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A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation
Pulitzer Prize–winning author John Matteson illuminates three harrowing months of the Civil War and their enduring legacy for America. December 1862 drove the United States toward a breaking point. The Battle of Fredericksburg shattered Union forces and Northern confidence. As Abraham Lincoln’s government threatened to fracture, this critical moment also tested five extraordinary individuals whose lives reflect the soul of a nation. The changes they underwent led to profound repercussions in the country’s law, literature, politics, and popular mythology. Taken together, their stories offer a striking restatement of what it means to be American. Guided by patriotism, driven by desire, all five moved toward singular destinies. A young Harvard intellectual steeped in courageous ideals, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. confronted grave challenges to his concept of duty. The one-eyed army chaplain Arthur Fuller pitted his frail body against the evils of slavery. Walt Whitman, a gay Brooklyn poet condemned by the guardians of propriety, and Louisa May Alcott, a struggling writer seeking an authentic voice and her father’s admiration, tended soldiers’ wracked bodies as nurses. On the other side of the national schism, John Pelham, a West Point cadet from Alabama, achieved a unique excellence in artillery tactics as he served a doomed and misbegotten cause. A Worse Place Than Hell brings together the prodigious forces of war with the intimacy of individual lives. Matteson interweaves the historic and the personal in a work as beautiful as it is powerful. 16 pages of illustrations; 2 maps
544 pages, Paperback
Published April 19, 2022
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3073 people want to read
About the author
John Matteson
23 books68 followersJohn Matteson is a professor of English at John Jay College in New York City, where he lives. His book, Eden's Outcasts is the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. "
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
January 7, 2022
I'm late to the review, but I'd have to call this my #1 read for 2021. The quality of the writing is exceptional. Like a lot of books, I think the author stretches the whole "this event changed everything" bit, but for me what really makes this book work, and work well, is that you have a single event (The Battle of Fredericksburg) and a collection of disparate individuals who are in some way tied to it, and then you get to see and experience it through them. They did not respond to or experience it in the same way or come to it from similar places; it did not change them all in the same way, though it does seem to have left a mark on them all. I think this really gives an idea of the scope of any single event, be it war or natural disaster or sociopolitical change or whatever. Fredericksburg is not treated here as an historical abstraction but as an intense moment in the lives of real people. In that way it was a very human story and very compelling. Highly recommended!
April 30, 2024
I can almost picture the wheels turning in Matteson’s head as he conceived the idea for this book. As a biographer of both Louisa May Alcott and Margaret Fuller, he would have been well aware of the connections that each had to the Civil War’s Battle of Fredericksburg, via Alcott’s brief service as a wartime nurse and Fuller’s brother Arthur, who fleetingly fought and died in the battle. Add a few other main characters - having a literary bent is a plus, with some tie to the Battle of Fredericksburg a must - and you’ve got yourself a book.
And it works a whole lot better than that imagined origin story might suggest.
All five main characters are well-known to some extent. Some might have shared experiences or mutual acquaintances, but their lives don’t necessarily intersect, as they largely exist in the book independently of one another. Matteson, however, weaves their stories together in a number of different ways, playing them all off against each other - grouping a few together around a common theme, then rearranging them into different groupings, comparing their commonalities and contrasting their differences as their individual stories play out.
In addition to Alcott and Fuller, there’s Walt Whitman, Confederate battle hero John Pelham and future Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The most obvious groupings pair Alcott and Whitman as the literary figures and caregivers to the wounded, while Holmes, Fuller and Pelham are the servicemen. Shuffle them up a bit, though, and Holmes, Alcott and Fuller end up seeming more similar in terms of their efforts to live up to their fathers’ reputations and expectations. Another reshuffle has Fuller and Pelham as the impulsive, fearless fighters whose stories played out very differently but ended similarly. And yet another grouping considers how Whitman, Alcott and Holmes ultimately found their way and made something of themselves after a discouraging period of postwar aimlessness.
In the end, Matteson notes, what they all had in common was that “all five succeeded in redeeming and vindicating themselves” in some way, either later in life, or in death.
So, while the Battle of Fredericksburg is well-described about halfway through the book, this is not strictly a book about the battle itself. Instead, it’s a quintuple biography of characters whose lives converge on Fredericksburg and then diverge in different ways, as we’re left to consider the impact that the battle had on their lives and, consequently, on the country.
The subtitle of the book, after all, is how the Battle of Fredericksburg “changed a nation.” It seemed at first like that might have been an overpromise, since Fredericksburg was not really a key turning point in the war, and at first blush, the book is more about how the battle changed only these five individuals and not the country as a whole. Matteson, however, freely acknowledges that Fredericksburg was not the most notable battle of the war, but goes on to make a compelling case that it had the greatest “cultural significance,” in turning these little-known figures into people of consequence, thereby changing the nation in terms of the societal and cultural impact that they ended up having.
The book is better when it focuses on the main characters than when it tries to tell the larger story and Matteson can start to seem a bit out of his element. His strength is in storytelling and not historical analysis, so it comes across as rather questionable when he tries to link Willie Lincoln’s death with his father’s push for emancipation. Since Lincoln revealed his intentions to pursue emancipation during the ride to War Secretary Edwin Stanton’s son’s funeral, “it seems impossible,” Matteson proclaims, that “no thoughts of Willie pressed up on Lincoln’s mind… Almost inescapably, one concludes that Lincoln saw in Willie’s death a moral imperative: his private loss demanded to be redeemed by a higher objective for his presidency.” It must be tempting to imagine some greater connection there, but it’s one that I’ve never seen anyone else make, and declaring that “one concludes” it must be true without saying “who” concludes it must be true, sounds awfully presumptuous in its certainty.
But there’s not too much focus on Lincoln and the war - only enough to provide the context needed to tell the main characters’ stories. And even when Matteson is establishing their backgrounds, their upbringing, their family lives, their hopes and fears, straying far afield from anything having to do with the war or Fredericksburg, it’s engrossing and well-written enough that I was absorbed in their stories and never felt impatient to just get on with it already. I didn’t necessarily come away learning much new about the war or the battle, but thanks to some great writing and a thoughtful story structure, I learned a whole lot about five individuals I never knew I would end up caring so much for.
And it works a whole lot better than that imagined origin story might suggest.
All five main characters are well-known to some extent. Some might have shared experiences or mutual acquaintances, but their lives don’t necessarily intersect, as they largely exist in the book independently of one another. Matteson, however, weaves their stories together in a number of different ways, playing them all off against each other - grouping a few together around a common theme, then rearranging them into different groupings, comparing their commonalities and contrasting their differences as their individual stories play out.
In addition to Alcott and Fuller, there’s Walt Whitman, Confederate battle hero John Pelham and future Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The most obvious groupings pair Alcott and Whitman as the literary figures and caregivers to the wounded, while Holmes, Fuller and Pelham are the servicemen. Shuffle them up a bit, though, and Holmes, Alcott and Fuller end up seeming more similar in terms of their efforts to live up to their fathers’ reputations and expectations. Another reshuffle has Fuller and Pelham as the impulsive, fearless fighters whose stories played out very differently but ended similarly. And yet another grouping considers how Whitman, Alcott and Holmes ultimately found their way and made something of themselves after a discouraging period of postwar aimlessness.
In the end, Matteson notes, what they all had in common was that “all five succeeded in redeeming and vindicating themselves” in some way, either later in life, or in death.
So, while the Battle of Fredericksburg is well-described about halfway through the book, this is not strictly a book about the battle itself. Instead, it’s a quintuple biography of characters whose lives converge on Fredericksburg and then diverge in different ways, as we’re left to consider the impact that the battle had on their lives and, consequently, on the country.
The subtitle of the book, after all, is how the Battle of Fredericksburg “changed a nation.” It seemed at first like that might have been an overpromise, since Fredericksburg was not really a key turning point in the war, and at first blush, the book is more about how the battle changed only these five individuals and not the country as a whole. Matteson, however, freely acknowledges that Fredericksburg was not the most notable battle of the war, but goes on to make a compelling case that it had the greatest “cultural significance,” in turning these little-known figures into people of consequence, thereby changing the nation in terms of the societal and cultural impact that they ended up having.
The book is better when it focuses on the main characters than when it tries to tell the larger story and Matteson can start to seem a bit out of his element. His strength is in storytelling and not historical analysis, so it comes across as rather questionable when he tries to link Willie Lincoln’s death with his father’s push for emancipation. Since Lincoln revealed his intentions to pursue emancipation during the ride to War Secretary Edwin Stanton’s son’s funeral, “it seems impossible,” Matteson proclaims, that “no thoughts of Willie pressed up on Lincoln’s mind… Almost inescapably, one concludes that Lincoln saw in Willie’s death a moral imperative: his private loss demanded to be redeemed by a higher objective for his presidency.” It must be tempting to imagine some greater connection there, but it’s one that I’ve never seen anyone else make, and declaring that “one concludes” it must be true without saying “who” concludes it must be true, sounds awfully presumptuous in its certainty.
But there’s not too much focus on Lincoln and the war - only enough to provide the context needed to tell the main characters’ stories. And even when Matteson is establishing their backgrounds, their upbringing, their family lives, their hopes and fears, straying far afield from anything having to do with the war or Fredericksburg, it’s engrossing and well-written enough that I was absorbed in their stories and never felt impatient to just get on with it already. I didn’t necessarily come away learning much new about the war or the battle, but thanks to some great writing and a thoughtful story structure, I learned a whole lot about five individuals I never knew I would end up caring so much for.
June 9, 2021
John Matteson's A Place Worse Than Hell examines the lives of five Americans intersecting at the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862. Among them are Louisa May Alcott, whose brief but traumatic service as a Union Army nurse after the battle inspired her first novel (Hospital Sketches); Arthur Fuller, a one-eyed Army chaplain with a burning hatred of slavery; Oliver Wendell Holmes, the future Supreme Court Justice who's repeatedly wounded throughout the war; Walt Whitman, who joins the Union Army as a nurse in part to connect with his brother; and John Pelham, the dashing Confederate artilleryman who holds off part of Burnside's attack with a single cannon. This book is hard to assess: Matteson (previously Alcott's biographer) has an engaging prose style and does a great job sketching the cultural milieu in which all the above folks move, along with probing their motivations during the nation's most traumatic conflict. On the other hand, it's not clear why the author chose these particular individuals to focus on, and there's not much of a through line to connect them. Their roles at Fredericksburg range from crucial (Pelham, who stops a Union advance singlehandedly with a single cannon) to peripheral (Whitman and Alcott), so it's not clear either why Matteson wants to use this event, one of the most lopsided battles of the war, to explore his subjects. Intermittently fascinating, but frustratingly uneven.
September 14, 2021
From the first line of the author’s acknowledgements, “All real invocations express love. If one writes a book in the way that is should be written, one takes a journey not only of the mind but also of the heart, opening oneself to express and to receive this highest of emotions in illimitable ways. One learns the meaning of gratitude in its fullest sense.”
On a cold day in December 1862, the American experiment faced one of its most bitter setbacks at the small riverside town of Fredericksburg. The defeat of the Union army that day compelled Abraham Lincoln to exclaim, “if there is a worse place than hell, I am in it.”
From this quote John Matteson extracts the title of his exquisite work of history, and an invocation in the truest sense. A Worse Place Than Hell examines the impact of the civil war battle of Fredericksburg on the lives of five individuals. And in turn, these individuals will go on to contribute and change the soul of America, altering its course in both radically and subtly unexpected ways.
The story contains five main players, some you may be familiar with and some that have been lost to history: Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., author Louisa May Alcott, chaplain Arthur Fuller, artillerist John Pelham, and the irrepressible poet Walt Whitman. Each effected directly by the battle, each effected differently.
A previous winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Matteson adds to the war’s scholarship in a new and refreshing way. Most civil war scholarship has to be generally strong in research but Matteson does so much more. He acts more like a guide, weaving the tapestry of his story through the chaotic months preceding the fight, to the maelstrom of battle, and through the unrelenting crush of broken bodies both physically and spiritually. His investment in his protagonists come through clearly. This is easily the most literary work of history I’ve ever read and I loved every moment of it. I couldn’t recommend it more and feel like Mr. Matteson may need to make room on his award shelf in the coming year.
On a cold day in December 1862, the American experiment faced one of its most bitter setbacks at the small riverside town of Fredericksburg. The defeat of the Union army that day compelled Abraham Lincoln to exclaim, “if there is a worse place than hell, I am in it.”
From this quote John Matteson extracts the title of his exquisite work of history, and an invocation in the truest sense. A Worse Place Than Hell examines the impact of the civil war battle of Fredericksburg on the lives of five individuals. And in turn, these individuals will go on to contribute and change the soul of America, altering its course in both radically and subtly unexpected ways.
The story contains five main players, some you may be familiar with and some that have been lost to history: Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., author Louisa May Alcott, chaplain Arthur Fuller, artillerist John Pelham, and the irrepressible poet Walt Whitman. Each effected directly by the battle, each effected differently.
A previous winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Matteson adds to the war’s scholarship in a new and refreshing way. Most civil war scholarship has to be generally strong in research but Matteson does so much more. He acts more like a guide, weaving the tapestry of his story through the chaotic months preceding the fight, to the maelstrom of battle, and through the unrelenting crush of broken bodies both physically and spiritually. His investment in his protagonists come through clearly. This is easily the most literary work of history I’ve ever read and I loved every moment of it. I couldn’t recommend it more and feel like Mr. Matteson may need to make room on his award shelf in the coming year.
December 29, 2021
The book, at its core, is not one about the Battle of Fredericksburg, rather Fredericksburg is a literal and figurative meeting place for a nuanced discussion about the American experience at the moment of the Civil War ... the participants in that discussion are soldiers and poets, parents and preachers, legends and their ghosts ... the author produces a wonderful work of history, combining time and place and events with the personal stories that make that history sing ... the stars of the book, people like John Pelham and Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott are people I've always wanted to know, but never knew it until I opened this book
February 27, 2022
Although this book was advertised as being about the battle of Fredericksburg, it was more than anything about some of the people involved in the battle. While I expected a boring monograph that described the fighting, what I got instead was a look at some of the greatest figures of the mid 19th century. These included Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott. The writing style was very easy to read and the narrative flowed well. Although the book wasn't quite what I expected, it was still a rewarding experience.
Read
February 9, 2021Many of us have never experienced a war, especially if we were born after 1960. How would you react if confronted with it? How would it change you? Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Matteson gives readers a chance to ponder that thought and much more in his latest nonfiction offering.
What amazed me about this book was its scope, skillfully interweaving these actors’ lives with significant historical events and extracting profound meaning with their narratives. The text reads like a historical novel complete with a riveting plotline and in-depth character development, inviting readers to become involved in the protagonists’ stories.
A WORSE PLACE THAN HELL is a masterpiece, a must-read.
Read our full review and a Q&A with the author here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/02/09/the-l...
What amazed me about this book was its scope, skillfully interweaving these actors’ lives with significant historical events and extracting profound meaning with their narratives. The text reads like a historical novel complete with a riveting plotline and in-depth character development, inviting readers to become involved in the protagonists’ stories.
A WORSE PLACE THAN HELL is a masterpiece, a must-read.
Read our full review and a Q&A with the author here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/02/09/the-l...
June 19, 2021
Book 25 of 50 for 2021. Inspired by the Pulitzer Prize winning author and my own current proximity to Fredericksburg, I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of both its civil war history but also the in depth look at Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louise May Alcott, and Walt Whitman.
June 22, 2021
The Civil War always has new surprises for me. This book is not so much an account of a battle but the intertwined biographies of five citizens on both sides of the war. Four I had a nodding acquaintance, the fifth, Arthur Fuller, was unknown.
Four of the five were from the North and abolitionists all. The fifth, John Pelham, as Ulysses S. Grant was to write years later, ¨...fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse[.]”
By the time Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman died unrepentant Confederate veterans and their surrogates in the United Daughter of the Confederacy were rewriting history.
Four of the five were from the North and abolitionists all. The fifth, John Pelham, as Ulysses S. Grant was to write years later, ¨...fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse[.]”
By the time Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman died unrepentant Confederate veterans and their surrogates in the United Daughter of the Confederacy were rewriting history.
July 6, 2021
An interesting read, but it meanders around the lives of its subjects and it’s definitely not a book about Fredericksburg or even just specific people who were affected by Fredericksburg. Yes, the five individuals around which the narrative focuses had some connection to Fredericksburg, some directly, others barely, but the subtitle of the book doesn’t make much sense. This was mainly a story in which these people were influenced and in turn influenced society based on their entire Civil War experiences, and not Fredericksburg.
June 1, 2024
Two stars because it's well researched and, generally, well written.
However, structurally, it's a mess. Mind you, despite the subtitle to the book, it has almost next to nothing to do with the battle of Fredericksburg. And, written from the perspective of six individuals, we only get the battle of Fredericksburg from their perspectives, and since only four of the six were combatants, one of which was behind the lines due to illness, there is scant description of the battle and none from the perspective of the corps commanders.
It's not a short read so I suspected that the author would tie up the experiences of the subjects within the scope of the importance or meaning of the battle of Fredericksburg. He does not do this. The scope of the storytelling goes well beyond the battle into their post-war careers. Bottomline, there's no central thesis or centralized narrative.
Another gripe is that only one of the six subjects is from the Confederacy, and he (John Pelham) is shifted to the background for much of the book. As for the other five, three of them were from well-bred Massachusetts families (Alcott, Holmes, Fuller) and the other two were Walt and George Whitman. No other subjects from the south or the west. The author's other books focused on the lives of the Alcotts and Fullers, so I assume much of the research was culled from those works.
Would not recommend.
However, structurally, it's a mess. Mind you, despite the subtitle to the book, it has almost next to nothing to do with the battle of Fredericksburg. And, written from the perspective of six individuals, we only get the battle of Fredericksburg from their perspectives, and since only four of the six were combatants, one of which was behind the lines due to illness, there is scant description of the battle and none from the perspective of the corps commanders.
It's not a short read so I suspected that the author would tie up the experiences of the subjects within the scope of the importance or meaning of the battle of Fredericksburg. He does not do this. The scope of the storytelling goes well beyond the battle into their post-war careers. Bottomline, there's no central thesis or centralized narrative.
Another gripe is that only one of the six subjects is from the Confederacy, and he (John Pelham) is shifted to the background for much of the book. As for the other five, three of them were from well-bred Massachusetts families (Alcott, Holmes, Fuller) and the other two were Walt and George Whitman. No other subjects from the south or the west. The author's other books focused on the lives of the Alcotts and Fullers, so I assume much of the research was culled from those works.
Would not recommend.
November 24, 2022
You get all the battlefield particulars from Antietam to Fredericksburg and beyond, but this book is so much more than that. It followed the paths of Walt Whitman, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Louisa May Alcott, Arthur Fuller and John Pelham as their fates lead them to Fredericksburg in December of 1862. Mattison’s book is military history, sure, but it’s also about poetry and literature, about philosophy and religion, about gallantry and gore. It’s about how we became a nation again, how we told our story moving forward. Gripping.
February 28, 2022
If you are a civil war buff, this will shed some insight into 5 extraordinary people. The last chapter dealing with O. W. Holmes and how it shaped him for the Supreme Court are wonderful.
December 12, 2021
4.25 stars..... Matteson uses Lincoln’s famous phrase for his title, he doesn’t dwell on the hellish aspects of the war. Instead he concentrates on personal and cultural transformation. The people he follows were profoundly changed by the war, he tells us; all of them “confronted war and struggled to redeem themselves within it.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., the son of a famous Boston physician and author, entered the war as an idealistic man and emerged from it hard-bitten and skeptical, leading him to seek direction in a legal career. The Rev. Arthur Fuller, the brother of the women’s rights champion Margaret Fuller, served as a chaplain in a Massachusetts regiment but at Fredericksburg traded his ministerial role for a military one, taking up a gun in a burst of patriotism and losing his life to Confederate bullets. The budding author Louisa May Alcott, hoping to contribute to the Northern cause, became a volunteer nurse in a Washington war hospital, an experience that fed into her popular book “Hospital Sketches” and later provided the emotional background for “Little Women,” a fictionalized portrayal of the Civil War’s toll on her Concord, Mass., family.
A worthy addition to any civil war history collection.
A worthy addition to any civil war history collection.
April 26, 2023
Excellent premise; however, would require many more pages to execute properly. “Truth in advertising.” “A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation”? Seeking a history Fredericksburg battle? Look elsewhere. Looking for impact on nation? Look elsewhere. Looking for impact on a diverse cast of characters? Look elsewhere (e.g. well-regarded individual biographies). (Good ol’ Walt Whitman made the cut. Seems like white supremacy tome. There were no worthy indigenous or African-American, etc. impacted by battle. Looking back, I regard as history-biography “lite”. It’s sort of a “PEOPLE Magazine” SPECIAL EDUCATION.
March 23, 2021
A Worse Place than Hell focuses on the Battle of Fredericksburg and 5 participants in that battle.
First is Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the illustrious Supreme Court Justice who was in a Massachusetts regiment, John Pelham, an Alabamian and a student of West Point, who was considered a genius in mobile cannon warfare, George Washington Whitman, a brother to the American poet, Walt Whitman, John Suhre, a Union soldier who was nursed in a Washington DC hospital by Louis Mae Alcott, and Arthur B. Fuller, a minister from Massachusetts.
Thru these individuals, Matteson is able to fully describe the horror of the violence of the Civil War and the psychological toll it took on the entire country. Read this book to see if we need reparations. After reading about the slaughter on Marye's Heights in Fredericksburg and the literally psychotic violence in the battle of the Wilderness or Spotsylvania Court House, I am sure that you will agree that reparations were fully paid in the blood of the participants and even in those that survived. All of the participants were radically altered by their experiences. Matteson does an excellent job of weaving in the stories of Walt Whitman and Louisa Mae Alcott. Both were nurses during the war. Alcott nursed Suhre unitl he died and she was forever changed. Whitman wrote that he had visited maybe 100,000 patients.
One of the most amazing stories is about Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. His father was a famous anatomy professor at Harvard. Holmes was wounded multiple times, once at Antietam. He barely missed the battle at Fredericksburg. He was across the river in a tent suffering from dysentery, but he was very aware of what was happening within earshot. Conflict developed between the father and son. Junior had seen the war in all of its horror. Senior still talked about the glory and the cause. Holmes was added to the Supreme Court in the early 1900's and served until the 1930's, literally almost 70 years since his service in the battle at Antietam and Fredericksburg, both in 1862.
Read this excellent book for a true understanding of the reality of the Civil War. How hundreds of thousands died to save the Union and end slavery.
First is Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the illustrious Supreme Court Justice who was in a Massachusetts regiment, John Pelham, an Alabamian and a student of West Point, who was considered a genius in mobile cannon warfare, George Washington Whitman, a brother to the American poet, Walt Whitman, John Suhre, a Union soldier who was nursed in a Washington DC hospital by Louis Mae Alcott, and Arthur B. Fuller, a minister from Massachusetts.
Thru these individuals, Matteson is able to fully describe the horror of the violence of the Civil War and the psychological toll it took on the entire country. Read this book to see if we need reparations. After reading about the slaughter on Marye's Heights in Fredericksburg and the literally psychotic violence in the battle of the Wilderness or Spotsylvania Court House, I am sure that you will agree that reparations were fully paid in the blood of the participants and even in those that survived. All of the participants were radically altered by their experiences. Matteson does an excellent job of weaving in the stories of Walt Whitman and Louisa Mae Alcott. Both were nurses during the war. Alcott nursed Suhre unitl he died and she was forever changed. Whitman wrote that he had visited maybe 100,000 patients.
One of the most amazing stories is about Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. His father was a famous anatomy professor at Harvard. Holmes was wounded multiple times, once at Antietam. He barely missed the battle at Fredericksburg. He was across the river in a tent suffering from dysentery, but he was very aware of what was happening within earshot. Conflict developed between the father and son. Junior had seen the war in all of its horror. Senior still talked about the glory and the cause. Holmes was added to the Supreme Court in the early 1900's and served until the 1930's, literally almost 70 years since his service in the battle at Antietam and Fredericksburg, both in 1862.
Read this excellent book for a true understanding of the reality of the Civil War. How hundreds of thousands died to save the Union and end slavery.
December 27, 2024
A Worse Place Than Hell by John Matteson
.
.
A story that expertly blends the history of the Civil War, with the battle of Fredericksburg as the linchpin event, and five unique American’s who would have an everlasting impact on our nations future.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a Capt. 20th Mass Regiment, Harvard grad and a son of elite Bostonians. Wendell was wounded 3x (ball’s bluff, Antietam, Chancellorsville) and was sick at Fredericksburg as he watched his regiment cut to pieces. He forever carried these mental and physical wounds, helping form his foundation in the practice of law. Wendell spent the rest of his life as a lawyer, a judge for the Supreme Court of Mass and famously on the SCOTUS, culminating in his role as Chief Justice where his work became instrumental in interpreting modern American law.
Walt Whitman, a gay poet from Brooklyn, NY, who worked in the hospitals during the civil war and offered his tender services to his fellow man, even while it ate away at his psyche and body. Interwoven is the story of his brother Capt. George Whitman of the 51st NY, whose experiences being wounded at Fredericksburg and then later held as a POW, catapulted Walt into action as a nurse and advocate for Union victory. Walt is the father of American poetry and his work was much inspired by his direct experience in the war. He is best remembered for, “O Captain, my Captain”, a poem about Abraham Lincoln.
Another literary icon that is followed is the famed author of “Little Women”, Louisa May Alcott, of Concord, Mass who served as a civil war nurse in Washington, DC and her experiences in the hospitals framed her literary works and real life events served as her inspiration.
John Pelham, a brilliant confederate artillerist, is remembered for his boyish beauty and daring tactics, made famous for his gallantry at Fredericksburg. A graduate of West Point, served under Jeb Stuart, and was killed at Kelly’s ford in Virginia 1863.
Arthur Fuller, preacher and chaplain, 16th Mass, found his calling on the battlefield as he ministered to his dying men. He was killed in Battle at Fredericksburg, his last words” I must do something for my country”.
.
.
A story that expertly blends the history of the Civil War, with the battle of Fredericksburg as the linchpin event, and five unique American’s who would have an everlasting impact on our nations future.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a Capt. 20th Mass Regiment, Harvard grad and a son of elite Bostonians. Wendell was wounded 3x (ball’s bluff, Antietam, Chancellorsville) and was sick at Fredericksburg as he watched his regiment cut to pieces. He forever carried these mental and physical wounds, helping form his foundation in the practice of law. Wendell spent the rest of his life as a lawyer, a judge for the Supreme Court of Mass and famously on the SCOTUS, culminating in his role as Chief Justice where his work became instrumental in interpreting modern American law.
Walt Whitman, a gay poet from Brooklyn, NY, who worked in the hospitals during the civil war and offered his tender services to his fellow man, even while it ate away at his psyche and body. Interwoven is the story of his brother Capt. George Whitman of the 51st NY, whose experiences being wounded at Fredericksburg and then later held as a POW, catapulted Walt into action as a nurse and advocate for Union victory. Walt is the father of American poetry and his work was much inspired by his direct experience in the war. He is best remembered for, “O Captain, my Captain”, a poem about Abraham Lincoln.
Another literary icon that is followed is the famed author of “Little Women”, Louisa May Alcott, of Concord, Mass who served as a civil war nurse in Washington, DC and her experiences in the hospitals framed her literary works and real life events served as her inspiration.
John Pelham, a brilliant confederate artillerist, is remembered for his boyish beauty and daring tactics, made famous for his gallantry at Fredericksburg. A graduate of West Point, served under Jeb Stuart, and was killed at Kelly’s ford in Virginia 1863.
Arthur Fuller, preacher and chaplain, 16th Mass, found his calling on the battlefield as he ministered to his dying men. He was killed in Battle at Fredericksburg, his last words” I must do something for my country”.
December 26, 2021
I had the good fortune to win this volume as a Goodreads Giveaway, however I have - unfortunately - only just gotten around to reading it due to a variety of circumstances irrelevant to the merits of the work.
John Matteson presents here a joint biography of five separate men and women - Rev. Arthur Fuller, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and John Pelham - and in particular, a biography of the ways in which the December, 1862, Battle of Fredericksburg changed their perceptions of the American Civil War. Some found immortality and feelings of invincibility, some found melancholy and grew tired of the endless bellows of patriotic gore, and some found compassion and a desperate need to comfort those who suffered and died.
This volume is not a traditional history - it is not, for example, a history of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Instead, it makes use of Fredericksburg to examine its impact upon the lives of its five subjects: two literary greats, a renowned jurist, a forever young martyr, and a self-doubting second son. This book provides a brilliant look at the personalities which shaped, in many ways, their fields: jurisprudence, literature, and poetry. It provides a glimpse at the romanticization and idealization of the natal "Lost Cause" of the Confederacy. And, above all else, it does a great deal to personalize and individualize the ramifications and impacts of one of the most horrific and cataclysmic battles to ever occur in the United States upon those whose lives were brushed - whether physically or mentally - by the smoke and fire of the battlefield.
John Matteson presents here a joint biography of five separate men and women - Rev. Arthur Fuller, Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and John Pelham - and in particular, a biography of the ways in which the December, 1862, Battle of Fredericksburg changed their perceptions of the American Civil War. Some found immortality and feelings of invincibility, some found melancholy and grew tired of the endless bellows of patriotic gore, and some found compassion and a desperate need to comfort those who suffered and died.
This volume is not a traditional history - it is not, for example, a history of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Instead, it makes use of Fredericksburg to examine its impact upon the lives of its five subjects: two literary greats, a renowned jurist, a forever young martyr, and a self-doubting second son. This book provides a brilliant look at the personalities which shaped, in many ways, their fields: jurisprudence, literature, and poetry. It provides a glimpse at the romanticization and idealization of the natal "Lost Cause" of the Confederacy. And, above all else, it does a great deal to personalize and individualize the ramifications and impacts of one of the most horrific and cataclysmic battles to ever occur in the United States upon those whose lives were brushed - whether physically or mentally - by the smoke and fire of the battlefield.
July 10, 2021
I find it hard to read about war in general. It scares me and I feel repelled by every aspect of it: whether personal, historical or technical. But this amazing book transcended the horrors which it revealed by delivering redemption to each of the five (six, with President Lincoln) honorable people it examines.
By making the war personal and by analyzing the changes wrought in the destinies of each person, Matteson shows us that humans can transcend violence and chaos. It's the first Civil War book I have been able to finish. And I am glad I did. Matteson writes gloriously, especially in summing up this lesson toward the end. Of Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes remembering his war comrades he writes, "Now and then the dead seemed to come back an live with him...Though darkened by "the shadow of approaching fate," the faces were forever young. Remote and proud, they came to Holmes with a kindness that was both sweet and melancholy. They passed before him, he wrote "wearing their wounds like stars." And of the forgotten Richard Fuller we read this: "Chaplain Fuller is much less an icon than an emblem: a representative of the countless warriors who gave all they had for a cause they revered, but whose memories, despite their earnestness and valor, have had scarcely more permanency than initials carved into a block of ice in early spring."
I learned an amazing amount (too much detail perhaps about the military maneuvers!) and came away inspired. A wonderful read.
By making the war personal and by analyzing the changes wrought in the destinies of each person, Matteson shows us that humans can transcend violence and chaos. It's the first Civil War book I have been able to finish. And I am glad I did. Matteson writes gloriously, especially in summing up this lesson toward the end. Of Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes remembering his war comrades he writes, "Now and then the dead seemed to come back an live with him...Though darkened by "the shadow of approaching fate," the faces were forever young. Remote and proud, they came to Holmes with a kindness that was both sweet and melancholy. They passed before him, he wrote "wearing their wounds like stars." And of the forgotten Richard Fuller we read this: "Chaplain Fuller is much less an icon than an emblem: a representative of the countless warriors who gave all they had for a cause they revered, but whose memories, despite their earnestness and valor, have had scarcely more permanency than initials carved into a block of ice in early spring."
I learned an amazing amount (too much detail perhaps about the military maneuvers!) and came away inspired. A wonderful read.
February 9, 2023
I started this with the expectation I would be reading a dull yet knowledgeable account of a relatively important battle of the civil war. However from the first few pages, Matteson set a different tone. In place of Shelby Foote-style drudgery, the names of corps commanders, battle formations, and mismanagement was essentially an intersection of biographies. A confederate artillery commander, a chaplain, a scion, a poet, and an author see their lives changed by a single battle, the effects of which won't determine the war, but will affect the type of nation born out of it.
Each person is deeply interesting, thoughtful, and in some ways tragic. How they choose to act at Fredericksburg, and in response to it, charts a highly intimate course for the second half of the book. I was particularly affected by Louisa May Alcott's experience, as well her foil Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.; the burden they each carried shaped them in remarkably different ways, the effect of which has surprisingly influenced the nation.
Matteson's writing is something to savor, which I consciously read slower than usual. He follows Emerson perfectly, "There is properly no history; only biography."
Each person is deeply interesting, thoughtful, and in some ways tragic. How they choose to act at Fredericksburg, and in response to it, charts a highly intimate course for the second half of the book. I was particularly affected by Louisa May Alcott's experience, as well her foil Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.; the burden they each carried shaped them in remarkably different ways, the effect of which has surprisingly influenced the nation.
Matteson's writing is something to savor, which I consciously read slower than usual. He follows Emerson perfectly, "There is properly no history; only biography."
December 2, 2021
This author is well versed and wise. He serves under the English Department of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Very detailed, with names of generals, their motives, and the political climate. It had maps, photos, bibliography, and an index to aid with its historical accuracy and quotes. I at least learned about the battle and how it was a huge blow to the Union and it made Lincoln look bad. This book takes a lot into consideration, from heath problems (diarrhea, bad water), personal incompetence (suicide missions), to just ire.
“If… all men have equal rights, it can no more comport with the principle of a free Government to exclude men of a certain color from the employment of “liberty and the pursuit of happiness" then or a certain stature of body, or to find the exclusion of any other capricious or accidental circumstance… election and representation…would exist only in name- A shadow without a substance, a body without a soul.” p.109, William O. Blake
Spoilers: super secret future insider knowledge, the seceding traitors still lost.
“If… all men have equal rights, it can no more comport with the principle of a free Government to exclude men of a certain color from the employment of “liberty and the pursuit of happiness" then or a certain stature of body, or to find the exclusion of any other capricious or accidental circumstance… election and representation…would exist only in name- A shadow without a substance, a body without a soul.” p.109, William O. Blake
Spoilers: super secret future insider knowledge, the seceding traitors still lost.
September 10, 2021
The subtitle of this book by John Matteson is somewhat misleading for although the battle of Fredericksburg is the central event, other key aspects of the Civil War are also discussed (particularly the battle of Antietam). The story as told is as much a cultural history as a military one as Matteson examines how the lives of five individuals (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman, Arthur Fuller, and John Pelham) were affected by the war and the carnage at Fredericksburg specifically. For the three that survived the conflict (Holmes, Alcott and Whitman) there is detailed discussion as to whether those experiences influenced their later accomplishments in literature and the law. The amount of detail concerning the family lives of these individuals gets a little excessive, but overall the personal perspective adds a degree of poignancy not found in other narratives of the Civil War.
August 12, 2023
This one was frustrating. Most of the book has nothing to do with the battle of Fredericksburg. The author features several people and gives mini biographies of each of them and then just a few short chapters to the actual battle.
Some of the connections to the actual battle are dubious at best. Louisa may Alcott and Walt Whitman tended to soldiers who returned from the battle and many others but they weren’t there. They were at a hospital in Washington DC. Oliver Wendell Holmes was unable to fight in the battle due to a wound.
The other people featured were soldiers at the battle but they didn’t change America as is mentioned in the title of the book. Several of them died before the war was even over.
This book is titled incorrectly and the connections to the battle were barely there. There were some interesting nuggets along the way but not enough to save it from a o star review.
Some of the connections to the actual battle are dubious at best. Louisa may Alcott and Walt Whitman tended to soldiers who returned from the battle and many others but they weren’t there. They were at a hospital in Washington DC. Oliver Wendell Holmes was unable to fight in the battle due to a wound.
The other people featured were soldiers at the battle but they didn’t change America as is mentioned in the title of the book. Several of them died before the war was even over.
This book is titled incorrectly and the connections to the battle were barely there. There were some interesting nuggets along the way but not enough to save it from a o star review.
October 20, 2023
(3.5 stars) This work is not so much about the battle of Fredericksburg, but more about the experiences of some of the people involved in the battle in various forms. Most of those just so happened to be writers/soldiers/lawyers who were good with the pen. Thus, what they saw and dealt with at Fredericksburg in December 1862 would define their lives and their works, which, by extension, defined the lives of those who read their works.
This is really more a comparative biography of folks like Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr, Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman and few others. Thrown in there are historical descriptions and some discussion about the battle itself. Perhaps if the CSA won, then Fredericksburg would have held more significance than say Antietam or Gettysburg, but it did have its impact on the American psyche. Worth the read, but for a more military definition/analysis of the battle, perhaps other works will do.
This is really more a comparative biography of folks like Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr, Louisa May Alcott, Walt Whitman and few others. Thrown in there are historical descriptions and some discussion about the battle itself. Perhaps if the CSA won, then Fredericksburg would have held more significance than say Antietam or Gettysburg, but it did have its impact on the American psyche. Worth the read, but for a more military definition/analysis of the battle, perhaps other works will do.
May 22, 2025
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t struggle through this book, much more so than other wartime historical narratives. I’m not sure I was prepared for the depth of biographical detail for the 5 subjects, or for their relative lack of immediate connection to each other. Quite frankly, it’s a challenge to become fully immersed in each individual’s personal story and circumstances when they are all so different.
All that said, the final 25-30% of the book, most notably the epilogue, is supremely written and is a just reward for having followed the 5 biographies to that point. It’s a stirring reminder of all that our nation has stood for - for so long, to so many - and also to the personal growth that we all hope to undertake as part of the human experience.
My hat is off to the author and encourage others to read it with an open mind (and without placing too much stock on the title and subtitle).
All that said, the final 25-30% of the book, most notably the epilogue, is supremely written and is a just reward for having followed the 5 biographies to that point. It’s a stirring reminder of all that our nation has stood for - for so long, to so many - and also to the personal growth that we all hope to undertake as part of the human experience.
My hat is off to the author and encourage others to read it with an open mind (and without placing too much stock on the title and subtitle).
February 11, 2022
Matteson’s book is a fascinating journey through the lives of 5 characters, each with their own personal tie to the Battle of Fredericksburg during the American Civil War.
The author does an excellent job getting into the mind of the characters and filling in the blanks when further depth is indiscernible. Rev. Fuller and Lt. Col. Pelham stand tall in this regard.
This was my first read by this author and it is clear he has particular professional interests that push him in a specific direction, ie Alcott was the least connected to F’burg of the 5, but his lens doesn’t take away from the story as a whole.
I very much enjoyed reading this piece of history and come away with a greater appreciation of the role that the CW played in the lives of many of the brightest lights of the contemporary American thought and culture.
The author does an excellent job getting into the mind of the characters and filling in the blanks when further depth is indiscernible. Rev. Fuller and Lt. Col. Pelham stand tall in this regard.
This was my first read by this author and it is clear he has particular professional interests that push him in a specific direction, ie Alcott was the least connected to F’burg of the 5, but his lens doesn’t take away from the story as a whole.
I very much enjoyed reading this piece of history and come away with a greater appreciation of the role that the CW played in the lives of many of the brightest lights of the contemporary American thought and culture.
July 7, 2021
Matteson serves up a very satisfying stew of Civil War era history using five seemingly diverse personalities as main ingredients. Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, and Oliver Wendell Holmes (Jr) the better known, followed by Rebel boy-god John Pelham and frail chaplain Arthur Fuller, blinded brother of the better known Margaret Fuller.
These five blend together as the war boils, snd while never directly interacting blend into the flawless telling of the war- and US society’s - progressions. And what a unique main course is served.
Matteson’s writing and extensive research yield a highly informative, entertaining, and fresh view of this significant chapter of US history and the intellectual contributions it shaped.
These five blend together as the war boils, snd while never directly interacting blend into the flawless telling of the war- and US society’s - progressions. And what a unique main course is served.
Matteson’s writing and extensive research yield a highly informative, entertaining, and fresh view of this significant chapter of US history and the intellectual contributions it shaped.
April 3, 2022
Very good, well written, and throughly researched. I read this because my brother lives in King George, VA, a hop, skip and jump from Fredricksburg, of which we visit everytime I go over there. There are so many surrounding areas and sites I have not got to experience yet, only through reading.
This book follows the lives of 5 persons throughout the war, their place in history and the effect it had on 3 of their lives after the war, with 2 passing duing the conflict.
This is another enjoyable read to add to the theatre of the Civil War analogs, although difficult at times to read the tragic episodes of battle. Fredericksburg definitely had played their part in changing the course of our nation.
This book follows the lives of 5 persons throughout the war, their place in history and the effect it had on 3 of their lives after the war, with 2 passing duing the conflict.
This is another enjoyable read to add to the theatre of the Civil War analogs, although difficult at times to read the tragic episodes of battle. Fredericksburg definitely had played their part in changing the course of our nation.
July 28, 2022
Dr. Matteson has done it again - that being writing a wonderful history on a rurning point in the Civil War. The book is personalized by focusing on five primary players - Whitman, Alcott, Holmes Jr., Fuller and Pelham who are all changed by the signiture event, the Battle of Fredericksburg. Two are primarily soldiers, two are literary and one is primariy a religious figure. These people are presented in a beautiful and fulfilling way. The book is well worth all the acclaim that it received.
July 31, 2024
A tremendous slice of history. The book examines the interlocking threads of a number of great americans: Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, and the lesser known artillerist John Pelham and the Reverend Arthur Fuller, and how they and the country were changed by their experiences during the war. The book's marketing heavily focuses on Fredricksburg to a degree that isn't really warranted by the text, which ranges over much more broad territory, but I highly recommend it for those interested in the changes wrought by civil war.
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