"In Civil War Writing: New Perspectives on Iconic Texts, editors Gary W. Gallagher and Stephen Cushman collect new scholarly essays which explore the significant texts about the American Civil War written by the people who lived through it, whether as civilians or combatants, southerners or northerners, women or men, blacks or whites. Several of the works discussed in the book, such as William Tecumseh Sherman's and Edward Porter Alexander's memoirs and Mary Chesnut's diary, will be familiar to many readers, but other works, including Charlotte Forten's diary and Loreta Velasquez's memoir, may not. In all cases, the contributors explore why these works resonate with audiences across different eras"-- Provided by publisher.

Joseph T. Wilson's The black phalanx: African American patriotism and the won cause / Elizabeth R. Varon -- The soldier who never was: Loreta Velasquez and the woman in battle / William C. Davis -- Surrender according to Johnston and Sherman / Stephen Cushman -- Little women: Louisa May Alcott's novel of the home front / J. Matthew Gallman -- Duty to my country and myself: the Jubal A. early memoirs / Kathryn Shively -- Considering the war from home and the front: Charlotte Forten's Civil War diary entries / Brenda E. Stevenson -- Forget to weep my dead: Mary Chesnut's Civil War reading / Sarah E. Gardner -- The fatal halts: Gettysburg, the wilderness, and Cedar Creek in John B. Gordon's Reminiscences / Keith S. Bohannon -- The best Confederate memoirist: Edward Porter Alexander's unrivalled military accounts / Gary W. Gallagher.