No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion is a groundbreaking study of life during the final sixteen months of the Confederacy. Civil War studies normally focus on military battles, campaigns, generals, and politicians, with the common Confederate soldier and Southern civilians receiving only token mention. Using personal accounts from more than two hundred seventy soldiers, farmers, clerks, surgeons, sailors, chaplains, farm girls, nurses, nuns, merchants, teachers and wives, author Jeff Toalson has created a compilation that is remarkable in its simplicity and stunning in its scope. These soldiers and civilians wrote remarkable letters and kept astonishing diaries and journals. They discussed disease, slavery, inflation, religion, desertion, blockade running, and their never-ending hope that the war would be over before their loved ones died. As in all wars, these are the people who suffer the most-and glory is hard to find amid lice, dysentery, starvation, and death. A significant contribution to Civil War literature, No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion will open vistas to a side of the war with which most are only mildly familiar. The words of these individuals are an honest, powerful, and poetic portrayal of the war's effect on their lives.

“Tells the brigade’s long history for the first time . . . captures the daily grind of soldiers striving and struggling in the ranks . . . A triumph” (Peter S. Carmichael, Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies and Director of the Civil War Institute, Gettysburg College). This unique history chronicles those men of Pickett’s Charge over the full course of the Civil War. While time-honored celebrations of Armistead and Pickett focus narrowly on moments at Gettysburg, primary sources declare the untold story of the best of men in the worst of times, and refutes Lost Cause myths surrounding Armistead and Pickett. For the first time, Lions of the Dan widens the aperture to introduce real heroes and amazing deeds that have been suppressed until now. The author presents the experiences of real soldiers in their own words and highlights the much-ignored history of Southside Virginia, presenting the Civil War start to finish from a unique regional perspective. Readers will find their pedestrian notions of the founding of the South’s peculiar institution challenged as they read an objective account of Virginia’s secession and celebrate the courage and devotion of soldiers on both sides.

Civil War studies normally focus on military battles, campaigns, generals and politicians, with the common Confederate soldiers and Southern civilians receiving only token mention. Using personal accounts from more than two hundred forty soldiers, farmers, clerks, nurses, sailors, farm girls, merchants, surgeons, chaplains and wives, author Jeff Toalson has created a compilation that is remarkable in its simplicity and stunning in its scope. These soldiers and civilians wrote remarkable letters and kept astonishing diaries and journals. They discuss disease, slavery, inflation, religion, desertion, blockade running, and their never-ending hope that the war would end before their loved ones died. A major portion of these documents were unpublished and were made available by the Brewer Library of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. With this, his third significant contribution to Civil War literature, Jeff Toalson joins the select company of Thomas W. Cutrer and Bell I. Wiley as historians who have devoted their body of work to preserving the voices of common Confederate soldiers and civilians.

"Between these pages the reader will learn that North Carolina citizens did not idly stand by as their soldiers marched off to war. The women worked themselves into patriotic exhaustion through Aid Societies. Civilians with different means of support from the lower class to the plantation mistress wrote the governor complaining of hoarding, speculation, the tithe, bushwhackers, unionism, conscription, and exemptions. Never before had so many died due to guerilla warfare. Unknown before starving women with weapons stormed the merchant or warehouses in search for food. Others turned to smuggling, spying, or natures oldest profession. Information from period newspapers, as well as mostly unpublished letters, tell their stories."

The letters of Richard and Mary Watkins are a treasure. A rare perspective offering tremendous insight into the daily life of both as they struggle with the hardships of war, farm operations and family concerns. A must read. Neal Wixson, editor, Echoes from the Boys of Company H -------------------------------- Between 1861 and 1865, Confederate Captain Richard Watkins and his wife Mary exchanged detailed and heartfelt letters. Richard had enlisted with Company K of the 3rd Virginia Calvary after Virginia seceded from the Union. Mary remained living near Meherrin, Virginia raising their three daughters and managing the farm. Sharing their letters with future generations was likely something the pair never envisioned. Editor Jeff Toalson, however, discovered, transcribed and annotated this extraordinarily rare collection of more than 300 unpublished letters. Held by the Virginia Historical Society, the letters convey detailed information about the war and daily life during a critical time in our nations history. Unlike military accounts of Civil War maneuvers and battles, the letters bring a clear sense of humanity to the conflict and its affects on those who lived through the time. Richard and Marys letters are touching and intriguing, weaving both a love story and an intense eyewitness account of the war. All of the major campaigns in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania are covered. Jeffs editing and attention to detail bring this heart-warming and engaging story to life. Despite the hardships, fears, disease and separation, youll be fascinated by the humor, depth and the stark realities of the Watkinss lives.

The Civil War acted like a battering ram on human beings, shattering both flesh and psyche of thousands of soldiers. Despite popular perception that doctors recklessly erred on the side of amputation, surgeons labored mightily to adjust to the medical quagmire of war. And as Brian Craig Miller shows in Empty Sleeves, the hospital emerged as the first arena where southerners faced the stark reality of what amputation would mean for men and women and their respective positions in southern society after the war. Thus, southern women, through nursing and benevolent care, prepared men for the challenges of returning home defeated and disabled. Still, amputation was a stark fact for many soldiers. On their return, southern amputees remained dependent on their spouses, peers, and dilapidated state governments to reconstruct their shattered manhood and meet the challenges brought on by their newfound disabilities. It was in this context that Confederate patients based their medical care decisions on how comrades, families, and society would view the empty sleeve. In this highly original and deeply researched work, Miller explores the ramifications of amputation on the Confederacy both during and after the Civil War and sheds light on how dependency and disability reshaped southern society.

Echoes from the Boys of Company H focuses on a few Civil War soldiers from Company H, 100th Regiment, New York State Volunteers, who were prolific writers. It is based upon a treasure trove of hundreds of letters, journals, and diaries. These writings provide rare insight into life as a common soldier. The boys also share their thoughts about topics ranging from everyday camp life and homesickness to broader concerns such as politics and religion. Hear a firsthand account of the horrors of prison life in Andersonville, Ga. Follow these soldiers after the war as they re-enter civil life. As their experiences begin to fade to distant echoes from the past, the soldiers ultimately join together to develop an association to relive and glorify their wartime experiences. Echoes from the Boys of Company H is a unique and touching collection of the written words of young men who proudly served their country during one of the most tumultuous times in the young nations history. Although their voices are now silenced, the documents they left behind are eloquent lessons in the understanding of and gratitude for the sacrifices of all who fought on both sides. Here is a rich collection of Civil War letters. They reveal the emotions and actions of men in battle. Edward Longacre, Author of Army of Amateurs An unusually textured view of the Civil War and its immediate aftermath in the words of its participants. The editor has gone to tremendous lengths to locate and transcribe a vast array of viewpoints on battles, camp life and wartime politics. Professor Carol Sheriff and co-author of A People at War Stunning! A remarkable tour de force! This is an intimate, personal look into everyday life in the 100th New York Infantry. We endure the misery of diseases and trench warfare, the boredom of camp life, and the terror of battles with these soldiers. Jeff Toalson, editor of No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion.

During the Civil War, enslavers bought and sold thousands of people, extending a traffic in humanity that had long underpinned American slavery. Despite the pressures of blockades, economic collapse, and unfolding emancipation, the slave trade survived to the war's end. This book provides a vivid look at life within the trade in slaves and tells the story of the wartime slave trade from the perspective of both participants in it and those subjected to it.