| This
collection of letters written between Theophilus and Harriet Perry
during the Civil War provides an intimate, firsthand account of
the effect of the war on one young couple. Perry was an officer
with the 28th Texas Cavalry, a unit that campaigned in Arkansas
and Louisiana as part of the division known as “Walker’s
Greyhounds.” His letters describe his service in a highly
literate style that is unusual for Confederate accounts. He documents
a number of important events, including his experiences as a detached
officer in Arkansas in the winter of 1862–63, the attempt
to relieve the siege of Vicksburg, mutiny in his regiment, and the
Red River campaign, just before he was killed in the battle of Pleasant
Hill.
Harriet’s
writings allow the reader to witness the everyday life of an upper-class
woman enduring home front deprivations, facing the hardships and
fears of childbearing and childrearing alone, and coping with other
challenges resulting from her husband’s absence.
“This
is a collection that offers much more than many others. . . . Harriet’s
eulogy for her husband is quite moving and provides an emotional
reading for a visit into the relationship of a Confederate officer
and his wife that has rarely been available.”
—Civil War News
“Not only have fewer collections of
married couples of the Confederacy been published, but those of
couples living in the westernmost regions of the Trans-Mississippi
Theater are scarcer still. . . . Harriet’s frank discussion
of sexuality and reproduction, topics mid-19th century female correspondents
rarely address, are remarkable for this era.”
—Civil War Book Review
M. Jane Johansson is an associate professor of
history at Rogers State University. She is the author of Peculiar
Honor: A History of the 28th Texas Calvary, 1862–1865
(University of Arkansas Press), winner of the Ottis Lock Award for
the Best Book on East Texas History, and a coeditor of two volumes
of The Papers of Will Rogers.
"I
do not sleep sound at all—I often get up and sit by the window
for some time and would give worlds, if I had them, if you could
be with me—You can't imagine how lonely & sad & (I
almost said friendless) I feel."
—Harriet
Perry, 1862
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