The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy

Rating:
Summary: A book for the ages
Review: Bell I. Wiley grew up in Tennessee surrounded by veterans of the Confederate Army. Around the front porch he learned the history of the Civil War from the men who had fought it.

After acquiring a Ph.D. at Yale, Wiley taught at Ole Miss where as he later told a class of Civil War students at Emory, "the only person I knew who was writing books was Bill Faulkner." Nonetheless Wiley undertook to write about the Civil War from the perspective of its true heroes, the common soldiers who endured the mud, marches, food, diseases, enemy, and officers.

Drawn from the letters and diaries of ordinary soldiers Wiley created an enduring work. Unlike most of the Civil War histories of its time, The Life of Johnny Reb refused to focus on the generals, or the battles, or the politicians or even the causes of the Civil War.

Rather, Wiley depicted the rock-hard life of lonely men. These farmers, masons and blacksmiths in gray were sometimes hungry, often cold, and always dusty. Capable of fiercely engaging in the most horrific fighting the world had ever seen, they remained loyal and devoted fathers, husbands and sons. For these men, this war was not about slavery for few of them were slave owners. Rather the war was about home and family and the land that their family plowed.

Can there be a scene more melancholy than that of Union and Confederate troops huddled around the night fires and singing songs and hymns out across battle lines to each other even as they prepared themselves and their weapons for the morrow and its carnage? While Civil War era soldiers were not always the best spellers or grammarians, they had no trouble depicting army life to those they left behind with candor, understatement, humor and occasional exasperation.

Bell Wiley rightfully deserves his place among the great historians of the Civil War. This, truly, is a book for the ages.

Rating:
Summary: A Pioneering Study of the Confederate Soldier
Review: Bell Irvin Wiley (1906-1990), a scholar of the American Civil War, is best known for his two early books describing the lives of common soldiers in the Union and Confederate Armies. His book, "The Life of Johnny Reb" appeared in 1943 and was followed in 1952 by its companion volume "The Life of Billy Yank". At the beginning of his career, Wiley tended to concentrate on the Confederate War effort and wrote his book on "Billy Yank" as a result of the fascination he developed from writing his initial work with the common soldier. Ironically, Wiley's book on "Billy Yank" is the stronger of the two in terms of detail, organization, factual material, and analysis. His book on the Confederate soldier remains an important effort, essential to understanding the Southern Civil War experience.

In the Preface to his book, Wiley points out the fascination that the campaigns and personalities of Lee, Jackson, Stuart, and other Southern leaders exert (and continue to exert) on students of the Civil War. He aimed in his book to discuss the life of the soldier "as it really was" including among much else "how the hungry private fried his bacon, baked his biscuit, smoked his pipe". His book succeeds in that aim. Wiley's book gave me a good picture of life in the Southern Army with all its privations and hardships. He does not romanticize his subject or, for all his affection for the Southern soldier, fall prey to "Lost Cause" mythology.

The book opens with a discussion of the enthusiasm of the Southern soldier during the early stages of the War -- largely resulting from the conviction that the War would be short and that the Yankees would go home. He discusses how the dream of a short, decisive conflict quickly faded and how the troops were left with the dangerous, boring, and dehabilitating business of soldiering. Some men continued througout with their convictions and enthusiasm but for most the War became something that could not end soon enough.

Wiley gives good pictures and stories of the tedium of life in the camps during the winter and during the long periods when the armies were not in combat or on the march. He describes the bad food, shoddy clothes, and low pay that were the lot of the Confederate soldier. He discusses the various ways the troops spent their time. ranging from the sins of gambling, drink, and vice to the repeated attempts at religious revivials. Wiley is sensitive to the instances of cowardice and fear in the Confederate war effort but he rightly praises the valor and courage, overall, of the Confederate soldier. They fought tenaciously and hard. Wiley discusses the loneliness of soldier life as the men in the lines went to great efforts to write letters home and thought of their wives and sweethearts.

I thought Wiley's discussion of the unsanitary conditions of the camps and the toll taken by disease and poor medical treatment among the best sections of the book. He also discusses well the ambivalent relationships that frequently developed between Johnny Reb and his enemy in blue. Although it became a total and brutal combat, the Civil War was marked by attempts at fraternization, and what later writers have termed the "brotherhood of men at arms." The feelings the combatants developed for each other became important in the reconciliation efforts following this devastating conflict. Wiley also offers a good discussion of the various types of shoulder arms used by the Southern troops during the war, their manufacture, and their limitations.

There is a great deal of anecdotal material in this book. The text is repetitive at times. But this book and its companion volume remain essential Civil War reading and will give the student a feel for life in the lines.

Rating:
Summary: Overlooked heroes
Review: Bell Irvin Wiley seems to have been the first historian/writer to realize that the Civil War was not just about Lee, Pickett, Grant or Stuart or any of the other guys with stars on their shoulders. The real truth about what happened on those battlefields had to do with the guys in the tattered uniforms and the rotted shoes, trying to fight with defective rifles.

As in his companion book, "The Life of Billy Yank", "The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy" is an unflinching look at the seemingly endless plight of a Confederate soldier. This is a very sobering account, and some of the letters the soldiers wrote home are nothing short of heartbreaking. Even as defeat was becoming more and more apparent, the courage and determination of these men did not waiver. This is a truly admirable account of men who were more than common soldiers. I believe they were really common heroes.

Rating:
Summary: Classic - you can hear the bugle calling
Review: Bell Wiley was blessed with unusually good eyesight, which he used to read the faded letters written home by thousands of otherwise anonymous Southern foot soldiers and cavalrymen. Keep in mind that after 1862, the C.S.A. had very little good-quality paper or ink. A typical Rebel missive was written with homemade vegetable ink on the margins of a used business letter. It was under these discouraging circumstances that the men who wore the gray told their families, wives, and loves ones of the reality of Civil War (War Between the States) combat.

"The Life of Johnny Reb" is drawn from these thousands of letters, as well as contemporary newspaper articles, court-martial records, medical accounts, and regimental histories. Wiley was in all phases of his research a severe realist who was not interested in romanticising his subjects. When he admires the common soldier of the Confederacy, it is admiration that is due on the basis of the facts and nothing but the facts.

Wiley, himself a Southerner, uses some of the euphemisms required of writers of his day. Slaves are routinely called "servants", for example, and if one of his men writes a few lines of obscene poetry, Wiley will sometimes refuse to quote them in print.

Many of us believe that the C.S.A. was not a worthy cause for which to fight. All the more honor, then, to those common soldiers of the Confederacy who fought, bled, and died for it in increasing awareness of the fact that they were likely to lose. Whatever the ultimate justice of their cause, they did their best.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Source
Review: Like the companion to this book (LIFE OF BILLY YANK) Bell Wiley has done an outstanding job recording the life of the common soldier of the Civil War. And, like BILLY YANK, Wiley was able to interview scores of aging Confederate veterans. With topics ranging from food to even (GASP) SEX, Wiley manages to paint a portrait that few will ever excell. As with BILLY YANK, reenactors will find a wealth of information for their impressions. Wiley does not judge these men by 20th Century values and standards, but lets them speak their own words. The documentation alone is worth browsing!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fantastic reading....can't put it down !
Review: This book is thorough, well-researched and informative. It is considered to be an authoritative work on the subject. However, it still manages to be amusing, entertaining and enjoyable to read. Definitely one of my favorite books. A must-read for all Civil War history buffs.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Research Work
Review: This is an excellent book if you're looking to read about "The Life of Johnny Reb." For once, the title of the book reflects what it really is about ; )

Clearly Wiley has done his homework. You will walk away having learned pretty much everything there is to know about fighting for the CSA.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started reading as far as style went. I wasn't sure if it would read like a memoir or rather collection of memoirs. The style was actually more along the lines of a research paper. It's a very nuts and bolts portrayal of every day camp life with each chapter focusing on a certain element (Why, Who, How, etc.). You don't get the pit in your stomach or wind in your hair sort of sensation, but you do get a very accurate read of the life and times of those soldiers.

If you're looking for more of a "romantic" or spirited read, I think you'll be disappointed. You're probably better off going with a true memoir. "The Life of Johnny Reb" does not read like a story or memoir. What's great about it is that each chapter stands on its own, so it would be easy to pick up and read from time to time.

In any case, as I mentioned the research is impecable and clearly after reading I can say that I understand the common soldier of the CSA.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Research Work
Review: This is an excellent book if you're looking to read about "The Life of Johnny Reb." For once, the title of the book reflects what it really is about ; )

Clearly Wiley has done his homework. You will walk away having learned pretty much everything there is to know about fighting for the CSA.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started reading as far as style went. I wasn't sure if it would read like a memoir or rather collection of memoirs. The style was actually more along the lines of a research paper. It's a very nuts and bolts portrayal of every day camp life with each chapter focusing on a certain element (Why, Who, How, etc.). You don't get the pit in your stomach or wind in your hair sort of sensation, but you do get a very accurate read of the life and times of those soldiers.

If you're looking for more of a "romantic" or spirited read, I think you'll be disappointed. You're probably better off going with a true memoir. "The Life of Johnny Reb" does not read like a story or memoir. What's great about it is that each chapter stands on its own, so it would be easy to pick up and read from time to time.

In any case, as I mentioned the research is impecable and clearly after reading I can say that I understand the common soldier of the CSA.

Rating:
Summary: Definately Pro-Southern! Very informative!
Review: Wiley's approach to writing about Confederate soldier life is oustanding! It was so nice to see history told without northern influence or political correctness which seems to be popular among modern books. This book covers only Confederate issues from daily camp life, fighting, medical care, mannerisms, weaponry and communications along with more! Many soldier accounts (backed by references) offer a stimulating bonus to the content first hand. This book could also offer quite a lot of personal information for those looking to be reeanctors. Southern soldiers' original flavor is truly discovered in this read which could give novices and advanced historians further insight. To truly understand the Civil War, this book is a must read. It is almost a complete Southern version for the book Hard Tack & Coffee which offered soldier life from the Northern perspective. If you are looking for a great book on the Confederate soldier this is a perfect choice! From start to finish it covers it all!