Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War

Jordan, Brian Matthew (Get this book)
This Civil War history begins where most end, showing what happened to the men who fought to preserve the Union. Jordan's book is about the postwar tribulations of Billy Yank. While the civilian population had had enough of war, those who fought for the North were unwilling to forgive and forget, and they marched in Washington a few weeks after Robert E. Lee surrendered and Abraham Lincoln was murdered. Assiduously researched—half the volume is occupied by a bibliography and copious notes—his book is entirely founded on the words of those who fought, extracted from letters, recollections and reflections. The boys in blue who rallied around the flag are gone, but in Jordan's history, their words survive. A useful history of how "the terror of this unprecedented war long outlived the stacking of arms a t Appomattox."--Kirkus