The Intrepid Cornelia Hancock
One of life’s great mysteries is the spark that moves an individual to summon the courage to take on an enormous task in the face of great uncertainty.
Cornelia Hancock was one such person. Just a few days after the fighting at Gettysburg ended, she arrived in the middle of a humanitarian crisis—the first woman to reach the 3rd Division, 2nd Corps hospital at the Jacob Schwartz farm.
Her story is the stuff of grit and determination. And it is told in superb style by Carolyn Ivanoff in Cornelia Hancock’s Civil War: A Heart Touched by Fire. It is a well-researched portrait of a remarkable woman and wartime nurse.
A dedicated student of Clara Barton, battlefield nursing, and Connecticut’s role in the conflict, Ivanoff brings to this book the same compassion, rigor, and eye for human detail that have distinguished her previous works. Ivanoff personalizes Hancock through writings by her and members of her family—unfiltered, immediate, and profoundly human. Drawing from original letters, unpublished materials, and careful contextual research, she transforms Hancock into a vivid presence, from Gettysburg in 1863 to Fredericksburg, White House Landing, and City Point near Petersburg in 1864.
Ivanoff excels at placing Hancock’s experiences within the larger transformation of women’s roles, wartime medicine, abolitionism, and the suffering endured by soldiers and caregivers alike. The result is both a biography and a journey through the emotional landscape of the war.
Ivanoff has produced a deeply moving and masterfully researched work that restores Cornelia Hancock’s extraordinary Civil War service with immediacy, humanity, and historical depth. This book is an important contribution to Civil War literature and an essential read for anyone interested in women’s history, nursing, and the Army of the Potomac.
Cornelia Hancock’s Civil War: A Heart Touched by Fire
By Carolyn Ivanoff
520 pages
Gettysburg Publishing
Hardcover
Masterful Artistry, Impeccable Research
One illustration pictures a bearded Georgian in mud-stained blue trousers and a gray frock coat, resting a brogan on a rock while grasping his Enfield rifle with a saber bayonet. Another showcases a New Yorker, smoking a pipe and loaded with his gear, an SNY waist belt wrapped around his dark blue jacket.
These are just two of the 152 soldier illustrations in Don Troiani’s Civil War Uniforms for Union and Confederate Soldiers by Don Troiani and Ron Field—two pillars of military historical art and research. Troiani, a traditional historical realist and the gold standard for accuracy and detail, has been active in the field for decades. His ubiquitous illustrations capture pivotal moments from the Revolution through the Civil War. Field, an internationally recognized authority on military history, has authored more than 40 books, is a Fellow of the Company of Military Historians, and a Senior Editor of Military Images magazine.
The dream team shines in this book, printed in full color on high-quality paper and thick cover stock. Troiani’s art and Field’s descriptive text reveal a seemingly endless variety of uniforms, equipment, gear, and weapons—a veritable feast of material culture. Paging through the illustrations, the distinctive qualities of a New York Highlander, a Rhode Island militiaman, a Garibaldi Legionnaire, a Mississippian in the Van Dorn Reserves, and a Texas infantryman are unmistakable, thanks to Troiani’s artistic gift. Field provides meaningful context to help readers understand why they were uniformed and accoutered as they appear in the illustrations.
Taken together, the words and pictures offer more than a glimpse of how soldiers looked; they are a guide for students of the Civil War eager to appreciate how the war looked from one state to the next. This is an essential volume for any library.
Don Troiani’s Civil War Uniforms for Union and Confederate Soldiers
By Don Troiani and Ron Field
320 pages
Stackpole Books
Softcover
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