Reddit Reddit reviews The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865

We found 2 Reddit comments about The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865
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2 Reddit comments about The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865:

u/SavageHenry0311 · 2 pointsr/history

I hope you try this one, too:

The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865 by Leander Stillwell..

As a combat vet myself, I find it interesting what people choose to focus on, and what I looked for before I'd been in a real war. Sure, the guns and gear are cool to study, and looking at huge maps depicting precise maneuvers seem like they're explaining stuff....but often battles turn on things textbooks miss.

Saying,"The enemy platoon broke contact when subjected to the concentrated fire of Captain Smith's lead element. Smith was able to move up Objective Hill before noon on the 25th," is only scratching the surface.

That doesn't tell you that a couple guys of the "enemy platoon" were asleep in their OP, and bullshitted their Lieutenant about how many enemy troops were coming up the road so they didn't get busted. Then the LT, who'd eaten a bunch of green apples the day before, didn't feel like sitting in a fighting hole all day with the shits....so he fired two shots from his carbine in the enemy's general direction and pulled back to base.

I'll always try to find a few individual autobiographical accounts by a low-level grunt, and read those. It helps to keep the high-level clinical history in context for me.

With that in mind, please consider reading Shelby Foote's excellent series on the Civil Waralongside Stillwell's work.

If you're reading about the Korean War now, I recommend to you one of my favorite books, The Last Parallel by Martin Russ.. Russ really lets you into his head, and his sketches are simple yet brilliant adjuncts to his prose. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn about life as a grunt.

u/Steveweing · 1 pointr/history

You should clarify if you are writing about a Union or Confederate soldier. Also the Eastern Campaigns were fairly different than the Western theatre and Sherman's path thru Georgia.

I read a Union one about a common solider (Leander Stillwell) which was pretty good. It's free here:
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/aw/d/B004SQX51I?fp=1&pc_redir=T1