Bell Irvin Wiley (January 5, 1906 – April 4, 1980) was an American historian who specialized in the American Civil War and was an authority on

military history Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians norma ...

and the

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

of common people. He died in Atlanta, Georgia, from a heart attack.

Background

Born in rural Halls, Tennessee, Wiley was one of 13 children, 11 of whom lived past infancy. The family did farm work, and Wiley had the experience of plowing behind a

mule The mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse. It is the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a female horse (a mare). The horse and the donkey are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes; of the two pos ...

. His dislike for the drudgery of farm chores and the merciless Southern heat motivated him to plan a career in education. Wiley's maternal grandfather had marched with the Army of Tennessee, fighting against Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s army. While he barely remembered him, Wiley spent several summers as a boy with his widow, who often held him spellbound with her recollections of the period. Wiley's family frequently hosted both a Confederate and a Union soldier, who would entertain them with their accounts of what they experienced when each had opposed the other in battle.

Education

Wiley earned a BA at Asbury College in 1928 and a Ph.D. from Yale University in 1933, where he worked under

Ulrich B. Phillips Ulrich Bonnell Phillips (November 4, 1877 – January 21, 1934) was an American historian who largely defined the field of the social and economic studies of the history of the Antebellum South and slavery in the U.S. Phillips concentrated on t ...

. In 1934 Wiley became a professor of history at State Teachers College (now the University of Southern Mississippi). He married Mary Frances Harrison in 1937; they had two children. He served as professor of history at the University of Mississippi (1938-1943), Louisiana State University (1946-1949), and Emory University (1949-1974).

Legacy

The ''New York Civil War Round Table'' awards the

Bell I. Wiley Award A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

to deserving authors who write about Civil War themes.

Writings

* ''Cotton and Slavery in the History of West Tennessee'' (1929) * ''Southern Negroes, 1861-1865'' (1938
typescript in archives
* ''The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy'' (LSU Press, 1943
excerpt and text search 2007 edition
* ''The Plain People of the Confederacy'' (LSU Press, 1943
read onlineexcerpt and text search 2000 edition
* Greenfield, Kent Roberts, Robert R. Palmer, Bell I. Wiley. ''The Organization of Ground Combat Troops'' (1947) on World War II * Palmer, Robert Roswell, Bell I. Wiley, William R. Keast. ''The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops'' (1948) on World War I
read online
* ''The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union'' (1952
excerpt and text search 2008 edition
* ''The Road to Appomattox'' (1956) * ''Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer by Brig. Gen. G. Moxley Sorrel, C.S.A.'' (ed.) (Tennessee: McCowat-Mercer Press, 1958) * ''The Role of the Archivist in the Civil War Centennial'' (1961

* ''Embattled Confederates: An Illustrated History of Southerners at War'' (Harper & Row, 1964

* ''Confederate Women: Beyond the Petticoat'' (1975) * ''Slaves No More: Letters from Liberia, 1833-1869'' (University of Kentucky Press, 1980

References

External links