"The variety of experience and expression among the individuals he quotes is truly fascinating."--The New York Times Book Review"This sensitive, incisive work comes closer than anything I have read to exploring what the Northern soldier believed he was fighting for and why he was ready to die for the Union."--George M. Fredrickson, author of White Supremacy and The Inner Civil War"Reid Mitchell breaks new ground in this imaginative contribution....Combining the insights of psychology, women's history and social history, The Vacant Chair accomplishes the difficult. It offers new perspectives on an old topic. Soldiering expands beyond shouldering a rifle and following the colonel's order in Mitchell's excellent volume."--Jean Baker, author of Mary Todd Lincoln"A thoughtprovoking work filled with insights that will generate fruitful discussion about the meaning of war for some time."--Phillip Paludan, author of A Covenant with Death and A People's Contest"Mitchell's narrative is greatly enhanced by his generous gleanings from the soldiers' own words and often the effect is of eavesdropping around the campfire."--he Boston Book Review
