Sunday, July 24, 2011

Rec'd: Mary Chestnut On the Battle's Fallout

Because for every soldier we read about there are dozens of loved ones behind at home, it's worth remembering the human cost of the war. It wouldn't be right to commemorate the further zany adventures of Professor Lowe while omitting the impact of loss on the battle. Mary Chestnut, unsurprisingly, eloquently gets at the heart of the confused human response to the battle in her entries for the week, though her location is outside of the scope of this blog.

Dual homecomings provide the running theme. One is her James, returned home alive, but agitated, still processing what it all means while dealing with a public hungry for details. The other is Francis Bartow, dead on the field of battle, and back in Richmond for a military funeral.

They are on page 105-109:

No comments:

Post a Comment