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If I Am Found Dead: Michigan Voices from the Civil War | 
| Creator: David Lee Poremba
Publisher: Ann Arbor Media Group
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $17.79
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1657732
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 245
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 7 x 1
ISBN: 1587262835
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.74740922
EAN: 9781587262838
ASIN: 1587262835
Publication Date: April 1, 2006
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Shipping: International shipping available
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| Customer Reviews:
A welcome addition to private and library collections of primary sources and testimonies of the Civil War, highly recommended. April 14, 2007
Edited by historian David Lee Poremba, If I Am Found Dead: Michigan Voices from the Civil War presents written letters that comprise firsthand testimony of the Civil War from four Michigan soldiers. Of the four, one perished during the conflict; one returned to a normal life; one was accused of murder and tried three times; and one invented a brand of ginger ale that remains famous in the region to this day. Though the four were of disparate backgrounds, their letters each provide an equally vivid glimpse of wartime life through a soldier's eyes, from observations of officers' leadership abilities to the suffering of residents who lived where the war was waged to the omnipresent threat of death on the battlefield - many of the letters were penned just before or just after an armed conflict. A welcome addition to private and library collections of primary sources and testimonies of the Civil War, highly recommended.
Brings the Civil War Home May 5, 2006
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Even though this book is made up of the journals and letters of Michigan Civil War soldiers, it's not necessarily a book strictly for Michiganians. The words that these four men wrote pertain to all who fought in that awful war, including camp life, long marches, and invlovement in the battles themselves.
Here's a few entires from May of 1861:
29th Wednesday - drilled and paraded and received our shirts, drawers, and socks from the government.
31st Friday - I was Colonel's Orderly; received our coats and pants.
June 1861
3rd Monday - the 3rd regiment of Michigan Volunteers had a banner presented to the by the Ladies of Grand Rapids. A large crowd of spectators on the ground, the largest ever known.
Here's a snippet of a letter from James Vernor to his father from 1862:
"We...passed Perryville afternoon. 300 Rebels dead on the battlefield of last Wednesday. I asked some of the folks why they were not buried & the 'oh they are Secesh.' I think if I lived around there I should want to get them out of sight for they are anything but pleasant to look at."
James Vernor, by the way, would eventually make his fortune in Vernor's Ginger Ale.
This is one of my favorites that shows life as a soldier in 1861:
"I have ten dollars in gold in my pocket & I would give half of it for a quart of water & the other half for a loaf of bread. I had nothing but hard bread and raw pork. I went without and today I have had no time to eat. I have had no water today, only what I sucked up out of a mud puddle..."
The details these folks wrote in their letters and journals tell the tales of the Civil War far greater and with more impact than modern historians could ever muster. And the maturity level of these young men (ages late teens / early 20's) were far beyond those of the same age today.
I will say this, however, if you are just looking for a book on the Civil War, this may not be for you. It's not a concise history. But, if you are already a scholar of that war and are looking to add to your knowlegde then you just might want to check this volume out, as there are, in well over 200 pages, many tedious details presented here in first person not found elsewhere that will heighten your image of the CW soldier.
Engulfing reading throughout.
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