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Lieutenant General James Longstreet: Innovative Military Strategist. By F. Gregory Toret Illustrated, notes, bibliograph Casemate Publishers, 2022, 241
Recent scholarship placed General James Longstreet among Civil War generals who tried to fight a modern war. His adaptiv thinking took into account the impact of the rifled musket and cannon, the destructive power of the Minie ball, the use of r transportation to effectively employ interior lines, and his using tactical defensive tactic to counteract the Northern numerical superiority manpower and equipme He was analytical, subtle, and deliberate in his calculations ever concerned with the needles loss of manpower in frontal assaults, manpower that the South could not replace. This study spans the years 1 1864 to focus on how General Longstreet’s tactical maneuvers could have benefitted the Confederate army at Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Knoxville, and the Wilderness. Voluminous excerpts from the writings of Generals Edward Alexander, G. Moxley
our readers with timely icant Civil War research and
Sorrel, and James Taylor show Longstreet strategically wanted to conserve precious resources while demoralizing Federal forces, increasing dissatisfactio with the Lincoln administration, and prolonging the war until a negotiated peace could be obtained. Unfortunately, he was frequently ignored by President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and General Braxton Bragg who clung to Napoleonic tactics that ignored contemporary technology. The result was the draining of Southern troops in needless slaughter. The author speculates that Longstreet was never given credit for all he achieved on the battlefield because he was not a Virginian, had incurred the wrath of President Davis, and aligned himself with the Republican Party after the war. This book is one of several new publications coming to market that attempt to rectify this omission. This book is historically accurate with voluminous excerpts. These extensiv excerpts could be abbreviated to make the same point increasing the book’s readability and giving the author additional space for analysis. The maps that appear in the text are too small to be o any material value for the reader Aside from these limitations, the book gives a comprehensive analysis of Longstreet’s strategy and is recommended for historians wishing to give credit where credit is due.
Dr. Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous Civil War books and articles including Two Years Before the Paddlewheel, Heroes and Rogues of the Civil War, and the Last Confederate Scout. He is past president of the LincolnDavis Civil War Roundtable and frequently gives talks on the common soldier in the Civil War.
An Essential Collection of Union Veterans’ Writings The Left-Armed Corps: Writings by Amputee Civil War Veterans. Edited by Allison M. Johnson. Photos, notes, index 416 pp., 2022. Louisiana State
In the summer of 1865 newspapers across the United States announced William Oland Bourne’s penmanship contest for Union veterans who “have lost their right arms, or whose right arm is so disabled that they can write with it.” Bourne, a chapla who worked at New York’s Central Park Hospital during the conflict and published The Soldier’s Friend, believed that these “left-armed soldiers” coul only “fit themselves for lucrati and honorable positions” after the conflict if they learned how to effectively use their lef hand. The contest promised a financial reward to top entrants an exhibition, and “publication of a memorial volume” if the exhibition generated enough proceeds. Regrettably, Bourne’s dream of a published volume never materialized. For a century-and-a-half the more than 300 essays Bourne received from the contest in 1865, and a secon one two years later, resided in obscurity in the Library of Congress. Fortunately, Allison Johnson, an English professor at San José State University, ha rescued these important voices. While Johnson offers a superb introduction detailing Bourne’s effort, contest rules, provides brief biographies of each entran and appropriately annotates each essay, Johnson does not overburden the volume with extraneous material and allows the veterans’ submissions to remain the book’s focal point. Central to many submissions
are detailed descriptions of the soldier’s wounding and hospital experiences. For exampl Heman Rockwood, a private in the 106th New York Volunteer Infantry wounded at the Third Battle of Winchester, vividly described the “sound of a single shell as it came howling through the air,” his subsequent wound, experiences in a field hospital, and transport to Philadelphia.
Other entrants went beyond basic descriptions of their experience and offered insight
into how veterans believed the loss of their right arm served as a visible reminder of their patriotism. William Kipling, an English immigrant who arrived in New York in 1861, served in the 3rd United States Artillery, and was wounded at Battery Wagner in the summer of 1863, expressed pride that he lost his “once dear right hand” in the fight “for the Union.” While many veterans offered patriotic reflections such as Kipling’s, not all did. Sergeant Thomas Perrine, a 140th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantryman wounded at Chancellorsville, submitted, did a contingent of other vetera a poem. Perrine’s “Sinistra Manu Scripta” offers a sorrowful lame about how the loss of his right arm ended the relationship with his girlfriend. This volume’s importance, however, extends significantly beyond grisly descriptions of wounds, hospital experiences, and reflections on how the loss a right arm forever altered life course. Some essays highlight the important roles African Americans played in aiding Union soldiers. Elisha Wise, a veteran of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, wrote a detailed description of how an unidentified African American woman and her husband provided him food after he was captured at the Second Battle of Bull Run and aided him to escape his Confederate captors. Wise’s
submission, one which I believe is among the most compelling in the volume, also offers insight into the strength of Unionist sentiment in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Submissions to Bourn contest offered some veterans an outlet to express their opinions
about various political matters in the conflict’s aftermath. Ezr Dayton Hilts,1st New York
Volunteer Light Artillery, who lost his right arm at Williamsbu Va., explained that he did not support immediate pardons for Confederates after the Civil War’s conclusion and instead wanted them to “first kneel in t dust of humiliation and show by their deeds that they sincerely repent.” Others such as Private Henry Krahl, 13th United States Infantry, wounded at Arkansas Post in 1863, vehemently argued for full citizenship rights for African Americans. The wide array of experiences perspectives, and reflections expressed by the veterans in Bourne’s contest make this an important compilation of primary sources. Johnson’s masterfully edited volume is essential for anyone interested in war’s tragi toll on the human body and those seeking a deeper understanding of what Union vete thought about a wide array of topics including patriotism, politics, pensions, the Union’s restorations, and citizenship.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah Universit McCormick Civil War Institute in Winchester, Virginia, a professo in Civil War Era Studies at Shenandoah University, and founding editor of Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era. He is the author or editor of fifteen book including most recently Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, published by the University Press of Florida.
The author of this publication portrays it as a “pictorial hist of Jefferson Davis from his birt
his family, wartime experiences, political life, Secretary of War his presidency, his capture and imprisonment, and his death
y of Jefferson Davis and legacy.” Stan Cohen’s objective is to present to “the reader a comprehensive look at one of American history’s most interesting and productive individuals.” In fact, Cohen has together a remarkable collection of visual aids to illustrate the and accomplishments of a man who qualifies as one of the most controversial in U.S. history. Jefferson Davis, in his nearl 90 years on the world’s stage, proved to be a talented, devoted and energetic performer in a wide variety of significant role In fourteen chapters, this study represents Davis as a cadet, military officer, cabinet member congressional representat senator, president, prisoner of war, and elder statesman. Cohen has chosen to devote several pages of vi representations of each stage of
Jefferson Davis’s life and caree an effective way to permit the
reader/viewer to follow along as they unfold. For example,
included are various images of Davis in his role as president
of the Confederate States of America, as well as pertinent flyers, posters, maps, notices, photographs, including Davis’s
cabinet members and military leaders, pertinent newspaper articles, personal residences in Montgomery, Ala., and Richmond, Va., along with their architectural drawings and interio furnishings. In addition, there ar marble busts of key players in the Davis administration, historical statues, and structures that playe important roles during Davis’s administration, including St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the Virginia State Capitol. Cohen devotes a chapter to Davis’s vice-president, th enigmatic Alexander Stephens, and multiple chapters deal with the Civil War period, as well as Davis’s eventual imprisonment. A separate chapter covers Davis’s time spent in retirement at Beauvoir in Biloxi, Miss.
Throughout this illustrated history of the life and times
of Jefferson Davis, the author places the reader at the scene and provides appropriat descriptive narrative. Although
this publication is not intended a an analytical history, it does whe
the appetite for further knowledge about Jefferson Davis, and those who played important roles in his life. PEPER BATTLEFIELDS & HISTORIC SITES t preserved battlefields. Discover
A selected bibliograp provides sources to pursue furth the life and times of Jefferson Davis, including William J. Cooper Jr.’s Jefferson Davis, American, and Jefferson Davis, The Man and the Hour by William C. Davis. Other recommendations include Jefferson Davis’s twovolume autobiography titled The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, and Varina Howell Davis’s biography of her husband, Jefferson Davis, ExPresident of the Confederate States of America. In effect, this pictorial hist offers an opportunity to observe Jefferson Davis in a variety of roles during his productive, as well as more controversial, year
“Following in the Footsteps of Jefferson Davis” is heartily recommended. It serves as a reminder of the reservoir of knowledge still waiting to be discovered.
Thomas J. Ryan is the former president of the Centr Delaware Civil War Round Table, and author of the award-winning ‘Lee is Trapped and Must Be Taken’: Eleven Fateful Days after Gettysburg, July 4-14, 18 with co-author Rick Schaus, and Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign: How the Critical Role of Intelligen Impacted the Outcome of Lee’s Invasion of the North, June-Jul 1863.
A Union Indivisible – Secession and the Politics of Slavery in the Border South, by Michael D. Robinson. 2017, Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press. 294 pp.,
It has often been said that Kentucky left the Union in 1866 to join the Confederacy. Why this came about is laid out in some detail in this book. While the author examines the politic and social turmoil that buffere four of the five Border States, Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware during the winter of 1860–1861, much of his focus deals with Kentucky and Senator John J. Crittenden of Frankfort Kentucky. All four Border State were slave states, that is, sla was legal within their borders. Two of the three largest slave owning cities were in the borde states, Baltimore and Louisvill However, all four states chose remain in the Union. The author’s premise is that Border States saw the existing Federal government as the best guarantee to preserving the institution of slavery. To them
the United States Constitution protected their rights to own slaves and these rights were guaranteed by numerous federal laws that further bolstered the rights of slave owners. Lincoln they held, might have been elected president on a platform non-expansion of slavery, but t slave owning states controlled Congress. Therefore, Lincoln an his supporters were powerless t make any significant changes in the laws governing slavery. The Border State Unionists, however, were divided into two camps, unconditional and conditional. The unconditional Unionists supported any war effort by the Federal governmen to preserve the Union, while the conditional Unioni fought to preserve the Union as they understood it to exist on the day before Lincoln was elected president. The Kentucky Unionist who served in the U.S. Congress during the Civil War owned more slaves than the Kentucky Secessionist serving i the Confederate Congress. Front and center in this stor were the efforts of Senator Joh J. Crittenden to preserve the Union. Just as Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky had negotiated compromises that ended various slavery based secession crises during the 1840s and 1850s, Senator Crittenden sought to orchestrate such a compromise during the winter of 1860 and 1861. That he was unable to fin common ground for compromise was due to the fact that the ti for compromise had passed. Crittenden, when he was unable to draft a compromise satisfyin majority in Congress, moved for calling a public meeting hosted by the states to find common ground to avoid war. Yet while this move for public meetings generated a lot of positive
comments, it also failed to halt the drift to war. With his hope for a compromise settlement in ruins, Crittenden, in July 1861, introduced into Congress a War Resolution Act that did not hint any change in the Federal slavery policy. Its passage strengthened the Unionist hold in the Border States, but its noble sentiments were soon forgotten as fighting broke out and confiscation of property held by those in rebelli became the policy of the Federal government. The heart of the book is how t Border States during the 1860/61 secession crisis were pulled in t directions. They are slave owning states with ties to the south. bu they also have strong economic, transportation, and social ties with the free states. Emotion and reason pull the Border States’ Conditional Unionist this way and that, as the situation around them constantly changes in a flui war time environment. The firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s call for volunteers to put down the secession movement are tipping points in turning a Conditional Unionist into a Secessionist or Unconditional Unionist. There will be other tipping points during the course of the war, the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the passage of the 13th Amendment ending slavery were the two greatest tipping points in turning the Conditional Unionist into a Secessionist or Unconditional Unionist. Delaware did not ratify the 13th Amendment until 1902; Kentucky only did so in 1976. The book ends with twelve tables. These tables need to be studied and reflected upon as the provide a numerical insight into the economic and social makeup of the Border States and show the differences and similarities they shared with their northern and southern neighbors. This book will stand the test of time and is a must read to understand why the Border States acted the way they did in 1861 and then in 1866. The margin between the Border States remaining in the Union or leaving
Charles H. Bogart has a BA from Thomas More University and an
MCP from Ohio State University. He is a tour guide at Fort Boone Civil War Battle Site in Frankfor Ky., served as President of the Frankfort Civil War Roundtable, and is a board member of the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable. He has written several books and articles on Civil War history
Count the Dead: Coroners, Quants, and the Birth of Death as We Know It. By Robert W. Black, University of North Carolina Press, 140 pp. ISBN-10-
Count the Dead: Coroners, Quants, and the Birth of Death as We Know, by Stephen Berry, may not initially seem like a Civil W book. According to the author, “This is a book about death and data...” but it quickly gets into an easily-understood discussion about the importance of data to state and national politics. From the mortality census of 1850, breakthroughs in disease classification, diagnosti and vital statistics allowed the government to count the dead and put them back into the workforce as data. By learning when citizen died and from what, government health initiatives doub Americans’ lifespans from 1850 to 1950. It is one of the signifi reasons historians know more soldiers died from disease than from battlefield injuries during the Civil War. Between 1861–1865, the U. S. military began to develop its now-highly-effective proc for notifying families of deaths, returning corpses, and keeping a record of who died while under its care. However, until the dead began to be counted, they did not “count.” As a result, at the beginning of the war, there was n idea that the federal government was responsible for the men who fought, especially after they die It was not until the end of the war and the National Cemetery movement, combined families who scoured battlefields and hospitals looking for their loved ones, that the importance of counting the dead was realized and acted upon. The most critical aspect of counting the dead comes when the dead are identified by name: “. . . died from the whipping
given her by William Tuggle,” is what a coroner in the antebellum South wrote concerning the incident involving Jeny, a slave
(xvii). Author Berry suggests that, because there is no statute of limitations on murder, relisti Jeny’s fate as, “In 1786, the enslaved woman Jeny was murdered by William Tuggle.” The casualty list was the Civi War’s first attempt to identify dead soldiers by name. Printed
in hometown newspapers, these were required reading by every family with a soldier in the army. Clara Barton and Dorence Atwater used Atwater’s list of the dead to identify and reinter the dead of Andersonville. The first memorials to fallen soldier were put up immediately after the war and listed the names of local dead. These memorials included little other ornamentation. The names were honor enough. Readers who have used ancestry. com or FindAGrave to research ancestors will quickly understand (and agree) with author Stephen Berry. Counting the dead is mightily important in any era. Hi book shows how a metaverse of coroners, court officials, and st and federal authorities, both pas and present, developed methods to track and identify patterns of dying. Their work turned the dead into informants, allowing them to speak once again. Berry’s subject matter may be serious, but his writing style is thoroughly enjoyable. He includes quotes from other books, brief histories of pertinent poin and a clever smattering of poetry among the prose. For example, one chapter concerning the Civil War ends with an excerpt from Herman Melville. It concerns the reading of the casualty list in t local paper: The death-list like a river fl Down the pale sheet, And there the whelming waters meet. Counting the Dead: Coroners, Quants, and the Birth of Death as We Know It is relatively short but its words and images are powerful. Anyone interested in nineteenth-century America cemeteries, monuments, and memory would be well advised to add this book to their collection
Meg Groeling received her Master’s degree in Military History, with a Civil War emphasis, in 2016, from American Public University. Savas Beatie published her first
book, The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead, in the fall of 2015, and she has written First Fallen: The Life of
Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, which Savas Beatie will also publish. In addition, she is a regular contributor to the blog Emerging Civil War. She and her husband live with three cats in a 1927 California bungalow covered with roses on the outside and books on the inside. November 2022
