay, a member of one of Peoria, Illinois’s most prominent families. The Civil War had just begun, Josiah was the captain of the 17th Illinois Infantry, and his war would be a long and bloody one. Their courtship and romance, which came to light in a rare and unpublished series of letters, form the basis of Gene Barr’s memorable book. Josiah and Jennie’s letters shed significant light on the important role played by a soldier’s sweetheart on the home front, and a warrior’s observations from the war front. In addition to this deeply moving and often riveting correspondence, Barr includes previously unpublished material on the 17th Illinois and the war’s Western Theater, including Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and the lesser known Meridian Campaign—actions that have historically received much less attention than similar battles in the Eastern Theater. The result is a rich, complete, and satisfying story of love, danger, politics, and warfare—one you won’t soon forget. “A delightful read on many levels: the stilted Victorian language in the letters quickly becomes easy to understand as the reader watches the relationship between Joshua and Jennie evolve into a full-fledged love affair—one that lasted a lifetime.” —Emerging Civil War “In this rare and remarkable collection of letters readers come to know two young lovers brought together and then separated by the exigencies of war.” —Terrence J. Winschel, author of Triumph & Defeat: The Vicksburg Campaign