Confederate Narratives in the Civil War Collection

Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, From Manassas to Appomattox, A Blockaded Family: Life in Southern Alabama During the Civil War, & The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl

By: Heros Von Borcke, James Longstreet, Parthenia Antoinette Hague, Eliza Frances Andrews

Narrated by: Museum Audiobooks cast

One of the most studied and written about episodes in US history, the American Civil War remains the subject of cultural and historiographical debate. The conflict was one of the earliest industrial wars in which mass-produced weapons were employed. The mobilization of civilian factories, shipyards, transportation, and food supplies all foreshadowed the impact of industrialization in World War I, World War II, and subsequent conflicts.

Confederate Narratives in the Civil War Collection includes:

Book one: Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence. Johann August Heinrich Heros von Borcke (1835-1895) was a Prussian cavalry officer who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. After the Confederacy's surrender in 1865, von Borcke rejoined the Prussian Army for the Austro-Prussian War. Von Borcke served under General J.E.B. Stuart, General Stonewall Jackson, and General Robert E. Lee, and he gives a personal look into the lives of these men and of the privates whom he fought beside. He recorded his interactions with anyone he encountered during his time in the Confederate Cavalry, from the friends he made among citizens and servants to his detailed experiences on the battlefield.

Book two: From Manassas to Appomattox, the memoirs of Lieutenant-General James Longstreet, contains much of historical interest. He provides a personal account of the progress of the Civil War, plus a wealth of anecdotes about Robert E Lee and his officers. Longstreet was the commander of the Confederate Army's First Corps, which fought through most of the major wartime campaigns.

Book three: A Blockaded Family: Life in Southern Alabama During the Civil War by Parthenia Antoinette Hague. An outstanding primary source of Southern life during the Yankee blockade, the book is a memoir of daily life on a Southern plantation during the Civil War. The narrative provides details on a wide spectrum of issues of historical interest.

Book four: The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl by Eliza Frances Andrews. During the fall of 1864 when General Sherman and his army invaded Georgia, the young Eliza Frances Andrews and her sister, Metta, fled from their home in Washington, Georgia, to safety in the southwest of the state. Eliza kept a diary that reflects the anger and despair of Confederate citizens during the final months of the Civil War.

Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks

4 stories and narrators, from great to painful to hear

The first story and narrator was fabulous (Heros Von Borck). The Longstreet story had a few interesting angles I hadn’t heard, but otherwise for most of it the author (General Longstreet) made excuses for how he frequently made mistakes and possibly won the war for the north. I’ve read countless books by his contemporaries who had a different perspective. Also, Longstreet spent tons of time just listing troop movements without emotion, something great for a military strategist with a white board, but it got old as an audio book as it was hard to picture and his dry adjective-less writing gave me little reason to get invested in hundreds of troop pivots and flank maneuvers. The narrator was as dry as Longstreet’s writing. The third story had a decent narrator and was interesting mostly in that the author described how they survived on very little at home. The fourth story was very good (an emotional diary with day to day details of the daughter of a plantation worker) but the narrator was EXCRUCIATING to hear. It was like an overdone fake creole southern accent that occasionally broke. Condescending actually. I almost NEVER abandon a book, but with 4 hours to go (at 2x speed, 8 at regular) I couldn’t handle it anymore. That being said, it was worth it for the first story and for the third story.

Mixed bag

The first narrative was amazing. The narrator was quite good. The second narrative had a good story full of excuses by Longstreet how nothing was his fault. The narrator for Longstreet’s story was very bad! Why would anyone choose to use someone with a whistle when they speak. It was completely unbearable without the bass in my AirPod pro earbuds. The third narrative story was, ok. I now know way more than about making thread, buttons, material, etc than I ever could’ve imagined, wanting to know. As for the NARA raider, it was horrific. I had to listen at the speed of 1.3 times normal just to keep from bashing my head in. The fourth and final narrative was a really good story, but the narrator came off as having an almost mocking fake accent. I hope I’m not wrong and just insulted a fine southern woman. If I’m correct then shame on the producers for not finding an actual female southern woman whose words would pour over the listener like warm maple syrup.

If you like unnatural spoken words.

The content is precious as it is authentic history. However, I rate the performance to lowest quality possible. I cannot fathom how someone actually approved a robotic voice to perform the third book. Nobody, I mean, no human, speaks like that naturally. It made the book excruciating to listen to. I recommend the physical books, but do not recommend the Audible versions. I cannot finish. And Regret the credit used.