Summary of Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 I began to read aloud to my son from a ten-volume collection called The Photographic History of the Civil War. I learned about palindromes from the Southern sea captain Raphael Semmes. I began to match Brady’s still-deaths with the curt stutter of farm roads and rocks.

#2 I had always been a Civil War bore, but when I returned to America after nine years abroad, I found that people were becoming obsessed with the history of the Civil War.

#3 Americans were still obsessed with the Civil War, and this passion was reflected in the media, in the movies, and in the theme park being built beside the Manassas battlefield.

#4 I spent the weekend with the re-enactors, and while I can’t explain my behavior, I was just a normal guy sitting in a house in Virginia looking at pictures of long-dead Confederates.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822544468

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I began to read aloud to my son from a ten-volume collection called The Photographic History of the Civil War. I learned about palindromes from the Southern sea captain Raphael Semmes. I began to match Brady’s still-deaths with the curt stutter of farm roads and rocks.

#2

I had always been a Civil War bore, but when I returned to America after nine years abroad, I found that people were becoming obsessed with the history of the Civil War.

#3

Americans were still obsessed with the Civil War, and this passion was reflected in the media, in the movies, and in the theme park being built beside the Manassas battlefield.

#4

I spent the weekend with the re-enactors, and while I can’t explain my behavior, I was just a normal guy sitting in a house in Virginia looking at pictures of long-dead Confederates.

#5

I went out with the Southern Guard to drill, and was given a bedroll and other kit as needed. I was to bring food but nothing modern. I was half-blind and hobbled by the ill-fitting brogans, but I followed the others to a farm building.

#6

The Southern Guard is a hardcore faction that focuses on historical accuracy. They are very picky about the clothes and weapons their members wear, and they have an authenticity committee to make sure that reenactors dress exactly as their ancestors did.

#7

During the Civil War, the soldiers would stack their muskets and sleep on their ground cloths. The coldest spot in a spooning position is the anchor, and the farting soldier was in that position.

#8

I was woken up by reveille. The men formed ranks and marched across the orchard. The mood was sober and martial, nothing like the night before.

#9

The men were extremely hardcore, and they loved it. They loved the fact that there was no responsibility, and they loved the fact that they could actually go the whole way and be killed just to experience what it was like to be under fire in the War.

#10

I continued to drill the super-rigor mortis until late in the afternoon, when the temperature began to drop. I decided to farb out rather than freeze or die of hunger.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

I had planned to spend a year traveling around the South, visiting the places and people who kept memory of the Civil War alive in the present day. I began my tour in Salisbury, North Carolina, where the War began with the shelling of Fort Sumter.

#2

The Salisbury National Cemetery was the burial ground for Northerners who died at