What This Cruel War Was Over
Chandra Manning, 2007

A soldier in the 13th Wisconsin Infantry: "The fact that slavery is the sole undeniable cause of this infamous rebellion, that it is a war of, by, and for slavery, is as plain as the noon-day Sun."

A soldier of Morgan's Confederate Brigade: "...any man who pretends to believe that this is not a war for the emancipation of the blacks...is either a fool or a liar."

Chandra Manning scoured soldier's letters and camp newspapers for first-person comments that describe their opinions of the relationship between slavery and the Civil War. Every page of this book contains the original words of soldiers from the begining of the war until the end.

The title of the book is derived from the 1862 song When This Cruel War Is Over, also known as Weeping, Sad, and Lonely. It's a fitting title, for there were northern and southern versions of the song and this book examines both Northern and Southern perspectives. It's about 230 pages, with another 100 pages of footnotes and resource listings.

Scott,

I read "What This Cruel War Was Over" about a month ago. Excellent read, and the author's notes and sources were outstanding.