Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy: A Civil War Odyssey by Peter Carlson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Civil War is endlessly fascinating to me, so I was happy to pick up this book. Junius and Albert’s story was engrossing, even though you knew they would escape their prison(s)–it’s right there in the blurb, after all. But the author did a remarkable job of pulling primary sources into a coherent narrative. The pair did encounter some horrific obstacles, and to read the stories of their fellow prison inmates was awful. Of course, there is some levity and not a little bit of courage on display. This book reads almost like an action novel; the pair aren’t continuously running for their lives, but there’s always something waiting to make their lives more difficult, and you can’t help but root for them to make it out alive. The author did a very good job of characterizing Albert and Junius so they were more than the letters they wrote to their families and their newspaper employers. I had no idea this particular bit of history existed, but I was glad to make its acquaintance.

I received this as a digital ARC from Netgalley and the publisher.

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