Memoirs & Autobiographies

[gary]

Pvt. Henry R. Berkeley's, "Four Years in the Confederate Artillery" and William Owen's, "In Camp and Battle with the Washington Artillery of New Orleans" are both good for the perspective of an artilleryman on the Corn-fed side. Henry Kyd Douglas', "I Rode With Stonewall" is another classic in Civil War literature. Unionman Silliker's, "A Volunteer’s Adventures: A Union Captain’s Record of the Civil War" is a Union classic.

[Highfly]

Has anyone read "Rebel Private Front and Rear"?

[gary]

Rebel Private Front & Rear? Bought my copy at Pamplin Historic Park near Petersburg and loved it. BTW, another classic for Confederate webfoots is Worsham's, "One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry."

[mobile_96]

Originally Posted by Highfly

Thanks for the suggestions, all...

I just finished Grant's Memoirs and to be honest wasn't all that impressed. For being the man who practically won the war and the 18th president, I would have expected more. It was good (much better than Sherman's indeed), but I felt it was superficial, like he tried to cover as much information as possible in the shortest space...

You do realize that when Grant wrote him memoirs, he was dying of throat cancer, barely finishing before passing away. It was also written well after the war using records rounded up for him, and from his memory, something we all know is affected by time.
Maybe a journal or diary written at the time everything was happening would have been better reading, or not. He wrote in the same manner of the orders he had written up, straightforward and concise.
I've read it at least twice and enjoyed it. Even with its 'errors' the Memoir has been rated very highly by many scholors and historians.
Just an opinion, from one that has read many memoirs and diaries.
Chuck in IL.

[Highfly]

You do realize that when Grant wrote him memoirs, he was dying of throat cancer, barely finishing before passing away. It was also written well after the war using records rounded up for him, and from his memory, something we all know is affected by time.
Maybe a journal or diary written at the time everything was happening would have been better reading, or not. He wrote in the same manner of the orders he had written up, straightforward and concise.
I've read it at least twice and enjoyed it. Even with its 'errors' the Memoir has been rated very highly by many scholors and historians.
Just an opinion, from one that has read many memoirs and diaries.
Chuck in IL.

I know, but unfortunately I didn't take that into account while reading and I should have, but for whatever reason, it wasn't what I was expecting. Given the circumstances under which it was written, it was good. Perhaps I'll give it another go in a couple of months.