From the Cannon's Mouth

This is one of Civil War Magazine's 100 best Civil War books. 'The whole system of promotion is by the practice of a low grovelling lick-spittle subserving and pandering to the press, who can lie you into the favor and notice of the war authorities. I might stay a long life in hard service, as I have done for over three years, and I never could seek the polluted steps to preferment and should never reach it' - (p. 332). "From the Cannon's Mouth The Civil War Letters of General Alpheus S. Williams" is edited with an introduction by Milo M. Quaife Introduction by Gary W. Gallagher. 'Superb war letters...Old 'Pap' Williams possessed an unconscious literary flair that gives simple style and force to his letters...Milo Quaife has added annotation that will enlighten the casual reader and satisfy the scholar' - "New York Times Book Review". 'Civil War scholars are always grateful for a volume of letters written by a high-ranking officer who held important commands in pivotal engagements...A superior collection...Especially useful to students of the war are his keen, detailed accounts of Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg' - "American Historical Review". Fifty-one years old when the Civil War broke out, Alpheus S. Williams was commissioned brigadier general of volunteers in the Army of the Potomac. These letters to his daughters, written in the most rigorous wartime circumstances, reveal the high-ranking officer's views on events from Bull Run to Georgia and the Carolinas to Gettysburg. He characterizes McClellan, Sherman, Hooker, and Meade; scorns a system of promotion that rewards grandstanders and press-kissers; and explodes in fury at the contractors whose graft cheats the soldiers of blankets and shoes in midwinter. He pities the people and animals thrust in the path of the cannon and is acutely attuned to the weather and landscape. Every line by Williams is stamped with intelligence and sensibility, and his combatant's view of the battle at Antietam is the most stirring in Civil War literature. Introducing this Bison Books edition is Gary W. Gallagher, a professor of history at Pennsylvania State University and author of the prize-winning "Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander". Milo M. Quaife edited many classics, including "Kit Carson's Autobiography" and Britton Davis' "Truth about Geronimo", both reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press.