If you've got a loved one in Iraq, read on - but with caution. 

No matter where a soldier dies, he or she leaves someone at home, someone who dreads getting a visit from a uniformed chaplain or grim-faced officer.  But almost a hundred fifty years ago, if you lost a loved one to battle, you may've never gotten closure on your loss. No body, no personal effects, no confirmation, and no grave to visit.  In “This Republic of Suffering” by Drew Gilpin Faust, you'll read about death on the battlefields of the Civil War.

In early Victorian times, Americans believed in “Good Death”; that is, a death where one gave up the soul “gladlye and wilfully” and resisted worldly attachment.  Death was, in today's context, almost romantic in its sentimentality.

“Dying,” says Faust, “was an art.” 

When the War Between the States started in 1861, everyone initially believed that the fighting wouldn't last long, that their side would prevail in short order, and that casualties would be minimal.  Politicians and military officials vowed that every man killed in battle would be retrieved, identified, and returned to his loved ones.

Nobody expected the extreme carnage of war.

In the aftermath of battle, mangled bodies littered fields; amputated limbs piled near hospitals; and bullet-ridden soldiers “disappeared”, leaving little-to-nothing for identity or burial.  One report claimed that, after Shiloh, it was impossible walk across an open field without stepping on a dead body.  The dead often lay in fields for years before recovery.

But the war itself wasn't the only danger.  Measles, mumps, typhoid, dysentery, and other communicable diseases killed hundreds of thousands. 

Toward the end of the war, Faust says, efforts were made to identify the dead and notify the families.  Clara Barton (of the Red Cross) and poet Walt Whitman tried to put a number on the casualties.  Regiment leaders were asked to furnish lists of missing, dead, and wounded, but even that wasn't enough. Faust writes of anguished parents who went to their own graves without knowing what happened to their sons.

At a time when DNA testing is available and the goal is to never have another Unknown Soldier, “This Republic of Suffering” is shocking in its historical context.  Author Drew Gilpin Faust points out that casualties during the Civil War exceeded that of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, both World Wars and the Korea War combined.  Considering today's sad commonness of flags at half-mast, that number is mind-boggling.

Although “This Republic of Suffering” is sometimes a bit dry and definitely a bit gory, it's also an intriguingly unusual twist on the genre.  If you're a Civil War buff, historian, or if you love military stories, you'll want to fight to find this book.

The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. Terri has been reading since she was 3 years old and she never goes anywhere without a book.  She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books.