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Veterans North and South: The Transition from Soldier to Civilian after the American Civil War by Paul A. Cimbala

2016; Southern Historical Association; Volume: 82; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/soh.2016.0284

2325-6893

Brian Matthew Jordan,

Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

Reviewed by: Veterans North and South: The Transition from Soldier to Civilian after the American Civil Warby Paul A. Cimbala Brian Matthew Jordan Veterans North and South: The Transition from Soldier to Civilian after the American Civil War. By Paul A. Cimbala. Reflections on the Civil War Era. (Santa Barbara and Denver: Praeger, 2015. Pp. xviii, 189. $37.00, ISBN 978-0-275-98467-0.) Historians have become increasingly interested in what happened to Johnny Reb and Billy Yank after their muskets fell silent. Many recent books about the consequences of the Civil War for its battle-tested survivors—including one authored by this reviewer—have, wittingly or not, contributed to the so-called dark turn, adding chronic unemployment, insanity cases, failed marriages, postwar suicides, and weeping stumps to an ever-growing catalog of the war’s woes. Paul A. Cimbala issues a polite retort to this scholarship. While conceding the many challenges of returning home from war, Cimbala argues that most Civil War veterans prevailed in their last campaign, living out purpose-filled lives that the experience of combat, if anything, enriched. Cimbala’s brisk, well-written account begins in the immediate aftermath of the war. Though some veterans worried about readjustment, neither these qualms nor intimate knowledge of the war’s “deadly consequences” did very much to “undermine their happiness” (pp. 35, 28). Instead, Union veterans relished victory as their former enemies exhaled in relief. Cimbala contends that while some ex-soldiers found it difficult to renew prewar relationships, families most often facilitated a safe transition to the peace. Even those returning to financially broken families made, of necessity, “a quick adjustment to civilian life” (p. 52). War positioned soldiers to lead meaningful lives by imparting obedience, “sharpen[ing] their personal spirituality,” and, especially for African American soldiers, “develop[ing] a sense of self-worth” (pp. 40, 41). Men approached the postwar period “having gained practical knowledge”; even those with missing limbs became “model[s] of resiliency” who “carried on in the face of discomfort and pain” (pp. 39, 92). Yet even if “being a Civil War veteran was not some sort of pathology,” Cimbala himself presents ample evidence that neither Johnny Reb nor Billy Yank ever successfully escaped the war’s shadow (p. xvii). Superb chapters chronicle the former rebels who reassembled “as veterans” to brace white supremacy and their blue-coated counterparts who, as America staggered away from Reconstruction, wondered if their victory was in vain (p. 96). The grim resolve with which ex-Confederates resisted the war’s results—and the self-effacing indignation with which Union veterans declared their struggle unfinished—suggest that if old soldiers could get on with their lives, they never got right with their war. Even if the war bequeathed none but positive lessons and etched only proud memories, we are still left with the possibility that veterans spent the balance of their lives mournfully thirsting for thrills never again to be experienced. Veterans vacillated between pride and regret that their greatest work had been performed on battlefields long ago. Finally, Cimbala does not fully consider how wartime political rifts among northern civilians endured, complicating the reception of Union veterans. It is not the purpose of this book to present new archival research; as such, Cimbala relies principally on published primary sources. But more engagement with original sources—Grand Army of the Republic relief fund registers, personal manuscripts, pension records, and veterans’ periodicals—would [End Page 948]certainly darken the interpretation, even after allowing for those pension seekers who predictably embellished their anguish. Still, Cimbala dexterously synthesizes a nice range of primary and secondary accounts, seamlessly interweaving veterans North and South, white and black. In sum, this book is a significant addition to the literature that will prompt much worthwhile debate. Historiographically, Cimbala issues an important call for future scholars to consider the prewar lives of veterans before hastily attributing their behavioral aberrations to wartime trauma. If the author overcorrects recent interpretations, he underscores the need for still more treatments of Civil War veterans at the individual and local levels. Brian Matthew Jordan Sam Houston State University Copyright © 2016 The Southern Historical Association