By James E. Potter
From a pool of barely nine thousand men of military age,
Nebraska—still a territory at the time—sent more than three thousand soldiers
to the Civil War. They fought and died for the Union cause, were wounded, taken
prisoner, and in some cases deserted. But Nebraska’s military contribution is
only one part of the more complex and interesting story that James E. Potter
tells in Standing Firmly by the Flag, the first book to fully explore
Nebraska’s involvement in the Civil War and the war’s involvement in Nebraska’s
evolution from territory to thirty-seventh state on March 1, 1867.
Although distant from the major battlefronts and seats of
the warring governments, Nebraskans were aware of the war’s issues and subject
to its consequences. National debates about the origins of the rebellion, the
policies pursued to quell it, and what kind of nation should emerge once it was
over echoed throughout Nebraska. Potter explores the war’s impact on Nebraskans
and shows how, when Nebraska Territory sought admission to the Union at war’s
end, it was caught up in political struggles over Reconstruction, the fate of
the freed slaves, and the relationship between the states and the federal
government.
ISBN 978-0803240902, Bison Books, © 2012, Paperback, 400
pages, Maps, Photographs, & Illustrations, End Notes, Bibliography
& Index. $29.95
1 comment:
'The Battle of Fredericksburg' was fought 150 years ago this week from December 11 to 15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. The Union army's futile frontal attacks on December 13 against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city is remembered as the greatest Confederate victory of the American Civil War. Total troops deployed from both sides exceeded 200,000 men. Having studied this war in some detail over a period of many years,I feel that the bravery of the soldiers in this battle, particularly on the Union side, is the most remarkable of the war. The Confederates held the high ground and had 15 miles long defensive positions in place behind a stone wall. The Union Army of the Potomac charged the Confederate lines in successive waves, and wave after wave was cut down under continuous massive fire. Union soldiers were cut to ribbons. They knew that they had no chance, and yet they went anyway, for God and for country. The frontal assaults on December
13th alone felled close to 20,000 Union troops, who were killed in action or severly injured. The bravery of the Union troops at Fredericksburg represented uncommon valour.
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