Charles Dahlgren of Natchez: The Civil War and Dynastic Decline

Rating:
Summary: Immediacy of History
Review: Anthropologists tell us that human brains are indelibly informed by the experience of ice age survival some twenty-four thousand years ago; that adaptability and improvisation in a world of violent, cataclysmic change enabled humans to abide the destructive power of ice and satisfy the evolutionary imperative of endurance. Fast forward myriad millennia to the turbulent time of America's defining cataclysm, the Civil War, and meet Charles Dahlgren: brawler, adventurer, opportunist, patriarch, Yankee by birth and breeding, Confederate slave owner by chance and choice, and avatar of those primal qualities that exalt fortitude over fortune. Dahlgren's odyssey encompasses most of the nineteenth century and touches people representing the lavish spectrum of characters that age has to offer, from slaves to presidents, from dowagers to mercenaries, from victors to vanquished, and is masterfully rendered by Herschel Gower in "Charles Dahlgren of Natchez: The Civil War and Dynastic Decline." Using verbatim the recorded words of many, including significant passages from Dahlgren's exceptional diary, Gower combines eloquent narrative with authentic utterance to create a robust immediacy that delivers enthusiasts of history and anthropology, alike, back to the intrinsically familiar.

Rating:
Summary: A superbly presented work of meticulous scholarship
Review: Charles Dahlgren Of Natchez: The Civil War And Dynastic Decline by Herschel Gower (Professor Emeritus of English and American Literature, Vanderbilt University) is the true-life biography of Charles Dahlgren, an energetic Northerner with ambition both during and after the American Civil War. Pitted against his brother when the nation of America tore itself apart, Dahlgren sought to found a dynasty in the south but endured crushing losses in battle. His turbulent life and times make for fascinating reading in this carefully researched, up close and personal account. Charles Dahlgren Of Natchez is a superbly presented work of meticulous scholarship and is especially recommended to students of the post-Civil War era of reconstruction.

Rating:
Summary: Great story, great history
Review: Enthralling account of day to day living during the union invasion and reconstruction of the South. Details and facts abound in this fascinating account of Charles Dahlgren of Natchez. If you ever wanted to know anything about the Antebellum South, The War, the impact of the War on the South this is the book you cannot put down.

Rating:
Summary: Charles Dahlgren of Natchez: The Civil War and Dynastic Decl
Review: Enthralling account of day to day living during the union invasion and reconstruction of the South. Details and facts abound in this fascinating account of Charles Dahlgren of Natchez. If you ever wanted to know anything about the Antebellum South, The War, the impact of the War on the South this is the book you cannot put down.

Rating:
Summary: Delicate power with style and grace
Review: Future meet the past, and the quality of human spirit that is an integral part of modern America. Time travel is possible with Herschel Gower's beautifully written book. The story of General Dahlgren has everything necessary for a work of fiction, but this is, indeed, fact. General Dahlgren was a first generation American, a hard working self made man, a lawyer, a planter, a frontiersman, a business man who rose to greatness within his community, joined the ranks of the Confederacy in defense of his ideals, then faced bankruptcy and poverty in defeat, only to remake himself and rebuild his shattered world. Mr. Gower is not interested in hero worship, however, and the General is presented to us with intimate detail, both good and bad, both invigorating and humiliating. This intimacy is often from the General himself, who Gower allows to tell his own story at every turn. There is so much to glean from a history of this sort, from a deep and varied accounting of day to day existence to an understanding of the minds and thought patterns that shaped men's worlds in the 19th Century. Anyone who reads this work will develop an admiration for a time, place and people completely self aware, not only of surroundings, but of advantages that a lifetime can put into rare and fragile perspective. The similarities are sometimes suprising, for instance: boys playing pranks and party goers appreciating a pacificity of existence. Who today hasn't remarked that life is good? But who today could survive the daily struggle that was a 19th century life, and do so with grace, humility and humor? General Dahlgren's story is compelling and fascinating and perfectly relevant in today's world of financial boom and bust. Herschel Gower's work is impressive in scope, delicately and beautifully written and as much a page turner as any adventure novel. This book is definitely a must.

Rating:
Summary: Great story, great history
Review: Herschel Gower's meticulous research and well written story of Charles Dahlgren and his family have brought history and the Dahlgrens to life. Any reader will find this a fascinating story as well as a great insight into history. Congratulations to Dr. Gower for his splendid work!

Rating:
Summary: Survivors of Hard Times
Review: Intrigued by initials carved on a rock on August 31,1860, and discovered on August 31, 1990, Herschel Gower began his research on the Dahlgren family by identifying all the members of a house party in the last summer before the Civil War. The resulting narrative of lives and homes and dreams changed and lost from 1861 to the early twentieth century is the story not only of Charles Dahlgren and his family but also of many Confederate families with Union relatives. Their letters and diaries are eloquent with the truth about survival in hard times. One of the survivors, looking back in 1917, said of the Dahlgrens in 1860, ". . . we were happy and we knew it and we thought the happiness would go on and on."