ebooks Immigrants and the American Dream: Remaking the Middle Class by William A. V. Clark in History

Description

Eighteen-year-old Sumner A. Cunningham joined his local home guard near Shelbyville; Tennessee; in late October 1861; and immediately was assimilated into a new Confederate regiment; the 41st Tennessee Infantry. Rising to senior noncommissioned-officer rank; his experiences were those of the Army of Tennessee through the next three years. He received limited military training; was captured at Fort Donelson; and spent time as a prisoner of war in Camp Morton; Indiana. After his exchange; he marched in the failed Mississippi campaign to free Vicksburg; saw action around Jackson and Raymond; at Port Hudson; Chickamauga; Missionary Ridge; and the Atlanta and Tennessee campaigns. There; he fought with bravado at Franklin and Nashville before he deserted. Reminiscences of the 41st Tennessee: The Civil War in the West is based on his wartime diary; which he published in 1871 for his middle Tennessee market. Cunningham's military account is a refreshingly candid examination of his daily life in the Army of Tennessee. From combat and heroism to fear; cowardice; and disease; his is an unusually honest insight into the Confederacy in the West.