Historians have neglected what regimental histories can reveal about the experience of common soldiers during the Civil War. Many in number, regimental histories provide an accurate portrait of the life of the Union soldier during the conflict and also comment on why soldiers went to war.
Today we present part two of our interview with J. Matthew Gallman, winner of the 2016 Bobbie and John Nau Book Prize in American Civil War Era History. In this segment, Gallman discusses his thoughts on the state of the field, digital methods and tools, and going beyond simple binaries in thinking about the wartime Democratic Party.
Varon: What is the state of Civil War studies right now? What about digital tools as a new way to study the war?
Today we present the first part of an interivew with our inaugural book prize winner, J. Matthew Gallman. Gallman won our prize for his book Defining Duty in the Civil War (UNC Press, 2015). In part one, Gallman discusses why he wrote his book, the importance of satire in the Civil War era, the concept of loyalty in the North, and his previous work on Anna E. Dickinson.
