The Nashville and Decatur Railroad in the Civil War: History of an Embattled Railroad. By Walter R. Green, Jr. Endnotes, bibliography, ind appendices, tables, illustratio photographs, maps. 256 pp., 2022. McFarland & Co., Inc.
Walter Green is a civil and structural engineer (retired) w lives in Franklin, Tenn. During
the Civil War an important rail line ran from Nashville through the author’s hometown and southward to the north Alabama town of Decatur, where it joine the Memphis and Charleston. The story of the Nashville a Decatur is interesting and one that Mr. Green tells capably. T line was finished soon before t war and was operated by three cooperating railroad companies. The N&D, like other railroads, was “both a tool and a target,” the author phrases it. Dependin on where the armies were as they advanced and retreated, the railroad was a vital asset to be used or an enemy target to be destroyed. As the armies
moved frequently, there was lot of construction, destruction, r
construction, and re-destructio The Confederates wrecked the line as they moved south after
evacuating Nashville in early 1862. Thereafter, it was mostly
the Federals who were using the line and working to keep it in repair, while the Confederates
its use to the enemy. The book tells the story of t war in this theater and connects it to the broader conflict, with focus remaining on the railroad itself. There are lessons on how to build and defend a railroad and how best to tear it up. The engineer/author instructs the reader about bridges and trestle (there is a difference) and also about blockhouses and stockades (again, there is a difference). reader learns about the troops who manned the defensive works and the men who put the pieces back together after raids led by Earl Van Dorn and Nathan Bedford Forrest. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the chapter on John Bell Hood’s retreat afte the disastrous Battle of Nashvil What was left of the Army of Tennessee scrambled to get acros numerous rivers and creeks and just barely managed to say ahead
of the pursuing Federals. Here Mr. Green offers lessons in how to build pontoon bridges and use
fords to cross flowing streams, as the railroad itself was out o commission at this time.
The appendices provide much information to supplement the main narrative; the maps by Hal Jesperson are excellent; and thr tables offer minute details abou all the structures used to cross the streams and the defenses to protect them. Readers will notice a few minor errors and some will from time to time think “Too Much Information.” However, Mr. Green has provided a valuable focus on an aspect of the Civil War that is often covered only cursorily.
Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyi living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta
Civil War Round Table and the author of Georgia’s Confederate
Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Hagler
speaks frequently on this topic and others related to different
aspects of the Civil War and has been a regular contributor to CWN\ since 2016. His email is
Erin Irish American Civil War Songs- Identity, Loyalty and
Nationhood. By Catherine V. Bateson. Photos, Illustrations, Bibliography, Endnotes, Index.
“American” folk music can be traced back to Ireland and are actually Americanized versions of Irish folk music. This was v true of many of the songs Civil
War soldiers sang while they marched or civilians heard at patriotic rallies. A good example is The Bonnie Blue Flag, one of the most popu songs of the Confederacy, whose music comes from The Irish Jaunting Car. (The music was also used for another Confedera tune The Homespun Dress) Dr. Catherine V. Bateson, an Associate Lecturer in American history at England’s University of Kent, has analyzed close to 150 songs and lyric sheets devoted to the Irish-American military experience during the American Civil War. In doing so she examines not only their wartime experience but also the
immigrant experience. In the years leading up to
the Civil War, the sheet music publishing industry saw a giant boom, which led to Irish themed
songs or songs that “borrowed” Irish music, to become very
popular. The major publishers of the Irish themed songs, located
primarily in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, were not of Irish descent nor had any direct ties to their local Iris communities. Likewise many of the writers of these songs, wer not Irish themselves either. Fo them, publishing and selling th
songs was simply good business, and business was good.
The book focuses mostly on songs about New York Irish units, most notably the famed 69th New York and the Irish Brigade as well as their commander, Generals Thomas Meaghers and Michael Corcoran. To be fair, the author admits that this is due in part to the large quantity of songs written and published about them, and that very few Irish themed Confederate Civil War songs survive. The song subjects varied, from the heroinism of a particular unit or individual, flags or just plain patriotism. Besides helping to build morale for the war effort, this music helped close the cultural gap between IrishAmericans and the rest of the U.S. population and helped ease prejudices against Irish Catholics. The book would have been
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improved if the author had included more song lyrics and presented original Irish version of the songs and their Civil War counterparts. It would also be useful to have had a website whe readers could go to hear some of the songs mentioned in the book, though this reviewer was able to find some on YouTube. The role of the Irish in the American Civil War is a subject that has yet to be fully explore Dr. Bateson has done a very fine job of bringing to light an important part of Irish-American culture and history.
Tom Elmore is the South Carolina State Historian for the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the descendant of an IrishAmerican Civil War officer. His latest Book “Celtic Columbia” looks at the history of the Iris his hometown of Columbia, S.C.
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Gettysburg’s Southern Front: Opportunity and Failure at Richmond. By Hampton Newsome. Photos, maps, notes, index, 424 pp., 2022. University Press of
One of my favorite wartime images depicts an unidentified Union soldier wearing a four button fatigue blouse and fora cap holding a crudely drawn map of Virginia in his left ha and pointing to Richmond with his right index finger. T photograph, one I oftentimes use in the classroom, conveys simple message: take Richmond and the Union will be preserve Since the Civil War’s end much has been written about efforts to seize Richmond at various points in the conflict, partic the failed 1862 campaigns and in the war’s final year. Scant attention has been given to General John A Dix’s operation to threaten Richmond during the summer of 1863 while the Army of the Potomac chased the Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. Fortunately Hampton Newsome’s latest volume resurrects the story of Dix’s failed effort in this splendidly written and exhaustively researched histor The brainchild of Generalin-Chief Henry Halleck, the “Blackberry Raid,” sometimes
referred to as “Dix’s Peninsula Campaign,” as Newsome cogently argues, “presented a tremendous chance to strike hard at Richmond while Lee’s army was away threatening Pennsylvania.” Throughout the book’s twentytwo chapters Newsome explores debates among war planners in Washington about the merits of launching such a campaign, efforts of Confederate authoriti in Richmond to cobble together a force substantial enough to thwart a Union attack, the capture of Rooney Lee, clashes over how the campaign should be remembered, and effectively describes engagements at such places as Aylett’s Foundry, Crump’s Crossroads, and the bridge that carried the Richmond Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad over the South Anna River. While Newsome’s first-rate history describes movements and engagements with astounding detail, this book offers much more than a recounting of an oft forgotten campaign. Newsome’s study offers important insight into General Dix’s prejudice against African American and the United States Colored Troops. Additionally, this volum provides valuable analysis of the important supportive roles enslaved people played in the operation. Throughout campaign, as the author clearly demonstrates, even although Dix’s effort failed, enslaved people who sought refuge with Dix’s troops provided “crucial intelligence” to Union troops. Additionally, Newsome’s finel crafted history, in keeping with the current historiographic tren to illustrate the environment’s impact on military operations, provides a critical analysis of role weather conditions played. Stifling heat and oppressive humidity, coupled with the reali that the majority of troops task with carrying out the campaign, the Union IV and VII Corps, were unaccustomed to hard campaigning, proved disastrous. While Newsome freely admits that “the precise number of men afflicted by the heat is
not known,” the author makes good use of existing evidence to illustrate the toll the excrucia heat had on Union troops and ways in which they attempted to cope with it. Newsome’s history offers a useful reminder that an engagement’s popularity or statistical toll ought not to be the only factors by which a fight’s impact is assessed. For instance, in the author’s excellent discussion of the figh at Crump’s Crossroads on July 2, 1863, Newsome effectively uses primary material to not onl recount the clash between Union troops commanded by General Erasmus Keys and Confederates from General D.H. Hill’s command but to demonstrate combat’s ferocity regardless of the number of men involved. To the troops engaged, particularly the wounded or to families who lost a loved one, the clash at Crump’s Crossroads, as the author rightfully claims, “was a harrowing as any other.” This study’s value extends beyond its important connections to the Gettysburg Campaign. While those seeking a broader understanding of the Army of Northern Virginia’s invasion into Pennsylvania and the Union efforts to stop it will fi Newsome’s smartly crafted book essential, anyone desirous of deepening their knowledge about the roles African Americans played in Civil War operations, interactions between civilians a the military, or the environment impact on troops will find Newsome’s study of great worth.
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.
A Small Fight and Quickly Forgotten Six Miles from Charleston, Five Minutes from Hell: The
Battle of Secessionville, June 16, 1862. By James A. Morgan. Maps, photographs, appendices, 192 pp., 2022. Savas Beatie,
Savas Beatie has published over 60 books in its Emerging Civil War Series. More are to b released this year, which marks series’ tenth anniversary. Unde series editor Chris Mackowski, these works are advertised as offering “compelling, easy-toread overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important battles and stories.” In the book under review, aut James Morgan tells the story of the 1862 Battle of Secessionvil on James Island, just across th Ashley River from Charleston. Morgan tells us that the fight was small, and soon forgotten, but that doesn’t mean the story unimportant or uninteresting. James Island was, or could have been, the back door to the well-defended South Carolina port. The Federals tried and fa to drive the Confederates from the island and gain a favorable position across the river from Charleston. The Federals had a larger infantry force than their foe and better artillery. addition, with naval superiorit the Federals could place their land forces where they wanted, when they wanted, and back them up with the ships’ big gun One may think that this capabil would give the Yankees a big advantage, if not an insuperabl one. However, the army commanders did not get along
with their naval counterparts o with each other. The department
commander, Brig. Gen. David Hunter, was oddly uninterested
in the campaign and left almost everything to Brig. Gen. Henry Benham, an officer of uncertain abilities. The Confederates also had some leadership issues. Among other problems, Maj. Gen. John Pemberton was distrusted by civilian leaders and his subordinate commanders. In addition, Pemberton was ordered to transfer a significant part of his force to Virginia, where the Federals were threatening the Confederate capital. The author does a good job explaining the military situation in 1862 and describing the action in the runup to the June 16 assault. Although eight maps help the reader understand the terrain and follow the action, the level of detail will still be challenge for some. There are modern photographs of various sites on James Island, but these contribute little to the reader’s understanding. Morgan includes a paragraph or two on many officers involved, useful especially for the lesserknown figures. Some readers will have trouble keeping up with the many minor characters who pop into and out of the story especially as the book has no index. The author relies on and quotes a number of primary and secondary sources but there are no citations and no bibliography. Appendices contain a battlefield guide and the story of two brothers who fought on opposite sides. Notwithstanding the problems at the command level, when the attack came the soldiers on both sides fought with skill and determination. Morgan’s description of the June 16 action excellent. It was a close run thi but the Confederates repelled three assaults against their key position, the Tower Battery. The Federals were forced to withdraw, suffering 683 total casualties ou of about 3,400 engaged. The Confederate defenders lost 204 of approximately 1,275.
Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyis living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civ War Round Table and the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Na published by Mercer Univer
Press in 2014. Hagler sp frequently on this topic and othe
related to different aspects of t Civil War and has been a regular
