A Diary of Battle: The Personal Journals of Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, 1861-1865

Rating:
Summary: A Diary of Battle
Review: Gets low marks for editing. The editor has excised parts he thinks are repetitive or boring, but in some cases these clearly dealt with the technical details of handling artillery, and would have been of great use to the reader.

The colonel of the 1st NY Artillery, Wainwright is interesting as an anti-abolitionist and a fan of McClellan up to the very end. His comment that he wouldn't trust Massachusetts or Pennsylvania not to secede if conditions were reversed (p. 207) is interesting, reflecting the strong allegiance to state in the North as well as the South. His views on the cynicism of abolitionists are intriguing as well; he believed that the radicals were deliberately prolonging the war to gain political power. His account of the fighting on Culp's Hill at Gettysburg is quite detailed.