The Civil War Letters of Dr. Harvey Black: A Surgeon With Stonewall Jackson (Army of Northern Virginia)

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Review: Dr. Harvey Black, grandson of one of the founders of Blacksburg, Virginia, served as surgeon of the 4th Virginia Regiment, as surgeon of the Stonewall Brigade, and as surgeon in charge of the Second Corps Field Hospital of the Army of Northern Virginia. Black's Civil War letters, which begin with Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1862 and end with Jubal Early's Valley Campaign of 1864, discuss climactic battles like Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Literate and perceptive, Black had interesting things to say about figures like Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Jubal Early, and Thomas Rosser. The Second Corps Field Hospital was the site of the amputation of Jackson's arm at Chancellorsville, and Black was one of three surgeons who assisted Dr. Hunter McGuire in the operation. In addition to Harvey Black's letters, the book contains three letters of his wife Mollie, all that have survived. They poignantly reveal the trials Southern women faced during the war, fending for themselves and their families. The small town of Blacksburg in Appalachian Virginia also plays an important part in the story. An appendix transcribes and analyses the free and slave schedules for the 1860 Blacksburg census.

Black was a significant figure in the Civil War and postwar Virginia medicine and education. After the war, Black helped found what is today known as Virginia Tech.