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The Story of a Border City During the Civil War
First-hand account of the Civil War in St. Louis, Missouri. The author was pastor of a Baptist church there.
369 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1908
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About the author
Galusha Anderson
33 books1 followerAmerican theologian, Baptist pastor, preacher, professor of theology, president of Dennison College and the Old University of Chicago. Educated at University of Rochester and the Rochester Theological Seminary. Born in New York State in 1832; died in Massachusetts in 1918.
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March 20, 2015
The border city was St. Louis, Missouri. The author was pastor of a Baptist church there during the Civil War. He was pro-Union and anti-slavery, but tried to make his book non-partisan--"an unvarnished tale of what I saw."
Bitterness and paranoia ran high in his community of the loyal and the disloyal--he had both kinds of people in his congregation. He discusses the currents in what people were thinking and feeling. The many factions, such as the Wide-Awakes, the Minute Men, the Charcoals, the Claybanks. The role of the press in fomenting or calming dissension. The raid on Camp Jackson and its tragic aftermath. The fight for the arsenal. Slavery and slave pens. A slave auction disrupted by public protest. The racial integration that occurred spontaneously at the Grand Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair in 1864.
There are two things about this book that make it special: 1) The author was there, on the ground, and tells of his own experiences; 2) It presents the war as seen by ordinary people, white and black, on both sides of the conflict. It mentions the leaders, politicians and generals, but not to the exclusion of ordinary people.
This book should be considered a primary source, although written decades after the war. It draws on the author's own memories, plus his research from other sources. It is a vivid and very readable glimpse into those troubled times.
Bitterness and paranoia ran high in his community of the loyal and the disloyal--he had both kinds of people in his congregation. He discusses the currents in what people were thinking and feeling. The many factions, such as the Wide-Awakes, the Minute Men, the Charcoals, the Claybanks. The role of the press in fomenting or calming dissension. The raid on Camp Jackson and its tragic aftermath. The fight for the arsenal. Slavery and slave pens. A slave auction disrupted by public protest. The racial integration that occurred spontaneously at the Grand Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair in 1864.
There are two things about this book that make it special: 1) The author was there, on the ground, and tells of his own experiences; 2) It presents the war as seen by ordinary people, white and black, on both sides of the conflict. It mentions the leaders, politicians and generals, but not to the exclusion of ordinary people.
This book should be considered a primary source, although written decades after the war. It draws on the author's own memories, plus his research from other sources. It is a vivid and very readable glimpse into those troubled times.
Displaying 1 of 1 review