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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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A Mississippi Rebel in the Army of Northern Virginia: The Civil War Memoirs of Private David Holt.
Edited by Thomas D. Cockrell and Michael B. Ballard.
Illustrated, bibliography, softcover, index, 370 pp., 2001 reprint. Louisiana State Uni-versity Press, P.O. Box 25053, Baton Rouge, LA 70893, $17.95 plus shipping.
David Holt saw action in most of the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was a member of Co. K, 16th Mississippi, and wrote his account late in his life. The most valu-able aspect of this work is that it is a never-before-seen description (at least at the time of the initial review), of the common soldier’s life in Robert E. Lee’s army. Holt begins his memoirs by describing life in antebellum Mississippi. His account of the war is by far the most illuminating part of the book. The story of life in the ranks is graphic, humorous, and sometimes terrifying. He captures details that only a private could remember, and relates them to the reader clearly. The lack of maps is a drawback to the volume; however, it is not a major problem since the thrust of the book is the life of a common soldier. This 2001 reprint does contain new information with never-before-published diary entries of Holt’s observations toward the end of the war. (See review by Jerry Holsworth in the July 1997 issue of The Civil War News).
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