A Thousand May Fall

Life, Death, and Survival in the Union Army

De: Brian Matthew Jordan

Narrado por: Christopher Douyard

The Civil War ended more than 150 years ago, yet our nation remains fiercely divided over its enduring legacies. In A Thousand May Fall, Pulitzer Prize finalist Brian Matthew Jordan returns us to the war itself. Creating an intimate, absorbing chronicle from the ordinary soldier's perspective, he allows us to see the Civil War anew - and through unexpected eyes.

At the heart of Jordan's vital account is the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was at once representative and exceptional. Its ranks weathered the human ordeal of war in painstakingly routine ways, fighting in two defining battles, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, each time in the thick of the killing. But the men of the 107th were not lauded as heroes. Most of them were ethnic Germans, set apart by language and identity, and their loyalties were regularly questioned by a nativist Northern press.

In the course of its service, the 107th Ohio was decimated five times over, and although one of its members earned the Medal of Honor, few others achieved any lasting distinction. Reclaiming these men for posterity, Jordan reveals that even as they endured the horrible extremes of war, the Ohioans contemplated the deeper meanings of the conflict at every turn - from personal questions of citizenship and belonging to the overriding matter of slavery and emancipation.

©2021 Brian Matthew Jordan (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Drill More

Overall, it was a good listen for somebody into the Civil War, with background details of individual soldiers' lives and experiences both before, during, and after the war. Going in, I don't know how I missed that this book was more or less a regimental history of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.

The narration was pleasant to listen to, with the grating exception that he couldn't properly pronounce some place names and other words that anyone with a cursory knowledge of the subject matter would know. Tell me you nothing about the American Civil War without telling me you know nothing about the American Civil War. It seems to me a rather glaring mistake that a little preliminary research could have remedied.

Great info on the 107th Ohio

Overall, I really liked this book, but I don't understand why the producers of these audio books don't correct the reader then they mispronounce words. They just let them keep saying it wrong.

Masterful, Personal and Highly Enlightening

This book is amazing in helping the reader/listener to truly understand the life of a common soldier of the Civil War, and one of it’s most noteworthy and “controversial” regiments. Relying on the words of individual soldiers, civilians and politicians, this is history at it’s most immediate. I have two ancestors who fought in the Ohio 107th, one killed at Chancellorsville and one who remained until muster out. They are not mentioned in this book, but I feel like I have some understanding of what they went through, and the terrible cost of war- not only battles, but extreme conditions, camp life and boredom. This book also conveys a Union divided among itself, and the struggle of Immigrant Germans to gain equal recognition with the native born. Lastly, it speaks to soldierly bonds, formed in the crucible of hardship and danger. Narration is perfect.