 | From Blue Mills to Columbia: Cedar Falls and the Civil War Subjects: Cedar Falls (Iowa) -- History -- 19th century; Cedar Falls (Iowa) -- History Military -- 19th century; Cedar Falls (Iowa) -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Iowa -- History -- Civil War 1861–1865; Iowa -- History -- Civil War 1861–1865 -- Social asp; Historian Kenneth Lyftogt introduces us to the volunteer soldiers of the Pioneer Grays and Cedar Falls Reserves infantry companies and in turn examines Iowa's role in the Civil War. Many of these soldiers served the Union for the duration of the war, from the early fighting in Missouri to Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Sherman's destructive marches through Georgia and the Carolinas. Their letters home are Lyftogt's primary sources, as are editorials and articles published in the Cedar Falls Gazette . Kenneth Lyftogt is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Northern Iowa. He has walked all the major battlefields of the Civil War and participated in reenactments. He is editor of Left for Dixie and the author of From Blue Mills to Columbia: Cedar Falls and the Civil War (Iowa, 1993) and the novel Road Freaks of Trans-Amerika . |
