If I Am Found Dead: Michigan Voices From the Civil War

Edited by David Lee Poremba
Illustrated, appendix, bibliographical references, 245 pp., 2006. Ann Arbor Media Group LLC, 2500 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, $26.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Chuck Romig
Chuck Romig graduated from Penn State University with a B.S. in secondary education and teaches history at Penns Valley High School in Spring Mills, Pa. He continues to read and research Civil War history.

Review:
David Lee Poremba, while I have never met him, seems to be a Wolverine, true to heart. I, by nature, am a Nittany Lion, but between 1861and 1865 those modern-day gridiron tensions had not yet emerged. Maybe in the mid-19th century we could have been friends. Joking aside, Poremba has commemorated the spirit of four Wolverines from the Civil War in If I am Found Dead: Michigan Voices from the Civil War.

Any Civil War enthusiast knows the grit of the Western soldier; his determination and toughness were as rugged as his axe handle and plow blade. His tenacity like a’Ķwell’Ķa wolverine. After trading their axes and plows for muskets and bayonets the four men Poremba chronicles live up to their billings as rugged Michigan troopers.

James Vernor of the 14th Michigan Cavalry and Charles Salter of the 1st and 16th Michigan Infantry wrote letters to loved ones and friends while George Vanderpool of the 3rd Michigan Infantry and John Presley of the 7th Michigan infantry wrote diaries. Their writings tell the saga of the soldiers' war.

This book is those letters and diaries edited by Mr. Poremba. He has divided the writings into five sections that present them in a chronological order from the beginning of the war to the end of each man's service. Reading these letters and diaries can be drab at times.

This book is not full of excitement and monotony sometimes induced me to put it down. I do not think, however, that Poremba's aim was to produce a cliffhanger. I think his intention was to pay homage to four troopers from a state to which the nation owed a great debt. In this he was successful.

Despite the tedious reading, one cannot help but extract worthwhile morsels from the writings. The toughness of the men comes to mind most of all. It seems as though they were always sick with fever or some other ailment. In fact, it is learned that Charles Salter served from August 1862 to January 1864 with a severe hernia he developed on a forced march to the battlefield of Second Bull Run.

The book is organized in a peculiar manner. The reader will read a few letters by one of the men and then move to diary entries of another and there is little linkage, other than time, between them, which renders the reading stop-and-go.

If I Am Found Dead: Michigan Voices From the Civil War is a fine addition to the researcher's library and will provide buffs with an excellent account of the long, drawn-out days of the Civil War soldier with intermittent blinks of shear horror. In a word, a researcher or Michigan buff will find this a gem, but you may want to find another book to wrap up with by the fire.