A Scratch with the Rebels

Item Description

They were Scotch-Irish, Presbyterian, first-generation Americans. They were alike in many ways but different in one trait that mattered. One was Union; the other, Confederate. James McCaskey, a member of the Roundhead Regiment, came from a farm in western Pennsylvania. He believed in individual rights for all men. Gus Smythe, Washington Light Infantry, 24th South Carolina, was a college student and a supporter of states' rights. This is the true story of how they came to their opposing position, and how the Battle of Secessionville altered not only their own lives, but the lives of those who share their experiences. Author Carolyn Schriber received her PhD in History from the University of Colorado, where she worked in two very different fields: medieval Europe and nineteenth-century America. She enjoyed a successful career as a tenured professor at Rhodes College, specializing in medieval history and publishing extensively on relationships between Anglo-Norman bishops and kings in the twelfth century. She also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (ORB), an early and extremely successful approach to harnessing the resources of the internet to facilitate historical research. Now she has retired to Professor Emerita status and turned her attention to her second love, the history of America's Civil War. Schriber has produced an ambitious study of the Battle of Secessionville, the first re-examination of the impact of that battle in over a decade. She offers a fresh perspective and a valuable new approach to some of issues concerning the American Civil War. After extensive research, she has successfully blended the personal stories of two opposing soldiers with a detailed account of the battle. With a clear and engaging writing style, A Scratch with the Rebels illuminates the depth and diversity of perspectives from both sides of the conflict. It is an absorbing history for Civil War buffs and historians, as well as a general audience. Excerpts from A SCRATCH WITH THE REBELS From "We Know Only Our Country" "By the late 1850s a unique ideological struggle was taking shape in America--one in which the same rhetoric could be employed to explain two opposing sides. Supporters of the Union argued for their right to defend themselves against those who would destroy their state. Those who wanted to secede from the Union defended their right to rebel against injustice. Abolitionists spoke out against slavery because it denied the slaves their individual liberties; slave-owners opposed any governmental interference in their affairs because it denied that same individual liberty to the slave owner. Northern Abolitionists called slave owning a form of tyranny and wanted it abolished; Southern planters called attempts to control their affairs a form of tyranny. Both sides sought political freedom, and both believed passionately in the righteousness of their causes. When civil war finally broke out, it would see men of Scotch-Irish ancestry fighting in both the Union and Confederate ranks--men who quoted identical scriptures to defend their opposing positions." 204 pages

Product Details