The Children's Civil War (Civil War America) Paperback – October 2, 2000

A boy named Opie Red bribed a Confederate bugler with brandy to allow him to ride with the soldier into a skirmish with Union cavalry. "On a beautiful morning, shouts and songs of discordant loudness we rode forth to battle...Saw an iron weed bend its purple head beneath the touch of a lark...saw a man with his skull split open fall to the ground." He felt his bugler friend lean back against him. "I moved to one side, reached around and took hold of the horn of the saddle. Blood spurted from the bugler's breast." Letting the dead bugler slide to the ground, Opie rode off the battle field, dismounted, and ran home. This book takes a rare look at the experiences and remembrances of children during the time of the Civil War, not those in the conflict, but those at home, and how they were affected by the war. This is the Civil War that other historians ignor. While Opie's experience on the battlefield was rare for civilian children, fear and hunger were not. Many became orphans as a result of the war. What happened to them is also a part of this book. Don't forget the children. Read their story.

Great book offered lots of great information and useful sources on a topic that is not widely discussed if you have a paper due on family or children life during the Civil War then this book is a must have

I got the book as promised and I have glanced at it, but have not sat down to thoroughly read it yet. Time doens't permit that. But I will and I have no problems with either the book, the delivery of said book or the condition. All was as promised.

This is a remarkable book and will be so helpful in my research. Unbelievable how many children were involved in the War. The book is very well written.

I just bought the ebook. I certainly hope it picks up because most of my college text books were more interesting than this and that isn't a compliment. Not at all what I expected.

Nice book.

Compelling

In this delightfully charming depiction of children during the American Civil War, Marten explores the war's meaning for both northern and southern, and white and black children. Although the experiences for children varied by location and skin color, Marten argues the information provided for children and their everyday experiences during the war served to politicize the children at an early age.The brilliance behind Marten's work is the variety of incredible sources that he examined. Marten utilized not only a remarkable number of family collections, diaries, scrapbooks, letters, but also an impressive variety of publications by and for children during the Civil War, including textbooks, dime novels, journals and other periodicals. His research is truly extraordinary and provides an amazing number of examples and anecdotes for his text.While Marten's book is an impressive examination of sources with a distinct, well-supported thesis, the organization of the book is somewhat disappointing. While it would be admittedly difficult to organize the vast amount of information he had collected, it would have made his book easier to follow had it been organized differently.Marten's book is an important addition to the collection of Civil War literature. The Civil War was the ultimate test of the relatively new American-government, and the children who lived through it became the adults who made political decisions well into the twentieth century. Their politics determined our role in both internal and external conflicts for many decades to come. Additionally, examination of Civil War children is useful for studying the children of any major conflict, including the Second World War, whose children are still alive today.