The Civil War

The UO-OSU Civil War game is now officially over for the year -- congratulations to both teams on solid seasons, and good luck in your respective bowl games. I'm playing an impartial role this year so I won't voice an opinion on the outcome. But, if you're still in the mood, here are a couple of new books pertaining to THE Civil War that might be of interest. Robert Roper's book, Now the Drum of War, provides a biographical chronicle of a remarkable and dysfunctional family (Walt Whitman's family) and an examination of the tragedies of the war through the correspondence of the Whitman family. Andrew Ward's book, The Slave's War, provides -- through hundreds of interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs -- a narrative of the war from the perspective of those whose destiny it decided: the slaves.