Book Reviews

Book Reviews — July 2018

Originally published July 2018 · pp. 28–33

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

Riding the Rails to Victory Military Trains and Railways: An Illustrated History. By Jean-Dennis G.G. LePage. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index, 216 pp., 2017. McFarland, www.mcfarlandpub.com, $45 softcover. Reviewed by Richard J. Blumberg

This work is better than most general information railroad books currently available, because LePage describes all three major aspects of military trains: 1) transport and logistics; 2) railborne artillery; and 3) armored trains and draisines (auxiliary rail vehicles primarily used for maintenance). Using a backdrop of various world-wide battles from 1825 to the present, he incorporates various lessons learned, showing how military trains evolved as tactical weapons and logistical tools. This time frame spans many periods of large-scale armed conflicts ranging from trench warfare to the use and transport of nuclear weapons. As a result, many countries changed their strategy about how military trains should be employed. LePage dedicates several chapters to advances made by the Germans, Italians, French and Soviets. Additionally, he describes how changes in strategy and technology greatly reduced the role of military trains in current operations. Each chapter represents a different military engagement. This chronology gives readers a better understanding of the past, present and future roles that military trains played in warfare. Each chapter begins with a brief background on a specific battle. This gives readers an appropriate context for the remainder of the discussion. LePage then provides a specific narrative supporting the innovations achieved. As a result, this work is general in nature and does not provide much specific detail about any particular topic. The American Civil War, for example, is covered in eleven short pages, including illustrations. Several of the technological advances for hospital evacuees and supply and troop movement are mentioned, but aren’t fully vetted. LePage makes excellent use of illustrations and maps throughout this work. Detailed narratives are frequently provided with the pictures to give readers additional information. Perhaps the most important contribution of this work is the discussion regarding how locomotives evolved to meet the needs of carrying heavier loads at increased speeds, and using different types of fuel and power. As a general reference on military railroad operations, this book receives high marks and fills a void left by other works. Richard Blumberg has been a book reviewer for Civil War News for over 15 years. His article on hospital transports was published in the February 2017 edition of our newspaper.

A Hoosier Governor and His Impact on His State and the Nation

Oliver P. Morton and the Politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction. By A. James Fuller. Photos, notes, index, 467 pp, 2017. Kent State University Press, www.KentStateUniversityPress.com. $59.95 hardcover. Reviewed by Stephen Lee Ritchie

Those who have ever heard of Indiana’s “Great War Governor” would be surprised to learn that he was not elected to that office but was elevated by pre-arrangement when the duly elected official became the state’s U.S. senator. They would also be surprised to discover that Oliver P. Morton operated that office as a virtual dictator, refusing to involve the elected representatives of the people, fearing shared power with members of his own party and fearing everything about the Democratic Party. In this new biography of Oliver P. Morton and the Politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Dr. A. James Fuller of the University of Indianapolis thoroughly examines a conflicted man and the divided if not dysfunctional political conditions in which he lived. In it, Fuller has successfully added, if not surpassed, William Dudley Folke’s 1899 classic two-volume study in this thoroughly researched addition to 19th century understanding. Growing up in Centerville, Indiana, a town astride the National Road, considered by many as the Mason-Dixon Line of Indiana, Morton quickly learned the difficulty of divided feelings and the desirability of power. As governor, he struggled with the sentiments of a state that ranked second in percentage of men provided to the Union cause, but also contained as many as 10,000 Copperheads and one community that passed a resolution of secession before many Southern states (Boggstown, Indiana, February 16, 1861). While the author contends that Morton stood for “freedom, Union, power and party,” there is little evidence given to support that order of preference, and the reverse seems more consistent with the facts as stated. Throughout his political career, Morton vacillated between “nationalism” and “states rights” as it suited his own ambitions. Often at odds with Lincoln and others as a “states rights” governor, he had seemingly no compunctions about an immediate about-face to a nationalist agenda as a U.S. senator. Serving in that position he opposed evil white Southerners, the Democratic Party and even former friends among the Radical Republicans when his own ambitions demanded it. The biographical narrative of Oliver P. Morton provided by Professor Fuller is engaging, to be sure, but an even greater value is his expose’ of Indiana politics and the efforts of an elected official to circumvent the power of the people’s representatives and even of his own party when not in concert with his own ambitions. It is because I recommend this book that I find it unfortunate that the author fell into the PC trap of claiming former Confederate general, U.S. Senator John B. Gordon “had helped create the Ku Klux Klan,” even though the creators of the 1st generation Klan are well known and they did not include Gordon. He later refers to him as the “Confederate-turned Klansman-turned-Senator” although Gordon testified under oath to a Congressional Committee in 1871 that he was not a member and no evidence has proven otherwise. Also, he gives a rather curious definition of “Butternuts” not as Confederate soldiers, but as “large portions of the population [that] hailed from the South or claimed Southern ancestry.” I suppose inconsequential, but disconcerting nonetheless, is the tendency to refer to the Democratic Party as “the Democracy.” The term may be technically correct but not in the twenty-first century lexicon. There is much to be learned from this new volume about a state considered “Northern,” but that in fact was very divided in the sentiments of its people. It is doubtful that any who take up the book from admiration of Indiana’s fourteenth Governor will be dissuaded…or those who revile him will be swayed. Stephen Lee Ritchie was born, raised, educated and is currently living in the Hoosier state. A pastrecipient of the William Woods Hassler Award for Civil War Studies, he is the Head of Faculty at the Annual Spring Mill Civil War Symposium to be held this August near Mitchell, Indiana.

Upton Correspondence Yields Invaluable Insights

Correspondence of Major General Emory Upton. Edited by Salvatore G. Cilella. Vol. 1, 1857–1875. Bibliography, annotations, illustrations, 406 pp., 2017. University of Tennessee Press, www.utpress.org. $58.00 hardcover. Vol. 2, 1875–1881. Bibliography, annotations, illustrations, 367 pp., 2017. University of Tennessee Press, www. utpress.org. $58.00 hardcover. Reviewed by John Foskett

Emory Upton is enjoying a deserved flood of attention from scholars after languishing in limited and often misguided treatment during the nearly 130 years after his premature demise by suicide. An accomplished, innovative brigade and division commander in the Union armies during the Civil War, he later became possibly the most influential American military thinker of the latter nineteenth century. Hard on the heels of David Fitzpatrick’s long-needed and excellent revisionist biography, Emory Upton, Misunderstood Reformer, former Atlanta History Center CEO Salvatore G. Cilella has edited two comprehensive volumes of selected correspondence by Upton. Author of a fine unit history of Upton’s first infantry command, the 121st New York, Cilella has accessed numerous repositories. He has chosen a wealth of highly informative letters which thoroughly cover the major events in Upton’s career. While a significant portion of this material was available to Upton’s hagiographer Peter Michie when he wrote his 1885 Life and Letters of Emory Upton, Michie resorted to frequent omissions or even alteration of the content. Deciphering Upton’s generally-inscrutable handwriting (a telling reproduction of which appears in the books), Cilella has given readers the first carefully-culled and accurate compilation of Upton’s voluminous letters. Volume 1 of these books contains letters and reports from the period 1857 to 1875. It covers Upton’s West Point and Civil War experiences, his substantial postwar revision of the army’s approved infantry tactics/drill manual, the devastating death of his young wife, and his role as Commandant of Cadets at West Point. The second volume, which traverses the period 1875 to Upton’s untimely death in 1881, embraces his lengthy trip around the world to study various nations’ militaries, his resulting book, The Armies of Asia and Europe, and the work on his controversial, posthumously-published treatise, The Military Policy of the United States. Much of the correspondence is addressed to Upton’s sister Maria and to his army confidantes James H. Wilson, Henry DuPont and Thomas Ruger. Cilella has capably and thoroughly annotated the collection, often using Upton’s published works, responses by his correspondents, and reliable secondary sources. Many of these notes are extensively detailed. The chosen correspondence portrays a fascinating figure who is revealed with a scope that even Fitzpatrick’s solid biography can only touch upon. The first volume illustrates a young, ambitious officer who possessed ideas ranging far beyond the limitations of his rank. For example, an August 1863 letter to his sister lays out a considered plan for an overall Union war strategy and a plausible Confederate response. Another letter shows that three days before the battle of Third Winchester in September 1864, brigade commander Upton already was experimenting with a drill using the basic unit of “fours” which became the cornerstone of his 1867 and 1873 revisions of the tactics manual. A third letter, which was misleadingly cleansed by Michie, contains strident criticism of the Union high command, including specifically George G. Meade. Yet another has the reputed martinet Upton exhibiting tolerance for deserting volunteers. While Cilella has omitted much of the routine correspondence to Upton’s wife during their too-brief marriage, letters to his sister demonstrate what was something of an anomaly for nineteenth century Americans­—a conviction that women should attain as much formal education as possible. The second volume reveals Upton at his most observant and descriptive. His letters from Japan, China, India and Persia (Iran) are a virtual late-nineteenth century travelogue of the landscapes, peoples, cuisines, cities, governments and military structures of those nations, infused with a dose of western racial and religious bias. As a rock climber I found surprisingly accurate his detailed depiction of the prominent geological features in what today is Yosemite National Park, when he toured that area at the outset of his global trip. Upton’s battles with State Department officials regarding his frustrated efforts to observe German military maneuvers and with bureaucracy generally shine through. His outrage at the disclosed corruption of certain Grant administration officials and his firm belief in a merit-based civil service system come across forcefully, as does his insistence on military reform. Likewise, his lifelong pursuit of career ambition and his attempts to gain from his publications are fully evident. A modern note surfaces in Upton’s concerns about the influence of “anarchists” and “communists” in an 1877 railroad strike. These letters also amply support Fitzpatrick’s rejection of the long-accepted view that Upton was an intellectual slave to Prussian military thinking with an anti-democratic mindset. Civil War readers likely will be most interested in Volume One, but both books are significant and are strongly recommended. John Foskett is a practicing attorney in Boston with a lifelong interest in the Civil War. He is descended from Isaac Foskett, who served for three years in the Engineer Battalion with the Army of the Potomac. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News, he has given Civil War Roundtable presentations on the subject of Civil War field artillery tactics.

Gettysburg Day One, Revisited

Along the Lines of Devotion: The Bloodstained Field of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. By James Smith. Endnotes, bibliography, maps, photos (some in color), 158 pp., 2017. Fonthill Media, www.casematepublishing.com. $24.95 paperback. Reviewed by Howard Burrell

The story of the first day of battle at Gettysburg has been told many times before. Most Civil War enthusiasts have a good understanding of what happened there on July 1, 1863. Those seeking deeper, more scholarly works on the background and details of the first day battle should read books such as Harry W. Pfanz, Gettysburg, The First Day (2001) or David G. Martin, Gettysburg, July 1 (2003), both of whom Smith lists in the bibliography. There is no new ground broken here. But not everyone interested in the Civil War is familiar with the details of this part of the battle of Gettysburg. Smith’s intention is obviously not to write another lengthy, detailed volume or provide ground-breaking research into the first day’s battle. To his credit, he clearly states in the Introduction that his intent and purpose is to give “a new basic understanding” of the first day’s battle and its preceding events. He states that the book is for people with little knowledge of this material, and hopefully would be a helpful review for buffs as well. He accomplishes what he set out to do very well, but keep in mind that his intention is to keep it basic. It is a work that adequately tells the story of July 1, but it is not written to deeply analyze it or dissect the reasoning behind the strategies of the leaders or the battlefield tactics employed. The book has 134 pages, in 10 chapters with 416 endnotes. A bibliography is included. The first chapter is entitled “Organization,

Ranks, Mascots, Artillery, and Small Arms.” He takes only four pages to cover all five topics. This is perhaps a little too basic. Despite the ease of reading Smith’s writing, one should be aware of some historical errors in the book. For instance, in the brief first chapter, the author incorrectly lists as casualties during the battle such noted troop mascots as Sallie the dog, that accompanied the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry, as well as General Lee’s horse Traveler. Beginning with the second chapter, Smith writes in a narrative style that utilizes copious quotes from primary and secondary sources. About a third of the book is devoted to reporting of events during the month of June 1863 leading up to day one at Gettysburg. This background is helpful in orienting the reader to what is to come, especially those unfamiliar with the initial stages of the Gettysburg Campaign. Day One stories and descriptions of events are written in an easy-to-understand format, with lots of human interest accounts and quotes from soldiers’ personal letters included. He tries to be neutral in his storytelling, but from time to time his bias does come through. In addition, he has firm subjective opinions that are presented as fact. For example, he states as foregone conclusions such debatable topics as the morale of both armies coming into the battle, Lee’s leadership style and the importance of Meade’s Pipe Creek circular. This is James Smith’s first adventure into writing a historical book. He does a reasonable job of telling the story with both interest and enthusiasm. I look forward to his future works, in which hopefully he will bring more maturity to his writing style and more accurate historical data and editorial neatness to his work. Howard Burrell is a Leadership Program Facilitator with the Leadership Program of the Gettysburg Foundation and President of Burrell Associates, LLC. He is also a docent for the Joseph Sherfy Farm and the Foundation’s George and Elizabeth Spangler Farm.

The Badger State Goes to War

Wisconsin in the Civil War. By Ronald Paul Larson. Illustrations, appendices, index, bibliography, 224 pp., 2017. History Press, www.historypress.net. $21.99 paperback. Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf

Ronald Larson provides a catalogue of the services of roughly 80,000 soldiers Wisconsin supplied to the Union war effort. Each unit is meticulously defined by its strength, ethnic origin, theater of service, composition, battlefield deaths, disease, and enlistment dates and locations. Included are African-American and Indian enrollments, reflecting the diversity of Wisconsin’s population. Wisconsin’s women on the home front, as well as civilian efforts to produce goods for the army are likewise included to reflect the overall commitment of Wisconsin’s populace. Highlighted in this book are several regiments that exemplified extreme sacrifices, including the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry that suffered the highest percentage of deaths of any regiment in the Union army; the 5th Wisconsin’s bayonet attack at Marye’s Heights, where one-third of its soldiers were lost; and the 37th Wisconsin Infantry at Petersburg, where 160 members were killed or wounded. These examples illustrate the defiance, force, fury and determination of Wisconsin’s soldiers. To further highlight the heroism displayed by the Badger State, a bibliographic entry is provided for the nineteen recipients of the Medal of Honor, including Arthur MacArthur, Jr., the father of Douglas MacArthur, and the only father-and-son team so honored. Particular attention is paid to the home front, as in the role of immigrants (only 97 out of 2,500 members of the 1st Wisconsin cavalry were born in Wisconsin). Additionally, women have a prominent place in the book, with over 6,000 serving as nurses. They also knitted for the soldiers, pushed for hospital construction, ran sanitary fairs, and helped found Soldiers’ Homes. Likewise, the treatment of prisoners, desertion rates, and Confederate prison deaths are prominently mentioned, reflecting the terrible human cost of the conflict. The statistics presented in this book are impressive, gathered from numerous existing government as well as private sources. These enable the reader to comprehend the extent of the war effort on the people and industries of Wisconsin. There are two improvements that would materially enhance the book. Readability suffers from the presentation of factual data absent attention to an analysis of its meaning. Secondly, the index is woefully inadequate and incomplete. On the positive side, there are a number of smaller battles mentioned, e.g., L’Anquille Ferry, Honey Springs and Baxter Springs, which would provide an ambitious historian of the western theater with material for much neglected research areas. The book is historically accurate, and save for a few grammatical lapses, it is a valuable research tool for Wisconsin historians, albeit a target audience that is rather small.

Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous Civil War books and articles, including Heroes and Rogues of the Civil War (1997). He is currently searching for unpublished letters and diaries that shed light on the common soldier.

Theater of a Separate War: The Civil War West of the Mississippi River 1861–1865. By Thomas W. Cutrer. Notes, bibliography, index, 588 pp., 2017. University of North Carolina Press, www.uncpress.org. $40.00. Reviewed by Thomas E. Schott

For any student of the American Civil War, the mere appearance of a book thus entitled would occasion at least an inner surge of anticipation. The title promises an encompassing volume long needed. Both its predecessor volumes—Jay Monaghan’s Civil War on the Western Border 1854–1865 (1955) and Alvin M. Josephy’s The Civil War in the American West (1991)—fall short of a comprehensive examination and analysis of the war in the sprawling Trans-Mississippi Theater. Encompassing the states of Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, Indian Territory, as well as the territories of New Mexico and Arizona, the Trans-Mississippi has long been regarded as a backwater of the war, simply far less sanguinary and star-studded with famous leaders than the conflict in Virginia and Confederate states east of the river. Nothing in this book would change that view. Though Cutrer contends from the outset that the region was “of tremendous potential significance,” a fact to which “the Confederate government was myopic,” this overall argument fades out of the book. In fact, we learn that direct cooperation between the Trans-Mississippi and the Confederacy east of the river was virtually non-existent—only once did troops from the theater cross the Mississippi (Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn reinforced General P.G.T. Beauregard at Corinth, Mississippi, in the spring of 1862), and at no time did troops from east of the river cross to the west. Indeed, the crowning deficiency of this volume is its lack of an overarching theme tying together a seemingly endless stream of “analytical military narrative” with only “some contextual attention to social, political, and economic history,” the author’s own description. Alas, the “contextual attention” also tended towards myopia. For example, although Cutrer spends a good deal of time discussing the Vicksburg campaign’s impact, nowhere does any clear explanation for the Trans-Mississippi’s failure to attempt relief of the river city appear. Nor does it contain any specific account of supplies and material making their way from the Trans-Mississippi, a common failing in most volumes that discuss the vital importance of control of the Mississippi River during the war. Such lapses would be reason enough to fault this work, but its flaws don’t end there. Foremost, the volume contains but one single pitifully inadequate map of the theater right at the front. In the ensuing 550-plus pages, the reader encounters myriad marches and maneuvers, mountain ranges, rivers, streams, villages and towns, roads, bridges, and forts, every form of combat from naval operations to artillery duels to skirmishes to set battles, not to mention units from companies to full armies, and nowhere is any of it depicted on a map. Readers are forced to rely on their own resources to make sense of the most basic elements of the story. How in a self-proclaimed work of military analysis can this be? And how can such a volume emanate from such a celebrated academic press as the University of North Carolina? It’s a question that only reverberates as the reader begins to encounter what eventually becomes an avalanche of editorial omissions and errors. To illustrate, a roughly 60-page swath of the book contains the following: On p. 260 we read “the loss of transit between the two sides of the Mississippi did not affect Confederate supply in the least, because they had been separated logistically.” On the next page: “loss of transit between east and west hurt the Confederate supply not at all, for the two parts of the Confederacy effectively had long been separated logistically.” (Much earlier, five and a half lines of text are repeated word for word on pp. 7 and 10.) “Readoubt” is spelled wrong on p. 273; “archduke” on p.286 should be possessive; “Forth” on p. 288 should be “Fourth”; “Colonel” on p. 292 should be “Col.”; “One”’ on p. 320 should be “On.” Other annoyances abound: characters are introduced and identified and appear pages later without identification; the same is true of units and their commanders and geographical features such as rivers, roads, and towns. Items in the text are omitted from the bibliography, Morgan W. Merrick’s From Desert to Bayou, for example. Even the index could be improved. Entries omit the rank and country for all members of the military. Nonetheless, readers and researchers interested in various aspects of the war in the Trans-Mississippi will find coherent treatments of several campaigns and battles, including Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks’s celebrated Red River campaign in Louisiana in 1864 and Sterling Price’s Missouri raid later that year, or amphibious operations on the Texas coast and at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Readers seeking some rudimentary understanding of the conflict in Indian Territory might also find this work helpful. Unfortunately, the overall usefulness and value of this book has been greatly diminished by weaknesses and mistakes that any discerning reader will find annoying and ultimately to some degree intolerable. Cutrer, who admittedly has been most poorly served by his editor(s), has contravened the writer’s most inviolable tenant: above all things thou shalt practice clarity. Thomas E. Schott is co-editor, with Lawrence L. Hewitt, of Confederate Generals in the Western Theater, Vol. 4, recently published by University of Tennessee Press. His third volume as co-editor of essays on Confederate generals in the Trans-Mississippi is due out later this year.

“Thou Shalt Practice Clarity”

Not Worth Your Time

United States Revenue and Coast Guard Cutters in Naval Warfare, 1790–1918. By Thomas P. Ostrom, Maps by David H. Allen. Bibliography, illustrations, photographs, maps, index, 240 pp., 2018, MacFarland, www.mcfarlandpub.com $39.95 softcover. Reviewed by Joseph A. Derie

The U.S. Coast Guard is the nation’s oldest continuous seagoing service. Founded in 1790 as the Revenue Marine to ensure that foreign vessels paid customs duties, its ships were referred to as revenue cutters, adapted from the usage of Great Britain’s Customs Service. There was no U.S. Navy between the Revolution and the quasi-war with France in 1798, and revenue cutters were the only armed vessels when that quasi-war began. Revenue cutters fought in the first battles of that conflict, some of them in the West Indies. They would later go on to fight Seminole Indians, slavers, pirates, Mexicans, Confederates, and Spaniards (in Cuban waters and Manila Bay). As U.S. Coast Guard cutters after 1915, they would fight the Germans, rum runners, the Germans again, the Japanese, the VC, NVA and North Vietnamese Navy as well as drug runners. As can be seen, there is a story to be told here, but unfortunately it is not well told in this volume. The problem is that the volume is poorly organized, poorly written, and poorly edited. In addition, the bibliography shows some surprising absences. To begin with, the author has chapters that have no bearing on the subject. Chapters on the Union and Confederate navies and an historical assessment of them, and on policing the Alaska frontier (1867–1915—no naval battles here) are unnecessary and basically just filler. The volume could use better editing. The revenue cutter turned into the USS Harriet Lane, later captured by the Confederates, was never a Confederate privateer. Chapter 8, “Pirates, Slaves and Seminole Indians,” is a mishmash going back and forth in no particular order, repeating itself and including a paragraph on General Winfield Scott and his “Anaconda Plan”

in the Civil War. Chapter 15 is “The U.S.R.C.S. and the U.S. Coast Guard Merge.” Actually, the U.S.R.C.S. merged with the U.S. Life-Saving Service to become the U.S. Coast Guard. Personnel of the Revenue Marine are not revenue marines, but revenue mariners. It is understood the personnel commanding a vessel are from that service, so stating that “Captain Winslow Foster (U.S.R.M.) is the…commander of the R.C. Woodbury,” as is done many times in the book, is unnecessary. The author offers no citation for calling the members of the U.S. Life-Saving Service “surf soldiers.” No sailor wants to be referred to as a soldier. The Confederate submarine Hunley was never commissioned in the C.S. Navy, so referring to is as the CSS Hunley is inaccurate. The bibliography shows that the author has not mined the available sources. The latest history of the quasi-war with France is Stoddert’s War: Naval Operations during the Quasi-War, 1798–1801; it is not listed. Neither is The Coast Guard Under Sail: The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, 1789–1865, by Irving King. Two fine volumes produced by the U.S.C.G., U.S. Revenue Cutter Service 1789–1849, by Horatio David Smith, Captain-Commandant U.S.R.C.S. and U.S. Revenue Cutters in the Civil War by Florence Kern, are also not listed. United States Revenue and Coast Guard Cutters in Naval Warfare, 1790–1918 is not recommended. From the bibliography (with surprising absences, as noted above), the author has done a great amount of research, but has not translated that into a readable or accurate volume. Those wanting to read credible and interesting volumes about the Revenue Cutter Service and U.S.C.G. for the period covered include the three volumes on the U.S.C.G./ Revenue Cutter Service listed above, as well as Stephen H. Evans’ The United States Coast Guard 1790–1915: A Definitive History and Alex R. Lazelere, The Coast Guard in World War I, all available from online booksellers at reasonable prices. Joe Derie is a longtime Civil War buff with a special interest in Civil War naval history. He is a retired United States Coast Guard officer and a licensed officer of the Merchant Marine, currently selfemployed as a marine surveyor and marine accident investigator in Portland, Ore.

They Hated Lincoln, but Supported his War

“This Infernal War”: The Civil War Letters of William and Jane Standard. Edited by Timothy Mason Roberts. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index, 376 pp., 2018. Kent State University Press, www.kentstateuniversitypress.com. $34.95 cloth. Reviewed by Jonathan W. White

Four years ago I published a history of Democrats in the Union Army called Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln. I wish that this book—which reproduces the letters of a Democratic soldier and his wife—had been available when I was doing my research. Indeed, This Infernal War: The Civil War Letters of William and Jane Standard is a true gem. Will Standard joined the 103rd Illinois Volunteers in August 1862. At 40 years old, he was much older than the average Civil War soldier. Will and Jane Standard were also strident Democrats. The editor can only surmise as to why Will enlisted in the army when he did, but it certainly was not to free the slaves. Will Standard was an anti-Lincoln, anti-emancipation, and antiwar soldier. One month after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, he wrote, “It is more honorable to desert than to stay in this abolition war to free the [slaves] and [e]nslave the white men.” Will and Jane wrote often of desertion, and they contemplated how he might pull it off—perhaps by getting captured and paroled by Confederate soldiers, or perhaps by selling their property and moving to California. Ultimately the “risk of being shot while running by the pickets” and wanting to be “honorable” kept Standard in the army. The Standards hated Lincoln and his “Black Republican” party. In October 1862, Will complained to Jane, “Privates are treated worse than the [slaves] in the south, but so it is. We are slaves to old Abe Lincoln.” In the spring of 1863, Will wished he was home to attend a Democratic meeting to “help them adopt peace measures.” During the summer of 1864, he told Jane that Lincoln “intend[s] to kill off all the northern men and boys, and the entire population of the south to satisfy his own appetite to liberate the slaves of the South.” After Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, Jane expressed ambivalence about his death. “Will, I don’t mourn his loss nor I don’t rejoice. I hope it is all for the best. How many poor men has he cause[d] to go to their long home?” Despite their antiwar sentiment and virulent racism, Will considered applying to become an officer in a black regiment—not for racially egalitarian reasons, but because of the promotion and pay increase that would go along with the position. Will participated in the battle of Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta Campaign, and the March to the Sea. He also marched in the Grand Review in Washington, D.C.—an experience he thoroughly enjoyed. He thought William T. Sherman was “the best General in the world, and put full confidence in him.” And his letters give wonderful accounts of his interactions with southern civilians, such as one Georgia woman who thought that Union soldiers were asking for sex when they asked her for sorghum (molasses). Jane’s letters offer a particularly rich picture of prairie farm life during the war. Readers will see the strife brought to communities by enforcement of the draft, the steps that Jane took to make financial ends meet, and the emotional hardships endured by women and children at home. Readers will also enjoy Jane’s candor. She wrote about her dreams, of mud that was “ass deep,” and of other problems that arose during the war. “Dear Will the fleas is about to eat me up,” she confided in a letter. “I just opened my dress and killed three in my bosom.” My only regret is that this volume is not longer. The editor excluded about 35 of the more than 200 letters in the collection and also omitted “certain passages that are repetitive or that lack historical significance.” In my view, it is better to include everything in a volume like this. One never knows what a reader or researcher will find significant. A descendant of the Standards tried to publish these letters in 1939, but a literary agent replied that “there is no drama about them and they do not touch any high spots in the war or at home.” That agent did not know what she was talking about. I only hope this book will be released in paperback reasonably soon as it would be a wonderful primary source to use in Civil War classes. Jonathan W. White teaches at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Va. He is author or editor of eight books, including Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2017). His article, “Freedom by Hatchet,” appears in the August issue of Civil War Times.

After a very informative introduction, author E. Lawrence Abel invites you to witness the early life of John Wilkes Booth. You first meet Junius, the father who at age thirteen is in court being sued by a woman on a paternity charge, and back in court at age sixteen being sued on the same charges by another woman. As has been covered in other books, Junius, now married and a well-known actor, left his wife and small child and fled to America with his current pregnant girlfriend who was to become the mother of John Wilkes Booth, actor and lover extraordinaire, following in his father’s footsteps. In this current and very readable book, author Abel has proven to be quite “able” to present actor John Wilkes Booth to the reader as a handsome, vain, fame-seeking egocentric who was also described by his friends as “the gentlest man.” He “cast a spell over most men….all women” and was winning and captivating. Everyone loved him! At the height of his fame, women flocked to see him act and waited breathlessly to see or touch him as he left the theater. Though he professed not to like this, he submitted to their adoration. In all cases, you get the feeling that the women Booth toyed with really loved and idolized him and, of course, he responded to their caresses and loved them back. Booth, on the other hand, the always-willing lover, had a short attention span, and another lovely would always turn his head. Women found he was hard to hold on to for long, and this caused many broken hearts and angry outbursts. To get you started on the John Wilkes Booth and his women journey, the author has provided family background bringing out the family faults. This is the backdrop of Booth’s early life. Booth does become famous, but becomes embroiled in the North-South difference of opinion. As a well-known established actor, he performed in both areas but was happier in the South. By 1864, he fervently made it clear that he favored the South. Also, at about this time, to his many friends and family members, he seemed to have undergone a personality change. This author feels Booth may have been suffering from syphilis and he presents a very believable case for it. An interesting possibility. Up to 1864 Booth was enjoying his fame and women, but now he was “do or die” for his country, the South. We all know Booth succumbed to his hatred for Lincoln and his love for the South when he fired that fatal bullet into Lincoln’s head on April 14. The assassination is covered briefly in the book, as well as the final capture and death of Booth. The author relates how that fatal bullet affected the women in Booth’s life: his mother, his sister Asia, the various prostitutes he had befriended and loved and the actresses he dallied with. All of them were touched in some way by Booth’s actions and death. One interesting woman was Lucy Lambert Hale, the woman Booth was engaged to. Booth told her that he loved her and wanted to marry her, but was not true to her. She never mentioned Booth during her lifetime, but newspapers never let the story of them die. One of Booth’s loves happens to live on in Brumidi’s painting, The Apotheosis of Washington, seen in the dome of the Capitol. The author brings to life women who have up to this time only taken up a few lines in books addressing the Booth saga. You will meet Fanny, Effie, Ada, Alice, Lucy, Henrietta, Maggie, Clara, Ella, Isabel, Helen, Lucille, Louise and another Ella. They deserve to be brought to life, and the author has done a masterful job of doing just that. Here you are presented the many faces of John Wilkes Booth, the kind, thoughtful lover, but still a cad and murderer. You can’t help but feel a little sorry for him. You will also wonder how he had the time or energy to act! Joan Chaconas has been involved with the Surratt House Museum, in Clinton, Md., since it opened in 1975. As its historian, she has appeared on television, and has served as consultant for productions relating to the Lincoln assassination and John Surratt Jr.

The Assassin Who Broke Women’s Hearts John Wilkes Booth and the Women Who Loved Him. By E. Lawrence Abel. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index, 454 pp., 2018. Regnery History, www.regnery.com. $29.99 hardcover. Reviewed by Joan Chaconas

John Wilkes Booth. (Library of Congress)

A decade after the new museum and visitors center at Gettysburg National Military Park opened, David F. Remington has written an interesting account of the vision, determination and struggles that preceded the facility’s construction. Remington, a retired investment banker and former member of the Gettysburg Foundation board, enjoyed a front-row seat to much of the fundraising and construction process, and is justifiably proud of the new facility— perhaps the first time in the park’s history that it has a visitors center large enough to accommodate its needs. Remington’s book takes us through the thirteen-year effort to protect the park’s artifacts, preserve the Cyclorama painting, improve interpretation and education, and to rehabilitate Ziegler’s Grove (an effort that continued well into 2017). The book offers a number of fascinating behind-the-scenes anecdotes. In one example, a visit to the Boston Cyclorama building (the original home of the Gettysburg painting) revealed the rods and rings that held the painting when it opened in 1884­—a key discovery that helped the restoration team determine the painting’s original dimensions. Remington also provides an objective analysis of the financial conditions that led to the museum being included as part of an admission package, despite earlier assurances that museum access would be available without charge. “The original pricing plan was a mistake, and the consequences were striking.” Also interesting is the development of the new museum’s focus on presenting a story that goes beyond troop movements during the battle of Gettysburg to include the importance of the battle, and the Civil War, within a broader historic context. Remington also provides details about the project’s financing and the related fundraising, and the blend of federal and state appropriations, borrowing and private donations that made the project possible. While there is considerable information that is interesting and informative, Remington’s intense support for the project colors his analysis in a few points and borders on hyperbole. In describing the public-private partnership at the heart of the Foundation’s efforts, Remington offers the following description of “entrepreneurial philanthropy”:

Building the Gettysburg Visitors Center A Gift to America: The Story of the Gettysburg Foundation. By David F. Remington. Illustrations, photos, map, notes, bibliography, timeline, index. 2018. WordRunner Press, rem7@ maine.rr.com. $35 hardcover. Reviewed by Dave Pelland

“Ten years before…the NPS miraculously loosened its moorings to the domain of feckless federal dependency and mediocrity that had led to the dismal conditions at Gettysburg in the first place. In an inspired turn of events, it cast its lot with the riskier private domain that dared to excel. The results were stunning, and the public seemed to understand.” The book also suffers from repetition throughout the manuscript. The phrase “[Senator Rick] Santorum submitted a lengthy statement urging the committee to move the GMP process forward” appears nearly verbatim on pages 120 and 122. The fact that fundraising started without a list of prior donors is repeated several times. The four objectives cited above appear, verbatim, numerous times. Remington’s book is similarly hurt by his habit of stringing adjectives together when one or two would suffice. For instance, Remington describes former GNMP Superintendent John Latschar’s vision for the park as “an unprecedented, historic, interpretive and rehabilitation program at GNMP.” Remington also dismisses out-of-hand concerns from local residents and business owners about the effects of the new Visitor Center site, describing them as “a fearful, leaderless community that had no plan for its future other than to fight change” and repeating similar critical sentiments throughout. Despite these shortcomings, however, A Gift to America is an interesting summary of the project and the people who collaborated to bring it to life. Dave Pelland is the author of the guidebooks Civil War Monuments of Connecticut (2011) and Faith and Freedom: The National Monument to the Forefathers (2015). He is a frequent Gettysburg visitor.