If I can get home this fall : a story of love, loss, and a cause in the Civil War / Tyler Alexander.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alexander, Tyler, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mason, Daniel, 1839-1865.

Mason, Daniel.

Mason, Daniel, 1839-1865--Correspondence.

Borland, Harriet Betsey, 1842-1924.

Borland, Harriet Betsey.

United States. Army--Officers--Biography.

United States.

United States. Army. Colored Infantry Regiment, 19th (1863-1867). Company H--Biography.

United States. Army. Vermont Infantry Regiment, 6th (1861-1864). Company D--Biography.

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

Glover (Vt.)--Biography.

Glover (Vt.).

Genre:

Biographies.

Personal correspondence.

Personal narratives.

Physical Description:

xxi, 300 pages, 18 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

illustrations.

Other Title:

Story of love, loss, and a cause in the Civil War

Place of Publication:

[Lincoln, Nebraska] : Potomac Books, an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, [2025]

Summary:

"If I Can Get Home This Fall chronicles the epic story of Dan Mason, a white man who served in the Civil War as a soldier in the Sixth Vermont Infantry and as an officer in the Nineteenth U.S. Colored Troops. It is a story of these two units from very different realities but with a common purpose. Drawing on Mason's letters home to his fiancé Harriet Clark and on other historical records, Tyler Alexander provides a compelling account of the human cost of war and offers insight about the experiences and attitudes of those who witnessed war firsthand, including enlisted troops and officers, men and women, Democrats and Republicans, and white and Black Americans. Alexander examines how the most controversial issues of the war-emancipation, the draft, military strategy, the arming of Black troops, and Reconstruction policy-were viewed in real time by the participants who found themselves engulfed in the maelstrom of war, particularly those from a strongly anti-slavery farming community in the hills of northeast Vermont. The voices from this distant time offer an example of what real patriotism, courage, and moral conviction look like in times of extreme national divisions over race, identity, and the meaning of democracy."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

"The Sum of All Villainies"

"The Wildest Enthusiasm Prevails" (Winter 1861-62)

"The Final Blow to Secession Will Be Struck Here" (Spring 1862)

"We Had a Pretty Rough Time" (Summer 1862)

"I Don't Know What the Next Flop Will Be" (Fall 1862)

"Disgusted with the Manner the Machine Is Handled" (Winter 1862-63)

"You Cannot Imagine the Thrill of Joy" (Spring 1863)

"It Begins to Look Like Putting Down Rebellion" (Summer 1863)

"The Rotten Treacherous Walls of Slavery" (Fall 1863)

"There Is Something Wild and Exciting That Makes It Bewitching" (Winter 1863-64)

"I Was Really Proud of My Command" (Spring 1864)

"I Say Fight Them" (Summer 1864)

"When Will the Cruel War End?" (Fall 1864)

"My Future Happiness" (Winter 1864-65)

"You Don't Know How I Would Like to See You" (Spring 1865)

"If I Can Get Home This Fall" (Summer 1865)

"A Brave and Elegant Soldier" (Fall 1865)

"Let Us Not Mock Our Honored Dead."

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 275-291) and index.

ISBN:

9781640126664

164012666X

OCLC:

1453617289