THE VACANT CHAIR: The Northern Soldier Leaves Home.

New York:: Oxford University Press,, 1993.. Hardcover first edition -. Fine in fine dust jacket (a new copy.). First printing. From the dust jacket: ÔIn many ways, the Northern soldier in the Civil War fought as if he had never left home. On campsites and battlefields, the Union volunteer adapted to military life with attitudes shaped by networks of family relationships, in units of men from the same hometown. Understanding these links between the homes the troops left behind and the war they had to fight... offers critical insight into how they thought, fought, and perservered through four bloody years of combat.Õ Based on the letters, diaries, and memoirs of common soldiers, this shows Ôhow mid-nineteenth-century ideas and images of the home and family shaped the Union soldier's approach to everything from military discipline to battlefield bravery. For hundreds of thousands of boys, as they called themselves, the Union army was an extension of their home and child hood experiences.Õ Illustrated with a frontispiece and a 16 page insert of photographs. Extensive notes, index, 201 pp