Wisconsin in the civil war book

African Americans and Native Americans Wisconsin and the Civil War Civil War Series A broad look at Wisconsin s involvement in the Civil War This is the perfect read for someone just starting out with this topic Has a great bibliography for delving deeper into the topics A light and fun non fiction read I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be checking out some other books about this Ronald Paul Larson A bit difficult to read as there is scads of details about hundreds of WI units involved in the war It might be a good book for those really interested in the Civil War or doing war research For enjoyment reading.

Wisconsin and the Civil ward bond

Wisconsin troops fought and died for the Union on Civil War battlefields across the continent from Shiloh to Gettysburg Wisconsin lumberjacks built a dam that saved a stranded Union fleet. Wisconsin and the Civil warehouse jobs The Second Wisconsin Infantry suffered the highest percentage of battle deaths in the Union army Back home in a state largely populated by immigrants and recent transplants the war effort forced Wisconsin s residents to forge a common identity for the first time Drawing on unpublished letters and new research Ron Larson tells Wisconsin s Civil War story from the famous exploits of the Iron Brigade to the heretofore largely unknown contributions of the Badger State s women it was difficult Ronald Paul Larson Wisconsin and the Civil War is a very broad topic in a very small form A brief survey of the Civil War years the history of Wisconsin forces engaged in the seat of war and the effects of the conflict on the state the volume touches a large number of subjects Ronald Paul Larson lays out a premise that a general history of Wisconsin during the war hasn t been done in some time and the internet and further scholarship justify a new treatment He is absolutely correct The digitization of archival sources makes a thorough history a desirable commodity and there has been a proliferation of unit histories especially which can be integrated into a solid synthesis Unfortunately this volume is not the new treatment which Wisconsin deserves. Wisconsin and the Civil ward's As already stated the topic is very broad but is covered in fewer than 200 pages The result is that heavy topics are glossed over and less significant topics are given even shorter shrift For instance Larson covers the draft and draft riots in a mere eight pages This brief summary ends with a paragraph noting that Wisconsin didn t see as violent resistance as for instance New York City Had Larson devoted space he could have suggested why For instance the widespread practice of hiring contractors to find bodies to fill recruitment quotas allowed municipalities from having to draft at all But this is completely omitted in favor of the broad generalization without explanation. Wisconsin civil war soldiers One cannot place all blame on the author for these shortcomings Larson makes his qualifications plain and they stand up to scrutiny The problem in the opinion of this reviewer is with the nature of the publisher The History Press is an imprint of Arcadia Publishing The publisher focuses on mass numbers of small and cheap books on local and regional history written by locals themselves The History Press most well known for their Haunted History series specializes even closely on short and cheap It is almost certain that the press contacted the writer directly or the writer was referred by the initial contact and a subject and page count was suggested Larson then had to work within the bounds of his publisher And it is detrimental. Wisconsin and the Civil ward trucking Larson s writing has a lot of merit it s clear and very concise I did not note any instances of incorrect terminology or over simplification to attempt to appeal to a lay audience Although it does give its subjects a far too short treatment the book does cover many understudied subjects It is not often recalled that the Midwest suffered a significant economic crisis as the war was beginning Larson argues it was a combination of several issues First the Midwest was under developed and relied on the Mississippi to transit its products Second northern banks used bonds from southern banks to guarantee deposits Third wages did not rise with inflation Many histories ignore regional economics and it s good Larson explained them Other subjects covered include the experience of women Native Americans and African Americans prisoners of war and state politics There are a very large number of photographs and appendices with well constructed tables It does lack maps however which would have been nice to include to give geographic context to the text How badly was Wisconsin underdeveloped A map showing rail lines navigable waterways and the like would illustrate this Notes are scarce only citing sources There are no explanatory notes And the bibliography is basically a works cited instead of a comprehensive bibliography which removes some value from the overall work These issues could be partially the publisher s policies There is one thing Larson can be accused of is not researching his sources He states that Klement s Wisconsin in the Civil War was published in 1997 He is wrong It was published in 1963 The edition Larson apparently used was the 1997 reprint from the Wisconsin Historical Society As a historian this does cast doubt of all of his research But as a historian I also made the mistake of not engaging with my sources but you learn not to neglect the historiography in grad school and Larson seldom appears cognizant of his sources. Wisconsin and the Civil ware county Wisconsin and the Civil War is a too short too broad well written although not well cited synthesis of existing work and survey of the war years It s not all on Ron Larson because a writer works within the bounds of their assignment but it s not a worthy work Stick to Klement s survey it is better despite its age And give Larson the benefit of the doubt with his next book Ronald Paul Larson I would give a 3. Wisconsin and the Civil warja 5 if possible but rounded up to 4 stars This book gives a good overview of a complex subject and I learned many new things It must have been challenging to attempt to tell the story of each regiment in the Civil War from Wisconsin A balance needs to found between telling disjointed yet exciting anecdotes and dry facts At times Larson was not equal to the task Larson attempted to touch on many broad areas including home front economics and the various theatres of war He generally does a good job but gives a disproportionate amount of attention to Wisconsin minorities who were very small minorities of Wisconsin s Civil War participation Several chapters could have been written on the German Norwegian and Irish etc immigrants each however these numerically significant groups do not get the same focus and attention to detail I suppose the excuse is that this book is a book of its times Ronald Paul Larson