Faded Banners

Faded Banners, published in 1960 by Thomas Yoseloff, serves as a significant treasury of American Civil War literature, specifically focusing on the personal narratives and firsthand accounts of soldiers. Edited by Eric Solomon, the volume was curated to preserve the immediacy of the conflict through the eyes of those who participated on both sides of the divide, offering a departure from purely academic military history of the mid-20th century.

The editorial approach taken by Solomon sought to highlight the human condition amidst the chaos of the 1860s. By selecting a range of prose that captured the grit and emotion of the era, the book contributed to a growing postwar interest in the individual soldier's experience, fitting well within the mid-century academic effort to synthesize raw historical record with literary analysis.