A Civil War Treasury of Tales, Legends & Folklore

This book contains a sampling of Civil War storytelling of a type-personal narrative, anecdotes, hero tales, legends, historical traditions, yarns, tall tales, jests, strange tales, fables. Culled from a wide variety of contemporary sources-letters, diaries, newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets - and from the great body of Civil War reminiscences and regimental histories, over 330 stories have been arranged both chronologically and by subject to form a story history of the war. In their own words the people of the times speak to us in voices that are still fresh and meaningful to us today. The voices are those of Abe Lincoln and Robert E. Lee, of slaves, scouts, and spies, of the boys in the blue and gray, and the girls they left behind; of doctors, chaplains, nurses, corespondents, and the host of other. In away that only folklore-history from the heart-can, and conventional history cannot, their tales and narratives convey the vitality and humor, the courage and the imitation of people and an era.