Description
Penned between November 1862 and July 1863, this work sought to popularize the cause of the Southern Unionists of the Ozarks of Arkansas. Bishop, a lieutenant colonel of the Ozark mountaneers, describes the exploits of the Unionist fighters, albeit with some exaggeration according to the editor Scott (special collections librarian, Montana State U.). Of more value, according to Scott, is Bishop's analysis of the origins of the fighting, which was waged with a savagery on both sides distinctive even for the American Civil War. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Read More
First published in 1863, this book has the immediacy, passion, and intimacy of its wartime context. It tells the remarkable story of Albert Webb Bishop, a New York lawyer turned Union soldier, who in 1862 accepted a commission as lieutenant colonel in a regiment of Ozark mountaineers. While maintaining Union control of northwest Arkansas, he collected stories of the social coercion, political secession, and brutal terrorism that scarred the region.His larger goal, however, was to popularize and inspire sympathy for the South’s Unionists and to chronicle the triumph of Unionism in a Confederate state. His account points to the complex and divisive nature of Confederate society and in doing so provides a perspective that has long been absent from discussions of the Civil War
Read Less