Armstrong Relates Confedera Opposing the Second Corps Antietam: The Fight for the federate Left & Center on A ica’s Bloodiest Day. By Mar Armstrong Jr. Maps, notes, ography, index, 216 pp., 20
Gettysburg is the subject innumerable tactical studie
ovide our readers with timely analy Antietam Fighting “micro-history” level, covering various days and locations of fight during the battle. No other Civil W battle has been dealt with to the s extent by historians. Marion V. Armstrong, however, is making an earnest attempt to tackle Antietam at this level. His latest fort is Opposing the Second Corps at Antietam: The Fight for the Confederate Left & Center on America’s Bloodiest Day. This volume is a Confederate-oriented sequel to Armstrong’s 2008 Unfurl Those Colors: McClellan, Sumner, and the Second Army Corps in the Antietam Campaign, which was a detailed study from the Union side of the desperate fighting in t West Woods and at the Sunken Road on Sept. 17, 1862. Like its predecessor, Opposing the Second Corps puts under a tactical microscope the attack by John Sedgwick’s division into the West Woods and its virtual ambush by Rebel units, including Lafayette McLaws’s division, followed by the grim but only marginally successful assaults against the Confederate center by the divisions of William
French and Israel B. Richardson. Unlike its predecessor, this volume seems to rely on more sources from the opposite side, i.e., Union in this instance. As in his first bo Armstrong has supplied sufficient context to understand the fighting which is his focus. The tactical narrative here is mi ute and yet smoothly and intelligibly-written. The details of Civil Wa combat at this level can leave an in experienced or casual reader essentially “lost” after only a few pages Armstrong has a talent for conveying military minutia in a coherent and clear manner. Unfurl Those Colors was to some extent thesis-driven. Armstrong deliberately challenged the oft-criticized handling of the Second Corps in this fighting by its aged command er Edwin V. Sumner. With mixed success, Armstrong argued that, contrary to long-held assumptions, Sumner (1) did not order Sedgwick’s division into the West Woods without flank support and (2) that Sumner had ordered French to attack the Sunken Road in coordination with Sedgwick’s movement.
Opposing the Second Corps makes no attempt at equivalent revision of history from the Confederate side. Instead, Armstrong looks at the larg er context. He adopts and furthers the conclusion by the late Joseph Harsh that Robert E. Lee fought at Antietam with the objective of retaining his invasion initiative rath than of simply saving his army. While this theory does not alter the history of the fighting in the West Woods and the Sunken Road, Armstrong does examine the Confederate exploration of a flanking maneuver around the Union right on the afternoon of Sept. 17, after the Rebels’ left and center ha stabilized, and again on Sept. 18, until Lee finally was talked into abandoning the field by Stonewall Jackson and Stephen D. Lee. The author’s able writing is enhanced by his decision to include no fewer than 41 maps, with more than half devoted to the Confederate center/Sunken Road sector. Most of the maps show conditions at 10-minute increments, with some at the 15- and 20-minute levels. Contour lines are shown at intervals of 10 feet. My only significant criticism regarding these otherwise excellent maps is Armstrong’s use at the brigade and division level of so-called “NATO” rectangular symbols, which tend to obscure parts of the terrain without showing the battle lines. While the maps also show vegetation/ground cover, a key explaining these map symbols would have been helpful. One complaint generated by many tactical histories is a failure to s ify the gun type(s) of field artille
batteries, which often explains their usage and the decisions by battery commanders. Armstrong generally provides this information but it is o casionally omitted. Armstrong has relied mostly on primary sources, especially those identified in the monumental postwar study by Col. Ezra Carman which has been skillfully edited by Thomas G. Clemens in The Maryland Campaign of September 1862. The author has provided extensive end notes. To his credit, primary sources have not been uncritically accepted. For example, a Confederate officer’s obviously suspect assertion that his unit was fired on by a Federal batter of “six howitzers” has been clarified in the endnotes to mean a battery of four 3-inch Ordnance Rifles. Repeated references in accounts to fiel guns firing “grape” probably should also have been corrected. This is a fine tactical study at t “micro-history” level. While there is little which will be new to students of Antietam, it ought to find a spot the shelves of anyone with an interest in this battle.
Reviewer John Foskett is a practicing attorney in Boston with a life-long interest in the Civi War. He is descended from Isaac Foskett, who served for three years in the Army of the Potomac Engineer Battalion. In addition to numerous CWN reviews of books covering a variety of Civil War topics, he has done a Civil War Round table presentation about Civil War field artillery tactics.
A Confederate Biography: The Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah. By Dwight Sturtevant Hughes. Illustrated, map, photos, notes, bibliography, index, 240 pp., 2015, U.S. Naval In-
As Confederate Admiral (and brigadier general) Raphael Semmes stated in his Memoirs of Service Afloat: “The cruise of a ship is a biography. The ship becomes a personification. She not only ‘walks the waters like a thing of life.’ But she speaks in mov ing accents to those capable of inter preting her. But her interpreter must be a seaman, and not a landsman.” Dwight Hughes restates this quote in his introduction as he uses the words of the officers and others who were aboard the CSS Shenandoah to describe the vessel and its cruise. H uses other primary sources as well, such as contemporary newspaper accounts of the vessel’s visit to Melbourne, Australia. The CSS Shenandoah is noted in Civil War history for being the only Confederate ship to sail around the world and for firing the last shot of the Civil War. The last shot was fire north of the Arctic Circle at the end of June 1865 shortly after Gen. Stand Watie had surrendered in Indian CSS Shenandoah in dry dock in William 1865.
Territory. Originally the UK-flagged Sea King, the CSS Shenandoah was an auxiliary screw steamer — a sailing vessel with a steam engine for use when sails weren’t effective or for maneuvering. She was commissioned into the Confederate Navy off Madeira and never saw a Confederate port. After learning of the Confederacy’s surre der from a passing British vessel i August 1865, she was demilitarized, set course for Liverpool, England, and arrived there Nov. 6, 1865. She never surrendered but was turned over to the British government while her crew of Southern-born officers and a polyglot of mixed nationalities, including Hawaiians, were allowed to go their separate ways. The Shenandoah’s officers were a mixed lot, former U.S. Navy regulars and wartime-only officers from most of the Confederate states. The were officers who had trained under sail solely on the high seas and of ficers who had trained on ironclad steam gunboats fit only for inland and sheltered waters. The differences in their trainin experiences and attitudes shaped the way they viewed the cruise, the Shenandoah, and her captain — and thus the correspondence and diaries they left for posterity. As author describes it: “This volume is ... a biography of a cruise and a microcosm of the ConfederateAmerican experience.” This is an interesting, well-wri book. Although the CSS Shenandoah’s story is well known, Hughes’s book provides additional insight in the cruise and the crew. It is high recommended.
Reviewer Joseph A. Derie is a VMI graduate and a longtime Civil War buff and military book reviewer. A retired Coast Guard officer and Merchant Marine licensed officer, he is a Certified Marine Investigator and marine surveyor.
n, Victoria, Australia, (U.S. Naval Historical Center)
The Terrible Indian Wars of the West: A History from the Whitman Massacre to Wounded Knee,
trated, timeline, map, photos, note bibliography, index, 292 pp., 2016,
It may seem odd to be doing a re view of a book on the Indian Wars Civil War generals cut their eye te in the Indian wars of the West. Oth officers gained their combat experi ence in the Civil War and used that experience fighting the Indians. This book covers a 40-year period, throughout the area west of the Mississippi, so a timeline is i cluded, which is much appreciated. It would be hard to keep the dates straight without this aid. The caus es of the Indian troubles are repet tive throughout this volume, mainly white expansion. Keenan divides the history by ge graphic area, starting with the Pac Northwest. This covers the Cayuse War (and the Whitman massacre), the Rogue River Wars and the Yakima and Coastal Wars. Next, he covers California and Nevada. This includes the Mariposa
Paiute War, the Owens Valley War and the War with the Northern Pai-
utes. This war brought Gen. George Crook to the fore, directly after fi ing in the War Between the States. Finally, there was the Modoc War, with Captain Jack. New Mexico is next up, with the Navajo wars and Christopher “Kit” Carson. Following this is the Centra Plains with the Grattan Massacre in 1853 and Col. Edwin Vose “Bull” Sumner’s campaign against the Cheyenne. Col. John Milton Chivington took the United States position against the Indians a lot farth than planned by the U.S. government with the Sand Creek Massacre. After the Civil War, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock took the field. A major battle during this era was the Battle o Beecher Island. The Southern Plains next took the spotlight with Quanah Parker coming to the fore. The Comanche Indians were masters of the Plains, the premier light horse cavalry. The horse herds were the largest and the raids the longest; the “Comanche Moon” was feared throughout Texas. Coming next are Iowa, Minnesota and the Northern Plains, starting with war with the Arickaras. In the summer of 1862, the Minnesota Santee Sioux uprising began. This went on into 1864, carried into the Dakot Territory. In 1866, troubles with th Teton Lakota began, with the Red Cloud War; the Fetterman disaster led to the closing of Fort Kearney and the other forts on the Bozeman Trail. This was the only war won by the Native Americans. However, the peace was shortlived. In 1874, Lt.-Col. George Armstrong Custer conducted an expedition into the Black Hills. When gold was discovered there, the Great Sioux War was the inevitable outcome. Two great Indian leaders emerged, Sitting Bull and Crazy
were fought against the Lakota, the Cheyenne and the Arapaho in June 1876: the Battle of the Rosebud and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The end of the war and the death of Crazy Horse did not end the strif on the Northern Plains. The flight o the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph, was followed immediately by the flight of the Northern Cheyennes, under Dull Knife, from their reserva tion in Oklahoma. The Intermountain West was home to the Utes and Bannacks, and both tribes rose up against the U.S. government in 1878 and 1879. The final region Jerry Keenan examines is the Desert Southwest, home of the Apaches. This area saw the Apache leaders Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, Victorio and Geronimo facing off against Gens. Crook and Oliver O. Howard, along with Col. Nelson Miles. Acting as mediator, often uninvited, was Thomas Jonathan Jeffords, who probably knew the Apaches better than anyone. As you can see from this review, this volume covers a lot of ground and a lot of years. I enjoyed it a l but wish it contained many more maps. A better editing job also woul have been helped. There are many sentences with extra or missing words and the punctuation (especially the use of commas) is atrocious. Still, I recommend this book to anyone desiring a better grasp of the terrible Indian wars of the West Also, Civil War buffs will get a kic out of seeing the pre- and post-Civi War careers of some great Union and Confederate officers.
Reviewer Robert L. Durham spent most of his career at the Defense Logistics Agency. He has written book reviews and articles for numerous historical blogs and publications.
20th Iowa Veteran Remembers War First Campaigns of the 20th Iowa Infantry with Personal Reminis-
cences of the War. By J.D. Barnes. Edited by M. Lawrence Shannon. Photos, notes, roster, bibliography, index, 354 pp., 2016, Camp Pope
Like many published collections of Civil War soldiers’ writings, Campaigns of the 20th Iowa Infantry began with a serendipitous discovery that turned into a labor of love. The sorts of troves are often found in an old box in the attic, but in this cas the treasure was located on reels of microfilmed newspapers at a county historical society. In 2000, M. Lawrence Shannon discovered a series of 66 newspaper articles that had been written by Joseph D. Barnes of the 20th Iowa. Shannon was interested in the 20th because he had an ancestor who had fought in the same company as Barnes. He and his wife Pauline transcribed the reminiscences which had appeared in the Port Byron (Ill.) Globe in 1887 and 1888. Unfortunately, Shannon did not live
With new revelations ba documentation, Slaught comprehensive treatment yet written, as powerf compelling in its mo
to see the publication of this book, but his widow brought the project to
completion. The stories in this book were tol by a veteran more than 20 years afte the war. Barnes wanted his readers t see “the unwritten part” of the war by showing them the “sufferings and hardships” of ordinary soldiers. Only a veteran who had seen combat firsthand, he maintained, could “write a true, full and complete his ry of the war in all its bloody deta Toward that end, Barnes vividly described the experiences of soldiers, including the terrible scenes that came after battle. Readers will not spared from hogs devouring human corpses or the sad ordeal of women scouring battlefields for loved ones Barnes experienced a “hardening” process early in his enlistment and claimed that gruesome battlefield scenes now “seemed to have little or no effect upon me.” Still, he had not become completely insensitive to pain and suffering. “The dead march and sick call was the only music we heard,” he wrote when discussing the many men who died of fever and dysentery during the Vicksburg campaign. “And today whenever I hear the squeak of a fife, it brings back sad recollections to my memory, and I hate the martial-music.” Barnes recounted minor engagements in Missouri, Arkansas and Alabama, as well as major events, such as the siege of Vicksburg. His prose is often lively and engaging, and hi stories can be entertaining. He remembered being confused when the men of a seasoned regiment threw their playing cards on the ground before an engagement, but soon he realized that the soldie would “rather be found dead with a testament in his pantaloon pockets than a euchre-deck.” Not all of the reminiscences are full of blood and gore. In one entry Barnes recounted his childhood
ry-source s the most zra Church ions as it is ails.
friendship with Buffalo Bill Cody, while in another he claimed to have
overheard Wild Bill Hickok tell the story of his infamous killing of David McCanles. (I discovered that much of the dialogue from the Hickok story was lifted from an 1867 Harper’s Magazine article.) In several places Barnes recounts well-known aspects of the war that he did not experience firsthand. These are the book’s least interesti chapters. Discussion of politics is rare, but when it appears it is revealing. Barnes believed that conservative Republicans and Douglas Democrats “did the best fighting.” He said that unlike abolitionists and fire-eaters, “the conservative man . . . went because he thought it was his duty to go. He was the man that could be relied upon” and who “had the moral courage to withstand the shock of battle.” Barnes cast his first ballot in 1864, voting for Lincoln’s reelectio despite the fact that he “was born and bred a Democrat.” He voted for Lincoln because “I considered it would be detrimental to the Union cause to have a change in the administration at that time, as the war was progressing finely” in November 1864. Equally revealing, he thought the Democratic nominee George B. McClellan was “a good man and true to the Union cause,” but he could not vote for “the party he represents.” (The Democrats had taken a strong antiwar position at their convention that year, calling the war a “failur in their national platform.) For all of the suffering he saw, Barnes was sorry to see it all come to an end in 1865. “I soon longed to be back in the army,” he wrote, “and I became gloomy and sad.” He had “entered the army a boy and was mustered out a man.” The war, in short, was the turning point of his life. Campaigns of the 20th Iowa is in
desperate need of annotation. The editor titled the chapters, “Part 1, “Part 2” and so forth up to “Part 66 More descriptive titles would have better guided readers through the book. The biographical sketch of the au thor, which appears at the end of th volume, should have been at the beginning, and also should have incorporated information from Barnes’s pension, military service and regimental records at the National Archives. A brief explanation of the 20th’s movements also would have been helpful. Nevertheless, Campaigns of the 20th Iowa Infantry is engaging read-
terest in the Trans-Mississippi Theater or those who want to study how soldiers remembered the Civil War.
Jonathan W. White is associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University. He is the author of Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep and Dreams during the Civil War, which will be published by UNC Press in 2017.
CS Soldier Clothes, Stories The Soldier’s Words: FirstHand Accounts of What Confederate Soldiers Actually Wore & Interesting Anecdotes Of the Civil War Years. Compiled by Kenn Woods. Letters, recollections, diary excerpts, block quotes from secondary sources, author’s commentary and observations,
Kenn Woods, as a Confederate reenactor, began this massive project to discover how the soldiers dressed what they ate, and how disease and battle affected their lives. Designe for use in the Confederate reenactin community, for his book he scoured an impressive amount of primary and secondary sources to accomplish his objective and, to a large degree he admirably succeeds. Woods divides the chapters by
each into accounts from the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi theaters of war. He also includes tw
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chapters on the Navy and POWs. He conscientiously introduces each block quote with a source citation and, in some instances, he inserts his personal observations in italic following quotations. I have never seen so many specif references to Confederate uniforms and equipage as I have in this book He found citations about Black Confederates, men using old New York Times newspapers for ground sheets, and stealing uniforms from dead Federal soldiers. This would be a tremendous resource for the Civil War student wh has the patience to wade through th voluminous collection of anecdotes, letters, and recollections were it for the organizational and editorial flaws. The work is not indexed, which makes it very difficult to us There is no bibliography. On every page, with every block quote, the a thor cites his sources in bold prin but they are replete with improper omitted punctuation, spelling error and incomplete publication dates. Woods has done an admirable job compiling the information in this book. Anyone looking at it could te he invested a tremendous amount of time, money, and love into this wor Like so many first-time authors, he needed the help of a demanding editor.
Reviewer John Michael Priest retired from teaching in 2011 after serving 30.5 years. He is a guide at Antietam. He has published four Civil War books and is an avid 54mm wargamer — French and Indian War through the U.S. Civil War.
ited books will be assigned for rev ewed books to libraries, her suitable repositories.