Rural Route Bookstore - Civil War and Community Life

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              Civil War and Community Life

Civil War

This year, 2011, marks the 150th Anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War.

Minnesota in the Civil War: An Illustrated History    by Kenneth Carley

Although Minnesota was one of the least populated states in 1861 when the Civil War broke out, and had achieved statehood less than 3 years earlier, Minnesotans —many of Scandinavian origin who had recently arrived in America, and quite a few who had not even become citizens in the U.S. yet — made enormous contributions to the Union cause and its ultimate success. In several northern states, specifically MN and WI, whole regiments were made up of Scandinavian immigrants.

Books and articles have been written about various individual Scandinavian-American regiments, but Carley's book -- rich in detail -- presents the first comprehensive picture of Minnesota's involvement in the Civil War. Carley, former editor of the magazine, "Minnesota History", knows historical material and his well-researched text is fully supplemented with soldiers' diaries and letters, rare photographs, tintypes, drawings, maps, uniforms and equipment. Appropriately subtitled "An Illustrated History," this book creates a vivid picture of the daily life of Minnesota's soldiers. Helpful and interestingly written are the Appendices which include a chronology of Minnesota's involvement in the Civil War and a list of Minnesota's regiments, respective officers and action in various battles. Also helpful, for one doing family research, is an index of names mentioned in the book.

Lifelong interest in history is apparent in the Foreword by Richard Moe, currently President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and in the Introduction and Epilogue by Brian Horrigan, Exhibit Curator and also Co-chair of the Education and Cultural Heritage Outreach Committees at the MN Historical Society. Both are authors in their own right, and their talent for making history come alive through great writing is apparent in the sections they contributed to this book. Award-winning author Horrigan is also co-editor of Christmas in Minnesota.

CW - 02A Hardcover    $49.95
CW - 02B Paperback   $19.95

Ole Goes to War by Jerry Rosholt
Interest in the Civil War had a come-back of sorts in the past decade perhaps because grandchildren of Civil War Veterans were few in number and there was concern that the history and stories of these veterans would also be lost. Several books were written about a few of the regiments and some of the leaders among 10,000 Norwegian immigrants in the Civil War. However, with its strong interest in research and the urgency to collect as much first-hand knowledge as possible, the curator at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, IA asked Jerry Rosholt to compile a database of Norwegian immigrants who fought in the U.S. Civil War.

Rosholt had begun his professional life as a newspaper journalist and moved into television working for the Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC. Eventually, he became an Emmy Award winner for his work as producer and head editor of NBC Nightly News. Eight years into retirement, Rosholt accepted Vesterheim's challenge and spent the next 7 years working on the database. He was able to identify 6,500 of the 10,000 Norwegian-Americans who volunteered to fight in the Civil War. Using the soldiers' own words, photos, and belongings to explore the personal experiences of these volunteers and their families, Rosholt issued this book and the museum sponsored a special exhibit of this research in 2003.

In September 2006, Rosholt was awarded the St. Olav's medal by King Harald V of Norway “in recognition of [his] great services to Norway, in particular [his] active involvement with the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum on its Civil War project." Rosholt died in 2008, but his "retirement job" lives on to the benefit of other researchers and to individuals working on family geneologies. As part of a larger project for Vesterheim, a great user-friendly database is available at www.vesterheim.org/CivilWar/db/.

"Oh yes, 1,000 of the 6,500 identified were named 'Ole' -- thus the title for the book. "And, one of these Ole's was my great-grandfather. He and his two brothers served in the 15th Wisconsin Regiment and all three have information included in the database. "My Ole's" twenty-year-old brother died in Kentucky. He had been in the war less than a year, and in America less than two years." SN

CW - 08    Paperback    $14.95

No more Gallant a Deed: A Civil War Memoir of the first Minnesota Volunteers

by James A. Wright, Orderly Sergeant in Company F; Steven J. Keillor, editor

Wright's memoir is based on his diaries and letters from this 3 years in Company F of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War. Painstakingly edited by Keillor, this book has been called the fullest personal account of the battles, marches, and soldier life of one of the most renowned regiments in the Army of the Potomac. Richard Moe, referred to earlier on this page, has written that this book "is one of the best first-person accounts of the First Minnesota's remarkable story. It is certainly the most complete."

This regiment took part in every significant battle and action in the war in the East from 1861 to 1864; Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Bristoe Station. At Gettysburg, the First Minnesota halted the Confederate charge, and suffered an 82 percent casualty rate. Wright's account of this battle is striking in its description of the horror the men felt at facing their foes, their determination to do their duty, and the shock of the loss of so many of their comrades. Wright recalls the long marches, the poor food, the inadequate shelter, the dedicated officers, the debilitating illnesses, the longing for home, and yet a sense of pride to preserve the Union.

Keillor, a college teacher and author of books based on various facets of MN history, "stumbled" upon Wright's the letters and manuscript-in-the-making while Keillow was doing research for another book.

CW - 03    Hardcover $34.95

The Last Full Measure:   The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers     by Richard Moe

Minnesota, the newest state in the Union, became the first to send volunteers to fight in the Civil War. That "first" perhaps marked the beginning of Minnesota's ongoing reputation as a very citizen-participatory state.

In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln put out a call for troops. Shortly after that, MN Governor Ramsey volunteered 1,000 men to defend the nation. Ramsey's plea was answered by 262 men, many new to MN or new to the US, and the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment — comprised of farmers, loggers, clerks, teachers, students, and lawyers — was formed. The volunteers were young, mainly in their late teens to mid-twenties, and some had not had time to even become U.S. citizens yet. Of the 262, only 47 volunteers came home.

In describing this book, Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War author James McPherson wrote: "This is Civil War combat history as it should be written….the best thing of its kind that I have ever read."

CW - 04 Paperback    $17.95

Go If You Think It Your Duty: A Minnesota Couple's Civil War Letters    by Andrea R. Foroughi

During the Civil War, James Madison Bowler and Elizabeth Caleff Bowler courted, married, became parents, and bought a farm. They attended dances, talked politics, and confided their deepest fears. However due to the war, they went to — and through — many of these events separately, sharing them with each other through hundreds of letters they wrote between 1861-65, the years that James fought with the Third Minnesota Volunteer Regiment.

The young couple soon realized war has a way of altering idealism. What had started out as an exciting adventure — a new town, new state, new marriage, and his strong love of country (a feeling shared by Lizzie who proclaimed "go if you think it your duty") — began to fade as separation and the war began to wear down both James and Lizzie. As their commitment to the war and to each other began to wane, the letters became more than love letters. The letters began to show their fears for, and frustration with, each other.

Thanks to painstaking research more than a century later by U of MN grad student, Andrea R. Foroughi, the teacher Bowler and one of his students, Lizzie Caleff, unintentionally became two of that era's best historians. Their letters, and this book which also contains 10 b&w photos, now provide readers with a window into one couple's experiences during the Civil War.

CW - 05 Hardcover    $32.95

Brackett's Battalion                 by Kurt D. Bergemann

Shipment just arrived at Rural Route Bookstore.

CW - 06   Paperback     $15.95

Community Life

Norwegian Newspapers in America                by Odd Lovoll

In the nineteenth century, the United States, "the land of newspapers," was also fast becoming the land of immigrants, with increasing numbers of Norwegians arriving amid the European influx. Already Skandinaven, published out of Chicago, kept newcomers and their Old World friends and family informed of political, religious, and social matters discussed in burgeoning Norwegian American communities.

From 1847 to today, more than 280 Norwegian-language papers were launched in cities ranging from Minneapolis to Fargo, Boston to Seattle. Some lasted just a few months; others continued for decades; all contributed to a developing Norwegian- American perspective.

Odd Lovoll traces newspaper ventures both successful and short lived to offer a comprehensive look at America’s Norwegian-language press. Highlighting diligent editors and analyzing topics of interest to readers through the years, Norwegian Newspapers in America demonstrates how newspapers pursued a twofold goal: forging a bridge to the homeland while nurturing cultural practices in the New World. Odd S. Lovoll is professor emeritus of history at St. Olaf College and the author of numerous books, including "Norwegians on the Prairie: Ethnicity and the Development of the Country Town."

IM - 11 Paperback $24.95

Norwegians on the Prairie: Ethnicity and the Development of the Country Town by Odd Lovoll

Lovoll, born in Norway and professor emeritus of history at St. Olaf College, has authored many books and articles on Norwegian immigration to the Upper Midwest. His earlier books, and those by many other authors, have generally been centered on experiences immigrants faced in big cities or on the hardships and adversity they lived through as they cleared the prairie preparing for a livelihood of farming.

In this book, however, Lovoll's subject is the lingering impact on small towns that 100 and 150 years earlier had served as trading centers for farmers. Lovoll focuses on three communities located on Minnesota's western prairie; Benson, Madison, and Starbuck, MN. In this work, he points out that "family stability and inmarrriage," reinforced by the Lutheran Church, sustained the Norwegian language and customs for an extended period" and this theory led Lovoll to examine the historical, economic, cultural, religious and political history of these communities from the 1860s until the present. The author's academic background becomes obvious to the reader. Lovoll's meticulous research into census data, careful reading of local newspapers, and extensive interviews with descendants of Norwegian immigrants support his conclusion that strong ties to homeland are visible today in each town’s social, political and religious character.

IM - 9A Hardcover $32.95

IM - 9B Paperback $19.95

They Chose Minnesota   June Drenning Holmquist; ed.

Why did emigrants leave their homelands and move to Minnesota? Where in the state did they settle? What did they do, and how did they organize? How did they maintain their ethnicity? These are just a few of many deep questions addressed in this massive document making the subtitle, "A Survey of the State's Ethnic Groups", almost a misnomer. This is not "survey", as in quick scan or exit poll. This is an 8 1/2" X 11", 614-page tome with photos, illustrations, and charts covering 60 ethnic groups that settled in Minnesota. This is by far the largest and most expensive book carried by Rural Route Bookstore, and if it weren't worth the price, we wouldn't carry it. The various scholarly contributors read like a Who's Who of ethnic studies.

When published, the St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press wrote, "If you are a descendant of Icelanders or Lebanese, Greeks or Japanese, you will find interesting material in this book about your forebears and how it was when they settled in Minnesota." And yes, all five Scandinavian groups are covered in detail in this "must have" book for historian or genealogist.

GLY - 04 Paperback $39.95

Notable North Dakotans by Erling N. Rolfsrud

Twenty-four true stories about the people who shaped the "Flickertail State."
R 1- 09 $8.95

More books by Rolfsrud are found here.

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