A Rebel’s Recollections. By George Cary Eggleston with a new forward by Randy Bishop. 360 pp., 2010, Pelican Publishing, www.pelicanpub.com, 504-368-1175, $14.95, paper.
A Rebel’s Recollections was originally published in 1875 when George Cary Eggleston compiled a series of essays he had written about his service. Eggleston was a native of Indiana but inherited a plantation in Virginia prior to the war. His service in Virginia allowed him to observe Stonewall Jackson, Robert R. Lee, JEB Stuart among others, and Eggleston provides some insightful commentary of prominent Confederate leaders. The sections that cover the Confederacy’s financial woes and the supply situation are at times humorous but also melancholy.
There is no discussion of battles, nor of marches. Eggleston focused more on what a soldier thought and how he coped with the declining fortunes of the Confederacy than with bullets and gunpowder.
This new reprint is well done, utilizing high quality, clean scans of the original book. The new forward sets the stage for the topics Eggleston will cover, and teases at interesting tidbits that are to come.
Reviewed for Civil War News
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2 comments:
Nice book review, I look forward to.
The Confederate soldier endured so many hardships. Not that soldiers from the North did not. But due to the sheer fact that the South did not have the manufacturing capabilities of the North, they simply did not have what their counterparts had. Looks like a good book.
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