title: Empty Sleeves: Amputation in the Civil War South (UnCivil Wars Ser.)
author: Brian Miller
description: Some passages of this book are so deftly written. . . that they remind the reader of the importance of good writing to good scholarship. Brian Craig Miller has crafted a beautifully written and extensively researched book on a topic we must give greater attention: the bodily ramifications of the Civil War. <i>Empty Sleeves </i>is a powerful addition to a growing field of work. (Sarah Handley-Cousins <i>The Civil War Monitor</i>)<br /><br />Miller's finest points are made in retelling the tragic stories of many of these Confederate soldiers, gathered from a thorough search through pension and medical records. Detailed footnotes and a comprehensive biography indicate that Miller has done his job. (Robert Grandchamp <i>Blue & Gray Magazine</i>)<br /><br />This relatively short monograph includes thoughtful analysis of a variety of primary sourcessurgical manuals, letters, memoirs, photographs, legislative records, and even Reconstruction-era theaterto offer a unique, wonderfully complex look at Southern wartime experiences, postwar policies, and changing ideas of manhood. . . . In all, <i>Empty Sleeves</i> is a fascinating and valuable addition to the historiographies of the Civil War and disability in the United States. (Dea H. Boster <i>Journal of American History</i>)<br /><br />This is an excellent and timely book. (David Sikenat <i>North Carolina Historical Review</i>)<br /><br />This impressively researched and well written book seeks to fill a glaring hole in Civil War historiography. . . . <i>Empty Sleeves</i> breaks new ground by exploring those consequences specifically for Confederate soldiers and Southern society writ large, with particular attention to the gendered nature of the surgery. . . . This extremely valuable study of the lives of Confederate amputees, the gender implications of their disabilities, and the societal responses to t he war wounded is very timely in our own day, when, as Miller notes in his epilogue, more amputees are coming home from Americas wars in the Middle East than have since the war in Vietnam. (Dillon J. Carroll <i>Michigan War Studies Review</i>)<br /><br />Miller has written a truly exceptional book that offers keen insights into the impact of amputation on soldiers, medical officers, women, and the state. This reader cannot find any major criticism of the book as it stands, for the author has written the book that he set out to write and has done so in a compelling and graphic manner. . . . <i>Empty Sleeves </i>stands as an excellent addition to the field and truly expands our understanding of the complex issues that arose from wounds and wounding in the American Civil War. (Ryan W. Keating <i>The Journal of Southern History</i>)<br /><br /><i>Empty Sleeves</i> belongs to a growing body of Civil War writing that goes beyond analysis of military campaigns, political machinations, unit histories, and soldiers biographies, to look at the conflicts lasting impact upon cultural development, broadly defined. . . . The book is well researched, clearly written, and logically organized. (Michael C.C. Adams <i>Register of the Kentucky Historical Society</i>)
zlib_text: **L** **INCOLN** **’** **S** **F** **IRST** **C** **RISIS**
  
  ![](Images/image00438.jpeg)
  
  Adapted from _The War with the South_ by Robert Tomes (New York, 1862).
  Drawing by J. R. Chapin. Engraving by R. Dudensing.
  
   **L** **INCOLN’S** **F** **IRST** **C** **RISIS**
  
   _Fort Sumter and the Betrayal of the President_
  
  WILLIAM BRUCE JOHNSON
  
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