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By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributor
Put up your fists.
Yep, it's come to this: someone's looking for a fight and
that's exactly what they're about to get. There will be a
winner. It won't be fun: there'll be a loser, and probably
some bruises. But at least you'll be able to open those
fists and shake hands when it's over – unlike, perhaps, the
people inside these two great books...
When the Civil War began, says author Deborah Willis,
most "...enslaved blacks and servants were united in their
opinion – they associated war with emancipation." They hung
onto every bit of news about Abraham Lincoln and news from
the battlefront, they were eager to know what Lincoln would
do next, and in The Black Civil War Soldier,
you'll get to meet some of those people and learn their
stories.
You'll also get to see them, in portraits and snapshots
taken on and off the field, in Black hospitals, homes, and
asylums. These are the kinds of pictures that make you want
to linger, taking in details of what was obviously someone's
best dress, or someone's best and bravest face. Look at the
pictures and read personal letters home, diary entries, and
thoughts – words, says Willis, of absent loved ones, fear
and confusion, frustration on the part of both soldier and
commander, "dignity and pride... achievement and
self-confidence..." and valor.
You'll also learn about the daily lives of a Black soldier
during the war, and what happened in the years after wars'
end. Together, this narrative and the photographs make an
astounding book that show an often-little-told human side of
the War Between the States.
When there's war, of course, you'll see action on the field
but the fight can also go on far behind the lines, as you'll
see in Blood and Germs by Gail Jarrow.
In this very heavily-illustrated book, young readers will
get an authentic look at what, other than bullets, bayonets,
and cannonballs, might've killed a Civil War soldier. These
things – gangrene, scurvy, tuberculosis, typhus, and other
horrible maladies or injuries – are examined and explained
in context to the times in which they affected American on
and off the battlefield; many of those maladies, after all,
are rare in today's world and may be unfamiliar to young
readers. Through letters and stomach-churning old-tyme
cures, Jarrow also tells of the roles women played in
nursing and ministering to the wounded and afflicted, how
they stopped blood loss, saved legs and arms, ended pain,
and kept away disease and death.
Older teens and adults, especially those who are history
buffs, are the perfect audience for The Black Civil War
Soldier, although later-middle-schoolers shouldn't have
any problem reading or understanding the book and may enjoy
it. Blood and Germs is great for kids ages 10 and up
and adults, though parents of particularly sensitive kids
should beware that some of the photos can really be quite
gruesome. In both cases, the stories inside these books make
them great additions to anyone's library, and good things to
get your fists around.
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