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Article: The Union's Firey Ordeal
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- March 13, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
The Civil War Era
By James M. McPherson
Oxford University Press
904 pp. $30
WE KNOW much about the American Civil War, or at least think that
we do. So much has been written on this subject that it seems little
remains unsaid. The cubic footage of comment is simply enormous.
A torrent of books and articles has been produced on anything
connected with the event: Hungarians in the ranks, a rag doll present
in the surrender room of the McLean house at Appomattox Courthouse.
PhD students seeking dissertation topics work the gold mine of
obscure Civil War generals. (The South alone had 425 such men.
Happily, we have been spared biographies of a few of these, such as ...