analysis of the latest and mos scholarship. Contact email: Bo
Liberty and Slavery European Separatist Southern Secession and the American Civil War. By Niels Eichhorn. Index, Bibliography, Endnotes. 202 pages, 2019. LSU
Continuing the recent, and much welcomed, trend of books looking at the American Civil War as a global event is this that examines various separati movements throughout Europe in the first half of the 19th cen While the quest for Irish inde dence is well known, many of t ones featured here, including Hungarian and Polish are not a
famous. The author, a history professor at Middle Georgia State University, looks at these var ous movements and tries to sho what they had in common with
each other and the quest for i pendence in the southern Unite
were centered on ethnic groups that had legitimate cultural, guistic, or religious differen
our readers with timely icant Civil War research and
places, and events without full or proper context in either the text or the notes. This reviewer had to look up several thing that were mentioned in passing. Conspicuously missing is any mention of the Italian unificat movement, a major headache for many European leaders in the 19th century. The book also lac maps, that would have helped a reader understand the geo-politics in Europe at the time or a images of the people and events mentioned. Perhaps most disappointing i that the author did not try to any parallels between the 19th century secession movements and the ongoing debate over the future of the European Union an its powers over member states. The fact that there is no compa ison between events of the 19th century and 21st century Brexit the recent Scottish independenc movement, is a lost opportunity Ultimately, European secessi movements had come to fail by the mid-to late-1800s due to la of money, organization, numbers, and international support Many movement leaders were arrested, exiled, or executed. would not be until the 20th cen tury that Ireland, Hungary, and Poland took their places among the nation-states of the world. Eichorn’s flawed book serves as an introduction to this often o
Tom Elmore will be spending muc of March 2020 sharing tales of Columbia, S.C.,’s Celtic past w
Civil War N A Good Book—A Great Museum The Story of Civil War
Medicine: Divided by Conflict, United by Compassion, by
Terry Reimer. B/W and color photographs, maps, 74 pp.,
The second book in this series is The Story of Civil War Medicine: Divided by Conflict, United by Compassion. Authored by Terry Reimer in 2004, it has
been reprinted by the NMCWM Press. This book serves as an in
troduction to both Civil War med icine and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, Inc. The main structure of this thoroughl modern old-fashioned museum is in downtown Frederick, Md. It extends to the Pry House on the Antietam battlefield, then moves south to Washington, D.C., to th Clara Barton Office of Missing Soldiers. Each museum is different in the story it tells as well as in geographic location. Weaving together a history of Civil War medicine with a history of the creation of the museum, Reimer’s book gives a thorough overview of both. At the main museum office in Frederick, the letters of Privat Peleg Bradford, 1st Main Heavy Artillery, are highlighted. Visi can follow him from his first il ness in camp to being wounded in battle. His recovery in the Unio hospital system shows the average care most soldiers received. This museum site also hosts conferences and award ceremonies as well as being part of a vital thriving downtown Frederick. The Pry House and Hospital, a large, open-air museum near the
The world will – Abraham Linc by Joe Bordonaro President Lincoln was wro
about the first part, but v correct about the second pa
this famous phrase from his nificent “Gettysburg Addres On Nov. 23, 2019, reenactor members of the general publ gathered in Gettysburg, Pen to remember the actions of soldiers and the President
Remembrance Day 2019. Stafford County Science Teacher Don Mullen, portray President Lincoln. (Garry Adelman, American Battlefield Trust)
War reenactors. enacting groups the actions of and units by co es and visiting
“Remembrance Il Gettysburg Nati graves occurs e
Although the nu tors are down f when Wikipedia
panying photos activities that Joe Bordonaro i
Members of commemorate arious indi ducting mar monuments.
Dr. Jonathan Letterman’s medical and logistical innovations
were used for the first time at significant Civil War battle. T
dual focus at this site include effect war had on the civilians in the battlefield area. The Pr family itself never recovered f nancially from the battle and i aftermath. An annual Plein Aire painting weekend anchors the va riety of events hosted by this
The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum is a fas
cinating place with its own sto ry. Found accidentally prior to
demolition, the entire three fl are curated to tell the story o Miss Clara Barton and her efforts on behalf of Union soldie The space, located in downtown Washington, D.C., has multiple uses. It has hosted beer tastin wine-and-food pairings, musical events, and receptions for hist ans and authors. The novel, eff tive use of museum space adds t its public value. The Story of Civil War Medic offers a brief-but-accurate ove view of medical practice before and during the war. Highlighted
than the practical taxes, st volunteer portuniti from each Both bo thank goo
Meg Groel degree in Civil War American Beatie pu The After of the Ci 2015, and Fallen: t Ellsworth contracte time with a regular Emerging
12.95 inform wardsh and ed s, and site. ks are ness f
ng rec Milita emphas ublic lished ath of il War she ha e Life which for p n the contri ivil W
ived her y Histor s, in 20 niversit her firs Battle: Dead, in written of Colon Savas Be blicatio
the Civil War North. By Sarah Handley-Cousins. Photographs, notes, index, 204 pp., The University of Georgia Press,
Any Civil War film or TV show that strives for historical accu cy always shows the horrors of a field hospital limb amputation From the safety of our living rooms, we, the viewers, are enthralled by the lack of sanitati and pain medication as we await the wounded soldier’s inevitable anguished cries. We wonder how those men could endure such agonies and their resulting disability. Within our collectiv consciousness, that missing limb is what comes to mind when we think of how a disabled Civil Wa soldier struggled quietly throug life in the post-war years. In Sarah Handley-Cousins’ absorbing new work on the nature of Civil War disability, she lay this fact out as a baseline, but then sets forth to explain how the war damaged men’s bodies and minds in a myriad of other, often-understudied ways. For example, the author examines what happened officially within
government and then, culturally, within the soldier’s local society when he claimed to be disabled but bore no obvious physical scars. Furthermore, we lear how his claims played out within
the era’s notions of what the au thor terms “martial masculinity”
standards for martial masculinity dictated the proper manner in which a disabled warrior should
cultural understanding than heretofore of war-related disabilitie in the Civil War North; an understanding that goes well beyond amputations for that obviously visual wound did not raise the same questions about legitimacy and manliness as less clearcut injuries, whether physical or psychological. Within each chapter, and by using specific cases culled from the war’s medical and pension records, she examines conditions that ranged from the physical and mental, temporary to chronic, as well as from illness to injury The author rightly considers illness to be within the parameters of disability. Soldiers who were seriously ill could not march or fight which thus disabled them, and circumscribed their utility t the military. The War Department even categorized serious illness as a disability and discharged men under that reason. Lastly, the Pension Bureau viewed the effects of debilitating illness t be a pensionable category. As the author points out, disability and illness were not synonymous, but neither were they mutually exclusive. Disabled soldiers often faced an uphill battle in their fight f benefits. Despite the government’s lofty rhetoric about patriotic sacrifice, it often seeme that the primary goal of surgeons officers, and civilian bureaucrat was to prevent disabled soldiers from becoming dependent “paupers,” which arose from the era’s ideas about what proper masculinity should entail. The result was that many ill or disabled Union soldiers became wholly at the mercy of the military justice system and medical authorities. Both the pension bureau and the public became entangled in a bitter battle of mistrust. In spite of a burgeoning Feder
bureaucracy that, like today, often seemed to place fiscal saving over proper care of its wounded warriors, those men soldiered on, living lives as dignified and meaningful as their circum-
stances allowed. Kudos to Sarah Handley-Cousins for shining a
Paul Taylor is an award-winning author of seven books pertaining to the Civil War era. His forthco
America’s Majo Civil War Monuments and the Militarization of America. By Thomas J. Brown. Photos, endnotes, index, bibliography, 384 pp., 2019. The University o
In this carefully researched well written work, University of South Carolina’s Thomas J. Brown offers readers a detailed survey of monument-building from the Civil War to the prese The book’s five chapters and it epilogue contain in-depth discu sion of these works of art and changing American society that produced them. The many excellent photographs allow us to examine the memorials for ourselves and better comprehend their meaning. Brown’s book focuses more on Northern memorials than on Southern ones, and is heavily weighted toward the grand works created by famous artists with names like French, SaintGaudens, and Borglum, works that were often part of grand c ic spaces. For the scores of memorials that are covered, readers are l
from their genesis to their fin completion and beyond. We learn about the visions of artists se ing the commissions; the organizations raising the money and picking the sculptors; and the
verdicts of art critics and oth with positive and negative view
There were statues of anonymous soldiers, military commanders (often mounted), civilian leade
ials As the physical characteristic varied, so did the messages they conveyed. Many, especially the early ones, were principally expressions of the profound grief felt by millions. Others praised the soldiers’ valor and were dedicated to the survivors as well a to the fallen. Some celebrated tr umph; others praised and justified a cause that was lost. Some expressed thanks for peace and sectional reconciliation. A few contained an anti-war message. Little of the book relates to second part of the title, the mil tarization of America. There is n analytical discussion of this mil itarization, or even a definition As the term has no single definition, the reader expects to be to what the author means, precisely, when he asserts that America was militarized, but this expectation is unmet. The book does not present a systematic argument connecting monument-building with militarization. Sometimes issues of race and (less often) gender enter the dis cussion. No doubt these can be relevant questions. Even so, the author from time to time strains a bit. He writes that “Th Newburyport [Massachusetts statue signaled a deepening concentration on race as the fundamental bond between the community and its armed champions.” Three paragraphs later this same point is repeated. The bronze soldier looks like the flesh-and-blood soldiers who left Newburyport for war. That is to say, he is white. Is this in any way remarkable? Is the author over-interpreting? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. In the book’s epilogue, “Towar a New Iconoclasm,” Brown presents an account of recent controversies that have resulted in the removal, by his count, of 33 Confederate monuments in 23
communities. For the most part this discussion is straightforwar and objective. However, there are signs of subtle bias. One sentenc reads: “This iconoclasm indicated that ordinary Americans who
sacrificed their lives at the cal the state were morally wrong.”
about the soldiers’ actions? Ther is a difference. In the same epilogue we read
monuments, erected in the last two or three decades, were the work of “defiant whites.” Not ordinary men from ordinary American towns who wished to honor their ordinary ancestors who fought and died, but “defiant whites.” Brown’s documentary research is very thorough, but nothing in the book indicates he has spoken with any of the people who built these monuments. The author skillfully weaves t myriad elements of this complex story into a learned—and highly readable—narrative through which we journey from the 1860s to the present day. As we travel we discover much about the ways Americans have remembered the Civil War and how remembrance has changed over the decades. Finally, I like a book that sends me to the dictionary. “Filiopietistic,” “choragic,” “di aphanous,” “himation,” and “pasquinade” are now part of my lexicon. But “quadrigia”? How does this medical condition, which results in the inability to bend finger, relate to Civil War monuments? Ahhh, it’s a (tiny and uncharacteristic) typo, I learned a kept searching; a “quadriga” is a fine thing to put on a monument, if you can afford it.
Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyist 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. He can be reached at
Vol. 46, No. 1 $ Remembrance Day, 2019, Getty The world will li – Abraham Lincoln by Joe Bordonaro
President Lincoln was wrong about the first part, but very correct about the second part this famous phrase from his ma nificent “Gettysburg Address.” On Nov. 23, 2019, reenactors a
members of the general public gathered in Gettysburg, Penn., to remember the actions of the soldiers and the President 156
Stafford County Science Teacher Don Mullen, portrays President Lincoln. (Garry Adelman, American Battlefield Trust)
Members of the 14th Brooklyn years ago. The Sons of Union
parade, featuring numerous C War reenactors. Members of r enacting groups commemorated the actions of various indiv and units by conducting marc es and visiting monuments. A
“Remembrance Illumination” o Gettysburg National Cemetery graves occurs each year, as Although the numbers of reen tors are down from its 2000
when Wikipedia estimated the were about 50,000 Civil War
enactors; a still impressive ber showed up this year and the traditions alive. The ac
panying photos highlight som activities that took place. Joe Bordonaro is a USAF vete
College graduate (1980), Cat school teacher, and retired