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Author Claflin, Gilbert

Title A quiet corner of the war : the Civil War letters of Gilbert and Esther Claflin, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 1862-1863 / Gilbert Claflin and Esther Claflin ; edited by Judy Cook
Published Madison : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2013]
©2013

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Foreword / Keith Bohannon -- Preface -- Time Line -- Prologue ; The Letters ; Epilogue -- Appendix A : Family ; Appendix B : Neighbors ; Appendix C : Summit and Oconomowoc ; Appendix D : Military ; Appendix E : Transcribing and Editing
Summary In 2002, Judy Cook discovered a packet of letters written by her great-great-grandparents, Gilbert and Esther Claflin, during the American Civil War. An unexpected bounty, these letters from 1862-63 offer visceral witness to the war, recounting the trials of a family separated. Gilbert, an articulate and cheerful forty-year-old farmer, was drafted into the Union Army and served in the Thirty-Fourth Wisconsin Infantry garrisoned in western Kentucky along the Mississippi. Esther had married Gilbert when she was fifteen; now a woman with two teenage sons, she ran the family farm near Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in Gilbert's absence. In his letters, Gilbert writes about food, hygiene, rampant desertions by drafted men, rebel guerrilla raids, and pastimes in the daily life of a soldier. His comments on interactions with Confederate prisoners and ex-slaves before and after the Emancipation Proclamation reveal his personal views on monumental events. Esther shares in her letters the challenges and joys of maintaining the farm, accounts of their boys Elton and Price, concerns about finances and health, and news of their local community and extended family. Esther's experiences provide insight into family, farm, and village life in the wartime North, an often overlooked aspect of Civil War history. Judy Cook has made the letters accessible to a wider audience by providing historical context with notes and appendixes. The volume also includes a foreword by Civil War historian Keith S. Bohannon
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Claflin, Gilbert -- Correspondence
Claflin, Esther -- Correspondence
Claflin family -- Correspondence
Soldiers -- Wisconsin -- Oconomowoc -- Correspondence
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- General.
Soldiers
SUBJECT Wisconsin -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140261
Oconomowoc (Wis.) -- History
Subject United States
Wisconsin
Wisconsin -- Oconomowoc
Genre/Form History
Personal narratives
Personal correspondence
Personal narratives.
Récits personnels.
Form Electronic book
Author Claflin, Esther
Cook, Judy
ISBN 9780299294830
0299294838