Recollections of the Civil War : with the leaders at Washington and in the field in the sixties / by Charles A. Dana ; introduction to the Bison Books ed. by Charles E. Rankin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dana, Charles A. (Charles Anderson), 1819-1897.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Campaigns.

United States.

History.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Personal narratives.

Genre:

Personal narratives.

Physical Description:

xxix, 296 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [1996]

Summary:

Early in 1863 General Grant was under a cloud, blamed for heavy Union losses at Shiloh, called an undependable drunkard by his detractors. As Grant moved toward Vicksburg, the Lincoln administration needed to know more about what was happening in the remote western theater. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton dispatched a respected newspaperman. Charles A. Dana, ostensibly to straighten out payroll matters but actually to observe Grant and the situation in the army and report back daily. Dana became "the government's eyes at the front". Recollections of the Civil War, drawing largely on his reports and originally published in 1898, is a classic to rank with Grant's Personal Memoirs (also available in a Bison Books edition). Dana's candid assessment of Grant, other officers, and campaign operations carried weight with Lincoln and Stanton and undoubtedly influenced the course of the war. In these pages, Dana is with Grant and General Sherman throughout the siege of Vicksburg, riding into the city "at the side of the conqueror". Later he is with Grant at Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg. He is with General Roseerans at Chickamauga; he watches General Sheridan's troops scale Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga; he walks through the ruins of Richmond; he attends Lincoln on his deathbed. Finally, he sees Jefferson Davis in chains at Fortress Monroe.

Notes:

"Originally published in 1898 by D. Appleton and Company, New York. Reprint from the 1902 edition by Appleton"--T.p. verso.

"Bison books"--Half t.p.

Includes index.

ISBN:

0803266014

OCLC:

33948214