Love amid the Turmoil: the Civil War Letters of William and Mary Vermilion.

Love amid the Turmoil: The Civil War Letters of William and Mary Vermilion. Edited by Donald C. Elder III. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, c. 2003. Pp. xvi, 391. $39.95, ISBN 0-87745-849-9.)

William and Mary Vermilion produced a remarkable collection of Civil War letters when they were separated by William's service in the 36th Iowa Infantry from October 1862 until September 1865. Staunchly Unionist, keenly abolitionist, and blessedly articulate, William and Mary wrote regularly to each other, detailing their experiences during the war, their love for each other, and their opinions on public issues of the day. These letters are a valuable find; they offer insight into contrasting home-front reactions in Indiana and Iowa, demonstrate the possibilities of companionate marriage, and explore the changing mood of the citizenry in response to the events of the war.

Spending most of his war duty in Arkansas, William brought to life the politics and infighting within his regiment. Even more difficult for him was dealing with parents and brothers who were southern sympathizers. His vivid description of a passing funeral cortege captured not only the solemnity of the event for the mourners but also the emotional distance maintained by the soldiers who paused in their work at its passing.

Richer still are Mary's letters. While she was usually optimistic and fervently patriotic, sometimes her spirits flagged, as they did in the spring of 1863 when she told her husband, "I want to know whether our government is really worth dying for ..." (p. 67). She made palpable her anxiety and feelings of relief when she told him, "I knew somebody had lost friends, and I feared it was I" (p. 162). When she knew that he was safe, she admitted, "I feared everything bad. I feel like another being now" (p. 162). Her judgments of men and events were quite acute; the reader is in the presence of an intelligent, sensible, and engaging human being.

While the letters themselves are a rich new resource, their presentation diminishes their usefulness. The endnotes are most often limited to census data and only occasionally make any effort at explaining the text. The "Bibliographical Note" indicates sources consulted, but there are no specific citations in the notes. Even more serious are the deletions within the letters. Editor Donald C. Elder states that he has "excerpted" the letters but gives no indication of what percentage of the letters are represented in this collection or how much of each one is left out (p. xi). He neither explains the rationale for his choices nor indicates the sort of material omitted. The deletions can be frustrating, as in William's letter that begins, "Billy Smith is dead" (p. 256). After the requisite four ellipses, the letter describes the death. The text cries out for the missing words, or word, or paragraph. The reader has no idea how much or what has been left out. The way William tells the story of death is important. Despite these problems, the letters provide a wonderful window through which to examine the perspective of a northern couple dedicated to the Union cause and separated by war.

Missouri Southern State University 

VIRGINIA J. LAAS