![]() ![]() At last it died away there came a quiet field or two, then the old Maryland town of Frederick."from The Long Rollīefore Gone with the Wind exploded into print, Mary Johnston's The Long Roll was one of the definitive novels about the Civil War. The city of tents and of frame structures hasty and crude, of fires in open places, of Butlers' shops and canteens and booths of strolling players, of chapels and hospitals, of fluttering flags and wandering music, of restless blue soldiers, oscillating like motes in some searchlight of the giants, persisted for a long distance. From somewhere came the strains of 'Yankee Doodle.' A gust of wind blew out the folds of the stars and stripes, fastened above some regimental headquarters. Soldiers were everywhere, dimly seen within the tents where the door-flap was fastened back, about the camp-fires in open places, clustering like bees in the small squares, everywhere apparent in the foreground and divined in the distance. ![]() To left and right were lighted streets of tents, visited here and there by substantial cabins. ![]() Johnston peels away some of the historical romance of the cavalry and shows how vital artillery was in the battles, while paying close attention to the importance of planning and patience, and the role of roads, rail, horse,and boat, mixing all of these elements with descriptions of raw courage and reckless abandon. ![]() Before Gone with the Wind exploded into print, Mary Johnston's The Long Roll was one of the definitive novels about the Civil War. ![]()
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