Welcome the Hour of Conflict
Welcome the Hour of Conflict
William Cowan McClellan and the 9th Alabama
In the Spring of 1861, a 22-year-old Alabamian did what many of his friends and colleagues were doing—he joined the Confederate Army as a volunteer. The first of his family to enlist, William Cowan McClellan, who served as a private in the 9th Alabama Infantry regiment, wrote hundreds of letters throughout the war, often penning for friends who could not write home for themselves. In the letters collected in John C. Carter’s volume, this young soldier comments on his feelings toward his commanding officers, his attitude toward military discipline and camp life, his disdain for the western Confederate armies, and his hopes and fears for the future of the Confederacy.
McClellan’s letters also contain vivid descriptions of camp life, battles, marches, picket duty, and sickness and disease in the army. The correspondence between McClellan and his family dealt with separation due to war as well as with other wartime difficulties such as food shortages, invasion, and occupation. The letters also show the rise and fall of morale on both the home front and on the battlefield, and how they were closely intertwined.
Remarkable for their humor, literacy, and matter-of-fact banter, the letters reveal the attitude a common soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia had toward the day-to-day activity and progression of the war. John C. Carter includes helpful appendixes that list the letters chronologically and offer the regimental roster, casualty/enlistment totals, assignments, and McClellan’s personal military record.
Welcome the Hour of Conflict is one of the best collections of Civil War letters I have ever read. It belongs on the shelf of any serious student of the war.’
—Blue Gray magazine
‘These letters are exceptional in their breadth and tone. Few collections of writings span the war as McClellan’s do, reflecting the virtues and foibles, successes and failures, and comedies and tragedies of long service in the Army of Northern Virginia. The letters are easy to read and reflect a likeable author — thoughtful, witty and observant.’
— John Hennessy, author of Return to Bull Run: The Campaign and Battle of Second Manassas
The letters are very well written and cover nearly the entire war. Some are rather routine descriptions of camp life, while others are quite fascinating —the brutality during the Battle of Crater, for instance. The editor has gone to a great deal of difficult and detailed work.’
—Guy Ward Hubbs author of Guarding Greensboro: A Confederate Company in the Making of a Southern Community
‘Welcome the Hour of Conflict is a masterfully edited volume of correspondence between a Limestone County soldier in the Ninth Alabama Infantry Regiment and his family in northern Alabama. . . . It is a welcome addition to the published resources on Alabama's Civil War experience and it is of clear value to all readers interested in Confederate soldiers' experiences.’
—The Alabama Review
John C. Carter is a Civil War enthusiast and independent researcher employed by Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.
