Collection
Publication
Description
All for the Union is the eloquent and moving diary of Elisha Hunt Rhodes, featured throughout Ken Burns' PBS documentary The Civil War. Rhodes enlisted into the Union Army as a private in 1861 and left it four years later as a twenty-three-year-old colonel after fighting hard and honorably in battles from Bull Run to Appomattox. Anyone who heard these diaries excerpted in The Civil War will recognize his accounts of those campaigns, which remain outstanding for their clarity and detail. Most of all, Rhodes's words reveal the motivation of a common Yankee foot soldier, an otherwise ordinary young man who endured the rigors of combat and exhausting marches, short rations, fear, and homesickness for a salary of $13 a month and the satisfaction of giving "all for the union."… (more)
Media reviews
User reviews
The 2nd Rhode Island participated in or was present for every single major battle of the Army of the Potomac from 1st Bull Run to Appomatox Court House. While there are some excellent descriptions of individual engagements within larger battles, as might be expected, there are no lengthy descriptions of the major battles themselves.
The prose is literate and very straightforward; he is not a literary figure. But perhaps for that very reason, his diary and letters are fascinating because they are the record of the thoughts and feelings of the everyday soldier caught up in the horrendous carnage of the American Civil War.
Details of camp life, drill, parade, reviews make up the major part of the writings, offsetting the descriptions of fighting. camp life could be entertaining as well as boring; Rhodes gives an excellent view.
The book was made justifiably famous by the PBS Series, The Civil War.