Harwell’s In Tall Cotton

By Roger Semplak and Marc Ramsey · Originally published November 2018 · pp. 14–15

By Roger Semplak and Marc Ramsey For every reader of Civil War history there is always the challenge, upon completion of a good book, of what next to read. Since the field of American Civil War studies continues to grow and expand from its earliest offerings of personal memoirs and regimental histories, to include all facets of society involved in the conflict, the challenge to the reader is where best to spend precious reading time. Some readers have discovered their niche of interest on which to focus. For others, the bibliography provided at the end of their most resent read may provide some guidance as where to go next. Then there are those who have discovered a number of standalone bibliographies that contain a plethora of potential candidates from which to choose.

We are going to focus on one bibliography written by Richard Barksdale Harwell titled In Tall Cotton: The 200 Most Important Confederate Books for the Reader, Researcher and Collector, published in 1978 by Jenkins Book Publishing Company, Inc. Austin, Texas. Richard Harwell lived from 1915 to 1988 and was a noted Southern historian, bibliographer, researcher, scholar, and author. As he notes in his introduction to In Tall Cotton (ITC), there were already a number of good bibliographies in existence when he began his effort, however very few solely focused on Confederate works. One of these was the famous Douglas Southall Freeman work The South to Posterity published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, in 1939 in which A Confederate Book Shelf was included (pp. 217-221). Another was a listing of about sixty books known as Margaret Mitchell’s List typescript in the Selznick International Pictures Research Office papers in the University of Georgia Libraries. These books were used to research background for filming Gone With the Wind. As a result of these early dated works, Richard Harwell took on the task of trying to provide readers with both a more expanded listing of worthy early offerings and including more recent noted scholarship on the Confederacy than had been written during the forty years period since these lists were first published. To southerners the terms “in high cotton” or “in tall cotton” pertain to the growing height of the cotton plant and the ease of harvesting the cotton balls. The taller the crop, the more abundant and easier to effectively harvest it would be resulting in a greater return. With that in mind the author chose this title as a way to inform readers of the potential abundance of good reading contained therein. Harwell also states that while he considers these to be the best, in his opinion, the listing is not a ranking of the books but simply an alphabetical listing by author’s last name and it is up to the reader to discern which they personally feel are the best. With that challenge in mind, we are going to comment on some of the books we have found to be great reads and are worthy of consideration when allocating your reading time. As with the author’s original intent, we are going to list them alphabetically for ease of coverage with references to occasional companion books that complement the original. Beginning the process with Edward Porter Alexander’s Military Memoirs of a Confederate, a Critical Narrative, originally printed in 1907 with numerous reprints, is well worth the read as it provides interesting detailed insight and objective analysis into the Army of Northern Virginia’s military operations from someone associated with high command. To complement this is Alexander’s book edited by Gary W. Gallagher, Fighting for the Confederacy, The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander, published in 1989 by the University of North Carolina Press. This book, while covering the same period as Alexander’s original work, contains much material and anecdotes written for his family’s reading only and is where the author’s personal opinions become more prevalent as he experienced decisions made by officers in high command. Both are great reads and worthy of your time. Eliza Frances Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia

Girl 1864–1865, D. Appleton and Company, 1908, is a Georgian’s perspective on the war and a great complement to Mary Chesnut’s offering to be discussed later. The writer’s well written story records the Confederacy’s final collapse in middle Georgia and is a major primary source on the Confederate Gold removed from Richmond at the end of the war. John Edwin Bakeless’ Spies of the Confederacy, published by J.B. Lippincott in 1970, is a thoroughly researched and well written book on Confederate spies and a great starting point for individuals interested in this less covered element of the sectional struggle. For individuals interested in this sparsely documented operation, it is the book to start with that will provide readers with a strong foundation for future readings. Robert Clifford Black’s The Railroads of the Confederacy, is a 1952 publication by the University of North Carolina Press dealing with the impact that railroads had on the Confederate economy and how deterioration of the rail systems over time had a negative impact on the war effort and hastened the final outcome. Understanding the impact that railroads had on the war and how the strengths of the competing systems impacted the result is important. This offering provides a fuller picture of events and a deeper understanding of why success for the Confederacy was hampered by the lack of a good rail system. Heros von Borcke’s Memoirs of the Confederacy War of Independence, was published by W. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, in 1866. For a J.E.B. Stuart fan this is a must read. While at times seeming just a little over the top, this Prussian officer who attached himself to Stuart’s staff and fought alongside Stuart as a Confederate captain provides fascinating insight into the inner circle of Stuart’s command up to the early stages of the Gettysburg Campaign when he was grievously wounded and, after recovering, he returned to Europe to write his memoir. John Overton Casler’s Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade, was published in 1893 by the State Capital Printing Company. This book provides colorful insight into the famous Stonewall Brigade, dealing with the intricacies of army life and the horrors of war. It should be remembered that this was written well after the war and needs to be viewed with some skepticism due to the passage of time, but it still provides a great and effective portrayal of the private soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia. Mary Boykin Chestnut and her A Diary from Dixie, published by D. Appleton Company 1905, has become somewhat the gold standard by which all other diaries are measured. Chestnut had a rather unique view due to her husband’s position both in politics and the military. She knew most of the movers and shakers of the Confederacy and was in a position to both view and comment on their activities and relationships. As mentioned with Eliza Andrews’s diary, these writings provide great insight into everyday life along with comments on the military operations and their impacts on the people of the Confederacy. Kate Cumming, A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee, is an 1866 publication by J.P. Morgan & Co. The journal provides insight into the women of the Confederacy who left home to serve as nurses and provides a realistic picture of conditions with the Confederacy’s hospital system in the western theater. The understanding of difficulties and unique solutions to medical needs as a result of the Federal blockading efforts helps convey the challenges the nurses faced in attempting to comfort and heal the sick and wounded. Francis Warrington Dawson’s Reminiscences of Confederate Services, 1861–1865, published by The News and Courier Book Presses in 1882, is one of those gems where finding a good first edition is extremely difficult. Fortunately, in 1980, Louisiana State University Press reprinted it and you have an opportunity to read about the intriguing career of an engaging young Englishman who first joined the Confederate Navy then transferred to the Army of Northern Virginia, ending his service as an Ordnance Officer. In 1913, His wife, Sarah Dawson, published her own work A Confederate Girl’s Diary, where she relates details about the Federal occupation in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, providing one of the better Confederate war diaries related. Both books are worthy of your reading time in their own right; each is filled with fascinating knowledge. In 1929, August Dietz published through the Press of the Dietz Printing Company The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America, a detailed study of the

Confederate postal operations, from printing stamps to mail delivery. This is one of those books that reveal the complexity associated with starting and maintaining a functioning postal operation and while probably attracting a limited audience, is one of the many facets of society taken for granted until something disrupts it operation. The next author to be mentioned (if not included would probably have us both tarred and feathered then ridden out on a rail) is Douglas Southall Freeman and his classic works on Robert E. Lee. Both series of volumes were printed by C. Scribner’s and Sons with the four volume R.E. Lee, a Biography, the 1944 Pulitzer Prize winner, and the three volume Lee’s Lieutenants, a Study in Command, coming out in 1946. These seven volumes complement each other like a fine pair of gloves with the Lee biography covering Lee’s life and the “Lieutenants” expanding on Lee’s Confederate military career with those with whom he most closely interacted. While both were a daunting undertaking to write, these seven volumes, while somewhat dated by new discoveries and interpretations, still hold up well and allow the reader to gain greater insight into both Lee and those that he commanded. Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle’s work Three Months in the Southern States was first published by W. Blackwood and Sons in 1863. Fremantle, of the Coldstream Guards, used a short leave from the British military to travel throughout the South during the late spring and summer of 1863, observing the Southern struggle to achieve independence. He comments on the courage, energy, and patriotism being exhibited against what he observes as great odds. His travels begin with entering Texas, then traversing the Deep South, and end with leaving through New York during the Draft Riots just after the Battle of Gettysburg. Along the way, he met many major military and political leaders. This is one of those delightful books that was instantly so popular that it had multiple first editions, the initial being published in Edinburgh, then being republished in both New York and Mobile the following year. His insights and commentary have been quoted by many other authors in their interpretations of Confederate actions during this period. Our first Trans Mississippi work is Martin Hardwick Hall’s

Sibley’s New Mexico Campaign, published by the University of Texas Press in 1960. This early work tells of Confederate General Sibley’s attempts to gain a foothold in what was the New Mexico Territory defended by Federal General Canby. This western-most campaign could have been a Confederate success if not for incredible bungling, and Hall’s book is still one of the best works on this under recorded area of Confederate activity. Another Trans Mississippi offering is William Williston Heartsill’s self-published 1876 journal Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army. Beginning in Texas as one of W.P. Lane’s rangers, Heartsill covers camp life and the day by day drudgery associated with military existence. He writes probably as he spoke, and it is this homespun nature that gives the narrative its own virtues. He spends his early career in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana getting captured and exchanged, then being attached to Bragg’s Army for the Battle of Chickamauga and returning to Texas and the end of the war with final disbandment near Navasto in May 1865. For those who are into the swashbuckling tales of the blockade runners the Honorable Augustus Charles Hobart-Hampden, better known as Admiral Hobart Pasha, wrote Sketches from My Life, published by D. Appleton and Company in 1887, illustrating his exceedingly interesting life as a very enterprising blockade runner. His first successful voyage includes a good supply of much needed toothbrushes in the cargo manifest, which led to other even more profitable trips. His exciting adventures in running the blockade are remarkable. While the book covers his entire life with a relatively small section devoted to blockade running, for those who like sea stories it is definitely one to read and to enjoy. John Bell Hood’s Advance and Retreat, published after his death by the Hood Orphan Memorial Fund in 1880 to support his children, is an effort to explain his military career through his own eyes. While noted for his courage and aggressiveness early in the war, later failures led to his career not being favorably remembered resulting in this somewhat bitter and controversial memoir written in an effort to set the record straight. Another wonderful offering is from Stanley Fitzgerald Horn’s 1941 book The Army of Tennessee, The Bobbs-Merrill Co. This work is the standard history of the Confederacy’s primary western theater army. If you only read one book on this army this should be the one. For memories of life in wartime Richmond, an essential read is Constance Cary Harrison’s Recollections Grave and Gay, C. Scribner’s Sons, 1911. This memoir is exceeding well told and provides images that won’t soon be forgotten by the reader. I need to move on in the alphabet but my co-author strongly feels that the Autobiography of Eppa Hunton, published by The William Byrd Press, Inc. in 1933, should be included. This offering was written with the intention that it was only for the family and is very forthcoming and frank on Col. Hunton’s military experiences and the various individuals he encountered during the war; it is a must have for the truly serious collector and reader. Unfortunately, finding an original copy in excellent condition is a challenge since only 100 copies were ever printed. My next stop is a father and daughter combination. Emma and Joseph LeConte. Emma’s book is When the World Ended, Oxford Press, 1957, and Joseph’s book is Ware Sherman, a Journal of Three Month’s Personal Experience in the Last Days of the Confederacy, published by the University of California Press 1937. The reason we are recommending these together is that they dovetail so well with Joseph trying to get family members back to Columbia, S.C., from areas through which Sherman’s forces are moving while Emma is recording in her diary the daily happenings in Columbia plus information related to her father’s travel. The James Lynn Nichols’ book Confederate Engineers, a 1957 Confederate Publishing Company, Inc. offering, is a scholarly study on the little documented Confederate Engineering Bureau. It is unique in that covers the bureau’s supplies and operations associated with both coastal and siege operations throughout the conflict, as well as Confederate coastal operations against Federal blockading and infiltration efforts. Having only mentioned one naval offering to this point, William Harwar Parker’s Recollections of a Naval Officer 1841–1865, published in 1883 by C. Scribner’s & Sons, addresses a little of that shortfall. This work traces Parker’s naval career from the Mexican War through the Civil War as the Superintendent of the Confederate Naval School through disbandment of the cadets in Washington, Ga. It is a wonderful, straightforward account of a very impressive naval career. Infernal Machines, by Milton

Freeman Perry and published by Louisiana State University Press in 1965, was a ground breaking work detailing the Confederacy’s attempts to halt Federal advances by the design, manufacturing, and use of mines, torpedoes, and other weapons of sabotage. This is an area just now gaining more scholarly studies, but this work still holds tremendous value to those interested in this element of the Confederate war effort. James I. Robinson’s work The Stonewall Brigade, published by Louisiana State University Press in 1963, is to this day the outstanding standard on one of the Army of Northern Virginia’s most famous brigades. This work includes letters, diary entries and soldiers’ reminiscences to provide a vivid and detailed picture of the men and their leaders who helped make this brigade one that was always ready and able to answer its call to combat. A true niche topic is William Morrison Robinson’s Justice in Grey, a 1941 Harvard University Press offering that looks at the Confederate judicial system. This definitive study of the administration of justice within the Confederacy indicates that many laws and regulations in place prior to the rebellion functioned throughout the war leading to some very interesting legal litigation challenges after the Confederate defeat in light of the effective functioning of its legal system. This is a read for those who are interested in either legal topics or how little the Confederate government actually changed basic laws and interpretations associated with the U.S. Constitution they were rebelling against. Raphael Semmes’s The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter, was printed in 1864 by Saunders, Otley and Co. in London. This work is a reprint of his journal entries while commanding these two vessels and later refined. His journal detailed those qualities necessary to carry out a difficult and hazardous enterprise in its original unedited reporting of the facts and situations encountered during these cruises. This book provides wonderful insight into the daily operations and challenges encountered by a Confederate commerce raider. Gilbert Moxley Sorrel’s Recollection of a Confederate Staff Officer, published by the Neale Publishing Company in 1905, provides the reader with an inside look at staff work associated with senior commands. While General Lee was known for having a very small staff, some of his corps commanders, such as James Longstreet, developed somewhat larger and more functional staffs to help perform their duties. Sorrel, beginning his military career as a private, eventually rose to the rank of brigade general, and this book covers his career and the people with whom he interacted. Richard Taylor’s Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War, published by A. Appleton and Company, 1879, details the career of this son of an American President. Taylor’s writing style and knowledge of antiquity provides for an interesting read as he offers comparisons to other historical struggles in his analysis of Confederate activities. Frank Everson Vandiver’s Confederate Blockade Running through Bermuda, 1861–1865: Letters and Cargo Manifest, published by the University of Texas Press in 1947, delves into the importance of Bermuda within the Confederate’s European trade. He details the various cargos, who handled them, where they were stored on the island, and how the blockade runners attempted to elude the Federal blockade, especially when Union ships were stationed just outside the island’s territorial limits. He also discusses the fine line played by the British Government as it straddled a desire to help the Confederacy while also establishing maritime precedence to support their superior naval position with other nations. Our last comments are on Samuel R. Watkins “Co. Aytch” Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment, or A Side Show of the Big Show. This work was published in 1882 by the Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House and tells the military experience of this foot soldier through his rather dry-humor perspective. This is a very straight forward look through the eyes of one who carries out the orders given and sees the results. This book has become a standard for many reenactors in more fully understanding the life, challenges and everyday activities of the Southern foot soldier. As stated in the beginning this is not intended to be a full or complete review of Richard Harwell’s In Tall Cotton (ITC), but rather a primer designed to provide you with a sampling of some books he recommended, and that we personally love, with the hope that it whets your appetite to either read these individually, or go further and find first editions for your own collection. Finding a copy of the true first edition in any type of condition becomes harder with each passing year, so don’t delay. Keep an eye on publications like the Owens & Ramsey Historical

Booksellers monthly catalog for rare editions and reprints of as many of the 200 ITC listings that can be found for sale as the hunt continues. As for the Harwell book itself, we are fortunate that our good friend Tom Broadfoot reprinted it in 2006. Prior to that, original editions were extremely hard to find and were way overpriced. However, the Broadfoot reprint was done in a limited printing of about 1,050 copies and due to its popularity, it too is now taking on the status as a collector’s item and becoming increasingly harder to find. In closing, we quote historian E. Merton Coulter from his Preface to In Tall Cotton, “Here in this list of two hundred books those readers who want to revel in Confederate sentiment, or who want to refresh their memory, or to learn for the first time the facts of that attempt to establish Southern independence, will find a happy hunting ground.”

Marc Ramsey and Roger Semplak Owens & Ramsey Booksellers 2728 Tinsley Drive Richmond, Va. 23235 804-272-8888 www.owensandramsey.com Marc Ramsey is co-owner of Owens and Ramsey Historical Booksellers with his lovely wife Jill, who, for the past 23 plus years, have specialized in the buying, selling and trading of rare and collectible Civil War books, artifacts and paper items, They provide appraisals for estate planning, charitable deductions, or insurance purposes. They also love making recommendations to readers looking to expand their Civil War knowledge as well as providing customers with very rare and collectible volumes for their libraries. The Ramsey’s have an open shop at 2728 Tinsley Drive in Richmond, VA 23235, send out a monthly catalog, and can be seen at many Civil War Shows and conferences throughout the year. Call Marc at 804-272-8888. Roger A. Semplak is a close friend and consultant to the Ramsey operation, often times providing insight and critiques of certain Civil War books, new or antiquarian. An avid reader and collector of many things Civil War he is a strong proponent of battlefield preservation. Roger can often be found working as staff at the Owens and Ramsey tables, especially for the larger events such as the two Gettysburg shows and the Mosby Heritage Conference in Middleburg, Va., where he is tasked with book sales whose proceeds are earmarked for preservation efforts.