Funny Thing About the Civil War

Thomas F. Curran, PhD, teaches in the department of social studies at Cor Jesu Academy in St. Louis, Missouri.

Table of Contents


Preface: What’s So Funny About the Civil War?

Part I. “Crude partisan versifying on both sides”: The Wartime Writers

The Crackerbox Philosophers

“Where are the women among … the ‘literary comedians’ of the 1860s?”

The Biblical Satirists

The Scarlet Copperhead

“A period which produced so many good war songs, and so much bad war verse”

Two Fremantles, a Mule, and the Civil Wargasm

This Book Is Brought to You by the Committee to Elect George McClellan

Appendix (or Is That Appendage?)

“A delightful denunciation of Federal commanders”

Are “Two Federal Pens” Mightier Than Two Swords?

Part II. “The war was a draw game, and … both sides were whipped”: The Post-War Writers

How I Put Down the Rebellion

My Real Story Will Never Get into the Century’s Battles and Leaders Books

After a While They All Sound the Same…

… But This One Looks Like a Comic Book

The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword (or Is That the Pin?)

The Many Lives of the Jordan Anderson Letter

Grant vs. Lee

A Tale of Two Kleggs

Uncle Remus Was White!

And Ambrose Bierce Was “an ­Equal-Opportunity Hater”

An Unrenowned Warrior

Postmodernism? We Haven’t Even Done Modernism Yet!

Girls Will Be Boys and Boys Will Be Girls

Part III. “Those who still fight the last romantic war”: The Next Generations

The Blue and Gray in Black and White, Then in Technicolor

What If Lincoln’s Doctor’s Dog Wrote a Biography?

Frankly, I Do Give a Damn

Happy Birthday, Gray and Blue

States’ Rights of the Living Dead

Everything Old Is New Again

Conclusion

Chapter Notes

Works Cited

Index