The Preacher's Tale: The Civil War Journal of Rev. Francis Springer, Chaplain, U.S. Army of the Frontier (Civil War in the West)

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly and Spiritual
Review: Rev. Springer, a former neighbor of Abraham Lincoln's, was a sensitive observer and careful recorder. His accounts of the men he ministers to are exceptionally moving. This book is an excellent resource for the Civil War scholar, with a highly readable and intelligent introduction. The source notes alone are worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: Very highly recommended and valued
Review: The Preacher's Tale: The Civil War Journal Of Rev. Francis Springer, Chaplain, U.S. Army Of The Frontier is an intimate, candid, revealing, deeply personal record of the Civil War which reveals 51-year-old Francis Springer's thoughts and experiences on the nature of war, the meaning of violence, and the role of religion. Enlisting with the Union Army in the fall of 1861, Reverend Spring was with the 10th Illinois Calvary and witnessed the Battle of Prairie Grove in December 1862. Springer was later named post chaplain at Fort Smith where, in addition to preaching and ministering to the troops, he was placed in charge of refugees and displaced victims of the virulent guerrilla warfare which took place in northwest Arkansas. He also wrote articles and columns in the "Fort Smith New Era" under the pseudonym "Thrifton". Springer's appraisals of life in the Army of the Frontier are honest, insightful, and informative. Enhanced with several never-before published photographs, and appendices featuring accounts of six military executions that Springer participated in as a Union Army chaplain, including of previously unpublished last letters home of two rebel soldiers condemned and executed at Fort Smith, as well as a eulogy for Abraham Lincoln, make The Preacher's Tale a very highly recommended and valued addition to the growing body of Civil War accessible memoirs and biographies.