Sing Not War: The Lives of Union and Confederate Veterans in Gilded Age America

Abstract

In Sing Not War, James Marten explores the lives of Civil War veterans, the way the American public viewed those veterans, and the tensions between veterans and nonveterans in the last third of the nineteenth century. Marten makes the case for Civil War veterans' prominence in—and even separation from—American society, partly because of their large numbers but also because the problems of a relative few of them (physical and mental disabilities, institutionalization in asylums or soldiers homes) became mapped onto the public perception of all veterans (represented in numerous archetypes including the begging old soldier, the empty sleeve, and the mentally ill veteran). Indeed, much of the book's focus is on those most affected by their time in the military. Marten convincingly argues that these extreme examples provide insight into the long-term impact of Civil War service more broadly; for example, while few veterans were actually begging, many men scraped “by on paltry pension checks, odd jobs, and charity” (p. 6).