Book Reviews

Book Reviews — October 2016

Originally published October 2016 · pp. 28–36

Armstrong Relates Confederate Side Of Antietam Fighting Opposing the Second Corps at Antietam: The Fight for the Confederate Left & Center on America’s Bloodiest Day. By Marion V. Armstrong Jr. Maps, notes, bibliography, index, 216 pp., 2016, Alabama, www.uapress.ua.edu, $39.95.

Gettysburg is the subject of innumerable tactical studies at the

Civil War News book reviews provide our readers with timely analysis of the latest and most significant Civil War research and scholarship. Stephen Davis, Civil War News Book Review Editor. Email: [email protected]

“micro-history” level, covering various days and locations of fighting during the battle. No other Civil War battle has been dealt with to the same extent by historians. Marion V. Armstrong, however, is making an earnest attempt to tackle Antietam at this level. His latest effort is Opposing the Second Corps at Antietam: The Fight for the Confederate Left & Center on America’s Bloodiest Day. This volume is a Confederate-oriented sequel to Armstrong’s 2008 Unfurl Those Colors: McClellan, Sumner, and the Second Army Corps in the Antietam Campaign, which was a detailed study from the Union side of the desperate fighting in the West Woods and at the Sunken Road on Sept. 17, 1862. Like its predecessor, Opposing the Second Corps puts under a tactical microscope the attack by John Sedgwick’s division into the West Woods and its virtual ambush by Rebel units, including Lafayette McLaws’s division, followed by the grim but only marginally successful assaults against the Confederate center by the divisions of William

French and Israel B. Richardson. Unlike its predecessor, this volume seems to rely on more sources from the opposite side, i.e., Union in this instance. As in his first book, Armstrong has supplied sufficient context to understand the fighting which is his focus. The tactical narrative here is minute and yet smoothly and intelligibly-written. The details of Civil War combat at this level can leave an inexperienced or casual reader essentially “lost” after only a few pages. Armstrong has a talent for conveying military minutia in a coherent and clear manner. Unfurl Those Colors was to some extent thesis-driven. Armstrong deliberately challenged the oft-criticized handling of the Second Corps in this fighting by its aged commander Edwin V. Sumner. With mixed success, Armstrong argued that, contrary to long-held assumptions, Sumner (1) did not order Sedgwick’s division into the West Woods without flank support and (2) that Sumner had ordered French to attack the Sunken Road in coordination with Sedgwick’s movement.

Opposing the Second Corps makes no attempt at equivalent revision of history from the Confederate side. Instead, Armstrong looks at the larger context. He adopts and furthers the conclusion by the late Joseph Harsh that Robert E. Lee fought at Antietam with the objective of retaining his invasion initiative rather than of simply saving his army. While this theory does not alter the history of the fighting in the West Woods and the Sunken Road, Armstrong does examine the Confederate exploration of a flanking maneuver around the Union right on the afternoon of Sept. 17, after the Rebels’ left and center had stabilized, and again on Sept. 18, until Lee finally was talked into abandoning the field by Stonewall Jackson and Stephen D. Lee. The author’s able writing is enhanced by his decision to include no fewer than 41 maps, with more than half devoted to the Confederate center/Sunken Road sector. Most of the maps show conditions at 10-minute increments, with some at the 15- and 20-minute levels. Contour lines are shown at intervals of 10 feet. My only significant criticism regarding these otherwise excellent maps is Armstrong’s use at the brigade and division level of so-called “NATO” rectangular symbols, which tend to obscure parts of the terrain without showing the battle lines. While the maps also show vegetation/ground cover, a key explaining these map symbols would have been helpful. One complaint generated by many tactical histories is a failure to specify the gun type(s) of field artillery batteries, which often explains their usage and the decisions by battery commanders. Armstrong generally provides this information but it is occasionally omitted. Armstrong has relied mostly on primary sources, especially those identified in the monumental postwar study by Col. Ezra Carman which has been skillfully edited by Thomas G. Clemens in The Maryland Campaign of September 1862. The author has provided extensive end notes. To his credit, primary sources have not been uncritically accepted. For example, a Confederate officer’s obviously suspect assertion that his unit was fired on by a Federal battery of “six howitzers” has been clarified in the endnotes to mean a battery of four 3-inch Ordnance Rifles. Repeated references in accounts to field guns firing “grape” probably should also have been corrected. This is a fine tactical study at the “micro-history” level. While there is little which will be new to students of Antietam, it ought to find a spot on the shelves of anyone with an interest in this battle. Reviewer John Foskett is a practicing attorney in Boston with a life-long interest in the Civil War. He is descended from Isaac Foskett, who served for three years in the Army of the Potomac Engineer Battalion. In addition to numerous CWN reviews of books covering a variety of Civil War topics, he has done a Civil War Round table presentation about Civil War field artillery tactics.

A Confederate Biography: The Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah. By Dwight Sturtevant Hughes. Illustrated, map, photos, notes, bibliography, index, 240 pp., 2015, U.S. Naval Institute Press, www.usni.org/navalinstitutepress, $41.95.

As Confederate Admiral (and brigadier general) Raphael Semmes stated in his Memoirs of Service Afloat: “The cruise of a ship is a biography. The ship becomes a personification. She not only ‘walks the waters like a thing of life.’ But she speaks in moving accents to those capable of interpreting her. But her interpreter must be a seaman, and not a landsman.” Dwight Hughes restates this quote in his introduction as he uses the words of the officers and others who were aboard the CSS Shenandoah to describe the vessel and its cruise. He uses other primary sources as well, such as contemporary newspaper accounts of the vessel’s visit to Melbourne, Australia. The CSS Shenandoah is noted in Civil War history for being the only Confederate ship to sail around the world and for firing the last shot of the Civil War. The last shot was fired north of the Arctic Circle at the end of June 1865 shortly after Gen. Stand Watie had surrendered in Indian

CSS Shenandoah in dry dock in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia, 1865. (U.S. Naval Historical Center)

Territory. Originally the UK-flagged Sea King, the CSS Shenandoah was an auxiliary screw steamer — a sailing vessel with a steam engine for use when sails weren’t effective or for maneuvering. She was commissioned into the Confederate Navy off Madeira and never saw a Confederate port. After learning of the Confederacy’s surrender from a passing British vessel in August 1865, she was demilitarized, set course for Liverpool, England, and arrived there Nov. 6, 1865. She never surrendered but was turned over to the British government while her crew of Southern-born officers and a polyglot of mixed nationalities, including Hawaiians, were allowed to go their separate ways. The Shenandoah’s officers were a mixed lot, former U.S. Navy regulars and wartime-only officers from most of the Confederate states. There were officers who had trained under sail solely on the high seas and officers who had trained on ironclad steam gunboats fit only for inland and sheltered waters. The differences in their training, experiences and attitudes shaped the way they viewed the cruise, the Shenandoah, and her captain — and thus the correspondence and diaries they left for posterity. As the author describes it: “This volume is … a biography of a cruise and a microcosm of the ConfederateAmerican experience.” This is an interesting, well-written book. Although the CSS Shenandoah’s story is well known, Hughes’s book provides additional insight into the cruise and the crew. It is highly recommended. Reviewer Joseph A. Derie is a VMI graduate and a longtime Civil War buff and military book reviewer. A retired Coast Guard officer and Merchant Marine licensed officer, he is a Certified Marine Investigator and marine surveyor.

The Terrible Indian Wars of the West: A History from the Whitman Massacre to Wounded Knee, 1846-1890. By Jerry Keenan. Illustrated, timeline, map, photos, notes, bibliography, index, 292 pp., 2016, McFarland, www.mcfarlandpub. com, $49.95 softcover.

It may seem odd to be doing a review of a book on the Indian Wars in Civil War News; however, many Civil War generals cut their eye teeth in the Indian wars of the West. Other officers gained their combat experience in the Civil War and used that experience fighting the Indians. This book covers a 40-year period, throughout the area west of the Mississippi, so a timeline is included, which is much appreciated. It would be hard to keep the dates straight without this aid. The causes of the Indian troubles are repetitive throughout this volume, mainly white expansion. Keenan divides the history by geographic area, starting with the Pacific Northwest. This covers the Cayuse War (and the Whitman massacre), the Rogue River Wars and the Yakima and Coastal Wars. Next, he covers California and Nevada. This includes the Mariposa

War, the Mendocino War, Nevada’s Paiute War, the Owens Valley War and the War with the Northern Paiutes. This war brought Gen. George Crook to the fore, directly after fighting in the War Between the States. Finally, there was the Modoc War, with Captain Jack. New Mexico is next up, with the Navajo wars and Christopher “Kit” Carson. Following this is the Central Plains with the Grattan Massacre in 1853 and Col. Edwin Vose “Bull” Sumner’s campaign against the Cheyenne. Col. John Milton Chivington took the United States position against the Indians a lot farther than planned by the U.S. government with the Sand Creek Massacre. After the Civil War, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock took the field. A major battle during this era was the Battle of Beecher Island. The Southern Plains next took the spotlight with Quanah Parker coming to the fore. The Comanche Indians were masters of the Plains, the premier light horse cavalry. Their horse herds were the largest and their raids the longest; the “Comanche Moon” was feared throughout Texas. Coming next are Iowa, Minnesota and the Northern Plains, starting with war with the Arickaras. In the summer of 1862, the Minnesota Santee Sioux uprising began. This went on into 1864, carried into the Dakota Territory. In 1866, troubles with the Teton Lakota began, with the Red Cloud War; the Fetterman disaster led to the closing of Fort Kearney and the other forts on the Bozeman Trail. This was the only war won by the Native Americans. However, the peace was shortlived. In 1874, Lt.-Col. George Armstrong Custer conducted an expedition into the Black Hills. When gold was discovered there, the Great Sioux War was the inevitable outcome. Two great Indian leaders emerged, Sitting Bull and Crazy

Horse. Also, two memorable battles were fought against the Lakota, the Cheyenne and the Arapaho in June 1876: the Battle of the Rosebud and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The end of the war and the death of Crazy Horse did not end the strife on the Northern Plains. The flight of the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph, was followed immediately by the flight of the Northern Cheyennes, under Dull Knife, from their reservation in Oklahoma. The Intermountain West was home to the Utes and Bannacks, and both tribes rose up against the U.S. government in 1878 and 1879. The final region Jerry Keenan examines is the Desert Southwest, home of the Apaches. This area saw the Apache leaders Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, Victorio and Geronimo facing off against Gens. Crook and Oliver O. Howard, along with Col. Nelson Miles. Acting as mediator, often uninvited, was Thomas Jonathan Jeffords, who probably knew the Apaches better than anyone. As you can see from this review, this volume covers a lot of ground and a lot of years. I enjoyed it a lot but wish it contained many more maps. A better editing job also would have been helped. There are many sentences with extra or missing words and the punctuation (especially the use of commas) is atrocious. Still, I recommend this book to anyone desiring a better grasp of the terrible Indian wars of the West. Also, Civil War buffs will get a kick out of seeing the pre- and post-Civil War careers of some great Union and Confederate officers. Reviewer Robert L. Durham spent most of his career at the Defense Logistics Agency. He has written book reviews and articles for numerous historical blogs and publications.

Campaigns of the 20th Iowa Infantry with Personal Reminiscences of the War. By J.D. Barnes. Edited by M. Lawrence Shannon. Photos, notes, roster, bibliography, index, 354 pp., 2016, Camp Pope Publishing, www.camppope.com, $30 hardcover, $20 softcover.

Like many published collections of Civil War soldiers’ writings, Campaigns of the 20th Iowa Infantry began with a serendipitous discovery that turned into a labor of love. These sorts of troves are often found in an old box in the attic, but in this case the treasure was located on reels of microfilmed newspapers at a county historical society. In 2000, M. Lawrence Shannon discovered a series of 66 newspaper articles that had been written by Joseph D. Barnes of the 20th Iowa. Shannon was interested in the 20th because he had an ancestor who had fought in the same company as Barnes. He and his wife Pauline transcribed the reminiscences, which had appeared in the Port Byron (Ill.) Globe in 1887 and 1888. Unfortunately, Shannon did not live to see the publication of this book, but his widow brought the project to completion. The stories in this book were told by a veteran more than 20 years after the war. Barnes wanted his readers to see “the unwritten part” of the war by showing them the “sufferings and hardships” of ordinary soldiers. Only a veteran who had seen combat firsthand, he maintained, could “write a true, full and complete history of the war in all its bloody detail.” Toward that end, Barnes vividly described the experiences of soldiers, including the terrible scenes that came after battle. Readers will not be spared from hogs devouring human corpses or the sad ordeal of women scouring battlefields for loved ones. Barnes experienced a “hardening” process early in his enlistment and claimed that gruesome battlefield scenes now “seemed to have little or no effect upon me.” Still, he had not become completely insensitive to pain and suffering. “The dead march and sick call was the only music we heard,” he wrote when discussing the many men who died of fever and dysentery during the Vicksburg campaign. “And today whenever I hear the squeak of a fife, it brings back sad recollections to my memory, and I hate the martial-music.” Barnes recounted minor engagements in Missouri, Arkansas and Alabama, as well as major events, such as the siege of Vicksburg. His prose is often lively and engaging, and his stories can be entertaining. He remembered being confused when the men of a seasoned regiment threw their playing cards on the ground before an engagement, but soon he realized that the soldiers would “rather be found dead with a testament in his pantaloon pockets than a euchre-deck.” Not all of the reminiscences are full of blood and gore. In one entry Barnes recounted his childhood friendship with Buffalo Bill Cody, while in another he claimed to have overheard Wild Bill Hickok tell the story of his infamous killing of David McCanles. (I discovered that much of the dialogue from the Hickok story was lifted from an 1867 Harper’s Magazine article.) In several places Barnes recounts well-known aspects of the war that he did not experience firsthand. These are the book’s least interesting chapters. Discussion of politics is rare, but when it appears it is revealing. Barnes believed that conservative Republicans and Douglas Democrats “did the best fighting.” He said that unlike abolitionists and fire-eaters, “the conservative man … went because he thought it was his duty to go. He was the man that could be relied upon” and who “had the moral courage to withstand the shock of battle.” Barnes cast his first ballot in 1864, voting for Lincoln’s reelection despite the fact that he “was born and bred a Democrat.” He voted for Lincoln because “I considered it would be detrimental to the Union cause to have a change in the administration at that time, as the war was progressing finely” in November 1864. Equally revealing, he thought the Democratic nominee George B. McClellan was “a good man and true to the Union cause,” but he could not vote for “the party he represents.” (The Democrats had taken a strong antiwar position at their convention that year, calling the war a “failure” in their national platform.) For all of the suffering he saw, Barnes was sorry to see it all come to an end in 1865. “I soon longed to be back in the army,” he wrote, “and I became gloomy and sad.” He had “entered the army a boy and was mustered out a man.” The war, in short, was the turning point of his life. Campaigns of the 20th Iowa is in desperate need of annotation. The editor titled the chapters, “Part 1,” “Part 2” and so forth up to “Part 66.” More descriptive titles would have better guided readers through the book. The biographical sketch of the author, which appears at the end of the volume, should have been at the beginning, and also should have incorporated information from Barnes’s pension, military service and regimental records at the National Archives. A brief explanation of the 20th’s movements also would have been helpful. Nevertheless, Campaigns of the 20th Iowa Infantry is engaging reading, especially for those with an interest in the Trans-Mississippi Theater or those who want to study how soldiers remembered the Civil War. Jonathan W. White is associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University. He is the author of Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep and Dreams during the Civil War, which will be published by UNC Press in 2017. His website is jonathanwhite.org.

CS Soldier Clothes, Stories The Soldier’s Words: FirstHand Accounts of What Confederate Soldiers Actually Wore & Interesting Anecdotes Of the Civil War Years. Compiled by Kenn Woods. Letters, recollections, diary excerpts, block quotes from secondary sources, author’s commentary and observations, 1,043 pp., 2015, New York, www. pagepublishing.com, softcover, $38.95.

Kenn Woods, as a Confederate reenactor, began this massive project to discover how the soldiers dressed, what they ate, and how disease and battle affected their lives. Designed for use in the Confederate reenacting community, for his book he scoured an impressive amount of primary and secondary sources to accomplish his objective and, to a large degree, he admirably succeeds. Woods divides the chapters by year, 1861-1865, then subdivides each into accounts from the Eastern, Western, and Trans-Mississippi theaters of war. He also includes two chapters on the Navy and POWs. He conscientiously introduces each block quote with a source citation and, in some instances, he inserts his personal observations in italics following quotations. I have never seen so many specific references to Confederate uniforms and equipage as I have in this book. He found citations about Black Confederates, men using old New York Times newspapers for ground sheets, and stealing uniforms from dead Federal soldiers. This would be a tremendous resource for the Civil War student who has the patience to wade through this voluminous collection of anecdotes, letters, and recollections were it not for the organizational and editorial flaws. The work is not indexed, which makes it very difficult to use. There is no bibliography. On every page, with every block quote, the author cites his sources in bold print, but they are replete with improper or omitted punctuation, spelling errors, and incomplete publication dates. Woods has done an admirable job compiling the information in this book. Anyone looking at it could tell he invested a tremendous amount of time, money, and love into this work. Like so many first-time authors, he needed the help of a demanding editor. Reviewer John Michael Priest retired from teaching in 2011 after serving 30.5 years. He is a guide at Antietam. He has published four Civil War books and is an avid 54mm wargamer — French and Indian War through the U.S. Civil War.

Too Great A Burden To Bear: The Struggle and Failure of the Freedmen’s Bureau in Texas. By Christopher B. Bean. Notes, bibliography, index, 309 pp., 2016, Fordham, www.fordhampress.com, $40.

Until recently, Freedmen’s Bureau agents elicited more reproach than acclaim from scholars. Early 20th-century historians, convinced that Reconstruction was the despotic project of chicaning Northerners, naturally depicted Bureau men as meddlesome and brimming with contempt. Post-revisionist historians, who perhaps too eagerly rehearsed Reconstruction’s failures, roundly upbraided the agents for replacing slavery with apprenticeships and sharecropping. In the last few decades, the historiographic stock of the Freedmen’s Bureau has appreciated. Christopher B. Bean’s new book, the most care-

THE FINEST HISTORICAL ANTIQUE MILITARIA

analysis of its subject since Barry Crouch’s The Freedmen’s Bureau and Black Texans (1992), contributes to this trend. Bean concludes that the agents tasked with overseeing the transition from slavery to freedom in the Lone Star State were genuinely devoted to their cause. While not all agents acted in a manner above reproach, and while a thirst for revenge conducted not a few Union veterans into the Bureau’s ranks, most agents labored indefatigably on behalf of freed people — the physical costs, emotional toll, and long odds of Reconstruction notwithstanding. Indeed, one cannot finish this book without a keen appreciation for those odds: the deliberately improvisational character of the bureau and its blizzard of equivocal orders; the counterproductive policies of President Andrew Johnson; the conviction among many white Southerners that the rebellion was not over; and the allergy of most Civil War Americans to military occupation. In chapters that progress both chronologically and thematically, Bean considers the obstacles confronting the Freedmen’s Bureau. His narrative extends from the impossible idealism of E.N. Gregory, the first assistant commissioner in Texas, to the candid concession of defeat made by J.J. Reynolds, who was the last. During these fraught years, agents improvised on the ground, confronted threats and rumors, and tussled with civilian officials. In 1867, they battled renewed spasms of white Southern violence and a deadly yellow fever epidemic that romped through southeast Texas. The disease claimed the life of assistant commissioner Charles Griffin, who had led the Army of the Potomac’s Fifth Corps late in the war. Despite all of this, agents midwifed basic, previously undreamed-of rights for former slaves in labor, domestic relations, education, and politics. Perhaps, Bean contends, that is all 19th century Americans and their historians should have asked of them. For until the souls of white Southerners were reached, he insists, there would be no failsafe remedies for the problems of Reconstruction. Rooted in bureau, census, and military records, Bean’s research is nothing short of exhaustive — his notes and bibliography, extending more than 100 pages, constitute nearly 35 percent of the book. There is not a reel of relevant microfilm that Bean hasn’t consulted. This spadework pays dividends in a number of helpful charts and graphs that both corroborate the book’s larger claims and provide a foundation for future work. While sympathetic, Bean’s account is hardly hagiographic. He seeks foremost to reveal who these men were, where they came from, and what motivated them to stay in the field. He enriches his study with biographical morsels and, where appropriate, thumbnail sketches of agents’ wartime exploits. We learn, for instance, that as assistant commissioner Joseph Barr Kiddoo wrestled with the intractable problems of Reconstruction, his ugly Petersburg wound continued to weep pus. Bean would have sharpened his book with an introductory chapter considering the crucial months between Appomattox and the Bureau’s arrival in Texas in September 1865. A map of the state depicting cities important to the narrative would enhance the text. And the final line, surmising that “the real tragedy of Reconstruction” was making “promises” that were impossible to fulfill, is sure to provoke heated debate. Still, this is a solid study—accessibly written and deftly argued. Reviewer Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan is Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University. He is author of Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War (2015), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Confederate Political Economy: Creating and Managing a Southern Corporatist Nation. By Michael Brem Bonner. Notes, bibliography, index, 272 pp., 2016, Louisiana State Univ. Press, www. lsupress.org, $48.

For many general students of the Civil War, their impression of the Confederate economy is that of a feudal aristocracy lording over an economic system driven primarily by slave labor. Due to such inefficiencies, the Confederate central government in Richmond had to flitter time and again throughout the war from one economic crisis to another due to the exigencies of their rebellion. While the Confederacy’s central government often did have to rush from one emergency to another, author Michael Bonner asserts in Confederate Political Economy that the South’s essential economic model was that of an “expedient corporatist state.” Corporatist is viewed as an arrangement where both private enterprise and a dominant central government relied on each other to work together for the new nation’s best interests. Thus, the Confederacy was not a “top-down” command economy as prior historians of the Confederacy have suggested. In this economic study, “expedient” is designed to reemphasize how the ever changing circumstances on the battlefield and homefront drove governmental decision-making. This give and take between the government and its people was the foundation of a constantly evolving Confederate nationalism. The Confederacy’s fledging Richmond government realized it could survive only as long as its armies did. Accordingly, Bonner’s book tells the story of how the Confederate leadership harnessed all of its economic, political, human, and industrial resources in order to provide enough of the necessary military and commissary supplies to keep those armies functioning. The book’s core starts off with an organizational study of the Confederate political environment as evidenced by its constitution and the absence of a supreme court. This is followed by in-depth comparative analysis of private munitions industries and those that were state-owned. The “expediency” of such ownership arrangements within the South’s manufacturing sector was due to a lack of industrial capacity and is an example of a corporatist state. In his final chapter, Bonner analyzes “The Confederate System,” which is his descriptive phrase for those political-economic policies implemented by the Confederate government. Though those policies were influenced by the struggling nation’s political culture, Bonner takes a closer look at how those policies were actually implemented and governed, and how they intersected with the lives of ordinary citizens. Bonner states that Confederate conscription policies epitomized the power of the expedient corporatist state. The consistent need to maintain a standing army required Confederate leaders to constantly tinker with their conscription policies, including the exemptions they allowed to business and individuals. The Confederacy’s overarching goal was survival and its ever-changing conscription policies illustrated the temporary expedients it initiated and then abandoned. The new nation’s leaders realized that controversial policies might have to be enacted that trumped individual rights and previously sacrosanct constitutional principles. They knew that personal sacrifice and submission to authority were essential for survival. The resulting policies were hallmarks of a corporatist state. This is a deeply researched book whose core topics lay within the joint realms of political and economic theory. Military strategy and tactics — along with gender and racial homefront issues — are discussed only to the extent that they influenced political and/or economic decision making. For those readers who have an interest in the economic decisions made by the Confederate government and the political culture that drove such choices, this book will surely please. Reviewer Paul Taylor is an awardwinning author of six books focusing on the Civil War era. He is finishing a book-length study of the North’s civilian Union League movement during the war years.

Sailing with Farragut: The Civil War Recollections of Bartholomew Diggins. Edited by George S. Burkhardt. Illustrated, photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 268 pp., 2016, Tennessee, www.utpress.org, $53.95.

Bartholomew Diggins was a 17-year-old Irish immigrant when he joined the crew of the USS Hartford in January, 1862 in Philadelphia. He served aboard this vessel, famed as the flagship of Adm. David Farragut, until the crew was discharged on Dec. 24, 1864. His account of his service was recorded in a manuscript deposited in the New York Public Library. Although written in the style of a journal, the manuscript contains mentions of events which could not have been known to the writer at the time, indicating that the text was probably rewritten from an earlier source. But his chronicle is an invaluable source of information on the Hartford’s combat actions on the Mississippi and on Mobile Bay, as well as day-to-day life on a naval vessel.

Diggins is notably reticent in writing about himself. His only mention of his assigned duty was, “I was stationed in main top.” Wounded with a punctured lung by a Confederate sharpshooter, he gives no mention of his treatment and recovery. The author also provides no information on his actions at Mobile Bay which merited receiving the Medal of Honor. Yet he provides some of the most vivid and powerful images of naval combat that I have ever read. At one point Diggins tells a fascinating story. While working on deck on March 26, 1863, he overheard a discussion between Farragut and Ulysses Grant: “Here I saw and distinctly heard Farragut advise the plan of attack on Vicksburg afterward followed by General Grant.” Although many crew members regarded Farragut as a “cold fish,” Diggins admired the admiral for his ability and courage. He would later name a son “David Farragut Diggins.” George Burkhardt has done a superb job in editing the manuscript, providing information on campaigns, navy structure, and explanation of obscure naval terms. His notes are comprehensive and show evidence of extensive research. Readers interested in the “brown water navy” will find the book an indispensible reference source. But in typical university press pricing policy, the price seems excessive for this small book. Reviewer Patrick E. Purcell, a graduate of Northeastern University, is a retired railroad manager. He is a former president of the Old Baldy Civil War Round Table in Philadelphia and was on the Board of Governors of the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia.

The Civil War on the Mississippi: Union Sailors, Gunboat Captains, and the Campaign to Control the River. By Barbara Brooks Tomblin. Illustrated, photos, map, 372 pp., 2016, University Press of Kentucky, www.kentuckypress.com, $50 cloth.

As Barbara Brooks Tomblin explains in her new book, the Union government created a “brown-water navy” that allowed the Federals to cut the Confederacy in two and open the Mississippi River to Northern trade. This fleet also provided “a more effective means to penetrate the Confederacy.” A number of historians have told the story of Lincoln’s unique navy and its efforts on the Mississippi River over the past 60 years, beginning with H. Allen Gosnell’s 1949 classic, Guns on the Western Waters. Tomblin has opted to take a different tack by adding the voices of “junior officers, midshipmen, and ordinary sailors.” The diaries, memoirs and letters of fleet captains to first-class boys provide “fresh insight” into activities that often did not appear in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. Tomblin begins with the early service of the so-called timberclads (converted side-wheel steamers) Conestoga, Lexington, and A.O. Tyler. The latter two fought their first major action while assisting Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Battle of Belmont, Mo., in November 1861. The timberclads of Commodore Andrew Foote’s Western Gunboat Flotilla (later known as the Mississippi Squadron) were soon joined by the seven James B. Eads “city class” ironclads. Numerous other ironclads, both purpose-built and conversions from other vessels, were added to the fleet as well. Foote’s ships easily captured Fort Henry on the Tennessee River in February 1862; eight days later, the commodore enjoyed less success against Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, as his fleet was forced to withdraw under the withering fire of the fort’s water batteries. Foote’s fortunes improved that April, when two of his ships ran past the Confederate batteries at Island No. 10 and covered the Federal army’s crossing of the Mississippi, resulting in the capture of that important fortification. The Civil War on the Mississippi also includes a chapter on operations at the southern end of the river, highlighting the capture of New Orleans by the famous Adm. David Farragut, USS Hartford, and the Gulf Squadron, and the running of the Vicksburg batteries in June 1862. Returning north, Tomblin follows the activities of Commodore Charles H. Davis, who replaced the ailing Foote. Davis and his fleet engaged in “the first purely naval fight of the war” at Plum Point Bend, north of Memphis. The Union victory the following month at the Battle of Memphis resulted in the capture of that city. Later chapters detail the Union naval operations against Fort Hindman (Arkansas Post) and in the lengthy and complex Vicksburg Campaign. Tomblin’s study concludes with the fall of the city in July 1863. Tomblin’s book is far more than an operational history of the brown-water navy, however. Her extensive use of the writings of officers and sailors adds vivid detail to her descriptions of combat. Numerous examples of heroism are cited, along with several less than heroic stories. Enlisted sailor Daniel Kemp recalled that during the fighting at Arkansas Post one young sailor was so “crazed with fear” that he jumped from the Louisville to the Cincinnati, then ran and hid in the captain’s cabin. In the midst of the Island No. 10 operation, Henry Walke of the Carondelet angrily told Egbert Thompson of the Pittsburg that if he ever fired shots over his deck again, Walke would “turn my batteries on you and blow you out of the water.” These Union “tars” also documented their arduous existence on the Western rivers. When their grog issue was officially stopped in September 1862, old sailors uttered curses, “not so loud, but deep,” some even declaring, “The country will go to dogs!” Even worse, some brown-water sailors suffering from prickly heat were ordered bathed in vinegar by their ship’s surgeon. Although a few minor errors can be found, this well-written, fastpaced narrative belongs on your bookshelf, even if you think you have read the last word about this innovative naval force. Reviewer Jeff Patrick is an interpretive specialist with the National Park Service at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in Republic, Mo. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in American history from Purdue University.

Sons of the White Eagle in the American Civil War: Divided Poles in a Divided Nation. By Mark F. Bielski. Appendices, notes, bibliography, index, 312 pp., 2016, Casemate, www.casematepublishing. com, $32.95.

During the Peninsula Campaign, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan often expressed astonishment at the melting pot of foreigners from all over the world — both enlisted men and officers — who were serving under his command. Once he had trouble communicating with some camp sentries who did not speak any English. Because of McClellan’s extensive travels in Europe in the 1850s, he was fluent in several European languages and conversant in several others. He tried speaking to the sentries in French, but they failed to understand. He also tried Spanish, Italian and German — all to no avail. He even tried a little Persian and Turkish but elicited no response. In exasperation, he gave up, concluding that the sentries must have been “Gypsies or Eskimos.” The anecdote reminds us that many foreign immigrants took up arms and fought with both the North and the South during the war. This book overviews one of these often-overlooked ethnic groups, the Poles, who — after the Germans and Irish — probably supplied the largest number of foreign officers and enlisted men to the war effort. Author Mark Bielski explores what these Poles were doing in the United States, what motivated them to participate in the war, and why some of them fought on the Confederate and not the Union side. He explains that at the beginning of the war, about 30,000 first- and second-generation Poles lived in the U.S. They had immigrated primarily for ideological, not economic, reasons, unlike the great waves of Polish immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These prewar Poles were primarily wealthy, well-educated aristocrats who believed in democratic liberalism. Many had fought unsuccessfully for Polish independence in 1830 or for the various revolutionary causes that swept over Europe and Poland in the 1840s. When the revolts and revolutions failed, they came to the United States as political refugees. When the war started, some 4,000 to 5,000 enlisted in the Union Army, while about 1,000 to 1,500 joined the Confederacy. The Poles joined both armies for related ideological reasons. Those who went with the North identified with the aspiration to free the slaves and preserve the democratic union. Those who joined the South were inspired by the idea of allowing a distinct cultural identity to create its own independent nation — just as European Poles sought an independent Polish nation to be formed from land controlled by Russia, Prussia and Austria. Both sides formed at least one military unit that, supposedly, was composed primarily of Poles. In the North, the 58th New York Infantry Regiment was known as the Polish Legion; in the South, there was the Louisiana Polish Brigade. At the heart of the book are detailed profiles of nine sample Polish soldiers, four fought for the North; four for the South. One started as a Confederate soldier and, after being captured, switched sides. The profiles reveal that these men faced similar obstacles during their military careers. For one thing, the Poles faced a surprising degree of discrimination simply because they were foreigners rather than Anglo-Saxon Americans. Deserving Poles were routinely passed over for promotion. German-born Gen. Carl Schurz once nominated Col. Wladimir Krzyzanowski, distinguished commander of the 58th New York Infantry Regiment, for the rank of brigadier general, only to see the nomination languish in the Senate. Schurz complained that the colonel’s nomination had been passed over “because no one in the Senate could pronounce his name.” Enlisted men were frequently subjected to ridicule for being “foreigners” and were segregated in military units that were comprised almost entirely of foreigners, such as the Army of Potomac’s 11th Corps. Ironically, the Poles who had been trained in European armies often showed more discipline and adherence to military rules than did their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. One competent Polish cavalry colonel, Joseph Karge, commander of the 2nd New Jersey Cavalry, burnished his reputation in the spring of 1864 by being the first Northern commander to defeat Nathan Bedford Forrest in an engagement. This happened just west of Bolivar, Miss. Despite the fact that Karge has experience serving as temporary commander of both brigades and divisions, his promotion to brigadier commander — first submitted in 1862 — was not approved until the war’s final weeks. One weakness of the book is the editing of the individual profiles, which are sometimes repetitive, with individual details being reproduced three or even four times. Overall, this book gives useful insight into an underreported aspect of the war: the experience of Polish immigrants in both Northern and Southern armies. Reviewer Walt Albro is a magazine editor and writer based in Rockville, Md. His history articles have appeared in such publications as MHQ (Military History Quarterly), Military History and The Civil War Times.

South Central Pa. Slavery & the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania. By Cooper H. Wingert. Illustrated, maps, photos, notes, bibliography, index, 160 pp., 2016, History Press, www.historypress.net, $21.99 softcover.

When Confederate forces arrived in the vicinity of South Central Pennsylvania in late June 1863, they had more than a confrontation with the Union army in mind. They intended to round up black members of the population for shipment South — destined for a life in slavery. While some whites assisted these unfortunates in their effort to remain free, others looked on callously as the Rebels stalked their prey. In July 1863, Army of the Potomac Provost Marshal Gen. Marsena Patrick learned firsthand about the political leanings of those living in and around the town of Gettysburg. He noted difficulty in gaining cooperation locally, because “the people being nearly all Copperheads.” This evidently was the legacy of a community that previously sanctioned slavery and participated in the practice to gain the benefit of hard labor with minimal compensation. Although legislation in 1780 called for the gradual emancipation of slaves in Pennsylvania, the objective of total abolition was not reached until the mid-19th century. Cooper H. Wingert compiled the facts and figures relating to this phenomenon in Slavery & the Underground Railroad in South Central Pennsylvania. This brief study serves as a handbook for understanding the origins of slavery in the Keystone state, its practitioners, and those who abhorred its very nature. The latter group, primarily Quakers with fervent religious grounding, willingly exposed themselves to ridicule, maltreatment, and even potential arrest to aid the helpless victims of this cruel system. Some early inhabitants of what became known as Cumberland County, covering the area the length of Cumberland Valley, preferred younger slaves. Boys and girls not set in their ways could be taught a trade, and more likely would remain faithful servants. Originally relying more on indentured servants imported from England, the people living in this region turned to slave labor in the mid-18th century when these servants began drifting away. Importation of slaves as replacements stoked the fires of abolition among those offended by this practice. Wingert imparts how the Revolutionary War led to the increased need for slaves to fill in for those who left the land to fight with George Washington to gain freedom for the colonies from perceived British oppression. Ironically, this period also promoted the sale of slaves by owners who recognized the opportunity to profit from the demand for slave labor. Abolitionists, however, would not be denied, and by 1780 a bill passed in the Pennsylvania legislature to establish term limits for those born into slavery after March 1, 1780. Although this bill did not free any slaves outright, it lit a light at the end of a long tunnel that raised hope for those who sought the demise of this “peculiar institution.” Slave owners in South Central Pennsylvania did not roll over once this legislation became law. They railed against the requirements, including the registration of all slaves. Nonetheless, efforts to repeal the statute came to naught. Slavery abounded in a number of areas, including in and around the town of Gettysburg. Life did not change dramatically for blacks who gained freedom, because of “black codes” restricting ability to enjoy benefits whites took for granted and creating barriers to economic enhancement. Brave souls who chose to run away became the target of ruthless slave catchers. By the early 19th century, the Adams County Protection Society organized to “use all proper means to prevent Kidnapping” of those blacks believed entitled to freedom. Although aimed at the protection of free blacks, this and other groups sheltered escaped slaves and conducted them along the “underground railroad” to safer climes. The author describes the “revolting features” of the 1863 Confederate invasion into Pennsylvania, and “the scouring of the fields … searching of houses … for negroes.” He closes with a description of the congressional effort to pass the 13th Amendment. Anyone desiring a better understanding of the evolution and demise of slavery in a Northern community should obtain a copy of this book. It is expertly researched, written and edited. Reviewer Thomas J. Ryan is the former president of the Central Delaware Civil War Round Table, and author of the award-winning Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign: How the Critical Role of Intelligence Impacted the Outcome of Lee’s Invasion of the North, June-July 1863.

Herndon’s Lincoln. By William H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik. Edited by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis. Photos, notes, index, 528 pp., 2006 cloth, 2016 paper. The Knox College Lincoln Studies Center Series. University of Illinois Press, www.press.uillinois.edu, $39 cloth, $24.95 paper.

In May 1865, Abraham Lincoln’s law partner of 16 years, William H. Herndon, began collecting correspondence and interviews from more than 250 people who had known Lincoln from his childhood until his death. Herndon used these sources to write a series of four lectures on Lincoln, which he delivered in Springfield, Ill., in 1866. He planned to turn his material into a full-length biography, but for various reasons the project kept getting stalled. Over the ensuing years Herndon permitted several other writers to use his notes for their own biographies of Lincoln, including Lincoln’s bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon and the president’s private secretaries, John Hay and John G. Nicolay. Finally, in 1889, the notes became the main source for Herndon’s own biography, Herndon’s Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life, co-authored with an aspiring young writer, Jesse W. Weik. Herndon’s research — which was published in 1998 by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis as Herndon’s Informants: Letters, Interviews, and Statements about Abraham Lincoln — has been an invaluable source for Lincoln scholars. And yet it has its limitations. Herndon gathered his “Lincoln Record” between 1865 and 1867. Most of the stories recounted in it had taken place decades earlier. As might be expected, people’s memories had warped and faded. Some of Herndon’s informants overestimated their own significance in Lincoln’s early life, while other recollections have proven highly inaccurate. With some justification, then, Herndon’s materials have been a source of contention among Lincoln biographers for the past century and a half. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Mark E. Neely Jr., for example, calls them “a tarnished source” full of information that is “likely exaggerated.” Nevertheless, since the documentary record of Lincoln’s early years is virtually nonexistent, historians have very little else to go on if they wish to write about Lincoln’s youth and young adulthood. As Lincoln biographer Benjamin P. Thomas has written, “Herndon is the most controversial figure in Lincoln literature, yet to him, more than to any other writer, we owe our knowledge of Lincoln the man — how he looked and walked, his love of fun, his melancholy, the way he thought, his personal habits and idiosyncrasies.” For these reasons, every Lincoln biographer eventually must come to terms with Herndon’s notes — as well as with Herndon’s Lincoln. In a learned introduction to the text, Wilson and Davis explain the process through which Herndon and Weik produced Herndon’s Lincoln. Most of the ideas were drawn from Herndon’s own recollections as well as those of his informants, but the final text was primarily Weik’s handiwork. In the editors’ words, Weik “presented what he understood to be Herndon’s views, but in language and in a voice of his own creation.” In fact, Weik did more than just alter Herndon’s words — he also took liberties with numerous quotations from Herndon’s informants. Wilson and Davis’s careful annotation enables readers to see how Weik used — and misused — his sources. Weik’s writing and editorial skills helped turn Herndon’s scrawl into an engaging read. Journalist Andrew Ferguson rightly calls Herndon’s Lincoln “an undeniably great book — one of the greatest American books of the nineteenth century. In its vivid depictions of frontier life, complete with neighborhood toughs, plucky frontier gals, unscrupulous river rats, and cracker-barrel pols, it rivals bits of Life on the Mississippi or even Huck Finn.” Indeed, Herndon’s Lincoln remains one of the most important volumes ever published about Abraham Lincoln. Despite its many flaws, the book presents a human being rather than a demigod. As Herndon once explained, “[I]t was my intention to write & publish the subjective Mr. Lincoln — ‘the inner life’ of Mr. L.” — to write a book that explored “his passions — appetites — & affections — perceptions — memories — judgements — understanding — will.” In other words, Lincoln’s warts and all. It is little wonder that some 19th-century Americans were horrified by its release. “It vilely distorts the image of an ideal statesman, patriot and martyr,” stated the Chicago Journal. “It clothes him in vulgarity and grossness.” All these years later, Herndon’s Lincoln remains a controversial book. But in the expert hands of Wilson and Davis, this edition should be on the shelves of anyone with an interest in Abraham Lincoln. Casual readers will enjoy reading this classic biography, but they should read it in conjunction with one of the many excellent modern biographies by Michael Burlingame, David Herbert Donald, Allen C. Guelzo, Mark E. Neely Jr., or Ronald C. White, Jr., to name a few. Reviewer Jonathan W. White is associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and author of several books on the Civil War, including Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War, which will be published by the University of North Carolina Press in March 2017. His website is www.jonathanwhite.org.

The Infamous Dakota War Trials of 1862. By John A. Haymond. Photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index, 276 pp., 2016. McFarland. http://www.mcfarlandbooks. com, $39.95.

In discussing the causes and consequences of the U.S. Dakota War — probably the bloodiest Indian war of the 19th century — the author also provides the context of military law. While a complement to Scott W. Berg’s 38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier’s End (2012), this new book stands on its own in discussing the claims of atrocities on both sides — Native American as well as white — and the continuing debate over the role of culture in warfare. Haymond is at his best in depicting how historians have treated the war over the years. The war began in southwestern Minnesota in summer 1862. After it concluded, with the help of Union soldiers under the command of Maj. Gen. John Pope whose army had been recently defeated by Gen. Robert E. Lee at the second battle of Manassas, the Lincoln administration convened a commission of five army officers. There were military trials of 391 Indians charged with murder and massacre. After the trials, lasting 36 days, 303 Dakota warriors were sentenced to death in what was to be the largest simultaneous execution in American history. Lincoln and his judge advocate general struggled reviewing the records of the military trials before the president commuted all but 38 of the sentences. Thirty-eight were hanged on Dec. 26, 1862. While many today regard the trials and executions as an act of revenge by an erstwhile and corrupt bureau of Indian affairs, the death toll for the Indians through execution would have been much higher if it had not been for the empathy and fair dealing of the president. On Dec. 26, 1862, during a mild winter morning in Mankato, Minn., 38 Dakota Sioux were led to the single gallows and hanged. If the hangings ended one chapter with the Dakota War, it opened others. There would be many wars fought between the United States and other tribal groups of the Sioux for 30 years. Memorable battles to come included the Fetterman Fight, the Wagon Box Fight, The Battle of Little Bighorn, as well as other battles at Fort Ridgely, Birch Coulee, and Wood Lake in Minnesota. As this book demonstrates, the controversies around the military trials and executions, rather than fading, have continued with vigor. The 1862 trials were conducted under military law rather than through the civilian legal system. In fact, as the author points out, most historians fail to recognize the differences or to understand them. There has been great contention relating to the guilt or innocence of those hanged at Mankato. Allegations of haste and lack of procedural due process continue. The author examines the trials in detail regarding how the war has been portrayed over the years. He addresses, rather forcefully, whether or not the Dakota Sioux who were charged received anything resembling due process. Haymond also discusses whether or not it was appropriate for these defendants to be tried by military commission, a question which has resurfaced regarding the contemporary war on terror detainees. What about the alleged atrocities committed by the Dakotas? Were there acts of mutilation and violence against women raped and children killed? Or was this fear propaganda? Clearly there is a difference in comprehension between contemporary Dakota Native Americans and the views of Europeans-Americans. The author provides an objective commentary and answers to these questions based on evaluating reliable sources. Reviewer Frank J. Williams is founding chairman of the Lincoln Forum and author of Lincoln as

Free Spirits: Spiritualism, Republicanism, and Radicalism in the Civil War Era. By Mark A. Lause. Notes, index, 223 pp., 2016, Illinois, www.press.uillinois.edu, $30.

A FREE SPIRITS SPIRITUALISM, REPUBLICANISM, AND RADICALISM IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA

MARK A. LAUSE

Adding to his lengthy and eclectic bibliography, Mark A. Lause has “conjured up” a wide-ranging new history of spiritualism and its significance to the Civil War generation. Spiritualism began in 1848 — one more artifact of the reformist zeal that romped through the “burned over district” of upstate New York in the mid-19th century. Insisting that they could commune with the dead, spiritualists gathered for séances, huddled around mediums, and listened intently for spirit “rappings.” Lause’s book is not a comprehensive history of the spiritualist movement; nor, like Drew Gilpin Faust in This Republic of Suffering: Death and the Civil War (2008), is the author principally interested in the legions of families who sought to communicate with loved ones killed in battle. Alternatively, Lause sets out to position spiritualism within the larger history of mid-19th century radicalism — at once assessing the movement’s import to the sectional conflict and the thorny questions that struggle raised. The story he uncovers is an important and largely persuasive one. The spiritualist movement grew — its circles extending from New York to New England and then to the Midwest — alongside the Republican antislavery coalition. To a large extent, the movements both shared personnel and ideas. Not unlike the Northern intellectuals chronicled in George M. Fredrickson’s classic The Inner Civil War (1965), spiritualists quickly rejected their initial qualms about the war and its inevitable costs. Divining in the war the hope of sweeping social, political, and economic change, spiritualists became some of its most vocal Northern exponents. In his most effective chapter, Lause’s considers Lincoln’s association with spiritualism and Mary Todd’s (in)famous White House séances. Some of this material has been ploughed by Lincoln biographers, but Lause breaks new ground by considering spiritualism’s union with Lincoln. We read of the spiritualists who, in long-forgotten national conventions, pledged their support for the president — even as his hopes for a second term appeared to flag in the summer of 1864. Lause speaks through an incredible range of recondite sources — having mined long forgotten newspapers and periodicals. While perhaps best suited for a specialist audience, this is a noteworthy and thought-provoking book from one of the most innovative historians of the Civil War era working today. It’s truly one of the most original and compelling additions to the canon in recent years. Reviewer Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan is Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University and author of Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War (2015), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.