Go If You Think It Your Duty

the long version

"During the American Civil War, James Madison Bowler and Elizabeth Caleff Bowler courted, married, became parents, and bought a farm. They attended dances, talked politics, and confided their deepest fears. Because of the war, however, they experienced almost all of these events separately, sharing them through hundreds of letters from 1861 to 1865 while Madison served in the Third Minnesota Volunteer Regiment and Lizzie stayed in Nininger, Minnesota. In four years, they spent only twelve weeks under the same roof." "The couple's separation - during which Madison's regiment was involved in the infamous surrender at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and the Dakota War of 1862 - challenged their commitment to the war and to each other. Madison was steered by his sense of duty. Lizzie agreed that her husband should enlist, but over the course of four years - and after the birth of their daughter - she increasingly felt that his duty to country should come second to the needs of their family." "These letters provide the Bowlers a space to voice their fear for and frustration with each other, and they now provide readers with a window into one couple's Civil War."--Jacket.