Book recounts tales, legends and folklore of the American Civil War

A Civil War Treasury of Tales, Legends and Folklore Review by Stephen Cushman B. A. Botkin was one of the greatest American folklorists. With his students he crisscrossed

Wednesday, December 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A Civil War Treasury of Tales, Legends and Folklore

Review by Stephen Cushman

B. A. Botkin was one of the greatest American folklorists. With his students he crisscrossed the country to record the stories we tell one another. From the most enduring of American events, the Civil War, come tales of braver, cunning, pathos, humor, and faith. True or fanciful, these accounts endure, because they express authentic reactions and have the power to explain, counsel, and console. Here are the stories of military leaders - Lincoln, Lee, Jackson, Sherman- as told in the ranks and at home, by freedmen, women, poets, deserters, patriots, and resisters from both sides. As important as what actually "happened," these tales reveal the true picture of how Americans felt and spoke about the war.

B. A. Botkin was a college professor, folklorist, and researcher who was at various times national folklore editor for the Federal Writers' Project, Library of Congress Fellow in Folklore, and chief of the Archive of American Folk Song. He compiled and edited more than a dozen volumes of American folklore, among them A Treasury of American Folklore, Lay My
Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery, and compilations of regional folklore from various areas, including New England, the South, and the West.

Stephen Cushman is a professor of English at the University, of Virginia and the author of Bloody Promenade: Reflections on a Civil War Battle and other works.

A Civil War Treasury of Tales, Legends and Folklore

Edited and with an introduction by B. A. Botkin Illustrated by Warren Chappell

New introduction by Stephen Cushman

Publication Date: December 15, 2000 Paper

Price: $24.95; Paper ISBN: 0-8032-6172-1
Features: xxi 625 pages, 6'/z x 9'h inches, 50 illustrations, index