A Cabinet Of Jade

Author : Rhonda Braden
Publisher : AuthorHouse
ISBN 13 : 1403371210
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (33 download)

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Download or read book Montrose written by Rhonda Braden and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2003-01-16 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of Henry Brown Annis, a man of his time who was caught up in the times. An everyday dirt and grunt Union Army soldier, Henry, like many of his contemporaries, wrote of his experiences in the Civil War, waxing poetic with what the Civil War historian, Bruce Catton, describes as the "embroideries and purple passages of many an author of the time," and at the same time documenting the mundane, grub details of a soldier's existence. Throughout the memoirs, Henry's devotion to his country, his sense of humor, and his compassion shine through. Henry enlisted in Company B, 96th Illinois Infantry on August 9, 1862. For nearly a year his regiment was relatively inactive, engaging in some minor skirmishes in Tennessee, and, according to his army record, Henry spent three months in and out of hospitals in Ohio and Kentucky. Then, in the later part of the summer of 1863, the 96th Illinois and Henry were ordered to southeastern Tennessee, near Chattanooga, where the Union and Confederate forces were gathering for a showdown. The regimental history of the 96th Illinois and Henry Annis's military career revolved around this theater of action which, for the North, was an important turning point of the War. William Wood summed up the significance of the campaign when he wrote, "Chattanooga meant that the Union forces had at last laid the axe to the root of the tree." The way was opened for Sherman's march to the sea. Writing of his experience some years after the end of the War, Henry assumes, and rightfully so, that his readers have a grass roots familiarity with the "Battle Above the Clouds." To fully understand Henry Annis's experience, I have tried to put it into its larger context: The Chattanooga Campaign, which included the bloody, but indecisive "fracas," as Henry calls it, at Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863. Its culmination occurred on November 23, 24, and 25 in the Battle of Chattanooga where the fighting took place on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. Using his memoirs and the official reports and correspondence documented in the volumes of Official Records and The Rebellion Record, I have attempted to retrace Henry's wartime experience and reconstruct it in the larger context of his regiment, and of the battles themselves. I have also tried to trace the personal and military history of the man who told it the way he fought it, learn about his superior officers who controlled not only the outcome of the battles, but Henry's fate as well. His experiences are clarified with both a micro and macro account of the battles and the interim siege, striving for an overall picture of this part of the Civil War and Henry Annis's part in it.