"In the Country
of the Enemy"
The Civil War Reports of a
Massachusetts
"Corporal"
Edited
with an Introduction by William C. Harris
Foreword by John David Smith, Series Editor
Order
this Book now
Last printed by the Boston
Herald in 1863, Corporal Zenas T. Haines’s
dispatches from the Civil War in eastern North Carolina
provide a lively, detailed account of the history of a
Massachusetts regiment operating in the hostile southern
coastal lowlands during the winter of 1862-63. In reports
originally prepared for the Herald, Haines
follows the organization, training, occupation, and
combat service of the 44th Massachusetts from recruitment
to mustering out.
Observing these citizen soldiers with a journalist’s
eye for detail and color, Haines describes their
motivation, experience in combat, diversions in camp, and
perspectives on and reactions to the people and
countryside of the Confederate home front through which
they passed. Especially valuable are their remarks about
slaves (including those enlisting in the African Brigade)
and their strong sentiments in support of emancipation
and the recruitment of blacks in the Federal Army.
Haines’s reports are important for their on-the-spot
history of the entire life span of a regiment of
novitiate urban soldiers and their critical role in
defeating the Confederate army’s effort to drive
Union forces from eastern North Carolina. William C.
Harris’s introduction places these reports in the
broader context of the nine-month troops raised by the
War Department and provides additional background on the
individual men of the 44th Massachusetts, their purposes
in joining the regiment, and the history of the war in
eastern North Carolina.
Virtually unknown by Civil War students and aficionados,
Haines’s reports expand our knowledge of Union
soldiers during the Civil War and provide new insights
both on the middle-class urban men who volunteered for
service and on the region of the Confederacy in which
they operated.
William C. Harris, professor of history at North Carolina
State University in Raleigh, is the author of seven books
on Civil War and Reconstruction topics, including, With
Charity for All: Lincoln and the Restoration of the Union,
which was a recipient of the 1998 Lincoln Prize for Civil
War scholarship.
New
Perspectives on the History of the South
1999. 232pp. 6 X 9.
4 b&w photos, map, notes, bibliography, index.
ISBN 0-8130-1678-9 Cloth, $29.95
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"Haines' dispatches are paired with historical background to form a cohesive picture of a regiment of middle-class urban men who volunteered for the cause. . . . Haines provides valuable, little-recorded insight into the activities of black soldiers in the Union army as well as the efforts to thwart the Confederacy's attempts to drive Unionists from the coastal lowlands." --
Boston Herald
"Highly recommended for those interested in accounts by enlisted men and the war in North Carolina."--
Choice
"A very readable book with enough Civil War substance to take the reader into a relatively obscure campaign through the eyes of one who was there and did that."
-- Civil War Courier
"There are few accounts that are as eloquent, vivid, and descriptive as Haines's. Harris, should be commended for bringing this little-known source to wide distribution."
-- Civil War News
"Anyone interested in
the Civil War along the eastern seaboard--and most
especially North Carolina--will applaud the availability
of a scholarly, well-edited edition of the Haines
book."--Daniel Sutherland,
University of Arkansas
"The most comprehensive account by a private soldier
of the 1862-1863 campaigns in North Carolina."—Civil
War Books: A Critical Bibliography
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