Reluctant Participants: Animals and the American Civil War

"Reluctant Participants" examine the value of animals as a resource in the Civil War, the impact of war upon them, and their relationship with humans.

The story and animals and the Civil War has been ignored, with only a scattering of works on famous horses until the last two decades. Naturally, most Civil War histories are about people and their relationship to war, but it is incomplete without including animals. One and a half million horses died during the war. Although they played a secondary role to humans who controlled them, war animals played a vital role and paid a heavy price in the war that changed America.

Charles P. Poland Jr. is the author of nine books. His teaching experience includes both undergraduate and graduate courses on the Civil War, as well as field trip courses to eastern theater battle sites. As the founder and director of Northern Virginia Community College's Civil War Mobile Museum, Poland has lectured at colleges, schools, civic groups, and museums. A popular speaker at Civil War Roundtables and historical societies, he received the 2012 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the highest honor awarded to faculty in Virginia.