Synopses & Reviews
Eye of the Storm is one of the most important Civil War documents to be published since Ulysses S. Grant's Personal Memoirs. In 1994, four tattered scrapbooks were found in a Connecticut bank vault, yielding a treasure trove of more than five hundred watercolors that vividly depict America's greatest national drama. These scrapbooks plus a five-thousand-page illustrated memoir that was also discovered are the life's achievement of a long-forgotten Union private and mapmaker named Robert Knox Sneden.
Sneden enlisted in the Union army after the fall of Fort Sumter. As a soldier and mapmaker, he witnessed many of the most famous battles of the war. His map of the second battle of Bull Run offers a detailed firsthand account of this pivotal moment. Captured by the notorious Captain Mosby in 1863, Sneden spent most of the rest of the war as a prisoner at the infamous Andersonville prison camp. Sneden's chronicle is one of the richest descriptions of soldier life and the only fully illustrated eyewitness account of existence inside this notorious prison.
Review
Gary W. Gallagher
author of Lee and His Generals in War and Memory
Robert Knox Sneden bequeathed a rich store in pictorial and narrative material to students of the Civil War. His drawings and paintings depict many places for which we have no other pictorial representations. This highly unusual account, which is enhanced by the editors' excellent work, quickly should take its place among the invaluable published primary sources on the conflict.
Review
"Puts the reader in the heart of the Civil War." Boston Globe
Review
"Sneden's record in words and pictures is remarkable and unique. You have never read or seen a Civil War memoir like this one." John Jakes
Review
"Eye of the Storm is a magnificent addition to the art and literature of the Civil War. Just when it seemed that nothing could be unearthed about America's Armageddon, along comes the unexpected: a sensational discovery of a long-hidden treasure trove of sketches and a diary of riveting descriptive prose." Stephen B. Oates
Review
"This richly illustrated account of one man's Civil War belongs in the library of anyone interested in knowing what it was really like to fight for the American Union." Geoffrey C. Ward, coauthor of The Civil War: An Illustrated History
Review
James I. Robertson, Jr.
author of Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend
"Spectacular," "gripping," "unprecedented," and "unique in every sense," are overused phrases in describing a new book. Yet each applies here. Robert Sneden's diary-memoir of service in the 40th New York is extraordinary in itself. His scores of watercolors of scenes in the field have no equal in Civil War art.
Synopsis
One of the most important Civil War documents to be published since Ulysses S. Grant's "Personal Memoirs, Eye of the Storm" is the fully illustrated, eyewitness account of the war by a long-forgotton Union private and mapmaker. 85 full-color illustrations. Maps.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 309-312) and index.
Table of Contents
ContentsPreface
Prologue
CHAPTER ONE To the Front!
CHAPTER TWO Under Fire
CHAPTER THREE Confusion and Darkness: The SevenDays
CHAPTER FOUR Enough of Terrible Fighting
CHAPTER FIVE Captured
CHAPTER SIX "On to Richmond!"
CHAPTER SEVEN Prison Train to Andersonville
CHAPTER EIGHT This Hell on Earth
CHAPTER NINE Freedom
Epilogue
Note on Sources
Editorial Method
Acknowledgments
Index