Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade

Young, Lot D., 1842-Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
177K words
Chapters
18

Tags

English Originals World HistoryGeneral BiographyMilitary Civil WarWar MemoryWar ReportageConfederate ArmySoldier's MemoirYouth at War

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.Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade by Lot D. YoungAuthor: Young, Lot D., 1842-,Language: English, Class: E456: History: America: Civil War period (1861-1865), Release Date: Nov 18, 2015

Editor's review

This book is Lot D. Young's military memoir of the "Orphan Brigade," a famous Confederate brigade from Kentucky during the Civil War that suffered frequent casualties and reorganization. Its members were mostly Kentuckians, and the unit came to be known as "orphaned" because it was repeatedly devastated and seemed to have lost the protection of its home state. Young was born in 1842, and his memoir offers an ordinary soldier's perspective, often including everyday details such as marches, camp life, rations, wounds and illness, and comradeship—material frequently omitted from formal military histories yet capable of deepening our understanding of the war experience. As a free Project Gutenberg e-book, it is of manageable length and easy to search, making it suitable as reading material for the study of the Confederate army and of the personal memoir as a genre. Readers should note that the memoir was written after the war and carries an emotional bias in defense of the Southern cause; it should be read alongside Union accounts and modern historical scholarship.

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Reading tips

  1. First learn about the Orphan Brigade's formation and main combat record, then read the memoir to understand the author's emotional stance
  2. Read chronologically while marking the march routes and battle sites mentioned in the book on a map
  3. Excerpt details about rations, equipment, wounds and illness, and comradeship as material for the history of everyday wartime life
  4. Read alongside Union soldiers' memoirs to compare how each side describes the same battle or region

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
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FAQ

What was the "Orphan Brigade"? The "Orphan Brigade" generally refers to a Confederate brigade composed mainly of Kentuckians during the Civil War. Because the unit suffered heavy casualties and was repeatedly reorganized, its connection to Kentucky was severed, and the soldiers called themselves, or were called, "orphans," a name that stuck. For specific organizational history, consult Civil War order-of-battle sources.
What is the historical value of this memoir? Its value lies mainly in everyday details from an ordinary soldier's perspective: the fatigue of marches, shortages of rations, camp conditions, treatment of wounds and illness, comradeship, and soldiers' direct impressions of battles. This material complements official battle reports and helps us understand the war's actual experience at the individual level.
Does the author's stance affect the reliability of the narrative? It does. The memoir was written after the war, and the author has an emotional inclination to defend the Confederate cause; selective memory about certain events is unavoidable. Readers should distinguish factual description from evaluative statements and verify key episodes against other sources.
Is it suitable for reading from cover to cover? You can, but it is not necessary. Memoirs are often loosely organized by theme or period; readers may first read the preface to learn about the author's life and the writing context, then choose chapters of interest. For research purposes, it is advisable to excerpt by theme and note the corresponding passages.

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About the author

Young, Lot D., 1842- Author · American · 1842

Lot D. Young (1842–) was a Confederate soldier from the United States, born in 1842. Public information about his life is limited; what can be confirmed is his identity as a soldier and one surviving work. He is the author of Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade, a memoir recounting his service in the Kentucky "Orphan Brigade." That brigade was a Confederate unit composed mainly of Kentucky soldiers during the American Civil War, known for enduring repeated fierce fighting and heavy casualties. Young's memoir presents marches, battles, and camp life from a participant's perspective, making it a relatively detailed first-hand account among Civil War soldier memoirs and a useful reference for studying the Kentucky Orphan Brigade and the experiences of ordinary Confederate soldiers. One work by him is currently held in the collection.