Synopses & Reviews
On 5 and 6 May 1864, the Union and Confederate armies met near anunfinished railroad in central Virginia, with Lee outmanned and outgunned, hoping toforce Grant to fight in the woods. The name of the battle--Wilderness--suggests thehorror of combat at close quarters and an inability to see the whole field ofengagement, even from a distance. Indeed, the battle is remembered for its brutalityand ultimate futility for Lee: even with 26,000 casualties on both sides, theWilderness only briefly stemmed Grant'sadvance.
Stephen Cushman lives fifty miles southof this battlefield. A poet and professor of American literature, he wrote BloodyPromenade to confront the fractured legacy of a battle that haunts him through itsvery proximity to his everyday life. Cushman's personal narrative is not anotherhistory of the battle. If this book is a history of anything, he writes, it's thehistory of verbal and visual images of a single, particularly awful moment in theAmerican Civil War. Reflecting on that moment can begin in the present, with thelatest film or reenactment, but it leads Cushman back to materials from the past.Writing in an informal, first-person style, he traces his own fascination with theconflict to a single book, a pictorial history he read as a boy. His abidinginterest and poetic sensibility yield a fresh perspective on the war's continuinggrip on Americans--how it pervades our lives through films and songs; novels such asThe Red Badge of Courage, The Killer Angels, and Cold Mountain; Whitman's poetry andWinslow Homer's painting; or the pull of the abstract idea of the triumph offreedom.
With maps and a brief discussion of theBattle of the Wilderness for those not familiar with the landscape and actors, Bloody Promenade provides a personal tour of one of the most savage engagements ofthe Civil War, then offers a lively discussion of its aftermath.
Description
Includes bibliographical references and index. "A note on sources": p. 283.