TO LIVE AND DIE

Culled from illustrated journals of the period—Harper’s Weekly, The Illustrated London News, The Atlantic Monthly, and Putnam’s, as well as neglected regional journals—and adorned with steel engravings, this volume collects 31 short stories by writers who experienced the beginning and end of the Civil War and tried to make sense of secession and its aftermath. The best-known authors are Edward Everett Hale, Louisa May Alcott, and—giving the final word—Mark Twain, whose “A True Story Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It” is a black cook’s monologue, in dialect, about the loss of her remaining son. The opener is Henry King’s “The Cabin at Pharoah’s Ford,” about a prewar vigilante attack on the underground railroad. Language shines in many of these tales, revealing them as part of the 19th century’s colloquial verve. Daily emergencies sometimes rise to comic levels or take on an extraordinary bleakness in battles, prison camps, and hospitals.

A valuable collection, most especially for Civil War aficionados.