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Kentucky’s Mounted Infantry Regiments 1861– 1865. Charles H. Bogart. Introduction, maps, photographs, drawings, bibliography, 312 pp, 2023, Yellow Sparks Press,
Mounted infantry is infantry mounted on horses who fight dismounted, as opposed to cavalry who generally stay mounted to fight. Their horses allow mounted infantry to travel quicker to where needed than if they were on foot. In a guerilla war area of operations, such as Kentucky during the Civil War, the necessity for such troops is obvious. In an effort to maintain contr of Kentucky due to the actions o Confederate guerillas, Congress had approved the formation of mounted infantry units, for one year period of service, to be used in Kentucky only, except under circumstances dictated by military needs as approved by the Commanding General. Despite that, the guerilla war i Kentucky became so intense that Lincoln suspended the Writ of Habeus Corpus in Kentucky on July 5, 1864. In all Kentucky provided 12 mounted infantry regiments and one infantry regiment (the 39th) that was apparently a de facto mounted infantry regiment. The author points out that these regiments were never at full strength in either manpower or horses and had other supply problems. Adding to that, the pace of operations was detrimental to troops and horses This is apparently a labor of love by the author who has done much original research to tell t story of these regiments. There is some interesting information here, but it is hard to find. Th volume needed better editing.
our readers with timely ficant Civil War research and
The author often discusses events using original documents, unfortunately much of that is not cited, and the reader has no idea of the source. Other problems with the manuscript are that the bibliography is not in alphabetic order and the volumes not properly cited. In addition, ther is no index. Furthermore, the photo on page 25 is misidentified as William Quantrill, when it is in fact his chief scout George Maddox, the only Lawrence raider to be tried after the war in Lawrence (he was acquitted). Nathan Bedford Forrest was a Major General at Fort Pillow but is cited as a Brigadier General and Major General at Fort Pillow at differe times in the volume. A further ni is the cover drawing, which is poorly done and hard to look at. It appears to depict a very short Union soldier and his Shetland pony. For the reader who enjoys reading about battles and raids, there is a description of Morgan’ 1864 Raid in Kentucky which ended at Cynthiana, Burbridges Saltville Raid, and Stoneman’s Saltville Raid. Kentucky’s Mounted Infantry Regiments 1861–1865 is heavily researched by the author but requires better editing. It will of especial interest to those wit an interest in the Civil War in Kentucky or guerilla operations and anti-guerilla operations in t Civil War.
Captain Joe Derie is a longtime Civil War buff with a special interest in Civil War naval histo and the Civil 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.
A Political Scientist’s Analysis of Reconstruction in Texas Two Counties in Crisis: Measuring Political Change in Reconstruction Texas. By Robert J. Dillard. Map, photos, endnotes bibliography, index, 256 pp., 2023. University of North Texas
This book is a scholarly study of Reconstruction in Texas, how it failed, and how it ended with the adoption of the controversial Texas Constitution of 1876. This document remains in force today, despite a plethora of amendments. The author, Robert Dillard, teaches political science at a Texas university. He uses two contrasting Texas countie Harrison and Collin, demonstrate how the shared experiences of secession, war, and Reconstruction transformed two different antebellum politica cultures into the unified culture of unbending opposition to Republicanism that both doomed Reconstruction and birth the much-maligned Tex Constitution of 1876. Harrison County border Louisiana, while Collin County abuts Dallas County in North Texas. The political culture of antebellum Harrison County was shaped in the traditionalisti image of the Deep South. Cotton was king in the county, and by 1860, enslaved blacks were a solid majority. Contrastingly, th political culture of antebellum Collin County was shaped in the individualistic image of the Texa frontier. Its economy was based on smaller family farms that grew wheat and corn but practically no cotton. Only a ninth of the Colli County population in 1860 was enslaved. Immigrants to Harrison
County from other Deep South states constituted the majority of its white population, while immigrants to Collin County came mainly from Greater Appalachia. In the Texas secession convention of January 1861, Collin County’s representative,
James Throckmorton, a native of Tennessee, prominently spoke
out against secession. In the plebiscite that ratified secess Collin County was one of only a handful of Texas counties to vo against secession, something voters in Harrison County overwhelmingly approved. Once war erupted, its cultur consolidating effects aligned t men of Collin County squarely behind the Confederacy. Even the avowed anti-secessionist Throckmorton enlisted Confederate service and went on to distinguish himself, rising the rank of general. Reconstruction proved even more culturally consolidating in Collin County than war. In 1867 Gen. Phil Sheridan replace Throckmorton as gove of Texas with an unpopular Republican and Unionist, as the military removed all of Collin County’s elected officials. The election of former Unio general and Radical Republican reformer Edmund Davis as governor in 1869 further entrenched conservative Texans’ contempt for Republicanism. Davis’ administration centralization of power in Austin and higher taxes, infuriating conservative Texans As Dillard relates, recent historians have been kinder to Davis and his administration than their earlier critics, but by the time the Redeemer Democrats ousted Davis from the governor’s mansion in 1874, Collin County had become firmly resistant to all aspects Reconstruction, basically takin on the traditionalistic culture antebellum Harrison County. With Democrats back firmly in control of state government, a constitutional convention met in Austin in 1875 to rework the 1869 state constitution, which the Redeemers reviled as the handiwork of a Republicandominated convention. What emerged from the convention was the Texas Constitution of 1876, which voters ratified by more than a two-to-one margin. Dillard devotes an entire
chapter to a polemical exegesis of the 1876 Constitution, calling it “abysmal,” “restrictive,” and “reactionary,” among other things. This reviewer agrees with Dillard that a spirit of opposition to Reconstruction and Republicanism was the driving force behind the adoption of
the 1876 Constitution. Still, he also thinks the professor goes
overboard in his more or less wholesale denunciation of the document. For instance, Dillard criticizes the framers of the 187 Constitution for denying the governor the right to appoint sta judges, a right now enjoyed by almost all other state governors. Dillard is particularly critical of what he calls the “structural” defect in the 1876 Constitution that limits state government to the powers expressly enumerated in the text, thus occasioning frequent amendments. B what restricts state government also empowers the people. The partisan election of all state court judges gives voters in blue enclaves of Texas the ability to elect liberal Democrats to distri or county court judgeships in their respective areas, an opportunity they would not enjoy if the perennial Republican governor of Texas controlled all judicial appointments. The need for frequent amendments to the 1876 Constitution is both costly and time-consuming, as Dillard rightly points out, but it also enlarges the public’s voice in st governmental affairs. Dillard notes that Texas voters have ratified about 500 constitutional amendments over the past century and a half, but they have also rejected another 200 or so that the legislature had passed. some places that’s called popular democracy in action. In what this reviewer regards as the best part of his book, Dillard thoroughly debunks the Democrats’ response to critics of the 1876 Constitution that its shortcomings resulted from collusion at the convention between members of the Grange and the Republican minority. The truth is, as Dillard makes clear, over the course of the War and Reconstruction, Texas evolved a more unified political culture. I was precisely that political cult of opposition to everything identified with Republicanism and Yankeedom that thwarted Reconstruction and manifested itself in the 1876 Constitution. March 2024
Abraham Lincoln and the Bible: A Complete Compendium. By Gordon Leidner. Illustrations Southern Illinois University
Every frontier log home in Kentucky, Indiana, and beyond owned at least one, single book, the Bible. The Lincoln family, and Abraham Lincoln himself, was no exception to this traditi This much-needed volume, Abraham Lincoln and the Bible: A Complete Compendium, primarily features a collection of Bible passages and Lincoln’s use of those universal stories throughout his life. Leidner’s study focuses on Lincoln’s use of biblical quotes to provides valuable insight int Lincoln’s faith and leadership. Although Lincoln himself did not identify with any establishe denomination, he possessed a real and abiding faith. This
Dillard writes well, although parts of his text read like a Ph.D. thesis, replete with references to the works of obscure political scientists. Th extensive bibliography attests to the thoroughness of the author’s research. Photos of the main political actors appear at appropriate places in the book. Perhaps the map on the dust jacket of the counties of Texas 1860 that highlights Harrison an Collin Counties should have been replicated in the text. This book will appeal mainly March 2024
book presents him as a political leader whose distinctive gift fo language in crisis drew heavily from scripture, highlighting his messages with familiar passages understood by many of his constituents. Abraham Lincoln and the Bible: A Complete Compendium provides a captivating retelling of Abraham Lincoln’s connection with and to the Bible. The autho delved into Lincoln’s personal interaction with scripture and illustrates the myriad ways the venerated tome inspired and influenced his leadership. Most of the book appears as a concise biography concentrating on Lincoln’s use of the Bible and its impact on him. It traces how the Bible’s influence on Lincoln evolved over time, citin instances of biblical quotations in his letters, conversations, a speeches. The book’s comprehensive
hundred instances of Lincoln alluding to or quoting from scripture and provides citations both the Bible and the “Collecte Works of Abraham Lincoln.” The appendix details when and where Lincoln used each quote, thus providing valuable context to political speeches such as th Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. Abraham Lincoln and the Bible: A Complete Compendium stands as the definitive account concerning Lincoln and religion, making it a significant work concerning America’s most consequential president.
Frank J. Williams is founding Chairman of The Lincoln Forum and author of Lincoln as Hero.
to readers interested in taking a deep dive into the history of Reconstruction in Texas and the Texas Constitution that emerged from it.
C. Michael Harrington is a retired lawyer, resident mainly Houston. He’s authored several published articles on South Carolina and Texas soldiers, and he’s lectured to Civil War organizations in Houston on multiple topics, including Yale’ Confederate alumni. He’s a past president of the Houston CWRT.
A Never-ending War One More War to Fight: Union Veterans’ Battle for Equality through Reconstruction, Jim
Crow, and the Lost Cause. By Stephen A. Goldman. Photos, notes, index, 448 pp., 2023.
For the past quarter century a bevy of historians, perhaps most notably William Blair, David Blight, Barbara Gannon, Caroline Janney, Brian Matthew Jordan, James Marten, and Stuar McConnell have explored the various ways in which the Civil War impacted Union veterans and how they attempted to remember and combat the Lost Cause and uphold the ideals for which the fought. David Goldman’s recent volume offers a nice complement to this burgeoning scholarship with this thoughtful and deeply researched volume. Throughout the book’s ten chapters, Goldman draws on his distinguished career as a psychiatrist and a wide array of primary source material to explore how the Civil War “politically radicalized” Union veterans. Furthermore, Goldman convincingly illustrates how Union veterans, whether as individuals or as members of
organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic, took
measures to combat racism and search for ways to aid African Americans in their quest for equality from Reconstruction’s dawn through the early 1900s, thus upholding the principles f which they fought. In addition to discussing Uni veterans’ attempts to combat th activities of the Ku Klux Klan, condemn President Andrew Johnson’s practices whi significantly hindered black people’s attempts to attain soc and political equality, taking task the United States military
for racist practices during the Spanish American War, and efforts to support black comrade
who fought to restore the Union and annihilate slavery, Goldman offers important insight into the efforts of Union veterans to combat the Lost Cause. While numerous historians have addressed the Lost Cause’s roots and how it significantly distort the conflict’s historic realitie the episodes Goldman explores solidified the commitment many Union veterans possessed to ensure that Union and Confederate veterans would not be placed on an equal plane. The author’s analysis of Union veterans’ disgusted reactions, for example, to Pennsylvania’s proposed monument to Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, a proposal to inter Confederate dead in Antietam National Cemetery, or Virginia’s plan to place a monument alongside George Washington in the United States Capitol’s Statuary Hall further buttresses Caroline Janney’s argument, advanced in her outstanding Remembering the Civil War (2013), that a signifi number of Union veterans refused to engage in activities of reconciliation which required them to honor individuals who fought to dismantle the Republic and maintain slavery. While Goldman ably chronicles and cogently analyzes how a “sizable portion” of Union veterans stood up for equality, challenged racist perspectives, and attempted to contest the Lost Cause, the author rightfull reveals that not all Union veterans possessed the desire to do so. Some, especially Union veterans who resided in the Sout after the conflict, navigated a complex environment and did things some Union veterans in the North found reprehensible. For example, following the
death of Confederate president Jefferson Davis in 1889, Captain
Jacob Gray, the commander of the Grand Army of the Republic’s
Department of Louisiana and Mississippi chose to ‘honor’ Davis, someone Gray regarded
as an ‘illustrious patriot,’ by serving as a pallbearer. Gray’s actions in a department which Goldman rightly concludes was infested with racism that erected all sorts of impediments to black membership in the Grand Army of the Republic offers a useful reminder that history oftentimes as clear as mud. Other instances, such as the condemnation of the Lee monument in Statuary Hall by various GAR posts and statements by GAR leadership, including James Tanner to not denounce it and ‘drop’ the issue further solidify that point. The efforts then of the Union veterans Goldman discusses in this book, men such General John Geary or the 45th U.S. Infantry’s Captain Joseph Wiley Gelray, to combat racism, fight for equality and supplant the Lost Cause, seem all the more remarkable considering that they confronted obstacles not only from former foes, but men with whom they stood shoulder to shoulder during the Civil War. Goldman’s exquisite book possesses wide appeal. Those interested in war’s transformativ impact on Union veterans’ attitudes toward race and the complex dimensions of Civil War memory will find this engagingly written and prodigious researched volume beneficial. Students of Reconstructio and the experiences of African Americans in the postwar era will likewise discover much of significant worth in this superb and accessible history.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University McCormick Civil War Institute 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 fifteen books
including most recently Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, published by the University Press of Florida.
A Carefully Researched Work on Greene County’s Confederate Guards Boy General of the 11th Alabama: John C.C. Sanders and Company C in the Civil War. By Donald W. Abel Jr. Maps, photographs, bibliography, endnotes, index. 351 pp., 2023.
Donald Abel is a retired financial industry executive and descendant of one of the 109 men mostly from Greene County, who served in the Confederate Guards Company C, 11th Alabama Infantry Regiment. The regiment fought in Virginia, Maryland, an Pennsylvania from the Peninsula Campaign all the way to the end at Appomattox, playing an important role in several battle most notably at Spotsylvania and the Crater. The title is a misnomer, as o a small fraction of the book is devoted to John C.C. Sanders, the reason being that the career of this young general is quickly summarized. Sanders was a student and military cadet at th University of Alabama at the war’s beginning. He was elected captain and earned promotions as vacancies occurred. Brig. Gen. Sanders, at the age of 24, was killed at Globe Tavern in August 1864 during the Petersburg Campaign. Much of the text tells the stories of the battles in which regiment clashed with the enemy. The narration is well-done, presenting a clear picture for readers not already familiar wit these parts of the war. Appended to the summaries are brief paragraphs about the casualties suffered by the company and regiment. There were, of course, many casualties: 51 of the 109 d not survive the war, and most of the others suffered wounds, ofte
multiple wounds, of varying degrees of severity. The book’s final chapter would be better labeled as an appendix. Nearly a hundred pages are devoted to biographical sketches of the men of Company C. These sketches cover the soldiers’ families, their service in the war and, for those who made it through, their postwar careers. There are photographs of soldiers in uniform, postwar pictures of the survivors later in life and t gravesites of many. For dozens of the men there are no headstones to photograph, as those killed in battle were often interred on the battlefield and lie still in mass unmarked graves. The descriptions of the battle rely largely on well-known secondary sources, supplemented by soldiers’ correspondence and later accounts. Much data for the biographical sketches is gleaned from census records, archival material, newspapers and other primary sources. The maps by Hal Jesperson are excellent. The book’s organization leaves something to be desired. For example, in some of the minibiographies there are digressions containing information that would fit better elsewhere, such as a description of the Dimmock Line at Petersburg that is added to one entry. Another strays off to a recounting of the regiment’s role during Jackson’s flank march at Chancellorsville, an account that would be more suitable for the earlier chapter covering that famous battle. Moreover, there are two complete lists of the men who served in the Confederate Guards, one in the first chapter and another, with different data about the men, in the final chapt These distractions are minor issues. Boy General is the result of a great deal of careful resear into the lives, and deaths, of more than one hundred men who answered the call to arms in 1861 It’s a good idea to get acquainte with these ordinary men who did the marching and carried the muskets.
Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyis 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. He has been a regular contributor to CWN since 2016. His email is
Powerful Lincoln Biography Abraham Lincoln: A Life. By Michael Burlingame, edited and abridged by Jonathan W. White. Photos, notes, index, 720 pp., 2023. Johns Hopkins University
From the approximately twenty authors who penned biographies of Abraham Lincoln during his bid for the presidency in 1860 and his reelection campaign four years later to modern-day scholars Abraham Lincoln has been the subject of countless biographies. Arguably the finest most-detailed biography of Lincoln ever written appeared in 2008 when Johns Hopkins University Press publishe historian Michael Burlingame’s two-volume study of Lincoln’s life. Burlingame’s biography, rightfully so, received much praise and earned numerous awards including the prestigious Lincoln Prize. Now fifteen years after Burlingame’s study, peerle in depth of research and arguabl without equal in narrative style appeared Johns Hopkins has released a condensed version, smartly abridged by one of this generation’s most important Lincoln scholars, Jonatha White, thus making Burlingame’s magisterial examination Lincoln’s life more accessible. Burlingame, who h published so many important volumes related to Lincoln during his distinguished career, offers an astoundingly intimate portrait of Lincoln in this book thirty-six chapters. Throughout the biography, which offers a remarkably detailed exploration of Lincoln’s fifty-six years, th author does a remarkable job
of revealing not merely what Lincoln did throughout his life, but shows how Lincoln’s various life experiences, including the loss of his mother at the age of nine and the death of two of his sons, shaped him. The author bares how death, something with which Burlingame asserts Lincoln formed an “obsession” and understandably prompted bouts of depression, transformed the way in which Lincoln thought about religion, life, death, and relationships. Among all the relationships Lincoln maintained throughout his life none, including those w members of his cabinet, proved more challenging, Burlingame persuasively demonstrate than that between Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd. Through the judicious use of an array of primary material the author shows that from the moment the couple wed in 1842 Lincoln’s “domestic life” was ‘a burning, scorching hell.’ In addition to theorizing why the couple marrie in the first place, including th charge that Mary Todd might have seduced Lincoln and became pregnant with their son Robert Todd before the couple exchanged vows, Burlingame exposes how Mary Todd became a great disappointment to Lincoln and constant thorn in his side, particularly during hi presidency. While Lincoln, like people in all times and places, confronted personal challenges that on occasion sent him to dark, unhappy places, ones from which he always emerged, Burlingame also highlights Lincoln’s lighte side through an analysis of the important role humor played in Lincoln’s life. Furthermore, the author underscores the great joy Lincoln’s children brought him, particularly during his time in the White House. At least during Lincoln’s first year in office Lincoln’s interactions with his sons Willie, who died in Februar 1862, and Tad “somewhat relieved,” Burlingam convincingly maintains, the “solemn atmosphere in the White House.” Beyond the book’s intimate exploration of all facets of Lincoln’s life, including sexual dalliances, the author deeply investigates Lincoln’s thoughts related to slavery and race relations from the mid-1830s unt his final days. While Lincoln, a numerous historians have noted,
possessed a pragmatic approach to slavery’s destruction, one tha evolved into the Emancipation Proclamation, the push for the Thirteenth Amendment, and consideration of suffrage, Burlingame compellingl contends that Lincoln always found slavery and discussions of racial inferiority morally repugnant. Although Burlingame views Lincoln, as do I, “a champion of freedom, democracy, and national unity but also a source of inspiration,” the author is no shy about pointing out Lincoln’s faults and errors, particularly during his presidency. For example, in exploring various appointments Lincoln made during his administration’s early days, Burlingame notes that some whom Lincoln selected, including Mark Delahay, whom Lincoln appointed as a judge in Kansas, and Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln’s choice as marshal of the District of Columbia, were “ethically challenged” and undeserving of the roles they received. Burlingame’s biograph painstakingly researched and beautifully written, off an exhaustive and balanced exploration of Lincoln’s life. Although this volume should be considered essential to students of Lincoln and the Civil War, as Burlingame’s study offers enormous insight into the inner-workings of Lincoln’s administration and Lincoln’s evolution as commander-inchief, its reach should extend beyond those interested in the sixteenth president or our nation’s most tumultuous era. Individuals seeking to garner lessons from history, what my graduate mentor Bud Robertson believed to be the greatest teach about overcoming obstacles, confronting challenges, and leadership will likewise find thi biography quite insightful.
Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University McCormick Civil War Institute 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 fifteen books including most recently Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era, published by the University Press of Florida. March 2024
