To live and die

Diffley has compiled a fascinating collection of periodical fiction published during the Civil War and Reconstruction. All of the stories are set during the war except Samuel Clemens' piece, which appeared in Atlantic Monthly and focused on the war's aftermath. Each story is briefly introduced and framed within the war. The majority of selections come from 19th-century literary periodicals published in the North, South, and West. They are uniformly strong and demonstrate how intertwined the home and war fronts were.