Demonstrates the Benefits of Comparative History
The Civil War in the Ag Eichhorn & Duncan A. Camp 2024. Louisiana State Uni
In 2013 historian David historians to discuss the America’s defining moment The discussion originated later published in the Ma the Civil War Era, includ
Prior brought benefits and from a global in an online ch 2015 issue d Andre Flech
exploring the Civil War through a global lens reveals how “global events shaped the war and… helped shape the modern world.” While juxtaposing the Civil War against all
that occurred around the world in the same period is indeed a worthwhile endeavor, the challenge is that to understand the conflict in a global sense one needs, as another of Pri panelists, historian Sarah Cornell noted, to understand “th basics of other regions’ histories.” Presenting the Civil W in a global context in a digestible way is a Herculean task
Historians Niels Eichhorn and Duncan Campbell accepted and met that challenge with this thoughtful volume. Eichhorn and Campbell, well-known in academic circles for their global approach to Civil War era history, aim to reveal how what the United States experienced between
state formation” during the nineteenth century. Throughout
this deftly crafted study, the authors reveal that the mome
that defined the Civil War era, secession, emancipation, an
reconstruction, are not unique when examined through the broader lens of nation-state formation during the 1800s. This study further challenges conventional perspectives that the Civil War helped propel “liberalism across the globe.” While the authors rightfully admit that the Civil War’s destruction of slavery and extension of suffrage to black males “initially… advanced the liberal state in America” the authors convincingly argue that the United States could hardly be viewed as a bastion of liberalism when one considers the retreat from those gains following redemption in the former Confederacy. Additionally, this volume challenges the claim that the Civil War was the first modern war, something other historians have argued in recent decades. The authors convincingly assert that when compared to other “major mid-nineteenth-century conflicts” the Civil War shares the distinction, along with the Crimean War and Franco-German War, of introducing “new technology into the military sphere, thus pointing to future developments of industrialized warfare.” Eichhorn’s and Campbell provide important perspectives about how global events influenced and helped leaders justify decisions during the conflict. Particularly notewor is the authors’ discussion of President Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. When viewed from the perspective of “realpolitik” that “political syste that places the need of a country ahead of any questions of morality,” Lincoln’s decision, one for which he was heavily criticized, falls in line with what other leaders, includin Otto von Bismarck, ordered to deal with a constitutional crisis. Although this wonderful study places the Civil War era in a global context the authors freely admit that much work remains, particularly in the study of Reconstruction. While Eichhorn and Campbell reveal how organizations that formed in the former Confederacy after the Civil War to suppress all that Union victory achieved, most notably the Ku Klux Klan, influenced the establishment of similar organizations around the globe, they ponder what influence, if any, other groups formed in the South, had globally. For example, the authors contemplate if Giuseppe Garibaldi’s establishment of the Red Shirts was in any way informed by Wade Hampton’s Red Shirts.
This is an important book that all serious students of Civil War era should read. Placing the Civil War era in a broader global context brings clarity to comprehending wh people made the decisions they did and how what occurred in the United States during the Civil War influenced grou around the world. In short, this remarkable study written two pioneering historians, reminds us of the significance context and perspective when studying the past.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah U niversity ’ s M c C ormick C ivil W ar I nstitute in Winchester, Virginia, a professor 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 sixteen books including most recently “The Blood-Tinted Waters of the Shenandoah,” published by Savas Beatie.
A Fine Opportunity Lost: James Longstreet’s East Tennessee Campaign, November 1863 – April 1864. By Ed Lowe (Colonel, USA, Ret.) Savas Beatie, savasbeatie.
James Longstreet’s career as a Confederate officer has been controversial going back to his decision to embrace the realities of defeat and reconstruction by advocating a conciliatory policy with the victorious North and even joining the Republican party. His acceptance of the “enem coupled with his negative remarks about Robert E. Lee’s generalship, generated animosity if not outright hatred among many Lost Cause writers during the postbellum period, especially forme Confederate
General Jubal Early. For these men and many historians of the conflict, Longstreet became a scapegoat for Confederate defeat. He was especially castigated and ridiculed for his performance at the Battle of Gettysburg. By the late twentieth century, however, several historians sought to rehabilitate Longstreet’s image and salvage his military reputation. Jeffery D. Wert’s James Longstreet: The Confederacy’s Most Controversial Soldier (1994) is a prime example. Because of works such as this, Longstreet’s true personality and military ability emerged. Longstreet was a competent commander, albeit one who lacked the audacity of peers such as Lee and Jonathan Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson in the Army of Northern Virginia. Longstreet’s caution, however, did not mean he was solely defensive-minded or that he feared mass assaults, as he demonstrated with his men at the Battle of Chickamauga. On the contrary, it demonstrated a desire to strike hard only when the probability of success was high. He often chafed under Lee, desiring his own command, and in the Knoxville Campaign, he finally got that opportunity Ed Lowe’s book A Fine Opportunity Lost is an examination of that opportunity. Lowe covers the East Tennessee Campaign from November 1863 to April 1864 when Longstreet returned with his men to Virginia to rejoi Lee’s army. The bulk of the book covers November and December 1863, when the major maneuvers and fighting occurred during the Rebel attempt to capture Knoxville. The Longstreet who emerges from Lowe’s account falls into the modern interpretation. He desired to accomplish much in East Tennessee, but, lacking resources and aggression, he failed. He came close to mauling Burnside’s small force at Campbell’s Station, b never seriously threatened Knoxville. Thus, in the end, he managed to do no more than worry and harass the Federals until he was eventually forced to return to Virginia. Perh the combination of circumstances and caution doomed his campaign from the beginning. As with the majority of titles in the Emerging Civil War Series by Savas Beatie, this slim volume is designed principally as an introduction to a battle or campaign. It offers readers a well-written yet not overly detailed summary of the campaign, explores and places the event in proper historical context, and then presents the readers w extras in the form of appendices. In most volumes, these
appendices offer vignettes of people or places, battlefiel tour information, orders of battle, information on postwar commemorative monuments, etc. This standardized organization of the series ensures that both those unfamil with the historical events and even well-read students of the war will find the books and appendices interesting and informative. Lowe organizes the story of the campaign in eleven short chapters with an epilogue. Along with the text, the chapte are replete with pictures and maps that immediately engage the reader. Also included is an appendix, “Civil War Knoxville and the Loss of Fort Sanders,” by Jim Doncaster, which gives information on the Knoxville historical sites related to the major battle of the campaign. In essence, t works as a self-guided tour. Another short vignette in the appendices by Cecily Nelson Zander, “James Longstreet and the Army of Tennessee’s High Command,” presents a brief overview of Longstreet’s involvement in the longsimmering discontent among General Braxton Bragg’s general officers. Another appendix contains a few pages on “Longstreet and Confederate Strategy,” written by the author. Finally, Lowe includes an order of battle for the campaign and a well thought out suggested reading section. Two books mentioned, Earl Hess’s The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee and Digby Gordon Seymour’s Divided Loyalties: Fort Sanders and the Civil War in East Tennessee, are widely considered the standard works for those who want a more detailed account of the East Tennessee Campaign and the fight for Fort Sanders. In sum, Lowe, a retired colonel in the US army and current professor of history and government, has produced a well-written, engaging account of James Longstreet’s attempt at independent command in East Tennessee. It is an excellent introduction to the subject for those who wish t explore the often overlooked campaign.
John D. Fowler, Ph.D., is the author of several books and articles on the Civil War Era. He is the author of Breaking the Heartland: The Civil War in Georgia. He is currently a Professor of History at Dalton State College.
The Fabric of Civil War Society: Uniforms, Badges and Flags 1859–1939. By Shae Smith Cox. Photographs, notes, bibliography, index, 303 pp. 2024. Louisiana State
In recent years memory of historical events has drawn increasing attention to and publications from historians. These scholarly works have examined how the remembrance of the past has contributed to the understanding and to th shaping of it. This new book offers a different perspectiv on how memory has impacted Civil War history. 68 Civil War News Magazine | May-June 2025
The study explores three main areas as defined by its author, Dr. Shae Smith Cox. Initially, Dr. Cox describes who made and who paid for the uniforms of Union and Confederate soldiers. Secondly, she argues that the unifor “physically and metaphorically” transformed their wearers and influenced those who saw them. Finally, the material objects, the badges and flags, serve as “a lens” which changed them from “practical tools of warfare to symbols of sentimentality.” (p. 2) Chapters 1-4 are devoted to the logistics and sentiments of uniforms, badges, and flags. The author details the gargantuan efforts of the Union and Confederate governments to clothe hundreds of thousands of soldiers during the war years. Each side confronted supply problems of an unprecedented magnitude, but Confederate officials not surprisingly had to overcome greater obstacles. Both Northern and Southern women aided critically in filling th demands. In the author’s judgment, “identity and control were central to Civil War uniforms,” allowing both governments “to exercise dominion and authority,” particularly over black and indigenous troops. (p. 86) Undoubtedly, uniforms gave black and indigenous soldiers a real symbol of manhood and, in their views, an equality with their white comrades. But all members of the armies were required to wear uniforms as it had been in armies from centuries past The author maintains, however, that the uniforms possessed meanings beyond just distinctive clothing. The final chapter devoted to the war years discusses the importance of badges and flags to the soldiery. Union officers and enlisted men took great pride in their corps badges, evidenced particularly by how many of these badges adorned the covers of postwar regimental histories. According to a member of the Army of the Potomac, the rank and file were “devotedly attached to its badges.” (p. 100) Flags of regiments, Union and Confederate, invoked deeper attachment with the men. The author chronicles the early war creation of flags, notably by private groups
composed primarily of women, and the presentation ceremonies of the banners. As students of the conflict wel know, the men’s attachment to their flag resulted from the colors’ importance amid the fury of Civil War combat. The book’s central theme about how uniforms, badges, and flags contributed to shaping the memory of the fouryear conflict is addressed in the final four chapters and brief conclusion. The study covers the years from 1865 to 1939 as associations or organizations created the memory that extends into the twenty-first century. In the postwar North, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and the Women’s Relief Corps (WRC), while in the South, the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) were the instruments of that creation. The author describes these organizations as “memory machines.” The ranks of the WRC and UDC, comprised of women, were critical in the crafting of this memory. Dr. Cox fully describes these decades with divergent interpretations and controversies about how the terrible conflict should be seen and, perhaps more importantly, remembered. The postwar years also brought efforts at reunion between the former enemies, but she asserts that reunions allowed for “amnesia” about the war’s central cause of slavery and emancipation. (p. 213) Unfortunately, the author has a bias against the Lost Cause interpretation of secession and the war, which she describes as “the southern fairytale.” To be sure, the ten of the Lost Cause has been mostly dismissed by modern scholarship, but it may have been helpful if she explained why the South seemed to need an interpretation of those years after it lost perhaps one-third of its adult white m population and witnessed the destruction of its social fabric and economic base. She concludes that in today’s America, purchasers of Confederate uniforms, badges, and flags, symbols of treason and hate in her view, face “ethi quagmires.” (p. 229) The book is well-researched and well-written. Despite certain aspects of its central theme, it provides detailed information about a seldom addressed subject. Jeffry D. Wert is the author of, The Heart of Hell: The Soldiers’ Struggle for Spotsylvania’s Bloody Angle. Hollywood’s Myths Abraham Lincoln & Women in Film-One Hundred Years of Hollywood Mythmaking. By Wetta, Frank J. & Martin A. Novelli. Baton Rouge, La. Louisiana State University Press. 2024. 240 pages, notes, bibliography,
Reviewed by Tom Elmore Abraham Lincoln has been depicted in more films and television shows than any other president in history. So many, that there are books and articles about the men who
portrayed him and how they interpreted one of the most beloved and complicated figures in American history. However, very little has been said about the actresses who played the women in Lincoln’s life until now. Historians Wetta and Novelli, who have written in the past about Hollywood’s take on history, have examined how the ladies in the president’s life have been brought t life on screen. They wisely arrange their book by themes with the first one looking at Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the president’s birth mother and Sarah Bush Johnson, his adored stepmother. Lincoln himself, viewed the former as an angel and the few depictions of her in film and television reflect this view though in reality, not much is known about her. Johnson is generally portrayed (correctly) as a loving woman who sees the potential her stepson had and encouraged his learning. The life of Anne Rutledge, who Lincoln may or may not have been engaged to and/or loved is still something of a mystery which has allowed Hollywood script writers to have free reign over how they showcased her in movies and TV. The authors argue that the modern romantic view can be traced to Carl Sandburg’s popular six-volume biography of Lincoln, which has been a major influences on film and television productions about the president since the books were published between 1926 and 1939,most notably a sixpart mini-series adaptation in 1974. Though Rutledge is no a major part of any bio-pic of the president she is often depicted as the real love of his life and her untimely dea is the reason behind his depression. Also a small chapter is devoted to Mary S. Owens who some claimed Lincoln proposed to after the death of Rutledge. (She said “no.”) Not surprisingly, Mary Todd Lincoln gets the most attention, with one-third of the book devoted to the controversial former First Lady. The authors argue that there are two Marys in both the public and academic mind. One is an overbearing, unpopular, meddling, jealous wife who wears Lincoln down and adds to his depression because he is in a loveless marriage. The good one, a refi
Southern belle, highly educated woman who helps her own ambitions. Consequently, trying to decide who is the real Mary becomes a difficult task. From the 1930s to the 1960s the “bad” Mary graced he screens, then when the feminist movement began, the “good” Mary arrived at the theatres. Mary’s life in Hollywood is broken into three chapters; the first shows how she is depicted before Lincoln ran for president, the second with her life as the First Lady and the third her life as a widow. The authors praise three actresses for their “nuanced” portrayals, Sada Thompson in Sandburg’s Lincoln, Mary Tyler Moore in Gore Vidal’s Lincoln, and Sally Field’s Oscar winning performance in Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln. The book ends with a “Coda” which tries to tie Shirley Temple and Marilynn Monroe to the Lincoln mystique. While interesting, it does not feel that it belongs in the The book is very well researched, with snippets of scrip from the various films cited included, including some part that did not make the final cut. It also includes a filmog of the movies cited in the book. For anyone interested in classic movies or the life of Abraham Lincoln, this is an excellent book to read.
Tom Elmore has contributed articles about Hollywood and the Civil War for the Emerging Civil War website
numerous books and magazine articles about the Civil War.
’Tis not our War: Avoiding Military Service in the Civil War North. By Paul Taylor. Acknowledgments, introduction, notes, bibliography, index, 456 pp, 2024,
’Tis not our War: Avoiding Military Service in the Civil War North tells the story of those persons in the North wh did not want to join the Union Army or Navy and fight in the Civil War, and the individuals and communities that supported them. As part of his thesis, the author points o that “the American Civil War … was hardly the widely popular moral crusade portrayed within much of our collective historical memory.” Statistics indicate that at least 60% of draft age males in the North did not serve. Obviously, some of those who did not serve had conspicuous reasons, such as physical or mental disabilities; others did not wish to serve for reas of pacifism, conscience, or disagreement with the politics the party in power. There were also some who for personal failings (cowardice, selfishness, etc.), just did not want to serve. The few who served versus the many who were available to serve and didn’t, is partly the basis for She 70 Civil War News Magazine | May-June 2025
Foote’s comment that the North fought the Civil War with “one arm tied behind its back.” The book has an excellent final chapter entitled Conclusion: “What’s Past is Prologue.” In it the author discusses avoiding going to war during the Civil War and points out that this is not an anomaly, that there has b a failure to want to go war by individuals in all U.S. w Besides Vietnam, there have been other unpopular wars where a noticeable portion of the population, for exampl the “Tories” who remained loyal to the crown during the War for Independence, joined the British forces. Even in popular wars, such as WWI and WWII, there were persons who did not want to go and found reasons or excuses to avoid service. ’Tis not our War: Avoiding Military Service in the Ci War North is well written, well researched and interesti It will be of especial interest to those with an interes conscription, Civil War politics, the home front and fam life during the Civil War. It is highly recommended. CAPT Joe Derie is a longtime Civil War buff with a special interest in Civil War naval history and the Civi War in the West. He is a retired USCG officer and a licensed officer of the Merchant Marine, currently self-employed as a marine surveyor and marine accident investigator in Portland, OR.
Jargon-filled Account of Federal Occupation of Louisiana
Garden of Ruins: Occupied Louisiana in the Civil War. By J. Matthew Ward. Maps, photographs, endnotes, index, bibliography. 322 pp., 2024. Louisiana University Press,
