Awaiting the Heavenly Country:
Recent scholarship has addressed the issue of how mid-19th-century Americans confronted the massive number of deaths caused by the Civil War. The studies have examined Northern and Southern views on the symbols of grief, the afterlife, religious teachings, and the soldiers’ acceptance of the havoc and slaughter that engulfed them. The new work by Professor Mark S. Schantz adds to the body of study on the subject. Awaiting the Heavenly Country is a scholarly book, based upon archival research, Civil War era literature, and modern studies. The book, as Dr. Schantz states it, “unfolds as a series of interconnected, interpretive, and I hope, provocative essays.” In all, he has written six essays or chapters and an epilogue. The topics addressed include how antebellum Americans “conceptualized death” through public and private writings, literature, sermons, public orations, and observances. According to the author, death was so constant and so interwoven into the lives of Americans of that generation that they needed to eulogize it and to accept it. Other essays describe Americans’ views of heaven, examine the “rural cemetery movement” of the period, illustrate how poetry offered succor to grieving family members and friends of the fallen, discuss slaves’ acceptance of death as a price to be paid for freedom of their race, and study the impact of photography and illustrations that brought the horrors of the battlefield into homes. As the casualties and deaths mounted in unprecedented numbers, Northerners and Southerners sought assurances of their kinfolks’ “heroic deaths” in a noble cause. Professor Schantz’s book possesses the attributes of a fine scholarly book. He is to be commended for his diligent research and the thoughtful treatment of the subject. The narrative is, however, not an easy read, because of the nature of the topics and of the era’s writings, which are quoted extensively throughout the book. Awaiting the Heavenly Country offers a needed insight into the Civil War generation’s journey through a terrible slaughterhouse. Reviewer: Jeffry D. Wert Jeffry D. Wert is a retired Pennsylvania high school teacher. He is the author of eight books on the Civil War, including his recent Cavalryman of the Lost Cause: A Biography of J.E.B. Stuart. |
Illustrated, notes, index, 245 pp., 2008. Cornell University Press, 512 East State St., Ithaca, NY 14850, $24.95 plus shipping.