by John A. Simpson
Guilford, Ct.: Stackpole, 2022. Pp. x, 419.
Illus., appends, notes, biblio., index. $34.00. ISBN: 0811770877
A Northern Family’s War
All For The Union tells the story of the Ellithorpe family of Allegheny County, New York, which had two sons and two sons-in-law serving the Union as enlisted men, as told in more than 180 letters written by Phillip Ellithorpe (13th Pennsylvania Reserves, “Bucktails”) and his brother Philander (27th New York and 2nd New York Mounted Rifles), and their brothers-in-law Asa Burleson (5th Vermont and 1st New York Dragoons) and Oliver W. Moore (1st Minnesota), plus many letters they received from sisters, wives, and others.
The letters, carefully preserved, tied with red ribbon, and stored in a wooden trunk, were passed down through the Ellithorpe family, until the last member died in 1991, when they were entrusted to the Cowlitz County Historical Museum, in Kelso, Washington. Some years later, museum director David Freece provided the letters to John Simpson, to read, inventory, catalog, and find a permanent home for them. This book is the result of Simpson’s work with the letters.
The young men all served in the Army of the Potomac, dong their duty in the war for the Union, seeing action in many of the most important battles in the East, Bull Run, the Seven Days, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg.
While telling us about the lives and war of the young soldiers, Simpson also gives us a look at the battles, their regiments, and soldiering in the war, as well as glimpses of life on the Home Front. He focuses part of his investigation on the experiences of the sisters and wives of these young men, who strove to strengthen the resolve of the men they adored while coping with the difficulties of life on the Home Front.
Simpson shows us that the soldiers and their family members felt strongly about man’s inhumanity to man, and how their feelings about war changed from when they first took up arms for the Union.
A highlight of the book is that Simpson does not end his account of these young men with the end of the war. Noting that “each family member lived important lives beyond the fighting as well as in battlefield remembrance,” so we get to see what they accomplished after the guns had stopped, describing the lives of the young men and other family members in the postwar period.
While other historians have often attempted to address the consequences of war for many veterans, Simpson does a particularly good job of exploring this for the Ellithorpe family. Philip was killed at Gettysburg. While Philander, Asa, and Oliver survived the war, each suffered various, often painful, war-related ailments that greatly affected their lives. They all had problems with the Pension Bureau. Nevertheless, each played a role in local Grand Army of the Republic chapters, and were involved in their communities.
All for the Union is not only based on the family letters, but also draws on other sources, is well-written, and a fast moving, engaging read. This reviewer came away with a better understanding of the many aspects of the family and the regiments that the men served with.
Our Reviewer: David Marshall has been a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for more than three decades. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the common soldier. His previous reviews here include, From Antietam to Appomattox with Upton’s Regulars, Our Flag Was Still There, Never Such a Campaign, The Boy Generals: George Custer, Wesley Merritt, and the Cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, from the Gettysburg Retreat through the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South, Unforgettables, Bayou Battles for Vicksburg, Race to the Potomac, Conflict of Command, The World Will Never See the Like, The War that Made America, A Fine Opportunity Lost, The Iron Dice of Battle: Albert Sidney Johnston and the Civil War in the West, The Limits of the Lost Cause on Civil War Memory, War in the Western Theater, J.E.B. Stuart: The Soldier and The Man, and The Inland Campaign for Vicksburg.
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Note: All for the Union is also available in e-editions.
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