Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia

In this sophisticated quantitative study, Joseph T. Glatthaar provides a comprehensive narrative and statistical analysis of many key aspects of General Robert E. Lees Army of Northern Virginia. Serving as a companion to Glatthaars General Lees Army: From Victory to Collapse, this book presents Glatthaars supporting data and major conclusions in extensive and extraordinary detail.While gathering research materials for General Lees Army, Glatthaar compiled quantitative data on the background and service of 600 randomly selected soldiers 150 artillerists, 150 cavalrymen, and 300 infantrymen affording him fascinating insight into the prewar and wartime experience of Lees troops. Soldiering in the Army of Northern Virginia presents the full details of this fresh, important primary research in a way that is useful to scholars and students and appeals to anyone with a serious interest in the Civil War. While confirming much of what is believed about the army, Glatthaars evidence challenges some conventional thinking in significant ways, such as showing that nearly half of all Lees soldiers lived in slaveholding households (a number higher than previously thought), and provides a broader and fuller portrait of the men who served under General Lee.