The Civil War letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell : a chaplain's story / edited by Peter Messent and Steve Courtney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Twichell, Joseph Hopkins, 1838-1918.

Contributor:

Messent, Peter, 1946-

Courtney, Steve, 1948-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military chaplains--United States--Correspondence.

Military chaplains.

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

United States.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Religious aspects.

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

Twichell, Joseph Hopkins, 1838-1918--Correspondence.

Twichell, Joseph Hopkins.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (350 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens : University of Georgia Press, c2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In 1861 young Joseph Twichell cut short his seminary studies to become a Union Army chaplain in New York's Excelsior Brigade. A middle-class New England Protestant, Twichell served for three years in a regiment manned mostly by poor Irish American Catholics. This selection of Twichell's letters to his Connecticut family will rank him alongside the Civil War's most literate and insightful firsthand chroniclers of life on the road, in battle, and in camp. As a noncombatant, he at once observed and participated in the momentous events of the Peninsula and Wilderness Campaigns and at the Second Bull Run, as well as at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Spotsylvania. Twichell writes about politics and slavery and the theological and cultural divide between him and his men. Most movingly, he tells of tending the helpless, burying the dead, and counseling the despondent. Alongside accounts of a run-in with slave hunters, a massive withdrawal of wounded soldiers from Richmond, and other extraordinary events, Twichell offers close-up views of his commanding officer, the "political general" Daniel Sickles, surely one of the most colorful and controversial leaders on either side. Civil War scholars and enthusiasts will welcome this fresh voice from an underrepresented class of soldier, the army chaplain. Readers who know of Twichell's later life as a prominent minister and reformer or as Mark Twain's closest friend will appreciate these insights into his early, transforming experiences.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 April-July 1861: "This . . . regiment, composed as it is of rough, wicked men"

2 July 1861-March 1862: "Battle fields are not far off "

3 April-August 1862: " 'Sin entered into the world and death through sin' kept ringing through my brain"

4 August-December 1862: "If I mistake not there is a general falling back"

5 January-April 1863: "I come face to face with the hard, bitter Fact"

6 May-July 1863: "Thousands of souls have been called to sudden judgement"

7 August-December 1863: "Never can we forget the year 1863"

8 January-July 1864: "I have been up to my elbows in blood"

Afterword: The Lee Ivy

Sources

Index

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 319-321) and index.

ISBN:

9786613253040

9781283253048

1283253046

9780820342047

0820342041

OCLC:

768770921