
The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell
A Chaplain's Story
University of Georgia Press
Published on 15. April 2006
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-8203-2693-1 (ISBN)
Description
In 1861, young Joseph Twichell cut short his seminary studies to become a Union Army chaplain in New York's Excelsior Brigade. A middle-class New England Protestant, Twichell served for three years in a regiment manned mostly by poor Irish American Catholics. This selection of Twichell's letters to his Connecticut family will rank him alongside the Civil War's most literate and insightful firsthand chroniclers of life on the road, in battle, and in camp. As a noncombatant, he at once observed and participated in the momentous events of the Peninsula and Wilderness Campaigns and at the Second Bull Run, as well as at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Spotsylvania. Twichell writes about politics and slavery and the theological and cultural divide between him and his men. Most movingly, he tells of tending the helpless, burying the dead, and counseling the despondent. Alongside accounts of a run-in with slave hunters, a massive withdrawal of wounded soldiers from Richmond, and other extraordinary events, Twichell offers close-up views of his commanding officer, the ""political general"" Daniel Sickles, surely one of the most colorful and controversial leaders on either side. Civil War scholars and enthusiasts will welcome this fresh voice from an underrepresented class of soldier, the army chaplain. Readers who know of Twichell's later life as a prominent minister and reformer or as Mark Twain's closest friend will appreciate these insights into his early, transforming experiences.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Georgia
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
16 b&w photos, 1 map
ISBN-13
978-0-8203-2693-1 (9780820326931)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Joseph Hopkins Twichell | Peter Messent | Steve Courtney
The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell
A Chaplain's Story
E-Book
01/2012
University of Georgia Press
€38.49
Available for download
Persons
Peter Messent is a professor of modern American literature at the University of Nottingham. Steve Courtney, an independent scholar, has worked for nearly three decades as a journalist and has had several positions at the Hartford Courant.