Book Review: Family War Stories: The Densmores’ Fight to Save the Union and Destroy Slavery
Family War Stories: The Densmores’ Fight to Save the Union and Destroy Slavery. By Keith P. Wilson. New York: Fordham University Press, 2024. Softcover, 336 pp. $35.00.
Reviewed by Patrick Kelly-Fischer
There are countless Civil War books that focus solely on individual soldiers’ wartime experiences, or specifically on civilian life on the home front. Family War Stories: The Densmores’ Fight to Save the Union and Destroy Slavery deftly weaves those threads together in a single Minnesota family’s story. Keith P. Wilson dug deep into the archives to find a trove of letters exchanged back and forth over the course of the war between two sons in uniform, adult sons and daughters back at home, and their parents. Through those interactions, he tells a complex story of a family wrestling with their views of the course of the war, the country’s future, and their individual roles in the conflict.
Two of the family’s sons, Daniel and Benjamin, served in Union regiments during the war. Their service covers a vast breadth of geography and a range of experiences. From the Dakota Territory to the Gulf Coast, they served in both white and USCT regiments, at ranks ranging from sergeant to lieutenant colonel, and in garrison and active combat situations. Their letters offer a window into the September 1862 fighting against the Sioux, campaigns against Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, the siege of Mobile and battle of Fort Blakely, and the long stretches of garrison duty, training and patrols that filled most Civil War soldiers’ days.
Wilson spends almost as much time exploring the experiences of the Densmore family members who stayed at home. Orrin, the family patriarch, offers a window into local Republican politics. The oldest and youngest sons, Norman and Orrin, Jr., represent the droves of military age young men in the North who did not fight. Orrin’s wife Elizabeth, and their daughters Margaret and Martha, offer a rare view into how women’s lives changed as a result of the conflict.
Perhaps the most interesting member of the household is Mary, a Black servant freed from slavery and sent North by Daniel and Benjamin to work as a servant and assist their aging parents. Her role in the household and her relationship with each member of the family serve to highlight the complex interactions around race and slavery that are present throughout the book. Importantly, Wilson ensures that she has her own story and motivations, and is not just a foil for the Densmores.
As the title implies, the family held strong views against slavery, which motivated their political actions, and in the case of two of the sons, drove them to sign up and fight. Wilson in no way suggests that every Union soldier was similarly motivated by abolitionist beliefs, nor does he gloss over what today reads as rough edges in their views on race. One of the most fascinating parts of the book is how those feelings evolve, particularly as Benjamin and Daniel join USCT regiments, and then encounter slavery firsthand while campaigning in the South.
The book stretches from 1861 to demobilization in 1866, briefly offering an interesting view into the condition of the seceded states immediately after the war. It is largely chronological while switching perspectives as needed to encompass the entire family’s experience. The book is not a collection of letters; in fact, only small snippets are directly quoted.
In Family War Stories, Wilson offers something unusual in Civil War scholarship. By honing in on this researcher’s treasure trove of a large family’s letters back and forth to each other throughout the war, and including two white officers of USCT regiments, he gives the reader insight into an incredibly broad range of topics, while keeping the overall work extremely readable.
