Mississippi Library Association

The Hour of Our Nation’s Agony: The Civil War Letters of Lt. William Cowper Nelson of Mississippi

Ford, Jennifer W., ed. The Hour of Our Nation’s Agony: The Civil War Letters of Lt. William Cowper Nelson of Mississippi.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2007.
336 pp. $48.50 (hardcover)

In The Hour of Our Nation’s Agony: The Civil War Letters of Lt. William Cowper Nelson of Mississippi, Jennifer Ford, head of archives and special collections and assistant professor at University of Mississippi’s J.D. Williams Library, showcases a collection of documents and letters between William Cowper Nelson and family members. The result is a highly readable book that not only highlights this recent donation of Civil War era primary sources to the Williams Library, but also puts flesh on one’s view of the War Between the States. This book is part of The Voices of the Civil War series from the University of Tennessee Press, a series of more than thirty volumes that publishes primary source documents from servicemen and civilians from both sides of the Civil War.
Focusing on the antebellum and war period letters of the collection, the book presents the letters chronologically, leaving punctuation, capitalization, and spelling as it was found in the originals. Ford divides these letters into five chapters, and her commentary introduces each chapter, helping the reader to understand the context of these letters within Civil War events and Nelson’s maturity as a human being. Nearly every letter contains several endnotes that explain the individuals mentioned or the context of the situation discussed. A narrative epilogue sums up Nelson’s post-war life. Also included are a number of relevant photographs and drawings, an extensive bibliography, and an index of names, terms, places, and battles mentioned in the letters and endnotes.
The commentaries trace Nelson’s transition from a sheltered youth who believed in the glory of war to a battle-weary soldier who had seen enough of war and death. While Nelson apparently lived somewhat better than many soldiers, he also witnessed many significant battles, including Antietam/Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the siege of Petersburg, among others, and had “slept on battlefields…with dead and dying Yankees.” Nelson had feelings both of hatred toward the Northern soldiers invading his hometown of Holly Springs and compassion toward the Northern wounded, for whom he filled canteens with water after the Seven Days Battle. The editor concludes that Nelson was a complex individual, who neither fits fully into the notion of an alienated, disillusioned, battle-weary soldier, nor into that of a soldier whose ideals remained intact despite many a bloody battle. A person with a limited background in Civil War history should have no problem reading and understanding this well-researched work, and it is recommended for academic and large public libraries.

Rick Torgerson
Cataloger
Delta State University

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews
Posted on: October 1st, 2008