This Cruel War: The Civil War Letters of Grant and Malinda Taylor Book

In 1862, Private Grant Taylor of the 40th Alabama Infantry regiment began writing home to his wife Malinda. Thus started an almost three year correspondence of some 160 letters that chronicle the impact of the American Civil War on one rural Alabama family. For the Taylors and their kin, the war brought precious little glory or sentimental notions of causes won or lost. Their rough prose provides more evidence of the downside of the Civil War experience that is historically significant and emotionally touching.

Author Biography:
Anne Blomquist is a high school mathematics teacher. She has researched family history and genealogy for 25 years and is the author of five books. She is a descendant of Grant and Malinda Taylor. Robert Taylor teaches history at the Florida Institute of Technology and at Indian River Community College. He has a Ph.D. in 19th century U.S. history from Florida State University. His publications include This War So Horrible: The Civil War Diary of Hiram Smith Williams (with Lewis N. Wynne), Rebel Storehouse: Florida in the Confederate Economy, and A Pennsylvanian in Blue: The Civil War Diary of Thomas Beck Walton.