Hardtack and Coffee (Classic Reprint) - Couverture souple

John Davis Billings

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1330692357 ISBN 13 : 9781330692356

Editeur : Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

A look at the Civil War’s hidden front: how signal officers kept armies in touch across distance and danger.

This memoir, Hard Tack and Coffee, reveals the work of the Signal Corps—how flag signals, torches, and elevated towers stitched together command, reconnaissance, and survival. It explains how messages moved from field to fort, and how soldiers trained under pressure to read and use a simple code under fire.

Readers will glimpse life in camp, the learning curve for new recruits, and the daily courage of men who stood high on towers or on a roof to guide battles from a distance. The book blends technical detail with memorable anecdotes—from long-distance signaling to the hiss of shells and the crack of battle—to show a rarely told side of warfare.

• How flags, flying torches, and signaled messages worked in practice
• Stories from signal towers before Petersburg and other campaigns
• The role of the Signal Corps in coordinating troops and supplies
• The challenges and reforms faced by early recruits and seasoned operators

Ideal for readers of Civil War history and military memoirs seeking vivid frontline perspectives beyond the front lines.

END

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Excerpt from Hardtack and Coffee

During the summer of 1881 I was a sojourner for a few weeks at a popular hotel in the White Mountains. Among the two hundred or more guests who were enjoying its retirement and good cheer were from twelve to twenty lads, varying in age from ten to fifteen years. When tea had been disposed of, and darkness had put an end to their daily romp and hurrah without, they were wont to take in charge a gentleman from Chicago, formerly a gallant soldier in the Army of the Cumberland, and in a quiet corner of the spacious hotel parlor, or a remote part of the piazza, would listen with eager attention as he related chapters of his personal experience in the Civil War.

Less than two days elapsed before they pried out of the writer the acknowledgment that he too had served Uncle Sam; and immediately followed up this bit of information by requesting me to alternate evenings with the veteran from the West in entertaining them with stories of the war as I saw it. I assented to the plan readily enough, and a more interested or interesting audience of its size could not be desired than that knot of boys who clustered around us on alternate nights, while we related to them in an offhand way many facts regarded as too commonplace for the general histories of the war.

This trifling piece of personal experience led to the preparation of these sketches, and will largely account for the didactic manner in which they are written. They are far from complete.

About the Publisher

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Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Forgotten Books
• Date d'édition: 2018
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1330692357
• ISBN 13: 9781330692356
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 428
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Copytech (UK) Ltd, Trading as Printondemand-worldwide.com; gpsr@podww.com; ; 9 Culley Court; Orton Southgate; Peterborough; Cambridgeshire; PE2 6WA; Royaume-Uni
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