The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, And African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle

Book Description

"A wonderful 'backstage' story of human beings caught up in the greatest battle fought in the Western Hemisphere." (Ken Burns)

In the summer of 1863, as Union and Confederate armies converged on southern Pennsylvania, the town of Gettysburg found itself thrust onto the center stage of war. The three days of fighting that ensued decisively turned the tide of the Civil War. In The Colors of Courage, Margaret Creighton narrates the tale of this crucial battle from the viewpoint of three unsung groups--women, immigrants, and African Americans--and reveals how wide the conflict's dimensions were. A historian with a superb flair for storytelling, Creighton draws on memoirs, letters, diaries, and newspapers to bring to life the individuals at the heart of her narrative. The Colors of Courage is a stunningly fluid work of original history-one that redefines the Civil War's most remarkable battle.

"Exciting, intelligent and provocative." (Chicago Tribune)

Book Description

Gettysburg as seen from the viewpoint of three unsung groups--immigrants, women, and African Americans--transforming our understanding of the most important battle in American history.

Gettysburg has been written about and studied in great detail over the last 140 years, but there are still many participants whose experiences have been overlooked. In augmenting this incomplete history, Margaret Creighton presents a new look at the decisive battle through the eyes of Gettysburg's women, immigrant soldiers, and African Americans.

An academic with a superb flair for storytelling, Creighton draws on memoirs, letters, diaries, and newspapers to get to the hearts of her subjects. Mag Palm, a free black woman living with her family outside of town on Cemetery Ridge, was understandably threatened by the arrival of Lee's Confederate Army; slavers had tried to capture her three years before. Carl Schurz, a political exile who had fled Germany after the failed 1848 revolution, brought a deeply held fervor for abolitionism to the Union Army. Sadie Bushman, a nine-year-old cabinetmaker's daughter, was commandeered by a Union doctor to assist at a field hospital. In telling the stories of these and a dozen other participants, Margaret Creighton has written a stunningly fluid work of original history--a narrative that is sure to redefine the Civil War's most essential battle.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting sidelights to Gettysburg battle, but bizarre frame of reference.......2006-05-15

Despite its colorless title, The Colors of Courage is an interesting and revealing book that's well worth the reading. One learns much about native (Yankee) prejudice against German immigrants (allegedly stupid, clownish and cowardly), what happened in the town of Gettysburg during the three days of battle, and the experience of northern blacks, especially those near the Mason-Dixon line (only 7 miles away). Much fascinating material has been uncovered by fruitful research. The style of cool appraisal of historical fact though often gives way to one in which the author's paternalistic bigheartedness is apparent. Refreshingly, the author rejects the usual attempts at evoking sympathy or a misguided evenhandedness for the Confederacy and its soldiers, and presents the rebel army in all the horrific racism that was its soul and raison d'etre.

It is distressing though that much of the book is given over to a cloying gender self-promotion. Claims are made for the courageous self-sacrifice of Gettysburg womanhood, but little real courage is really described. The only incident that stands out in my mind is the fact that some Gettysburg women prepared meals for the Confederate soldiers who occupied the town during the battle, soldiers who, given the opportunity, would have killed their husbands, sons, brothers and fathers. These meals were prepared under some duress, of course, but when one woman courageously refuses she goes unpunished. But what could one expect from a gender that, in a 19th century rural backwater, suffered all the quasi-slavery and humiliations imposed by unchallenged male superiority -- not a fertile nursery for courage. The author notes many episodes of women's lives in Gettysburg, episodes that made me cringe with shame for these poor put-upon women. But amazingly these episodes are not presented as shameful at all, as if that would diminish these women as proud bearers of the title of womanhood. While chattel slavery is forthrightly despised, in this book gender slavery gets off scot-free! There is hardly a word that points the finger critically at the male superiority that so diminished the lives of these women. It's the elephant in the parlor -- overwhelmingly present, but unmentioned.

Despite this bizarre frame of reference, The Colors of Courage presents aspects of the war and the society that lived in its midst that are well worth discovering and whose uncovering justifies the obvious effort devoted to bringing these sidelights of the war to view.

Well researched, yet biased........2006-02-05

Though Mrs. Creighton's text is well researched and factual, I believe it to be a bit extreme. I find that most claims made in the text are nothing more than generalizations. Yes, Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863, however very few Union soldiers were fighting for this cause. Most Federal troops were fighting to preserve the Union, and quite a few were appaled over the idea of losing their lives to free the slaves. Additionaly, the majority of the Confederates namely Robert E. Lee and Thomas Jackson were not slave owners, and were simply fighting for state's rights. In fact, Lee asked Confederate President Jefferson Davis to incorporate black units into the Confederate Army. This was rejected, but by early 1865 the Confederate Army consisted of a few black units.
Secondly, although the citizens of Gettysburg suffered for a few weeks I tend to feel very little remorse. What Creighton believed to be major infractions against the Confederate Army was but mere childsplay to what Union General William T. Sherman dubbed "total war". In his infamous march to the sea(Atlanta to Savannah), his men robbed, killed, and humiliated southern citizens in an attempt to make the South lose it's fighting spirit. So please forgive me if I do not share in the citizen's of Pennsylvania's remorse for their two weeks of terror. Please do not get me wrong, I have nothing but the highest respect for those effected by the Civil War(fighting men and citizens alike). Yet, I believe it to be somewhat offensive to not even mention towns like Charleston, South Carolina and Vicksburg,Mississippi that were shelled and in the case of Vicksburg, starved into submission.
In summation, I believed Mrs. Creighton's book to be both informative and a good read. Please forgive me if I have offended anyone, and I will be more than happy to discuss this as well.

Pickett's Charge fought on land owned by a Free Black! WOW!.......2005-12-12

This book tells us, not about the battle, but what went on in the town of Gettysburg itself. Having lived there for 5 years, I was steeped in the folklore that the soldiers ran back and forth throught the streets of the town for three days, and with the exception of Jennie Wade (story: warned to go to the basement, courageously continued making bread) the townspeople were unscathed and John Burns (story: an irascible old coot), no townspeople participated. I had never heard of the Brian Family!

I was not without resources. I was the director of the public library. I met Michael Shaara, Bill Frassinito, Col. Sheads, Charlie Glatfelter, and a host of lesser and unknown historians, Park Service tested guides, civil war buffs and re-enacters. Perhaps I never asked Shaara (the one time I met him) and the others whom I saw more often, tacitly understanding that this battle was a white male thing, about these things. Maybe I accepted the script because the Gettysburg as I knew it was a quiet town, didn't get involved, and maybe didn't in 1863.

How could all that fighting occur in the town, without an effect, as defined by the local folklore surrounding the battle? Could the soldiers really be so courtly that they put aside their survival needs as not to disrupt to the town's civilians?

There are people who know this battle in great detail. They can recite (and argue about) the numbers of blue and gray who died in the wheat field, the peach orchard the round tops, etc. I never heard them talk about how the soldiers got fed (did they think they had were 3 squares at a mess hall?)

Creighton gives us not only the narrartive but also the answers as to how this history got burried.

Excellent work! Bravo Margaret Creighton!

Yes, I agree, but on the other hand . . ........2005-10-15

I enjoyed Margaret Creighton's book. From far off Yarmouth, Maine, she has thrown her nets far and wide and hauled in a lot of historical flotsam and jetsam that might have escaped other scholars, in service of putting together another of her finely tuned historical studies of the underserved in American history. Here we find out more about the immigrant populations who comprised the Union Army, as well as the actual lives of the women of Gettysburg and the black citizens of the surrounding area. These are the shadow puppets of history, the folks who you might never have learned about by visiting the national park nor studying your social studies book.

You probably heard more about Mamie Eisenhower's residence at Gettysburg than you did about the women who were drafted into battle, whether they were forced to nurse, to cook, to slave, or to fight. Why is this? Partially, as Professor Creighton explains, these women were told, and they believed it, that their sacrifices did not matter. And that, perhaps, there was even something a little bit shameful about what they did, particularly if they were required to assist the invading Confederate army. Of the ravishment and rape that undoubtedly occurred, we know little but can surmise much, thanks to Creighton's research and the guarded testimony of forty Gettysburg women, mostly farmwives. Creighton looks at the nuance behind every statement, searching out human reality wherever it crops it head. "A middle-aged woman on a farm opened her door to a soldier on July second. By the way he was dressed, she was sure that he was a Louisiana Tiger. He told her that `General Lee had said that they should ask for food and if they would not give it they should demand it and that was what he was going to do.' She fed him ham. He ate some of it and then insulted her. The bread, he complained, was not fit to eat, `Madam,' he said, `I can go into any cabin in Virginia, poor and desolate as it is, from Winchester to Richmond, with not a fence standing, and get a better dinner than this.'" Creighton returns to this anecdote to eke out perceptions on the nature of resistance, and the implacability of the bad ham (Gettysburg women had to be fine actresses, for otherwise the Tiger in question might have guessed that the farmwife had fine chickens hidden with their beaks taped.)

As Creighton acknowledges, the presence of women on the Gettysburg battlefield is currently a contested site for scholars, particular feminist scholars, and she acknowledges that a host of others are trawling the same fields. The material remains of interest, and does indeed widen our picture of what happened that summer long ago, but I wondered, after finishing the book, if perhaps she might have written three separate books, for there's a sense in which the struggles of the immigrant soldiers, the Gettysburg women, and the freed, escaped or citizen slaves are experiences of very different registers and don't mesh together especially well except under cloudy language of the deracinated and ignored, and although Creighton tries her best, she can only link them this vaguely for the first two hundred times, then after that her rhetoric grows tiresome.

Unsung Heros of Gettysburg.......2005-10-07

So much has been written about the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 -- July 3, 1863), that it is difficult to find something new to say or a new and interesting way to say it. Margaret Creighton's book, "The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History" (2005) succeeds on both counts. Margaret Creighton is Professor of History at Bard College, Maine. Her study of the Battle of Gettysburg focuses on the people and groups that frequently do not receive their full due: the Union XIth Corps, composed in large part of German immigrants, slightingly referred to as "Dutch", and its leaders, the German immigrants in the Borough of Gettysburg, the women of Gettysburg, and the African-American community in Gettysburg and its environs. Professor Creighton also discusses the "Louisiana Tigers" a much-feared unit of the Confederate Army. Each of these groups, Professor Creighton shows the reader, had something at stake in the Battle of Gettysburg over and above the military maneuvers and strategies, and each contributed something important to the result of the battle and to its significance.

The book begins with some stage-setting of where each group stood just before the Battle. Thus the Union XI Corps was smarting from the defeat of the Union Army at Chancellorsville, and it was viewed as the scapegoat because it was the victim of Stonewall Jackson's surprise attack on the far Union flank.

Professor Creighton gives a good picture of pre-war Gettysburg, something most other histories treat too lightly. Women of Gettysburg were of varying economic and social status and had to bear much of the brunt of the invasion because many of the men were in military service or had left the town in anticipation of the invasion.

Approximately eight percent of Gettysburg's population was African-American. Most of the African-American population was poor and stuggling, but some individuals had managed to acquire land and property and to attain positions of influence and respect within their community. With the Confederate invasion, most of the African-American population that was able to do so left town. And with good reason. The Southern Army seized African-Americans as "contraband," including those who had never spent a day in Southern slavery, and sent them South to a life of slavery. Professor Creighton describes this well as the "reverse Underground Railroad."

In Professor Creighton's account, we see how the XI Corps and its leaders tried to redeem themselves at Gettysburg. She shows how women conducted themselves heroically during the battle by offering a mixture of cooperation with and resistance to the invading troops. After the Battle, many women in the town made tireless and demanding efforts in caring for the wounded and the dying.

There is a great deal of attention paid to Gettysburg's African-American community and how it was changed by the Battle. I found the discussion of the African-American residents of Gettysburg the most fascinating part of the book and the part which has been least explored in other studies.

The book is brought to life by its treatment of individuals as well as groups. Thus we meet a variety of people in the XI Corps, from its Commander, General Otis Howard, through the German immigrant Generals Schurz and Schimmelfennig on Howard's staff, through the enlisted corporal Adam Muenzenberger who is taken prisoner on July 1 and dies in a prison camp. We see a great deal of Georgia Wade McClellan and her more famous sister, Jennie Wade, and learn more about them than is usual in battle studies. We also hear a great deal about Elizabeth Thorn, who in 2002 at last received a monument in her honor. Mrs. Thorn, pregnant and the keeper of the Evergreen Cemetery provided great and hazardous service before, during, and after the Battle of Gettysburg. Again Professor Creighton makes nuances and details of her story come alive that often get little attention.

The African-Americans described in Professor Creighton's study include Abraham Brian, whose home remains on the Gettysburg Battlefield on Cemetery Ridge at the center of the Confederate attack, the flamboyant Mag Palm, Owen Robinson, a successful businessman, and Basil Biggs, who did a great deal of work burying fallen soldiers after the Battle. Professor Creighton also uses a great deal of oral histories based upon her interviews with Catherine Carter and Margaret Nutter, descendants of African-Americans in Gettysburg at the time of the Battle. These sources are unusual and have much to teach about the Battle.

Professor Creighton tells her story in a clear, dignified way which, for the most part, is free of polemic. She reminds the reader that Gettysburg was fought for human freedom and that the goals of the battle and the Civil War, particularly the promise of freedom and dignity to African-Americans, sometimes were forgotten in the spirit of reconciliation that came to pervade American life following Reconstruction. Professor Creighton tells an important story, or a series of important stories, and she tells them well. Her book was a pleasure to read and taught me a great deal about the facts and the meaning of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Robin Friedman

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Off focus
Essential for reenactment biographies
A look at the many roles women played in the Civil War.

Women at Gettysburg
Eileen F. Conklin
Manufacturer: Thomas Publications (PA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Biographies of 40 women who served, nursed, or aided the soldiers after Gettysburg. Participation of women during the war was critical, if not essential to the survival of many men.

Customer Reviews:

Off focus.......2001-12-30

Unlike a previous review, there are stories in here that don't deal with Gettysburg at all. This is a "Top 40" women of the CW, not Gettysburg. And some of these women contributed nothing worth reading, let alone writing about. Poorly written.

Essential for reenactment biographies.......1999-03-07

An eighth grade project where students rewrote biographies of Civil War people in first person was nearly impossible for a hundred eighth graders until I discovered this book. The accounts of forty women at Gettysburg from townspeople to wives of both sides give girls an equal opportunity to relate and connect to the people and events of the Civil War. Even with the "big names" such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Sarah Emma Edmonds, Clara Barton, Rose Greenhow, and Mary Todd Lincoln, women doctors, a few more spies, women soldiers, abolitionist/suffragettes, there were not enough women's biographies for the females in my middle school's eighth grade.

There is no dearth of men's biographies. I was so desperate the last time my class did a Civil War reenactment that one girl ended up as the wife of Arthur MacArthur since the encyclopedia described him as a hero of the Civil War and the father of Douglas MacArthur. We assumed Arthur was married! The girl had to extrapolate the barebones information into a story from Mrs. MacArthur's point of view as did generic nurses in the Sanitation Commission or bits gleaned from the indexes of the Civil War epics by Shelby Foote; creative but difficult for many.

This is the second year using Women at Gettysburg, and I hope to bring the time, the people, and the events alive even better this time.

A look at the many roles women played in the Civil War........1998-09-22

Conklin presents a well-researched view of the roles of women in the Civil War by concentrating on those who were involved in the Battle of Gettysburg. By focusing on one battle, one place, she is able to give us a broad range of what women could do to aid the war effort. Many are common women forced to open their homes to the thousands of wounded from both sides out of compassion and necessity. Some are volunteer nurses who travel with the hospitals. There are soldiers - the anonymous woman whose body was found in uniform on the ground after Pickett's Charge. There are nuns, wives, scavengers and helpmates. Women who worked along side the men to fight the respective causes. We can apply what we learn here to other places in America during this turbulent time and realize that women were more than just the girl who waited at home or the tireless nurse. They were an essential element of the war effort that has been greatly underestimated and ignored. Presented in a format that is both personal and easily accessible to all, it's a must-read!

Born at the Battlefield of Gettysburg: An African-American Family Saga

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Midwest Book Review's take
Born at the Battlefield of Gettysburg

Born at the Battlefield of Gettysburg: An African-American Family Saga
Harriette C. Rinaldi
Manufacturer: Markus Wiener Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1558763317

Customer Reviews:

Midwest Book Review's take.......2006-05-26

" Born At The Battlefield Of Gettysburg: An African-American Family Saga is the true story of an African-American family that suffered from the unspeakable evil of slavery. The protagonist's mother was the daughter of free blacks in Philadelphia; kidnapped from her parents by slave catchers, she was enslaved on a Virginia tobacco plantation for 37 years before making a daring escape to Gettysburg on the night before the historic Civil War battle ensued. She was nine months pregnant, and determined that her child would not be born a slave. Born At The Battlefield Of Gettysburg is an impressively in-depth, heavily researched and brutally accurate portrayal of the methods and means by which the monstrous evil of slavery was justified and perpetuated, how religion was used both as a club to keep slaves in line and as a means of self-expression for the slaves, the operation of the Underground Railroad, and much more. Riveting and highly recommended, yet also shocking in its literal, realistic portrayal of man's historical inhumanity to man."-- Midwest Book Review

Born at the Battlefield of Gettysburg.......2005-01-21

The lives of Victor Chambers-who was born on the battlefield at Gettysburg to a runaway slave and later became an artist in Providence-and his mother are chronicled in this book based on letters that Victor Chambers wrote to Rinaldi's great-grandfather, a Civil War veteran, in 1931. The story Rinaldi relates is emblematic of the fate of countless others whose lives were shaped by the scourge of slavery. Chambers' mother, a daughter of free blacks in Philadelphia, was kidnapped from her parents by slave catchers, who most likely included the notorious Lucretia (Patty) Cannon. After the kidnapping, Chambers' mother was enslaved on a Virginia tobacco plantation for 37 years before she made her escape to Gettysburg on the night before the historic Civil War battle erupted. She was nine months pregnant with Chambers-and determined that her child would not be born a slave. Gettysburg was a key stop on the Underground Railroad. This riveting chronicle provides valuable insights into the tactics and routes used by slave catchers in abducting free blacks, especially children, the atmosphere in slave markets; the role of religion as a means of control by owners, as well as a means of self-expression by slaves; the treatment of slave children; physical and psychological measures used by masters and overseers to control slaves; sexual abuse by masters; and the Underground Railroad as a clandestine operation.

Exile to Sweet Dixie: The Story of Euphemia Goldsborough, Confederate Nurse and Smuggler

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I am the author and would like to submit my comments.

Exile to Sweet Dixie: The Story of Euphemia Goldsborough, Confederate Nurse and Smuggler
Eileen F. Conklin , and Euphemia Mary Goldsborough Willson
Manufacturer: Thomas Publications (PA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Exile to Sweet Dixie, based on the research of the Goldsborough Collection, sheds light on some rarely explored aspects of women's Civil War history. The Confederate nurse's experiences at Gettysburg, the activiites of Confederate women in Baltimore, the treatment of female prisoners by Federal military authorities, and life as an exiled woman in the South are all part of Euphemia Goldsborough 's war time experiences. The collection which has reposed in the hands of the descendants for 140 years has been expanded for this volume with additional documentation and information. Euphemia Goldsborough, while a nurse at Gettysburg, kept "hospital books" replete with signatures and missives of wounded Confederate prisoners. She commenced her diaries at the time of her arrest and exile in 1863. Her corrrespondence with Confederate soldiers, prisoners, and their families is included, along with her Provost Marshal file in its entirety. This story is one of courage, endurance, and achievement. Euphemia Goldsborough exemplifies the Southern woman committed to the Confederacy and its people both during and after the war. Against great odds and risking all that was dear, Euphemia Goldsborough acted selflessly for convictions that many Americans still value today. Working for the greater good, accepting personal responsibility, adherence to beliefs, and helping those in need are, hopefully, held in timeless esteem.

Customer Reviews:

I am the author and would like to submit my comments........1999-06-23

Exile to Sweet Dixie is based on the research of the extensive Goldsborough collection. In addition to the chapters of her diaries and the hospital books, there are sections on her life, the political and military oppression under which she risked her service as nurse and smuggler, her Provost Marshal file with the documents used as evidence in her trial, and her personal papers that concerned her war activities. There are seven appendices of war related text written by her contemporaries effected by her service. Subsequent to the death of Goldsborough's granddaughter, the collection has been divided among family members and will almost certainly never be viewed as a whole or be accessible to the public. I chose to present this material as an annotated transcript of a valuable primary source. It is the drama of one woman's horrific war experiences; that of having a dying soldier tied to her back all night, being strip searched in front of the soldiers while imprisoned, and the emotional, physical, and mental toll of nursing and exile. I trust the reader to form their own perceptions and draw from it what they deem important to their particular interests.

Five Star First Edition Mystery - Murder at Gettysburg (Five Star First Edition Mystery)

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interesting amateur sleuth

Five Star First Edition Mystery - Murder at Gettysburg (Five Star First Edition Mystery)
Leslie Wheeler
Manufacturer: Five Star
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1594142882

Book Description

When author and historian Miranda Lewis accepts an invitation from her old college roommate and her roommate's father, a handsome, courtly Virginian, to attend the reenactment of the Gettysburg Battle over the Fourth of July weekend, she hopes to recapture the magic of the long-ago summer she spent with them. But the jaunt down memory lane turns into a nightmare when her roommate's estranged husband, Wiley, a hardcore Confederate reenactor, is shot in the leg and dies of a heart attack while reenacting Pickett's Charge. Wiley's death begins to look suspicious when a large amount of money is found on the shooter, a fellow reenactor, after he flees the scene on his motorcycle and is mowed down by a truck. Also, the victim had no known history of heart trouble. Concerned for her grieving friend, who blames herself for her husband's death, Miranda sets out to discover the truth. As she plunges into the strange and sometimes scary world of Civil War reenactors, she uncovers a string of betrayals that have resulted in mayhem and ultimately murder. The revelations force Miranda to shed certain cherished illusions about people and events of both the past and the present, and to risk her own life to uncover a cunning killer.

Leslie Wheeler, a descendant of Union general George B. McClellan and a self-confessed Civil War buff, is the author of a previous mystery, Murder at Plimoth Plantation. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband, son, and cat.

Customer Reviews:

interesting amateur sleuth.......2005-06-04

Her roommate as an undergraduate at Stanford Ginny Longford Cross and her father Virginian Randall Longford invites Boston historian Miranda Lewis as their guest at a Gettysburg reenactment. Ginny's estranged husband, Wiley, a die hard reenactor who believes in 100 percent authenticity and willing to look war torn gaunt, will play a Confederate soldier at the event.

At the gala, Wiley is accidentally shot and soon after dies of cardiac arrest, which is surprising since he had no heart trouble. While Ginny grieves her loss, Miranda makes inquiries among the Civil War participants after learning that the person who shot Wiley is also dead following a motorcycle-truck incident. As Miranda digs deep into what is going on at the reenactment, she is jeopardy of being the next victim of the Civil War though it is a hundred and forty years since Appomattox.

Though the homicide occurs towards the middle of the book, readers will enjoy how MURDER AT GETTYSBURG provides insight as to what happens behind the scenes at a reenactment. The first half of plot also sets the tone on relationships between the key players. Once fans adjust to Miranda investigating a potential murder (a difficult issue of acceptance with most of the sub-genre tales), the entertaining amateur sleuth story line grips the audience until the heroine risks her life confronting the killer.

Harriet Klausner

Fixin' Things: A Novel of Women at Gettysburg

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"Where is their representative? Where is their memorial?"
Exceptional
Real Women in the Civil War
Excellent Historical Fiction

Fixin' Things: A Novel of Women at Gettysburg
Peggy Ullman Bell
Manufacturer: Writers Club Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

War | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0595218415

Book Description

FIXIN' THINGS is the story of Megan Loren's struggle with past incest between herself and her "trusted" brother-in-law, and her desire to keep it secret from the sister whom she believes loves the perpetrator. The turning point of America's Civil War erupts outside her bedroom window, adding its horrors and triumphs to Megan's already complicated life. Family issues get set aside as two armies clash on her doorstep, only to return in the person of the sister's lascivious husband as soon as the battle winds down.

"In her riveting second novel, Author Peggy Ullman Bell shows us aspects of the Battle of Gettysburg never before seen in fiction." D. Jenkins, PhD.

Customer Reviews:

"Where is their representative? Where is their memorial?".......2007-06-21

Author Peggy Bell is the worthy representative, and her book, "Fixin' Things" is the fitting memorial. This fascinating and credible story of the Civil War as seen (primarily) through the eyes and experienced through the lives of the women of the time, transports the reader into a ghastly world gone mad with the blood-letting, gut-spilling violence of insane men playing a to-the-death game of "King-of-the Hill." And through it all, the women were there; amazing women, with strength, resiliency, and fortitude. Feeding, nursing, wading through the blood and guts, bandaging mutilated men with strips torn off their petticoats, they fought through the war with unmitigated valor.

A wonderful piece of historical fiction, Bell's "Fixin' Things" has everything you could want in a good tale; a unique plot angle with twists and turns, lots of intriguing sub-plots thickening and expanding the story, remarkable characters brought to life, and scene depictions that run the full gamut from tender and lovely to terrifying and horrific. The story of the Battle of Gettysburg as told in this book was the best I have ever read. This book is an excellent tribute to the women who loved their broken country, mended it, and nursed it back to life.

Exceptional.......2002-06-29

Exceptionally written. Author keeps you 'in' the action. Does a super job of letting you see through words the events of the time. Paints the picture well. The author's rendition of the women of Gettysburg is enlightening, especially since we typically read only of men in times of war.

Real Women in the Civil War.......2002-05-19

This is an unusual novel about the marvelous ways which women gave comfort and love during the civil war, an ode of love as responsibility in the care of others. While many books chronicle the adventures of males during this war, this is the first I have seen to get to the heart of the woman as homemaker, caregiver, and patriot. It is a book you will remember and ponder long after reading. The characters are diverse and stimulating. As fine a work of historical fiction as I have seen. It has everything from sexual abuse, to burying of body parts after surgery, to helping slaves to get north, to family conflicts. Throughout there is the heroism of women. I highly recommend it.

Excellent Historical Fiction.......2002-03-31

Peggy Ullman Bell's second book does NOT disappoint! This is an excellent historical fiction from the author of "Psappha, a Novel of Sappho," and will definitely be noticed! Well written, vivid, accurate historically, a fascinating and exciting read. And a most enjoyable story of a young woman's coming of age. Ms. Bell's writing in this book, as in "Psappha", takes you there and you can watch the story unfold! Hope to hear a LOT more from this Excellent author....

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Women at Gettysburg, 1863
E. F. Conklin
Manufacturer: Thomas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OK9FN4

The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle.(Book review) : An article from: Journal of Southern History

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The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle.(Book review) : An article from: Journal of Southern History
Cheryl A. Wells
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2006. The length of the article is 553 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Colors of Courage: Gettysburg's Forgotten History: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle.(Book review)
Author: Cheryl A. Wells
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 72 Issue: 2 Page: 481(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Creighton, Margaret S. The colors of courage; Gettysburg's forgotten history: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle.(Young ... review): An article from: Kliatt

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Creighton, Margaret S. The colors of courage; Gettysburg's forgotten history: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle.(Young ... review): An article from: Kliatt
Raymond Puffer
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Kliatt, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2006. The length of the article is 427 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Creighton, Margaret S. The colors of courage; Gettysburg's forgotten history: Immigrants, Women, and African Americans in the Civil War's Defining Battle.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
Author: Raymond Puffer
Publication: Kliatt (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 40 Issue: 6 Page: 38(2)

Article Type: Book review, Brief article, Young adult review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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