The Orthotic and Prosthetic Assistance Fund, OPAF, offers the following
press release in cooperation with University of Massachusetts Press,
http://www.umass.edu/umpress, as a public service announcement, PSA, that
helps to fulfill OPAF’s official representation of O&P in community and
philanthropic circles.
Fred Pelka’s ” The Civil War Letters of Colonel Charles F. Johnson, Invalid
Corps” will be of particular interest to members of the O&P community who,
like OPAF, are engaged in promoting greater public awareness of the past,
present, and future of O&P.
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In 2005, OPAF PSAs and overall operations are made possible thanks in part
to the generosity of OPAF’s top current supporters, including the American
Board for Certification in Orthotics and Prosthetics, ABC,
http://www.abcop.org/; Morrison & Foerster LLP http://www.mofo.com/; and
Ohio Willow Wood http://www.owwco.com/.
Thanks to all for their commitment to OPAF’s chief mission: enable
individuals with physical disabilities — especially those served by members
of the U.S. O&P community — to enjoy the rewards of personal achievement,
physical fitness, and social interaction.
Every PSA helps to build a bridge between OPAF, and therefore the O&P
community, and individuals and organizations concerned with the past,
present, and/or future of orthotics and prosthetics. Alongside OPAF’s other
service programs, OPAF PSAs help to advance the abovestated mission while
promoting, enhancing, and protecting the reputation of O&P in the public
eye.
Learn more about OPAF at http://www.opfund.org and see our thanks to all
OPAF supporters at: http://www.opfund.org/thankyou2005.htm.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
“The Civil War Letters of Colonel Charles F. Johnson, Invalid Corps”
Edited with an introduction by Fred Pelka University of Massachusetts Press,
$26.95 (paperbound) 1-55849-460-X
Organized in May 1863 to meet the Union Army’s growing manpower needs, the
Invalid Corps–later renamed the Veteran Reserve Corps–was a unique
military unit. With more than twenty-four regiments of troops, nearly all of
them men disabled by illness or combat wounds, it was at one point twice as
large as the entire pre-war United States Army. During four years of service
its troops enforced the draft, guarded prisoners and vital outposts,
protected rail lines and supply depots, and served as military police in
cities all across the country. Members of the Corps escorted President
Lincoln’s body home to Illinois, and after the war its officers formed the
nucleus of the new Freedman’s Bureau.
This volume brings together some 143 letters written by Colonel Charles F.
Johnson, an officer who served with the 18th Veteran Reserve Corps after
sustaining debilitating wounds during the Seven Days’ Battles in June 1862.
Edited with an introduction by Fred Pelka, the letters describe the
day-to-day circumstances of “The Cripple Brigade,” as it was derisively
called, as well as guerrilla warfare in Missouri, combat in Virginia, and
barracks life in Washington, D.C. Johnson was a keen observer of his nation
at war, and his correspondence with his wife Mary is by turns literate and
comic, objective and personal.
In his introduction and annotations, Pelka provides a detailed history of
the Invalid Corps and explores the experience of disability in
nineteenth-century America. He looks at how the nation responded to the
sudden appearance of tens of thousands of newly disabled young men, and
traces how members of the Invalid Corps fought not only to restore the Union
but also to retain their dignity as Americans and as human beings.
“Civil War historians and others will value this book. It provides a
fascinating and insightful introduction to the disabled soldiers of the
Civil War era, and presents the first analysis of the Invalid Corps and the
twists and turns of its history. Fred Pelka performs a great service by
calling long-overdue attention to the experience of those who served in this
unit.”–John David Smith, editor of “Black Soldiers in Blue: African
American Troops in the Civil War Era”
“This collection should be of interest not only to Civil War historians,
nineteenth-century Americanists, and disability historians, but also to
historians of gender relations and to family and marriage historians.
Readable as Johnson’s letters are, the book should appeal to general readers
as well.”–Paul K. Longmore, coeditor of “The New Disability History:
American Perspectives”
A freelance writer and researcher, FRED PELKA is the author of the “ABC-CLIO
Companion to the Disability Rights Movement,” and a 2004 Guggenheim Fellow.
For more information please contact: info@umpress.umass.edu
