The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans

"In recent years, Civil War veterans have emerged from historical obscurity.

Inspired by memory studies and energized by the ongoing neo-revisionist turn, a vibrant new literature has given the lie to the once obligatory lament that the postbellum lives of Civil War soldiers were irretrievable.

Despite this flood of historical scholarship, fundamental questions about the essential character of Civil War veteranhood remain unanswered.

Moreover, because work on veterans has often proceeded from a preoccupation with cultural memory, the Civil War's ex-soldiers have typically been analyzed as either symbols or producers of texts.

In "The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans," fifteen of the field's top scholars provide a more nuanced and intimate look at the lives and experiences of these former soldiers.

Essays in this collection approach Civil War veterans from oblique angles, including theater, political, and disabi