Love amid the Turmoil: The Civil War Letters of William and Mary Vermilion

by Donald C. Elder, III (Editor)

Overview

William Vermilion (1830-1894) served as a captain in Company F of the 36th Iowa Infantry from October 1862 until September 1865. Although he was a physician in Iconium in south central Iowa at the start of the war, after it ended he became a noted lawyer in nearby Centerville; he was also a state senator from 1869 to 1872. Mary Vermilion (1831-1883) was a schoolteacher who grew up in Indiana; she and William married in 1858. In this volume historian Donald Elder provides a careful selection from the hundreds of supportive, informative, and heart-wrenching letters that they wrote each other during the war—the most complete collection of letters exchanged between a husband and a wife during the Civil War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587294334
Publisher:	University of Iowa Press
Publication date:	06/03/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	407
File size:	2 MB

Table of Contents

1 "Still I Am Proud of My Gallant Soldier Husband" 2 "You Are in Danger Now, Every Day, I Know" 31 3 "I Want to Know Whether Our Government Is Really Worth Dying For" 62 4 "Since I Came Home I Am Entirely Satisfied with Iowa" 88 5 "I Knew Somebody Had Lost Friends, and I Feared It Was I" 130 6 "I Will Never Forget All the Bitter Experiences of the Last Year" 181 7 "I Listen Every Hour to Hear of a Decisive Battle" 228 8 "Our War Can't Last Much Longer As It Is Now Carried On" 266 9 "The Days Are Long and Dreary till You Come Home" 333 Epilogue 331 Notes 337 Bibliographical Note 369 Index 375

Editorial Reviews

The letters of William and Mary Vermilion provide a unique glimpse into the changes the war inflicted on men, women, and family relationships . . . [they] offer a rich discussion of the politics of the home front in two states as well as the progress of military action, expecially in the Western theatre. . . . This is a welcome complement to the literature on the Civil War’s impact on gender and marriage.”—Choice

From the Publisher