A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country: The Civil War Reminiscences of a Union General
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
General Halbert Eleazer Paine, commanding officer of the 4th Wisconsin Regiment of Volunteers, took part in most of the significant military actions in the lower Mississippi Valley during the Civil War. Nearly forty years after the conflict's end, Paine -- a former schoolteacher and attorney who would become a three-term congressman -- penned recollections of his wartime exploits, including his involvement in the Vicksburg campaign, the operations that resulted in the capture of New Orleans, the Battle of Baton Rouge, the Bayou Teche offensive, and the siege of Port Hudson. Now available for the first time, A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country provides Paine's reflections and offer his excellent eyewitness account of the complexities of war.
Paine describes in detail the antiguerrilla operations he coordinated in southern Louisiana and Mississippi and his role in the defense of Washington, D.C., where he commanded a portion of the line during Confederate General Jubal Early's 1864 movement against the city. His experiences shed light on the daily struggle of the common solider and on the political and legal debates that dominated the times. In one striking episode, he describes his arrest for refusing to return to their masters fugitive slaves who entered his lines. He discusses the occupation of New Orleans and the relations between Federal soldiers and local slaves and provides definitive commentary on dramatic incidents such as the burning of Baton Rouge and the destruction of the ironclad ram C.S.S. Arkansas.
A departure from most accounts by Union army veterans, Paine's story includes less celebration of the grand cause and greater analysis of the motives for his actions -- and their inherent contradictions. He sympathized with the many "contrabands" he encountered, for example, yet he callously dismissed a reliable servant for suggesting that the rebels fought well. Despite expressing kind feelings toward certain southern families, Paine all but condoned his troops' "excessive looting" of local homes and businesses, which he viewed as acceptable retribution for those who resisted Federal authority. After the war, Paine also served as commissioner of patents, championing innovations such as the introduction of typewriters into the Federal bureaucracy.
With a useful introduction and annotations by noted historian Samuel C. Hyde, Jr., A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country reveals many of the subtle advantages enjoyed by the troops in blue, as well as the attitudes that led to behavior that left a violent legacy for generations.
Related to A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country
Related ebooks
Hard Tack and Coffee (Illustrated Edition): The Unwritten Story of Army Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmed with Abundance: Consumerism and Soldiering in the Vietnam War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bentonville: The Final Battle of Sherman and Johnston Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: Character: Review and Analysis of Chris Wallace's Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA People's History of the U.S. Military Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen the Yankees Came: Conflict and Chaos in the Occupied South, 1861-1865 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fighting for Hope: African American Troops of the 93rd Infantry Division in World War II and Postwar America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Civil War: A Book of Quotations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Burning Land Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFather Abraham's Children: Michigan Episodes in the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Civil War in Kansas: Ten Years of Turmoil Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Southern Cultures: Remembering the Civil War Issue: Volume 19: Number 3 – Fall 2013 Issue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings"Old Slow Town": Detroit during the Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBloody Bill Anderson: The Short, Savage Life of a Civil War Guerrilla Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jewish Confederates Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln's Dilemma: Blair, Sumner, and the Republican Struggle over Racism and Equality in the Civil War Era Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zeb Vance: North Carolina's Civil War Governor and Gilded Age Political Leader Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConfederate Guerrilla: The Civil War Memoir of Joseph M. Bailey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Civil War In My South Carolina Lowcountry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA More Civil War: How the Union Waged a Just War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Civil War Guerrilla: Unfolding the Black Flag in History, Memory, and Myth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Am a Good Ol’ Rebel: A Biography and Civil War Account of Confederate Brigadier General William H. F. Payne Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Coal River Valley in the Civil War: West Virginia Mountains, 1861 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFramed by War: Korean Children and Women at the Crossroads of US Empire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnderstanding Vietnam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walt Whitman and the Civil War: America’s Poet during the Lost Years of 1860-1862 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Slavery and Rebellion Are Destroyed: A Michigan Woman’s Civil War Journal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwice-Divided Nation: National Memory, Transatlantic News, and American Literature in the Civil War Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
United States History For You
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer: An Edgar Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Album: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowling Alone: Revised and Updated: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Kids: A National Book Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Library Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country
0 ratings0 reviews