A Year in the South Book Review
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During the course of Civil War people faced many different hardships and challenges. As the war began secessionist hopes were high and they had control over the unionist. However, as the war progressed this began to change. The men that fought for the Rebels were beginning to come home and the same was true for the men who fought with the Yankees. Since many of all these men lived in the same towns and fought for different sides during the war hostility broke out. Even though there was an enormous amount of hostility between the two sides they still had one thing in common, family. Through the lives of Louis Hughes, Cornelia McDonald, John Robertson, Samuel Agnew, one can see the importance of family through hard times and good times. Throughout the life of John Robertson, his family and friends played a major role in his life. At the age of 18, having just returned from the war fighting for the Confederates, John was starting a new life. He called himself a seeker. “But it was not riches he sought nor was it adventure. Although he was only eighteen, he had seen, as a rebel soldier and a home guardsman, all of the excitement and danger he cared to see. What he thirsted for now was spiritual fulfillment”(Ash 47). So on New Year’s Day he went to a Baptist church not far away from his aunt and uncles house. What he found when he went there was a preacher who was talking about baptism, not what young John wanted to hear. No, what he wanted to hear was a message that would change his life and help him get to know Jesus. Therefore, for the rest of the service John zoned himself out and sat quietly. The next day, he and his friend George Whillock had to mend a carriage wheel that had gotten broken on the way up from Roane Country. After repairing the wheel he went to see some old friends, the Browns. “He had lived with this family on their little farm for a time in late 1863 and early 1864, while he was employed in
Class
Teacher
Date
During the course of Civil War people faced many different hardships and challenges. As the war began secessionist hopes were high and they had control over the unionist. However, as the war progressed this began to change. The men that fought for the Rebels were beginning to come home and the same was true for the men who fought with the Yankees. Since many of all these men lived in the same towns and fought for different sides during the war hostility broke out. Even though there was an enormous amount of hostility between the two sides they still had one thing in common, family. Through the lives of Louis Hughes, Cornelia McDonald, John Robertson, Samuel Agnew, one can see the importance of family through hard times and good times. Throughout the life of John Robertson, his family and friends played a major role in his life. At the age of 18, having just returned from the war fighting for the Confederates, John was starting a new life. He called himself a seeker. “But it was not riches he sought nor was it adventure. Although he was only eighteen, he had seen, as a rebel soldier and a home guardsman, all of the excitement and danger he cared to see. What he thirsted for now was spiritual fulfillment”(Ash 47). So on New Year’s Day he went to a Baptist church not far away from his aunt and uncles house. What he found when he went there was a preacher who was talking about baptism, not what young John wanted to hear. No, what he wanted to hear was a message that would change his life and help him get to know Jesus. Therefore, for the rest of the service John zoned himself out and sat quietly. The next day, he and his friend George Whillock had to mend a carriage wheel that had gotten broken on the way up from Roane Country. After repairing the wheel he went to see some old friends, the Browns. “He had lived with this family on their little farm for a time in late 1863 and early 1864, while he was employed in
Cited: Ash, Stephen V. A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865. New York: Palgrave MacMillian, 2002