Reviews for Tupelo

The average rating for Tupelo based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-11-05 00:00:00 Juliana Yarosh This is a first-person account of an outspoken critic of Southern secession, Presbyterian minister John H. Aughey, a New Yorker who lived in Mississippi at the outbreak of the War Between the States. His strident dissent led to his incarceration at the military prison in Tupelo. Aughey provides sensational details of cruel and callous treatment he and other political prisoners received from their Southern captors. Following his escape Aughey published an account of his ordeal in 1863, "The Iron Furnace or Slavery and Secession." In 1888, he expanded that book into this volume, simply entitling it "Tupelo." I was initially interested in this book for its background information and references to individuals known by Northern Mississippi ancestors of mine stationed in Tupelo in 1862. Quickly gleaning what little was there, I decided to read the entire book. I was prepared for strong partisan views but was disenchanted with the bitterness the author still nursed more than 25 years after his ordeal. Of course, time and distance don't always ease one's worst memories. Nor will they alone alter a person's basic principles. So giving the benefit of the doubt to one who endured such a galling experience, one may forgive Aughey's invective against Southerners and their cause. And for their part, Southerners had their own postwar apologists. Robert L. Dabney comes to mind as one of the great Southern spokesmen (and also a fellow minister from Aughey's Presbyterian tradition). However, in contrast to Aughey's resentful invective, Dabney's critical analysis of Northern aggression was based in logic and rooted in history and theology. In fairness to John H. Aughey's "Tupelo," while the author may show little sympathy for his Confederate captors or the convictions they held, he does remember some Southern people kindly, especially those who opposed slavery and secession. And a century and a half later, we are still discussing key cultural and political issues he and others raised. Although too reviling for my tastes, in spite of its weaknesses, "Tupelo" was an influential book in its day, and it still provides important insight into that disastrous and divisive war.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-04-12 00:00:00 Kelly Grimes This is one of many first-hand accounts I have read by southerners who opposed slavery, supported the Union, and opposed secession at the outset of the Civil War. This fascinating account was written by a minister who fled Mississippi.