The Falling Flag: Evacuation of Richmond, Retreat and Surrender at Appomattox

Boykin, Edward M.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3

Word count: 92K words
Chapters: 10

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.The Falling Flag: Evacuation of Richmond, Retreat and Surrender at AppomattoxAuthor: Boykin, Edward M.,Language: English, Class: E456: History: America: Civil War period (1861-1865), Release Date: May 30, 2010

Editor's review

This book is Edward M. Boykin's eyewitness account of the closing phase of the American Civil War, focusing on the evacuation of Richmond, the retreat march, and the surrender at Appomattox. Its value lies not in broad strategic analysis but in its portrayal of order collapsing during a rout, the mood of soldiers, and on-the-ground detail, giving readers a firsthand sense of the atmosphere surrounding the fall of the Confederate capital. As a public-domain e-book, it is short and plainly written, suitable as supplementary material for understanding the social and military dimensions of the war's final days. Readers are advised to consult maps and timelines and to distinguish personal observation from historical narrative, treating it as a documentary memoir rather than a comprehensive campaign history—this way its distinctive perspective and limitations can be better appreciated.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in the late Civil War who want a firsthand view of defeat and retreat
History students and researchers seeking primary memoir material
Readers drawn to military history and the themes of retreat and surrender
Readers who want to practice reading English historical prose with a short public-domain text

Not a good fit for

Military researchers expecting systematic campaign analysis and strategic discussion
Readers who only want fiction or light entertainment
Beginners with low tolerance for 19th-century English historical prose

Reading tips

First review the timeline of the evacuation of Richmond and the surrender at Appomattox, then read the main text to locate narrative milestones.
Keep a map of the late war at hand and follow the author's march route to understand spatial relationships.
After reading, note the author's subjective stance and possible memory biases as an exercise in source criticism.
If the English original proves difficult, read a relevant Chinese overview first, then return to key passages in the original.

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.

FAQ

Is this book suitable as an introduction to the American Civil War?

Not really as a sole introductory book. It is an eyewitness memoir focused on the局部 experience of evacuation and surrender, lacking background and systematic analysis. Better to read a general history of the war first to build a framework, then use this as supplementary material to sense the atmosphere of defeat and the personal perspective.

What historical background is needed to read this book?

It helps to know the general course of the American Civil War, especially the basic facts of the fall of Richmond, the Confederate capital, in 1865, and the retreat of General Lee's army and its surrender at Appomattox. With these milestones in mind, the author's route, emotions, and details are easier to understand, and its value as a historical source easier to judge.

What are the textual characteristics of this book?

It is a short public-domain memoir in a 19th-century English documentary style, narrated around personal experience with concrete detail but not necessarily a systematic structure. Readers should approach it as a historical fragment, attending to its immediacy and standpoint rather than expecting a complete campaign history or scholarly annotation.

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About the author

Boykin, Edward M. Author · American

Edward M. Boykin is an American author about whom public information is limited; details such as his birth and death years and full English name are not clearly recorded. He is known to have served as an officer in the Confederate States Army, an identity that provided the basis of firsthand experience for his writing. One work by him is held in the collection, The Falling Flag: Evacuation of Richmond, Retreat and Surrender at Appomattox. The book recounts, from a participant's perspective, the abandonment of the Confederate capital at Richmond, the army's retreat, and its final surrender at Appomattox, making it an important historical account of the closing phase of the American Civil War. Its subject centers on military retreat and the moment of surrender, and its memoir-like narrative conveys a sense of immediacy, offering a primary source for studying the final stage of the war.