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Rating: 
Summary: A revealing look into the life of a Southern private soldier
Review: Sojourns of a Patriot is a compelling read. It esentially follows the life a Confederate infantryman, Corporal A.P. Adamson, throughout his tenure of the War Between the States. The book is composed primarily of his letters home and a journal he kept for the last year of the war. Secondarily, the editors provide comment and explanation to some of the entries. Most revealing were the roles that camp gossip played in his thoughts on the morale of the Southern troops. Also quite interesting were the false or incomplete pieces of "news" that reached Southern camps. This aspect of the book provides the reader with an insight that is often not present in regimental or campaign histories. Often, readers know the outcome of the battle, the makeup of the casualty list, or the result of a particular election. The letters in this book permit the reader an escape from that biased knowledge and to live through the life of the writer. The love of the writer for his home, his yearning for a return to his previous life, and his concern for the future are poignantly brought to the fore through his letters to various family members. However, some of the best writing is not included in these letters, but is in his later journal. These entries are poetry disguised as prose. The images brought forth by his writings are disturbing, comforting, melancholic, and often heart-wrenching. Brief though they are, they are some of the most powerful writings of the War this reader has encountered. The only detractor to the book is in the commentaries by the editors. They focussed a little more than was perhaps necessary on the personal histories of peripheral protagonists. Some of the information was repititious. However, in their defence, the editors do warn the reader of this in the beginning and they do have personal bias to this information. Additionally, the other commentaries they provide would be useful to readers who may not be as familiar with the conflict (in fact, these could have been expanded somewhat, but there is a conscious effort by the editors to provide suggested readings which are appropriate for each entry). Overall, I highly recommend this book to any person interested in the War Between the States. It will be especially appealling to readers with interest in the personal experiences of the war and an informative diversion to those readers who generally limit themselves to straight histories.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The editors have tried to add value to this rather unexciting collection of letters and brief diary by interspersing their own comments among the letters. This is all very well when they stick to facts, but too often they inflict their own 20th-century political beliefs upon the readers. That's particularly annoying considering the lip service paid to "objectivity" in the foreword.The letters themselves are not exactly thrilling. The soldier in question saw little action and his letters (typically of Civil War letters) concern themselves mostly with relatives he's met and what he wants to have sent from home. His prison diary is interesting mostly in that its tone differs markedly from that of the letters; it's emotional and romantic, whereas the letters are downright dull. Still, the diary offers little factual information -- though he does undermine his editors' hoopla by stating that he was actually treated reasonably well. Whether he was "unreconstructed", as the editors claim, is unknown, because no post-war writings of his own are included. I'd skip this. The editing is annoying and the primary material adds nothing new or entertaining to the wealth of Civil War primary sources already in print.
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