Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, and His Romaunt Abroad During the War

George Alfred TownsendProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.6
Word count
666K words
Chapters
67

Tags

English Originals Documentary Literature Civil WarMilitary StrategyTravelogueSocial ObservationBattlefield ReportDocumentary NarrativeReporter's NotesTurbulent EraExotic CultureModern China

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, and His Romaunt Abroad During the War by TownsendAuthor: Townsend, George Alfred, 1841-1914,Language: English, Class: E456: History: America: Civil War period (1861-1865), Release Date: Nov 5, 2007

Editor's review

This book is Townsend's account of the American Civil War as a non-combatant attached to the army, part war reportage and part travel essay. Writing as an observer, he records marches, camp life, and rear-area society with a literary blend of humor and sentiment, complementing the grand narratives of generals' memoirs and military histories. Its value lies in preserving an ordinary observer's fine-grained impressions of wartime daily life, making it useful corroborative material for understanding nineteenth-century American society and journalistic style. It is best read as documentary prose rather than a military history monograph: pay attention to how the author selects details, how he balances detachment and sympathy, and note passages reflecting the limitations of his era. The public-domain electronic edition is convenient for searching and checking against the original.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the preface and chapter titles first to establish the march route and timeline before reading the main text closely.
  2. Excerpt the author's descriptions of camp life, civilians, and landscapes by theme, and compare his observational perspective.
  3. Look up nineteenth-century usages and allusions as you go; do not stop at every word, which would disrupt the rhythm.
  4. Read alongside a standard general history of the Civil War to distinguish personal observation from the broader historical record.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
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  11. 11
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  30. 30
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  35. 35
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  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
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  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
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  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67

FAQ

Is this book a work of military history? No. The author accompanied the army as a non-combatant and records march observations, camp life, and impressions along the way. It is a war memoir and travel essay, not an analysis of campaigns or a study of military institutions. For operational details, consult a military history monograph.
What English level is needed to read this book? The original is nineteenth-century English with long sentences and period vocabulary and literary expressions, so intermediate-to-advanced reading ability is recommended. New readers can start with one chapter to adjust to the style and use a dictionary for unfamiliar words without aiming for word-by-word close reading.
Is the public-domain electronic edition suitable for scholarly citation? It can be cited as a documentary text, but public-domain electronic editions usually lack scholarly annotations and textual notes. Before citing, verify the original publication details and page numbers. For historical judgments, corroborate with other sources rather than relying on one person's observations alone.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

George Alfred Townsend Author · American · 1841–1914

George Alfred Townsend (1841–1914) was an American journalist, war correspondent, and novelist, born in Georgetown, Delaware. During the Civil War he reported from the field as a correspondent for the New York Herald, and in 1865 he was the first to report the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, later publishing The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth on that basis. After the war he turned to fiction, writing popular works such as Tales of the Chesapeake set against local life and scenery, and also published under the pen name "Gath." Five of his works are held in this collection. Public information on his early education and career details is limited, and existing accounts rest mainly on his journalistic identity and representative works. He died in New York in 1914.