The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. By Philip Gerard. Selected sources, bibliograph cal references, illustrations tographs, index, 327 pp., 201 University of North Carolina
story of the Civil War in Nor Carolina, through the eyes of those who lived it”—meaning, through their letters and dia along with communications of commanders on both sides. And that it is. War is personal o levels, and it is not an easy to write as if events were ha pening at the present moment,
as accomplished by this North Carolina author. The Last Battleground is composed in 43 clear and concise vi gnettes as the long journey from secession to surrender. For thos of us who have visited battlefields in Virginia, Pennsylvania North Carolina, and elsewhere, where Tar Heel regiments fought, it can’t help but leave an indel impression. This overview of Civil War North Carolina is told by inhabitants, soldiers, military commanders, blockaders and blockade runners, politicians, desert ers and the deserted, bummers and the bummed out, planters and farmers, and “contraband” (General Butler’s word), fort defenders and attackers, news reporters and editors, medical and religious people, tradesmen and railroaders. It also involve the Old North State’s band of Unionists that the author calls “Jefferson Davis’s worst nightmare come true”—the enemy
make for an ideal read, particularly for North Carolinians in these 327 captivating pages.
Joan Wenner, J.D. is a longtime has a special interest in Civil naval operations and is presentl based in eastern North Carolina.
Saving the American Experiment New Perspectives on the Civil War. Edited by Gary Gallagher and Elizabeth Varon. Illustrations, notes, index, bi ography, 260 pp., 2019. Fordham
Gary W. Gallagher’s excellent book The Union War clearly defined the importance and meaning of Union to Civil War participants. He now unites wit Elizabeth Varon to present eigh essays by noted historians that plain how the fight for the Uni and the destruction of the domestic aristocracy of the South along with the institution of s ery, took on a myriad of opinio among individuals. While seeking to preserve the Union, they exhibited widely diverse politi cal, economic, religious and cu tural differences. Two of these essays stand out for their treatment of
Feel the Passion in Thei Lone Star Valor: Texans of the Blue & Gray at Gettysburg. By Joe Owen. Bibliography, index, 155 pp., 2019. Gettysburg Publishing.
individuals beset by internal con flicts over the meaning of Union, the support for democracy, and the means used to achieve victory. In the first, “Edward Bates and the Disunionist Dangers of Radical Rhetoric,” Jesse GeorgeNichol cogently details how Bates, the conservative icon of Lincoln’s cabinet, tried to moder ate Lincoln’s use of inflammatory phrases which he felt only fueled the fears of Southern secessionists and made compromise more difficult. He was continuously trying to keep Lincoln out of the radical abolitionist camp and
pushing toward a compromise that was the hallmark of antebellum political strategy. He de-
sired to preserve the Union the Founding Fathers designed and avert a fratricidal war. While he was ultimately unsuccessful, his quest illustrated the division in the Republican Party and the nation as a whole on what a united Union should look like. Should Bates have been the Republican nominee in 1860 would Civil War been averted and another compromise fashioned to preserve the Union? Michael T. Caires’ essay on Salmon P. Chase sheds new light on Chase’s vision for the creatio of a national banking system to bind the states together into a stronger, more interdependent Union. National banking became a step toward not only centralizing political and economic control in Washington, but also fostering a sense of nationalism tha would be stronger than prewar states’ rights allowed. Thus the drive to preserve the Union set the rhythm and pulse of political
It is strange to start a revie recalling a running skit done by the late great Steve Allen, but i dawned on me about a third into this book how appropriately it fits. Steve would grab a copy of the newspaper and read the letter to the editor with the passion an anger in which they were written. He would pound the desk and get the audience involved. Once I recalled this running skit, I then started reading the first third again. It seemed to m a whole new experience. I was now visualizing the veterans as they told or wrote these stories. The words jumped out at me with their pain, confusion and feeling of disrespect for their time uniform. The key in this book is that M
economic and cultural thought in the United States until the present. The remaining essays illustrate a wide continuum of perspectives that vividly point out that not al Americans shared in the Lincoln administration’s view on how or why the Civil War was necessary. Political parties were divid ed on the reasons, methods and values the country should stand for. These differences are manifest today in the states’ rights vs. federalism concept of the
Constitution’s meaning, the definition of citizenship, and the judicial battles over civil rights.
Each essay contributes to a better understanding of the wide differences of opinion during the Civil War and in the decades that followed. Each essay included is thought-provoking, well written, and comprehensively annotated. New perspectives from the common soldier, the press, religious leaders, social reformers and politicians add to the understanding of the role each played in saving the Union and forging a lasting reconciliation. Thus it is easy to recommend this volume to the intellectual historian seeking a fresh look at patriotism and senti ment during the Civil War.
Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College in Illinois and past presi dent of the Lincoln-Davis Civil Wa Roundtable. He has written numerous books and articles on the Civi War and is currently seeking diari and letters of common soldiers for a better understanding of the orde they faced during the conflict.
Owen includes men who fought for the North or South in numerous regiments. What ties these men together is that they all settled in Texas after the war. Owen also allows the reader to decide on the validity of the stories on their own, with only a few exceptions. One example is the story told by Howard Diven; the author found no record of his service. Readers will find amazing recollections of the pain of prisoner of war camps, the loss of comrades, and Confederates’ need to figure out why their actions faile at Gettysburg. One can read in their own words the confusion they felt about why they lost the battle. Many “lost cause” items are
H Lone Star . . . . . . . . . . . see page 45
A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War. By James G. Mendez. Notes, index, appendix, 304 pp., 2019. Fordham University Press,
As the topic of the American Civil War opens up to a wider variety of scholarship, more books like James Mendez’s A Great Sacrifice are becoming available. This book is part of the Fordham University Press series “The North’s Civil War.” This collection encompasses the antebellum development and postbellum effects of the war as it affected t homefront and the armies of the North. A Great Sacrifice examines how black soldiers and their families viewed participation in the Civil War. As his sources, Mendez has used letters written primarily by or for northern black women and addressed to both Union military and political officials, including Presiden Lincoln. These women were the mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, and family friends of black men serving in the Union army. This collective voice of those left behind gives readers a look at the issues faced by black families. Most families were small, including a mother, father, and two children. The male parent
was the primary breadwinner, and the loss of his earning power often sent his family into crisis The options available to white families—money saved, other wage earners, available family members to help provide care and support—were rarely available to black families. Dependence on charities, often begun within the black community itself, and state agencies which served all Union soldier families were often the only buffers between a decent existence and starvation. Black families attempted to have access to the rightful wages of the men, but this was difficult. The frustration and humiliation felt in the letters are evident in the pleading and apologizing of the letter-writers. Service as a Union soldier was hard on everyone, but black families left behind faced an almost impossible situation. Their soldiers had little or no pay to sen home, battlefield conditions were more lethal for black soldiers du to Confederate policies, camp conditions were particularly oner ous as white officers routinely a signed the worst camp chores to black soldiers, and there was no chance of any significant promotion opportunity. Most of the let ters sent to the army and the gov ernment from those left behind asked the same question: “where is my soldier?” There was a variety of answers. The constant movement of armies made finding any specific soldier challenging, even though USCT units were often the subjects of newspaper articles. Another common issue was illness and hospitalization. When a soldier was injured and sent to the army hospital, he often became lost in the red tape of the medical system. His fellow soldiers might not know what had happened to their comrade, the soldier might be listed under an incorrect name—a common occurrence when the man had formerly been enslaved and did not care to be found by his owner, or the soldier’s unit might leave
the area permanently without information concerning those left behind. The Union army had difficulty finding “missing” men. Incorrect information often delayed bonuses due, money owed, or pensions for a widow or child, regardless of the soldier’s race. Another issue affecting black families more than white ones was the enlistment periods of many men. Since black soldiers did not enlist until 1863, their tour of duty often did not end when the war itself ended. Many black soldiers were kept in the army to serve as occupation troops in the South. Others were sent west to deal with the implementation of policies concerning Native Americans. Many ended up in Texas doing a little bit of both. It was remarkably difficult for black families to see white soldiers returning home in significant numbers while their men still served. By the end of 1865, however, all twenty-six northern black regiments were mustered out of service and could return home. This period of sacrifice by black families deserves inclusion when the story of the Union war effort is told. The soldiers’ story is only one part of the nar rative. The efforts of those left behind, often to fend for themselves and their families, is very much a part of the history of the Civil War. Author James G. Mendez, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Education at Loyola University Chicago Strit School of Medicine, has allowed his readers an enlightening ear t the voices of black families left home during the Civil War. They are an essential part of the nort ern homefront and deserve this attention. A Great Sacrifice goes a long way toward this effort.
Meg Groeling received Master’s Degree in Military Histo with a Civil War emphasis, in 201 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. She has been working on the manuscript for
First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, since 2011. She
is a regular contributor to the b Emerging Civil War.
Forgotten Voices Now Heard An We Ob Jubilee: The First South Carolina Volunteers. By John Saucer. Images, notes, bibliography, 320 pp., 2019. Arcadia
The 180,000 Africa Americans who served in the Union Army in the Civil War played an important role in the war effort and a more crucial rol in the struggle for freedom and citizenship for black Americans. The first of those many soldiers were the men of the First South Carolina Volunteers. Organized in the spring and summer of 1862 from the freed slaves concentrating around the recently established Union stronghold of Port Royal Sound, S.C., their story serves to illustrate the early po litical struggle to arm African Americans and the larger fight to prove their worth as fighting men. Despite published firsthand accounts of the regiment, it lack of combat service in major campaigns has limited the unit’s exposure to the general Civil War public—a problem this book seeks to correct. John Saucer recounts in detail the first year of the regiment; i early recruitment, its organization and training around Beaufort and its initial combat during rai along the Georgia and Florida coast. An early component of Saucer’s story is the struggle of abolitionist General David Hunter to get official recognitio of the unit amidst Lincoln’s resi tance to black participation in t
war in order to keep the loyalty border slave states. Saucer cred-
ibly provides the context for the creation of the unit in his early
chapters. The story of the First South Carolina is vividly told through Saucer’s use of first-hand ac-
counts. From Army Life in a Black Regiment, the memoir of the unit commander, Thomas W. Higginson, to the unpublished
Rogers, and the numerous firsthand accounts of soldiers and civilians stationed in the Port Royal area, Saucer has done an outstanding job of assembling a variety of sources to tell this story. He ably includes accounts from the Official Records and Confederate soldiers who fought against the unit—no small feat given the minor raids described. The reader does get a full account of the unit through training and its early combat campaigns. What is missing is a real sense of the enlisted men who made up the unit, except as presented through the eyes of the white officers and civilians who interacted with the unit around Beaufort. Susie King Taylor’s (the unit’s laundress) Reminiscences of My Life in Camp is listed only five times as a specific source. A lack of letters and postwar writings from freed slaves would be expected, but he does cite two pension applications connected to the unit. Is it possible there mig be more to be uncovered? The significance of the regiment cannot be denied, but its limited combat role raises the question of why the complete history of this regiment could not be told in one volume. One of the roles of a historian is to mak choices. Saucer includes plenty of details and lots of quotes from his sources, but a more thoughtful use of the material would have improved the narrative. While he could be commended for his effort to discuss the strategic and tactical problems of the Battle of the Hundred Pine, the eleven pages devoted to what amounted to a couple of quick volleys in the dark seems overdone even to one who enjoys the mundane. Most readers would also trade the chapter-by-chapter alphabetical list of sources and the thirty pag es of explanatory end notes for specific source citations (especially with the quoted material), some nice maps and a good index. This book would have benefited from a good and judicious editor, but I still applaud the au thor for bringing the regiment back to the attention of the Civil War community.
Record Services for the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, oversees the agency’s archival collection and records management functions. He has more recently coordinated
the department’s present exhibit on Reconstruction in South Carolina and is currently working on a new exhibit focused on South
Resistance, Resources & Race Alabamians in Blue: Freedmen, Unionists, and the Civil War in the Cotton State. By Christopher M. Rein. Appendix, notes, bibliography, index, 298 pp., 2019. Louisiana
The ongoing discussion over Southern Unionists is wellknown, due to books such as Victoria Bynum’s The Free State of Jones. Yet many of thes works tell only a small piece of the story, leaving space for scholars like Christopher Rein to expand beyond single communities of dissenters to encompass entire Confederate states. Alabamians in Blue, Rein adopts a unique perspective to tell the story of the many Alabamians, both black and white, who demonstrated their undying support for the Union by joining th Federal army. Rein’s argument is complex and multi-faceted, asserting fir that the contributions of anti-Confederate Alabamians within the Federal army were important but largely overlooked. Second, he demonstrates that those men who joined the Union army did so largely in response to practical concerns (rather th ideological ones), motivated by the competition over resources that has shaped all of Alabama’s history. And third, Rein shows that Alabama Unionists’ efforts present a unique example of racial cooperation. In support of these assertions, the book begin with a description of Alabama’s settlement, using an environmental history framework to demonstrate the ways in which the state’s antebellum history was shaped by an ongoing battle over resources. It then moves in the Civil War, beginning with th presence of Unionist sentiment i the state and how those dissente resisted Confederate policy. The second half of the book focuses on the military engagements and campaigns in which Alabamians
in blue uniforms participated, and the “tangible service” that these men provided to the Union in defeating well-known Confederate commanders, particularly Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Bell Hood. The book concludes with an analysis of Unionists’ lives following the war’s end throughout Reconstruction. With so many goals and points of focus, it is easy for the reader to lose the thread within the book; however, it becomes easier to follow once placed alongside Margaret Storey’s Loyalty and Loss: Alabama’s Unionists in the Civil War and Reconstruction, which explores the guerrilla warfare that Unionist Alabamians experienced on the homefront. Rein’s book appears to be an answer to Storey’s title, building o her argument for Alabama’s significance and uniqueness while addressing gaps he perceived in her work. Rein’s work seeks in part to address the “false dichotomy” between the conventional and unconventional methods of warfare that he believes scholars like Storey have created, asserting the importance of military campaigns as well as guerrilla warfare. Storey’s work also offers a map that is useful for read ers of Alabamians in Blue, as Rein references counties, cities, and regions both within Alabama and in the surrounding states that can be hard to follow if the reade does not know the geography of the area. With his unique use of environmental history, Rein’s use of resources as a lens for understanding slavery is particularly effective, as he presents labor as a resource worth fighting over. This lens is also a crucial part of the second prong of his argument, as it illustrates the many ways in which the Union Army provided relief for Unionists who had been cut off from resources by Confederate authorities. The most effective application of this lens is the conclusion, however, which extends the timeline of the book to modern Alabama. By showing how the political landscape of Alabama has changed in response to the continued fight over resources (now defined as votes and labor) since the Civil War, he provides a compelling image of the issues facing both the Yellowhammer State and the United States as a whole.
Katelyn Brown is the Digital Proje Specialist for the Maryland Histor Society in Baltimore. She has published articles in Ohio Valley His and Military Images and is current working on her first book.
“Newspapers were the primary means of advertising during the mid-nineteenth century,” Lawrence Kreiser reminds us in the opening pages of his new and welcome work, Marketing the Blue & Gray. The author further contends that “Civil War his torians, in turn, have long cited newspapers but have ignored the advertisements.” I’ll go further: that’s because scholarly writing Northern and Southern, has really only hit its stride in, say, the twenty years. Examples of recent, notable works are Ford Risley, Civil War Journalism (2012); Patricia G. McNeely, Debra Reddin van Tuyll and Henry H. Schulte, eds., Knights of the Qui Confederate Correspondents and their Civil War Reporting (2010) and Debra Reddin van Tuyll, The Confederate Press in the Crucible of the American Civil War (2012). Professor Kreiser, teaches at Stillman College in w
Tuscaloosa, makes the point that businesses advertising in their l cal newspapers seized upon the public’s (again, whether Northern or Southern) war fervor and used propagandistic war themes in their ads to better market their products. The author looked at
550 newspapers to form his conclusions. War-related ad headline were employed to sell goods, such as the notice blaring “Sundries and Southern Rights.” Kreiser discerns what may be called nationwide advertising; “publishing
companies and patent medicine makers were the most prolific in advertising across the Union and Confederacy.” The author also examines how advertising themes
related—or did not relate—to the war’s shifting fortunes. I wa struck by Kreiser’s conclusion that “in Confederate newspapers, the phrasing of slave announcements remained slick and self-assured, even while the slaveholders’ republic crumbled.” …struck the more so because that’s what Bill Hendrick and I are seeing in the wartime pages of the Atlanta Intelligencer. For our book, tentatively titled The War Comes Home: The Atlanta Daily Intelligencer and the Civil War, we are reading every copy of the newspaper we can find (Atlanta History Center microfilm, thank you). On May 15, 1863, Crawford, Frazer & Co.,
Negroes” located at 8 Whitehall Street downtown, took out an advertisement that prominently declared, “Our NEGRO YARD AND LOCK-UP, at No. 8, are SAFE AND COMFORTABLE.” The point was that Crawford and Frazer took good care of “our stock” with capabilities to “feed and lodge [them] well.” As we write in our manuscript, the merchants made clear that they took good care of their merchandise: “sleeping apartments and cook house” were “closely looked after,” so that “our stock is there kept in health.” Not only were slave traders advertising vigorously in the spring of 1863, but their “stock” continued to fetch high prices. In mid-April 1863—note, this was four months after Lincoln had issued his Emancipation Proclamation, arguably the deathknell of the South’s peculiar institution—the Intelligencer reported that Crawford and Frazer
pay, as we point out, attested as much to their confidence in the
future of Southern slavery as to their need for labor. Southern traders’ advertising slaves and Southern purchasers’ buying of them (in the midst of a war ostensibly aimed at destroy-
ing slavery) illustrates one of Lawrence Kreiser’s conclusions.
tells us a whole lot more about contemporary attitudes and emotions than we have previously thought about.
Bill’s book on the Atlanta Daily Intelligencer is under contract with the University of Tennessee Press.
Booth’s Confederate Connections Booth’s Confederate Connections. By Sandy Pringle. Illustrations, notes, index, 256 pp., 2019. Pelican Publishing
Having worked at the Surratt House Museum, I have read many books about the Lincoln assassination. The standard story heard in school is that Booth, a staun Southerner, felt Lincoln must be done away with and only he was up to doing it. On the morning of April 14, Booth finds out Lincoln will be going to Ford’s Theater, and he decides this is his perfect opportunity. He gets his band of cohorts together for a meeting and assigns them their jobs. Booth shoots Lincoln and then the various questions devel op. Did Booth act alone? Did he have help from the Confederates? Were the Confederates the ones leading the murder plot and using Booth as the marksman? Was the Catholic Church behind it? There are many avenues to travel in these directions, but travel more: Judge Sandy Prindle feels he has found the answers in his
In the recently discovered “lost confession” of conspirator George Atzerodt, he makes mention of the fact that Booth had hurry to accomplish his plan or the New York group would beat
him to it. They had a plan to bl up the White House. Fortunately, this was discovered and stopped. But by using some of Atzerodt’s comments in this discovered “lost confession” and following the various trips of John Surrat Jr. and his alluring traveling c panion Sarah Slater, Prindle be-
lieves strongly that John and hi mother were keys to John Wilkes Booth’s murder plans through the messages given to John by Judah Benjamin. He argues that
even though the messages were secret, Surratt must have known what was in them. Thus, he knew murder was the aim, and he took measures to remove himself from the area of Ford’s Theatre when it would happen, and made sure people saw him at those other locations. As for John’s lengthy es cape, he talked too much for his own good. One person he talked to was Henri Beaumont de Sainte Marie. Surratt told Marie that th assassins had “acted under the orders” of persons under Davis and strongly pointed to Judah Benjamin. All this information had been passed on to the government in 1866. Our author thinks this 1866 statement of Marie is pertinent and is evidence that points directly to the Confederac and to those responsible. The South was losing the war at this point. Richmond had been evacuated and Davis was on the run. Did Jefferson Davis condone murder or was Benjamin the real mastermind? Did he tell Davis of his plan? When it appeared that Richmond was going to be evacuated, kidnapping Lincoln was no longer viable. Now enters the New York group and their plan to blow up the White House. There is strong evidence that Judah Benjamin withdrew fifteen hundred dollars from Confederate funds for this project and gave it to demolition expert Thomas Harney. This plan obviously failed. On this same day, John Surratt was paid for his courier service. John Jr. made many trips and carried many messages for Benjamin; he was very welcome at his office. It was the last ditch for the Confederacy. The Dahlgren Raid had pushed them over the edge. No more “mister nice guy.”
New 392 page, full-color boo Civil War Artillery Projectile The Half Shell Book. For more information and how to order visit the website www
Whether true or not, Confederate higher-ups believed the raid aimed for their deaths, with Benjamin first on the death-list Benjamin kept a low profile whil working on the murder plan that Booth carried out. After the war Judah Benjamin left the country and never came back. After a very arduous trip to England he eventually led a very good life, earning more tha eighty thousand dollars a year. When John came back from his last trip for Benjamin, he arriv in Washington and had a brief stopover at his mother’s house. A few words were spoken and he left. Was Booth a late visitor a Surratt house and did Mrs. Surra give him a message? Our author believes it was Mrs. Surratt who gave the message to Booth—not to capture Lincoln, and but to k him—and it was given by way of Judah Benjamin’s messages to her son John. Case closed. Or is it? Judge Prindle has presented a strong line of evidence that leads to the top Confederate leadership. By following the various stops of John and Sarah Slater, using the various clues in the newly discovered Atzerodt statement, and connecting them to Booth’s movements, he has given us a logical trail. They lead to Juda Benjamin and his plans. It seems that the Confederacy was behind Booth’s assassination all along. The Judge’s book belongs in your library. Get it!
Joan is historian at the Surratt House museum and has been consultant for several televisio productions on the Lincoln assas sination story. She was the one who found the missing Atzerodt statement in the mid-seventies.
The Yo Lions Of The Dan The Untold Story Of Armistead’s Brigade. By J. K. Brandau. Photos, endnotes, biblio raphy, index, 282 pp., 2020. Morgan James Publishing, www
This informative book tell the story of General Lewis Armistead’s brigade from its mation by units enlisted fro the Pittsylvania County area
s of Pittsylvania County, Virgini southeastern Virginia in 1861, to its surrender with General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865. A number of books have looked at General Armistead’s brigade but have focused on its involvement in the Pickett-PettigrewTrimble charge on July 3 at Gettysburg. General Armistead himself, of course, famously fell at the climax of this charge. Thi book is unique in that it looks a the entire history of the brigade and hence relates, as the subtitl of the book indicates, the untold story of Armistead’s brigade. The author has obviously done a tremendous amount of research, as a glance at the extensive bibliography will show. He also has gone beyond published works and has researched unpublished manuscripts. This research provided the author with a wealth of infor mation on Armistead’s brigade and its component regiments. To a large extent, the history of Armistead’s brigade is intertwined with the history of Pittsylvania County, as seventy percent of all infantry from this county served in the brigade. The author explains how the county was guided in its growth
by members of Virginia’s “First Families of Virginia,” while the bulk of the white population (55% of the county; the rest was black) consisted of farmers descended from settlers. Many of the settlers were descendents of colonial dissidents, outcasts and non-English immigrants. Despite this disparate background, the in habitants of Pittsylvania County (watered by the Dan River) proved through the course of the war that they were “Lions of the Dan.” The campaigns and battles of Armistead’s brigade are covered in much detail in this book. Its one serious shortcoming is the complete absence of maps detailing this fighting, or depicti Pittsylvania County itself. The author does include enough detail to make it possible to follow the course of the brigade’s combat. But the brigade spent a considerable amount of time on detached duty from the Army of Northern Virginia, and these areas are not as familiar to most readers as those where the Army’s main battles occurred, so the absence of maps is particularly unfortunate when the history of this detached service is recited.
When the brigade did serve with the army, it suffered considerably more than it did during its various detached services, as in the disastrous charges at Malvern Hill in 1862 and Gettysburg in 1863. The famous charge that the brigade made at Gettysburg is covered in much detail, as is the heroic death of its leader, Lewis Armistead. Ironically, Armistead was not looked upon favorably by the army’s command prior to the battle of Gettysburg for a variety of reasons. His death, however, has forever enshrined him as the epitome of a heroic combat leader. The brigade continued on under other leaders and the author relates this “untold story.” The story has been “untold” because most interest in the brigade has heretofore terminated upon reading of its charge at Gettysburg. I hardest fighting actually occurred after that battle and is of consid erable interest to a student of th war. Every combat in which the brigade, or its component regiments, fought is covered in some detail. Included in this detail ar references to various members of the brigade and how they fared in these battles. This personalizatio
of the account makes it possible for the reader to make a connection to these soldiers and so brings them to life in a way that standard regimental histories often do not. This history is recommended to those readers interested in the soldiers who fought for, and were from, Virginia. Much can be learned from the book about Pittsylvania County, pre-war Virginia, economic and race relations in the county, Virginia’s secession from the Union, and, of course, the fighting that the “Lions of the Dan” were involved in during their long and bloody struggle.
Joe Bordonaro is a veteran of the USAF (1973–77), taught for 25 years in elementary and middle schools, and has been reenacting the Civil War for the past 20 yea He has been writing articles for years, focusing on the reenacting and living history communities.
of his Personal, Political, and Military Challenges. By David Alan Johnson. 384 pp., 2018. Prometheus Books, prometheus-
David Alan Johnson’s The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln: A Day-by-Day Account of his Personal, Political, and Milita
Lincoln’s Confidant: The Life of Noah Brooks. By Wayne C. Temple. Notes, Index, photos, 283pp., 2019. University o
Noah Brooks was born in Castine, Maine in 1830. He was educated locally and upon finis ing high school promptly left t find his fame and fortune. From an early age he exhibited a wan derlust. He tried his hand at m occupations and endeavors. For example, he was a painter, artist, writer, reporter, editor, elist, prospector, political sp
Challenges is the tale of the las six weeks of President Abraham
Lincoln’s life. Those six weeks were an extraordinary time not only for the president, but also for the nation that reverberates this day. During those six weeks, Lincoln gave his celebrated Second Inaugural Address. He worked with his generals and supervised the battles that led to end of the Civil War. He learned of General Ulysses S. Grant’s acceptance of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia. And he was felled by assassin John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre. Interestingly and carefully, t author describes Lincoln’s daily routine as he guided our nation during the end of the war. These small but important events shed light on how President Lincoln commanded the loyalty of so many during this time. His inauguration is described in detail from Mrs. Lincoln’s ball gown to the inaugural ball attendees. During this time, Lincoln greeted visitors to his ball. He asked the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass what he thought about
confidant to a President and nava officer, amongst other occupations. He travelled from coast to coast, never staying long in any one place. He met Lincoln for the first t in 1856 in Dixon, Illinois. It wa a brief encounter but made an impression on Lincoln. After gettin elected president, they met again with Brooks now a reporter for a local newspaper. They seemed to get on famously. Lincoln liked Brooks’ easygoing style and the fact that he never asked for favors. (This was a rarity in that of lobbyists.) Gradually, Brooks began to write political articles favor of Lincoln under the name “Castine”—the nom de plume
was a popular device of the era. He began to spend much time with Lincoln and started attending political rallies, reporting back to the president about the events. Lincoln found this valuable information. Brooks’ relaxed demeanor made him welcome in all circles and this placed him i an advantageous position. In fact Lincoln asked him to replace John Hay at the beginning of his second term as his personal secretary. Unfortunately, the assass nation ended that opportunity and Brooks was never to hold that office. Soon after this tragedy he
his Inaugural Address. He spoke often with Generals Grant and
Sherman regarding the battles taking place in Virginia and the battles’ potential for ending the war. He visited a field hospital outside of City Point, Virginia. He read the press reviews and accounts of his Inaugural Address. All the while, he worked diligently to calm his wife, who at that time appeared to be suffering mental health issues that he feared would lead to a nervous collapse. There is a great accoun of how Washington City and the country celebrated when the end of the war was announced. This book finds strength in its vivid descriptions of Lincoln’s last six weeks. It describes what many may consider the most important period this country has ever seen. The author’s description of the assassination of Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre is masterful, describing the incident from the viewpoint of audience members before transporting the reader to Lincoln’s box and that fateful shot.
Frank J. Williams is the founding Chairman of The Lincoln Forum.
left Washington City for greener pastures. He wrote a few histories for young readers and achieved a modicum of success. Unfortunately he never achieved the financial success he had always strived for. He eventually went to Pasadena for his health, which slowly deterior Brooks died in 1903. I found this book a difficult read. For whatever reason it had no flow to the story. Every page filled with information, yet most it is piecemeal. I was looking fo depth and I received snippets. I never really understood just what the author was trying to tel me. I was most disappointed in
Temple’s explanation of Brooks’ relationship with Lincoln. This subject takes up about a third of the book, and it too is just one-sentence snippets, reading like modern-day sound bites. I realize that this is a biogr of Noah Brooks and that Lincoln was only a small part of his life expected more. For those of you interested in Noah Brooks, it wil be a worthy read. For Lincoln students, not so much.
Joseph Truglio, of Manchester, N.J., is president of the Phil Ke Civil War Round Table.
the Civil War in Missouri A Burned Land: The TransMississippi in the Civil War. By Robert R. Laven. Photos, maps, endnotes, bibliography, in dex, 194 pp, 2019. McFarland &
This work appeared to be just what I was looking for: a review of the Civil War in the TransMississippi West. Turns out it wasn’t. Robert Laven indicates in his Preface that he has had a
interest in Missouri’s role in t Civil War for many years. He has studied that role and has writte an easy-to-read description of i While he briefly mentions a few actions in the Trans-Mississippi this is all about Missouri’s spe ic role, and, as such, is mistit Laven takes the reader throug the Civil War in Missouri in a fairly easy style, giving enough detail to make sense of the various actions conducted by both sides during that conflict. Ther is some inconsistency in spellin The book abounds with photos. In describing many of the action I would have greatly appreciated more maps to help me follow many of the events described.
Though familiar with some of them, maps would nonetheless
have greatly enhanced this book. Laven soundly documents his narrative, and provides an index as well. The author briefly mentions the battle of Pea Ridge or Elkhorn Tavern and covers the battle of Mine Creek in Kansas. He essentially does not describe any of th other actions which took place within the Trans-Mississippi other than those in conjunction with Missouri, such as Fort Scott and the sack of Lawrence, Kansas. My suggestion is that this work be retitled into a history of Missouri in the Civil War. The occasional references to other actions within the Trans-Mississippi help to place Missouri within the context of this area. As it stands the reader looking for a definitiv description of the Civil War in th Trans-Mississippi will not find it here. Laven has obviously conducted extensive research on the war in the state of Missouri. For those interested in how the Civil War was conducted by both sides within and around Missouri, and that state’s fate in the Civil War will find that this book provides good description and reference of
those events. Lawrence K. (Larry) Peterson is President of the Rocky Mountain Civil War Round Table. He has had published three books on the critical decisions of the battle o Chattanooga, and the Kentucky and Atlanta Campaigns in the University of Tennessee Press’ Command Decisions in America’s Civil War series. He is working on the critical decisions of the batt of Perryville.
