The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union

Through excerpted letters, diary entries, newspaper accounts, and official records, Wiley offers the reader a complete portrait of the ordinary foot soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War. more

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From: Amazon
Posted: Dec-09-2007

An engaging book

Like his companion book, Life of Johnny Reb, this book looks at how soldiers were recruited and kept by the Army. The Union had the advantage of an army already in being but its expansion to meet its wartime needs changed the very nature of the Federal Army. This is a fine book and one that any...

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From: Amazon
Posted: Jun-16-2006

very informative

Just as informative about the life of the Common Soldierwho served in the Northern ranks as his book The Life of Johnny Reb is of the soldier who apposed him thoughcleary better developed by the author's experience. Very informative. Very well written.A must have for anyone interested in the...

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From: Amazon
Posted: Jul-26-2004

The Classic Study of the Union Soldier

Bell Irvin Wiley (1906-1980) enjoyed a distinguished career as a professor at the University of Mississippi and Emory University and as the author or editor of over 20 books on the Civil War. His "The Life of Billy Yank: the Common Soldier of the Union" (1952) is, together with its companion...

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From: Amazon
Posted: Jun-28-2004

Common heroes

Bell Irvin Wiley seems to have been the first historian/writer to realize that the Civil War was not just about Lee, Pickett, Grant or Stuart or any of the other guys with stars on their shoulders. The real truth about what happened on those battlefields had to do with the guys in the tattered...

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From: Amazon
Posted: Oct-23-2003

Excellent

The late Bell Wiley had an advantage that many researchers of the Civil War did not have: FIRST HAND ACCOUNTS FROM THE VETERANS THEMSELVES. Starting his research in the 1940's, Wiley was able to interview the aging veterans of the War. You can imagine what was going through these warriors minds...

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From: Amazon
Posted: Sep-07-2002

Packed full of information and entertaining to read!

Similar to the book, "Life of Johnny Reb", Bell Irvin Wiley has put together the life of being a soldier in the Union army. From muster to homecoming this books covers many subjects. Subjects such as northern soldier views on visiting the South for the first time, civilians, slavery, camp life...

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From: Amazon
Posted: Feb-10-2002

Wonderful background into the life of a Civil War Soldier

Bell Wiley's book is a wonderful way to understand what the common soldier was like in the Civil War. So many books deal strictly with officers or battles that this is quite the refreshing and novel read.There are no detailed descriptions of battles, only of the men who fought them, their...

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From: Amazon
Posted: Dec-15-1999

A masterpiece, an inspirational work!

Bell I.Wiley changed the course of Civil War study in the late 1940's when he wrote Johnny Reb. This work was the first to consider the experience of the average Confederate soldier. Wiley provides a nice overview of the soldier's experience by addressing why did men fight, how did they...

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