The Folly and the Madness by Thomas W Cutrer
With a closeness perhaps unique to siblings orphaned young, Orlando and Artimisia “Missie” Palmer exchanged intimate letters throughout their lives. These letters (interspersed with additional letters from Oliver Kennedy, the Palmers’ first cousin) offer a clear and entertaining window into the life and times of a junior Confederate officer serving in the Western Theater of the Civil War.Though he initially felt Americans would see “the folly and the madness” of going to war, Orlando enlisted as a private in what would become Company H of the First (later Fifteenth) Arkansas Infantry, informing his sister that he had volunteered “not for position, not for a name, but from patriotic motivation.” However, he was ambitious enough to secure an appointment as Maj. Gen. William Joseph Hardee’s personal secretary; he then rose to become his regiment’s sergeant major, his company’s first lieutenant, and later captain and brigade adjutant. Soldier letters typically report only what can be observed at the company level, but Palmer’s high-ranking position offers a unique view of strategic rather than tactical operations.
Palmer’s letters are not all related to his military experience, though, and the narrative is enhanced by his nuanced reflections on courtship customs and personal relationships. For instance, Palmer frequently attempts to entertain Missie with witticisms and tales of his active romantic life: “We have so much to do,” he quips, “that we have no time to do anything save to visit the women. I am in love with several dozen of them and am having a huge time generally.”
The Folly and the Madness adds depth to the genre of Civil War correspondence and provides a window into the lives of ordinary southerners at an extraordinary time.
-
Second Manassas
-
Imprisoned at Camp Douglas
-
Fighting with Stonewall in the Valley
-
John Dooley's Civil War
-
Memoirs of Lieut.-General Winfield Scott
-
Sailing with Farragut
-
The Lynches of South Carolina
-
A Yankee Horseman in the Shenandoah Valley
-
To Succeed or Perish
-
No Pardons to Ask, nor Apologies to Make
-
Haunted by Memory
-
In Memory of Self and Comrades
-
Quest for a Star
-
From Huntsville to Appomattox
-
A Southern Boy in Blue
-
Two Germans in the Civil War
-
The Civil War Diaries of Cassie Fennell
-
A Legacy of Valor
-
Correspondence of Major General Emory Upton, Volume 1, 1857-1875
-
Grant, Lincoln and the Freedmen
-
Correspondence of Major General Emory Upton, Volume 2, 1875-1881
-
Dear Courier
-
The Letters of General Richard S. Ewell
-
Last to Leave the Field
-
Little to Eat and Thin Mud to Drink
-
The Union Must Stand
-
Suffering in the Army of Tennessee
-
Sanctified Trial
-
Miserable Little Conglomeration
-
My Dearest Lilla
-
New Fields of Adventure
-
The Peninsula
-
The Diary of Nannie Haskins Williams
-
Chickamauga Voices of the Civil War
-
Shenandoah 1862
-
As Wolves Upon a Sheep Fold
-
The Civil War Memoir of a Boy from Baltimore
-
Lee and Jackson's Bloody Twelfth
-
Three Years a Soldier
Thomas W. Cutrer is the prolific author or editor of more than a dozen books on the American Civil War and the American Southwest. He is professor emeritus of history and American studies at Arizona State University.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781621908418 |
| ISBN 10 | 1621908410 |
| Title | The Folly and the Madness |
| Author | Thomas W Cutrer |
| Series | Voices Of The Civil War |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of Tennessee Press |
| Year published | 2023-10-31 |
| Number of pages | 264 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |