Soldiers Blue and Gray

The poignant tale of Johnny Reb and Billy Yank

Soldiers Blue and Gray tells the story of Johnny Reb and Billy Yank-soldiers who recorded their experiences and emotions in the largest outpouring of letter writing in America’s history. In the first scholarly, in-depth examination of the Civil War soldier published since Bell I. Wiley’s two-volume study half a century ago, James I. Robertson, Jr., draws upon hundreds of rare and obscure sources to produce a moving account of what it was like to participate in the bloodiest and most intense war the world had ever seen. A tremendous amount of such writing came to light during–and has appeared since–the Civil War Centennia lof the 1960s. And what those men felt, observed, and endured reinforces the opinion that while they left something to be desired as soldiers, this nation has rarely ever produced greater fighters of more courage and devotion. Drawing upon hundreds of obscure and hard-to-find sources, the author has produced a fresh, sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking chronicle of a war that was the watershed of American history, because it truly united the United States.