Daydreams And Nightmares: A Virginia Family Faces Secession And War (a Nation Divided: Studies In The Civil War Era)

The decision of the eventual Confederate states to secede from the Union set in motion perhaps the most dramatic chapter in American history, and one that has typically been told on a grand scale. In Daydreams and Nightmares, however, historian Brent Tarter shares the story of one Virginia family who found themselves in the middle of the secession debate and saw their world torn apart as the states chose sides and went to war. George Berlin was elected to serve as a delegate to the Virginia Convention of 1861 as an opponent of secession, but he ultimately changed his vote. Later, when defending his decision in a speech in his hometown of Buckhannon, Upshur County, he had to flee for his safety as Union soldiers arrived. Berlin and his wife, Susan Holt Berlin, were separated for extended periods--both during the convention and, later, during the early years of the Civil War. The letters they exchanged tell a harrowing story of uncertainty and bring to life for the modern reader an extended family that encompassed both Confederate and Union sympathizers. This is in part a love story. It is also a story about ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Although unique in its vividly evoked details, the Berlins' story is representative of the drama endured by millions of Americans. Composed during the nightmare of civil war, the Berlins' remarkably articulate letters express the dreams of reunion and a secure future felt throughout the entire, severed nation. In this intimate, evocative, and often heartbreaking family story, we see up close the personal costs of our larger national history. A Nation Divided: Studies in the Civil War "Daydreams and Nightmares uses the private letters and other records of an Upshur County, Virginia, family to reveal through their own words and experiences how the secession crisis during the winter of 1860-61 and its aftermath affected them. As a member of the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861, George Berlin was separated from his wife Susan and their children (also from his brother and his wife, the sister of his own wife) for several months on the eve of the American Civil War. After he switched from opposing secession to endorsing it, he had to flee his hometown and was separated from his family again for over a year during the first part of the war. The large corpus of surviving letters between George and Susan Berlin contain vivid explanations of their hopes and fears and of their and their children's experiences during those two long separations. It is a dramatic story unique to them but comparable to what thousands of other Americans experienced during that time. It is in part a love story, but it is also a story about ordinary people in extraordinary events. They lost their home and property in western Virginia and had to resettle in eastern Virginia. As a consequence, the extended family of which they were a part became separated, too. Their story intersects major themes in nineteenth-century American history, including the impact of the Civil War and the rapidly emerging field of family history"--Provided by publisher