The Civil War Letters of Capt. Richard W. Burt

Site:
http://www.infinet.com/~lstevens/burt/index.html

Category:
History

Review (in 1996):

Poems and war songs make up nearly half of this fine collection of letters from Burt, a newspaperman from Peoria who fought in the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. A detailed account of the movements of the 76th is good background for Burt's letters, which display his journalistic skills and a knack for wry understatement. His casual remarks reveal the intimacy of a civil war, yet mask the obvious horrors of the battlefield: "When Gen. Sherman learned that the rebels killed all the foragers whom they captured, he informed the rebel Generals that he would have as many rebel prisoners in our hands shot as they killed foragers, and that had the desired effect".

We particularly enjoyed the lighter verse, however, including "Jeff Davis in Petticoats" and "Phil on Picket in Dixie" about a pig "that dared to cross the picket line/And never (gave) a countersign".

As reviewed in the 1996 "World Wide Web Top 1000" - a review of the Top 5% of all Web Sites in 1996.