Letters to Lizzie

James M. Scythes is assistant professor of history at West Chester University. He received an MA in history from Villanova University. He has written extensively on topics related to the Civil War era and is the author of This Will Make a Man of Me: The Life and Letters of a Teenage Officer in the Civil War.

"The 124 letters contained within its covers and the impressive editorial work by Professor Scythes not only makes Letters to Lizzie well worth reading and adding to any Civil War enthusiast's library, this book also needs to be included in the discussion of the finest collections of Civil War soldiers' letters available." -Emerging Civil War "Lizzie Brick longed to carry a musket for the Union cause, but as a woman she could only wield a pen on behalf of her nation. She became a pen pal with sixteen men wearing the blue, instructing, and inspiring them to be pure in thought, moral in camp, and brave in battle. Scythes has put together a volume of soldier correspondence that is unlike any publication that we have seen in the field of Civil War history." -Peter S. Carmichael, professor of Civil War studies at Gettysburg College and author of The War for the Common Soldier: How Men Fought, Thought, and Survived in Civil War Armies "This unique collection of letters captures the Civil War's impact not just on one or two letter-writers but on a whole community of ordinary Americans. Most compellingly, it highlights the crucial wartime role played by many women, like Lizzie Brick, who anchored social networks stretched from home front to battlefield." -Christopher Hager, author of I Remain Yours: Common Lives in Civil War Letters "I absolutely love this unique collection of letters. Civil War soldiers especially valued female correspondents, and here we see how women like Lizzie connected men to each other. Through Lizzie and her friends, the social expectations of young people during the Civil War are made vivid for modern readers." -Lorien Foote, professor of history at Texas A&M University "This is an extraordinary collection of letters that captures the pathos and passion of the war years. These letters provide rich detail on the monotony of camp, dangers of battle, anguish of sickness, and the social milieu of these young men who went off to war. Lizzie kept them all anchored to the world they had left behind, and kept their letters so that we have a wonderful snapshot into that world." -Judkin Browning, co-author of An Environmental History of the Civil War