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WHAT A BOY SAW IN THE ARMY
A Story of Sight-Seeing and Adventure in the War for the Union
Author: Jesse Bowman Young
Illustrations: Illustrations
throughout - 100 Original Drawings by Frank Beard
Publisher: Hunt & Eaton, New York
Copyright Date: 1894
Assuming to be a First Edition
Content
- About the Book
Classic Americana Historical Vintage
Book -
..
Stripling, in the stormy days of '6i, heard the blast of a bugle and the beat of drum – signals that the great war had opened. The sounds made his blood tingle and stirred his soul as they lured him to the front. He was then in the plastic period of boyhood, and the things which he saw and heard and felt took hold of him, biting into the quick — like the acid used in etching — and impressing upon his memory indelible pictures, in which terror and fun, privation and frolic, sorrow and joy, heroism and pathos, vie with each other for mastery. These pictures have haunted him for years, until at last he has transferred them to paper, in so far as he has been able, in the effort to portray some of the scenes, experiences, and surroundings amid which the boys who wore the blue and followed the starry flag lived, moved, and had their being, " for three years, or during the war."
The lad was barely out of his teens when the struggle ended, in 1865, but his experience in camp, on the march, and in battle, is ineffaceably stamped into his life and character. He was trained in war times to love the Union and the flag ; to appreciate the meaning of the word " freedom ;" to revere the principles which, after a life-and-death struggle, became triumphant ; to glorify the heroic spirits who were then in the forefront of the battle-- in the cabinet, in Congress, in the field, and in the White House; and to admire and emulate the martial virtues of obedience. Courage, patience, alertness, and dashing enterprise. He has many blessings to be grateful for, but chief among them he reckons the privilege of having been a soldier boy in the armies of the Union.
Frank Beard, the artist whose remarkable pictures so aptly illustrate the story, was himself also a soldier in those days. He has said, in regard to the drawings, that " he just reached back into the knapsack which he used to carry and brought out of it these sketches of men and things as he saw them then I "In the work of explicating and illuminating the graphic phases of this story Mr. Beard has been a most sympathetic and discerning artist. Jesse Bowman Young.
Office of the Central Christian Advocate,
St. Louis, Mo., February 1, 1894.
Sight-seeing at Fort Donelson on Private Account
Up the Tennessee River
The Boy Learns at Shiloh What His Legs were Made For
A Change of Front
The Heights of Fredericksburg
The Army of the Potomac in Winter Quarters
Out on the Picket Line
A Contraband's Wonderful Dream
The Thickets of Chancellorsville
"Maryland, My Maryland!"
Smelling the Battle Afar Off
The Struggle for Round Top
Gettysburg— The Charge on Cemetery Hill
Gettysburg— The Great Victory
Back to Old Virginia
Staff Duty in Washington
Chapter 1 begins ....
…. the closing month of 1861 — that far-away time of tumult and danger which has already receded into myths and shadows— a certain boy, still in his teens, responded to the invitations of the drumbeat and the bugle note which then were inviting volunteers the front. His name, for the irposes of this record, shall be Jack Sanderson ; but it must be understood that he was a real boy, and not merely a character in a story manufactured out of somebody's head and made up for the occasion. This boy was actually a live boy in the days of '61 and the aftertime ; he went into the Union army and saw what was to be seen there ; he took part in some of its campaigns, and shared in the dangers and excitements and terrors of some important battles, and came through it all without serious harm, and is now a man with children of his own, who love to hear stories about the war, and often beg him to tell them of life in the army. For their sake, and also to give pleasure to a host of young people who are interested in accounts of hardship, exposure, and romantic adventure, such as the volunteers realized in the late struggle, this boy has permitted me to write down some of the experiences through which he passed while he was a soldier for the Union.
In 1860, and the first half of 186 1, when the storm of war was brewing, Jack was away from home at a boarding school. He had some notion of going to college after he had finished the preparatory course of study at the academy, for he was fonder of books and school than of anything else. He was a thin, pale, delicate-looking fellow, who liked to read an interesting tale better than play townball ; who always felt afraid of getting hit when he helped to storm a snow fort, and who did not care for violent romps, outdoor sports, and active games. Indeed, he was so disposed to mope over his book and become absorbed in a story that very often he had to be chased from the house into the fresh air before he could be forced to take any outdoor exercise. Of course nobody supposed that such a boy ever would make a soldier.
There were but few martial influences or heroic surroundings, indeed, in this lad's neighborhood to develop soldierly inclinations. Once in a long while the people came from the back townships to the place where the militia, with their plumes and old-fashioned accouterments, went through the movements to training day — a great occasion in the young lad's lite, llis earliest …….
The sight of these brave men, who had actually been in battle, some of them wounded and a few of them very ill, crowded upon a canal boat and greeted with cheers and enthusiasm and tears by the people on the banks……………….. torn flag waving proudly overhead — this is one of the ……………. earliest memories of childhood. There was not much in these things, it is clear, to prompt him ever to become a soldier. But there dawned an hour when the boy became a man, when, although still in his teens, fragile and un muscular, there was roused within him a love for his country, a spirit of devotion to the Stars and Stripes, an appreciation of the meaning of the words liberty and union, such as belong to full-fledged manhood. How all this came about we shall see in due course of this story.
One day at the school there was a serious commotion. Among the students were some boys and young men from Maryland and Virginia. Carter Burton, the recognized leader of these Southern students, was a handsome, graceful, hot-headed youth, who had been brought up on a plantation, with slaves to wait on him and plenty of money at command. He used to sneer at the Abolitionists and berate the Northern people because some of them opposed slavey …….
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Book Condition
Color Boards: Blue Nice decorated outer boards for the Age, small previous owner name of first plain end page upper corner, small, otherwise clean and tight, decorated speckled end pages and speckled page edges all three sides, see photos.
Corners / Outer Boards: Slight bumped corners, slight scuffing and rubbing,
overall nice condition for the age of the book, see photos
Binding: Overall tight
binding for the age
Pages: Overall appears to be
clean good "collectible" condition.
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