Mosby and Elisha Hunt Rhodes

Matt McKeon

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I just finished Mosby's memoir of his partisan service. It was a little sketchy, cobbled together from his memories and letters and dispatches of the time. In the middle is a long piece about Stuart during the Gettysburg campaign, which I had trouble following without a map.

Mosby certainly has an attractive voice and personality. Fearless, without boasting, aggressive without cruelty, determined without vindictiveness. He described his friendship with Grant after the war, and wrote admiringly of both Stuart and Lee.

Compared with Sam Watkins writing, its certainly a less vivid and strongly drawn memoir. Mosby didn't write descriptions of combat or his feelings, perhaps because he didn't think he could convey the experience to the non veteran.

Rhodes also wrote less powerfully than Watkins (IMO), but his account is made up of contemporary letters, diaries, etc. He is content to describe the battles as "terrible." Wonderful window into the Army of the Potomac.
 

jgoodguy

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I just finished Mosby's memoir of his partisan service. It was a little sketchy, cobbled together from his memories and letters and dispatches of the time. In the middle is a long piece about Stuart during the Gettysburg campaign, which I had trouble following without a map.

Mosby certainly has an attractive voice and personality. Fearless, without boasting, aggressive without cruelty, determined without vindictiveness. He described his friendship with Grant after the war, and wrote admiringly of both Stuart and Lee.

Compared with Sam Watkins writing, its certainly a less vivid and strongly drawn memoir. Mosby didn't write descriptions of combat or his feelings, perhaps because he didn't think he could convey the experience to the non veteran.

Rhodes also wrote less powerfully than Watkins (IMO), but his account is made up of contemporary letters, diaries, etc. He is content to describe the battles as "terrible." Wonderful window into the Army of the Potomac.
Thanks.

I think that Mosby's account vindicates Stuart, but I am depending on recollection.

Another recollection/opinion was that Watkins was writing from memory.
 

5fish

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Here is the one book...

link:https://www.amazon.com/All-Union-Letters-Elisha-Rhodes/dp/B01JJSVOXU



All for the Union is the astonishing and eloquent diary of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, the Union soldier featured in Ken Burns' highly acclaimed PBS television documentary The Civil War. Enlisting as a private in the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry, Rhodes fought in every major campaign waged by the Army of the Potomac, from Bull Run to Appomattox. Here, in his own powerfully moving words, Rhodes reveals why he was willing to die to preserve his beloved Union.
 

Kirk's Raider's

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I just finished Mosby's memoir of his partisan service. It was a little sketchy, cobbled together from his memories and letters and dispatches of the time. In the middle is a long piece about Stuart during the Gettysburg campaign, which I had trouble following without a map.

Mosby certainly has an attractive voice and personality. Fearless, without boasting, aggressive without cruelty, determined without vindictiveness. He described his friendship with Grant after the war, and wrote admiringly of both Stuart and Lee.

Compared with Sam Watkins writing, its certainly a less vivid and strongly drawn memoir. Mosby didn't write descriptions of combat or his feelings, perhaps because he didn't think he could convey the experience to the non veteran.

Rhodes also wrote less powerfully than Watkins (IMO), but his account is made up of contemporary letters, diaries, etc. He is content to describe the battles as "terrible." Wonderful window into the Army of the Potomac.
All biographies are useful. Not to argue all biographies are equal in being historically accurate.
Kirk's Raiders
 
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