Book Reviews

Book Reviews — March 2021

Originally published March 2021 · pp. 40–42

Reconciliation and Reunion Patriot’s Twice, Former Confederates and the Building of America After the Civil War. By Stephen M. Hood. Illustrated, bibliography, appendices, index, Sava Beatie Publishing, 2020, 242 pp., $32.95 hardcover. Note: We had the pleasure of having two different reviews of this book.

Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf Patriots Twice is an extensive biography of several hundred ex-Confederate soldiers and politicians who, reconciled to the loss of the Civil War, reunited with their Northern counterparts to work for the newly united nation. Told in narrative form, highlights include eight former Confederate generals, including Fitzhugh Lee, Joseph Wheeler, and Thomas Rosser, who served as generals in the Spanish-American War; three former Confederates, Lucius Q.C. Lamar, Howell Jackson, and Edward White, appointed to the Supreme Court; Attorney General Amos Akerman, Postmaster General David Key, Navy Secretary William Hunt, and scores of senators, representatives, governors, educational leaders, and politicians at the state and local level. Ten

American presidents appointed these ex-enemies to federal positions, a true testament to the depth of reconciliation that had occurred. A plethora of shorter biographies encompasses over two hundred additional ex-Confederates who went on to serve the United States, including such notable figures as Lewis Ginter, Bennett H. Young, David L. Yulee, and James L. Alcorn. While each biography highlights thepost-warcareersandcontributions of former Confederates, the timely message the book provides should be an example for politicians and society today. We are all Americans; working together we can eschew partisanship for progress, economic growth, and brotherhood. Today America is as divided politically as the North and South were in 1861. After a war or an election, both sides must heal the wounds, welcome each other as contributors to American growth, and bury the seeds of animosity. Let’s hope that can occur again and Confederate accomplishments can be recognized and not relegated to historical oblivion. This book is an essential volume for every Civil War historian and political scientist. It is well written, thoroughly researched, and, with the exception of a few historical errors (the Spanish-American War did not start in 1989 but rather 1899; Richmond and Fredericksburg did not fall in 1864, but April 1865), is accurate and comprehensive. As a resource for identifying the service of ex-Confederates in rebuilding America it is highly recommended. Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War. He is past president of the Lincoln-Davis Civil War Roundtable and currently is researching the archives on the life of the common soldier, their struggles and dreams.

Americans Again:

Ex-Confederate Postwar Contributions Patriots Twice: Former Confederates and the Building of America After the Civil War, Stephen M. Hood, El Dorado Hills, Savas Beatie, $32.95

Reviewed by Leon Reed

Stephen M. Hood has done some impressive research in documenting the extent to which former Confederates were integrated fully back into the top ranks of American politics, business, professions, education, and other endeavors in the decades after the Civil War. Most students of American history are familiar with the service of a few high-profile ex-Confederate generals, notably Fitzhugh Lee and Joe Wheeler, in command of U.S. troops in the Spanish-American War. But the list of former Confederates who rose to positions of prominence in American society is long and Hood has done a good job of documenting the extent of their contributions. It would be easy to dismiss the number of former Confederates assuming important government positions as simply a sign of the restoration of the ancien regime, but that’s not always the case. For example, one of the first former Confederates appointed to an important Federal position was Amos Tappan Akerman, appointed by President Grant in 1870 as the first Attorney General to lead the newly formed Justice Department. He established the investigative bureau that eventually became the FBI and aggressively investigated abuses by the newly active Ku Klux Klan. The highest profile former Confederate, James Longstreet, earned scorn from Lost Cause zealots when he became a Republican after the War. The

Hayes administration appointed him to the important position of ambassador to the Ottoman Empire and he later served as a U.S. Marshal. One of the more interesting characters introduced by Hood was the floridly-named Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, II. A congressman before the war, Lamar was a delegate to Mississippi’s secession convention and author of its ordinance of secession. He later served the Confederacy in a variety of military and diplomatic positions. After his citizenship was restored, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate (where he earned a chapter in John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage), as secretary of the interior, and as a justice of the Supreme Court. Perhaps the most consequential appointment of a former Confederate was the Hayes administration’s nomination of Stanford Emerson Chaille, former medical director of the Army of Mississippi, as chair of the Havana Yellow Fever Commission. Known as the “Father of Hygiene and Health Education,” Chaille was instrumental in organizing the effort to eradicate yellow fever, which, among other things, made construction of the Panama Canal feasible. The list is not confined to national government positions. Perhaps less surprising, but still impressively documented, is the extensive list of mayors and governors, mostly of southern states, but also including mayors of cities such as Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe. The book also includes leaders in education, including many founders and/or presidents of colleges, and the professions. I wish Hood hadn’t so explicitly linked his project to the ongoing national discussion about memory. It’s a strong story that stands on its own and doesn’t need the prop of current politics. The fact that so many ex-Confederates were able to participate fully in government, professions, and industry within less than a generation speaks well to their abilities, their ambition, their patriotism, and to the incredible socializing power of reconciliation. Indeed, the forces of Americanization were also working their will on a generation of immigrants at the same time. This reconciliation certainly had other consequences, allowing the mass disenfranchisement of the freed slaves and a century of Jim Crow, which is a story worth telling in another book. This book’s story is important. Civil wars over the years more often wound up with the heads of the losers nailed to the Micklegate Bar rather than applying their abilities to finding a cure for yellow fever. The story of the reintegration of ex-Confederates into society is a remarkable story and Hood tells it well. Leon Reed is a former U.S. Senate aide and U.S. history teacher. He lives in Gettysburg, and is the author of No Greater Calamity for the Country: North-South Conflict, Secession, and the Onset of Civil War (2019).

This Will Transform the Way We Think about Civil War’s Campaigns

The Howling Storm: Weather, Climate, and the American Civil War. By Kenneth W. Noe. Maps, notes, index, 680 pp., 2020. Louisiana State University Press, www.lsupress.org. $59.95

Reviewed by Jonathan A. Noyalas

Nearly every time Francis Buckner Jones, a major in the 2nd Virginia Infantry, wrote an entry in his diary during Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Valley Campaign, he recorded observations about the weather and environmental conditions. Jones’ obsession with the weather during one of the War’s most studied and written about campaigns is not unusual. Soldiers in both armies and in all theaters regularly wrote about excessive heat, torrential rains, bone-chilling cold, and mud. Although weather dominated the daily lives of soldiers, it is the one aspect of letters, diaries, and journals far too many historians ignore. After all, accounts of the ebb and flow of battle, command decisions, or descriptions of the grisly aftermath of battle are far more gripping than daily temperatures and precipitation. Although students of the Civil War might not find descriptions of weather exciting, one of our nation’s most distinguished historians, Kenneth Noe, Draughon Professor of Southern History at Auburn University, reminds us in this thought-provoking and original study that weather dominated soldiers’ lives in myriad ways, impacted campaigns and battles, and that understanding weather is essential to understanding the conflict. Throughout the book’s engagingly written twenty-four chapters, based on an impressive array of weather data and accounts from 470 individuals, who include 420 soldiers and 50 civilians, Noe reminds us that from Fort Sumter through the spring of 1865 Union and Confederate armies not only fought against each other, but also battled weather and the natural environment. Due to the weather’s influence, whether the stifling heat confronted by Union general Franz Sigel’s command at Carthage, Missouri, in July 1861 or the Confederacy’s muddy red clay ultisols which brought armies to a screeching halt at various point during the war, Noe illustrates the necessity of considering the weather’s sway when analyzing a battle’s outcome. Comprehending weather’s impact should also, as Noe rightly suggests, compel historians to reassess generalship. For instance, Noe calls for a reconsideration of Union general Joseph Hooker’s overall effectiveness as commander of the Army of the Potomac. While chastised for Chancellorsville, Noe notes that what Hooker did in reorganizing the army following the Mud March in January 1863 proved remarkable. Not only did Hooker institute various reforms and reenergize the army, he did so at a time when the weather proved dreadful. The early months of Hooker’s command were, as Noe asserts, “exceedingly rainy.” Excessive rain not only made things difficult to accomplish physically, but emotionally. Throughout this fine study Noe notes inclement weather’s demoralizing impact on an army’s morale. Taking everything into account, Noe argues that“adding weather to the calculations” of Hooker’s early tenure as army commander, “makes his achievements seem even more impressive.” Beyond an in-depth examination of the manner in which weather impacted campaigns and battles, and should inform analysis of generalship; Noe’s volume illuminates the manner in which the weather indiscriminately killed soldiers in blue and gray armies. Heat during the 1863 march into Pennsylvania resulted in the deaths of soldiers, freezing conditions on the picket line in Tennessee killed troops, and lightning during General William Tecumseh Sherman’s push to Atlanta sent soldiers to an early grave. This important study also considers the manner in which weather impacted soldiers, not only terms of how they adapted to living conditions in the field, but psychologically. Aside from low morale brought on by rainy, cold conditions, extreme weather on occasion prompted soldiers to act entirely out of character and carry out unspeakable horrors. As one example, Noe, building on Robert K. Krick’s fine study of the Battle of Cedar Mountain, revisits the conduct of infantrymen in the 5th Connecticut who, due to the excessive heat, murdered in the battle’s aftermath. This book’s value extends beyond in-depth examinations of how weather impacted campaigns, battles, and soldiers. Noe’s careful analysis extends to the manner in which weather impacted policy. The drought that confronted the Confederacy in 1862 was, as Noe aptly points out, “one of the major events of the Civil War.” Drought conditions hampered harvests and forced Jefferson Davis to choose feeding his troops over the Confederacy’s civilians. While historians have examined the Confederacy’s taxin-kind, impressment, and inflation they have paid virtually no attention to the weather conditions which brought about these policies. Noe’s engagingly written, impressively researched, and well-reasoned study, destined to become a classic, is a significant resource for anyone interested in the War’s campaigns, battles, and soldiers. Beyond offering the first comprehensive analysis of weather’s impact on the Civil War, this book does what the best histories do, suggests additional avenues of investigation for other historians. While many Civil War era histories are well-researched and engagingly written, few will revolutionize the field. Noe’s book will undoubtedly transform Civil War studies and compel historians to consider weather’s role in shaping the conflict’s course. Jonathan A. Noyalas is director of Shenandoah University’s McCormick Civil War Institute in Winchester, Virginia, a professor in Civil War Era Studies at Shenandoah University, and founding editor of Journal of the Shenandoah Valley During the Civil War Era. He is the author or editor of fourteen books. Noyalas’ next book, Slavery and Freedom in the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War Era will be released by the University Press of Florida in the spring of 2021.

Insightful Recreation of a “Self-made Man”

Michael J. Gerhardt, Lincoln’s Mentors: The Education of a Leader. Notes, index, 496 pages, Custom House, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, $32.50.

Reviewed by Thomas J. Ryan

Employing a diverse mixture of primary and secondary sources, Michael J. Gerhardt offers a distinctive characterization of Abraham Lincoln’s education and progression toward theWhite House based on our 16th president’s scrupulous observance of his personal heroes’ and confidential advisors’ principled lifestyles and political convictions. The author explains how Lincoln applied this knowledge as he became immersed in our nation’s political challenges and military insurgencies in the mid-19th century. Gerhardt focuses on five personalities in particular whose behavior, accomplishments, and perspective Lincoln chose to absorb and mimic as he regulated his life and strove to maintain a positive approach toward achieving growth and eventual success, despite periodic disappointments and setbacks. Former president Andrew Jackson was foremost in certain ways among Lincoln’s idols who became “mentors” either directly or indirectly. Yet “Old Abe” also treasured the grandeur of Henry Clay’s political orations delivered primarily within the context of his extensive federal government service. Lincoln emulated Clay, and admired his adherence to the Declaration of Independence’s pronouncement that “all men are created equal.” General Zachary Taylor was another figure who inspired Abe Lincoln. Born in the latter part of the 18th century, Taylor helped lead the Americans to victory during the Mexican War, and that experience and fame led to his election as president. Taylor’s opposition to several states desiring to secede over the slavery issue garnered Lincoln’s approval. Less well known were John Todd Stuart, a key advisor and “model for Lincoln in debating political opponents,” and Lincoln’s friend Orville Browning who served as a counselor regarding political issues as well as his personal life. Gerhardt employs Lincoln’s observance of and relationship with these men to tell the story of how “Lincoln learned to lead.” Choosing to begin at the beginning and end at the end,Gerhardt’s chronicles Lincoln’s entire lifecycle by constructing this intriguing narrative account within the framework of a number of distinct, yet interrelated, intervals as the protagonist advances toward immortality. In order to create opportunities to progress toward a destiny he could only envision indistinctly, young Abe needed to identify, study, and emulate heroic models of accomplishment and virtue. Over time, he chose Jackson, Clay, Taylor, Stuart, as well as Browning who related, “Lincoln’s ambition was to fit himself properly for what he considered some important predestined labor or work.” After earning a license to practice law, a young Lincoln parlayed a gift for storytelling into election to a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives. Gerhardt points out, even at that early stage in life, Lincoln realized the law was a stepping stone to greater achievement. Abe rode the judicial circuit around Illinois to earn more money and to learn tricks of the political trade. From a policy perspective, as the author relates, the ambitious Lincoln followed Henry Clay’s lead in viewing the exercise of political power as “valid only if used in line with the republican principles of the Founding Fathers.” While marriage to Mary Todd brought meaning to his life, her erratic behavior assured consternation would also be a constant companion. The loss of his idol Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election was offset by Lincoln’s running for Congress in his ambition to “take another step on a path to achieve national fame.” Winning by a wide margin in 1846, Lincoln “headed to Washington.” During his tenure of a single twoyear term, he joined the effort to “stop slavery from spreading westward,” a theme he carried forward into the next stage of his political life during which he learned a few philosophical lessons by transforming himself into a “more moderate, more deliberate, more contemplative, more disciplined, less biting in his wit, and more eloquent” individual. During this long learning process, Lincoln “habitually studied the opposite side of every disputed question, of every law case, of every political issue, more exhaustively, if possible, than his own side.” Gerhardt describes Lincoln, who by 1860 was somewhat miraculously on the threshold of running for the presidency, as “a practical politician [who] had his personal ambitions, but he never told any man his deeper plans and few, if any, knew his inner thoughts.” Undeterred after losing election to the Illinois Senate in 1858, Lincoln, with help from supporters, including John Todd Stuart and Orville Browning, and after a “refined and sophisticated” speech at the Cooper Union in New York, overcame considerable odds to win the presidential nomination at the Republican convention in Chicago. Amid national turmoil, including threats of secession by Southern slave states, Lincoln survived election against three other candidates with slightly under 40% of the vote. Faced with secession by a number of Southern states, President Lincoln chose to confront his wayward countrymen,ratherthan compromising on the slavery issue. Author Gerhardt describes Lincoln’s role as commander in chief of the Union armed forces, and his decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, thus freeing slaves only in regions of the country in rebellion. Surviving the 1864 presidential contest against popular Gen. George B. McClellan running on the Democratic ticket, Lincoln acted on his reelection mandate to defeat the remaining Southern military forces and capture Confederate President Jefferson Davis. However, the April 14, 1865, assassination at the hand of actor and Southern partisan John Wilkes Booth brought an end to the life and career of Abraham Lincoln, but the beginning of his immortality spawned by unceasing recollections of his individuality and accomplishments. Throughout this biographical portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, Michael J. Gerhardt blends into the narrative the role of the five important figures who shaped or guided his philosophical and political development. As a result, the author concludes, since the mid-19th century, all presidents look to Lincoln as their metric: “He has become a mentor to them all.” This insightful recreation of a “self-made man” who modeled his career after political idols of substance and integrity, and set a standard for future American presidents and political leaders worldwide deserves a place on the shelf of every Lincoln scholar and enthusiast. There have been thousands of books written about the life and accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln, yet Michael J. Gerhardt’s distinct view of this American icon merits special consideration. Thomas J. Ryan is the author of the multiple 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, and co-author of the multiple award winning Lee is Trapped and Must be Taken: Eleven Fateful Days after Gettysburg, July 4-14, 1863. His future publication is titled In their role as commander in chief: Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis during the Gettysburg Campaign.

German Immigrant’s Union Service Radical Warrior: August Willich’s Journey from German Revolutionary to Union General by David T. Dixon. Photos, illus., maps, notes, index, 311 pp., 2020. The University of Tennessee Press. https://utpress. org. Hardcover. $45. Reviewed by Stewart Bennett

There is a wealth of topics that encompass much of the American Civil War. While they include biographies of various generals, few include Union generals who also happened to be known communists. David T. Dixon’s new study, Radical Warrior: August Willich’s Journey from German Revolutionary to Union General expands the reader’s understanding of a man’s rise through European revolutions to what some have called the Second American Revolution and beyond. One could say that Willich was a product of the European revolutions of 1848. Having served as a cadet and becoming a lieutenant by age 18, young Willich found himself among the Young Hegelians. He soon after pursued the teachings of Karl Marx. This moved Willich to grapple with the plight of the common man in Europe while finding that his views conflicted from those of the military. Although warned of the ill effects of socialism and communism, Willich was finally allowed to leave the military only to find himself fighting against those forces he once served. Dixon recounts the euphoric successes Willich encountered throughout this period while also focusing on the many defeats and failures that ultimately shaped the man. Exiled from his German homeland, Willich found himself joining many of his 48er revolutionaries in America. Willich settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, watching the growth of the city and capitalism. He built upon his socialist ideas: seeing republican and democratic ideas as good, but capitalism as taking advantage of the workers in the North and slaves in the South. For Willich, the American Civil War appeared similar to the 1848 revolutions. Socialists like Willich viewed the southern slaveholders in the same light as the old European powers. For Willich, according to Dixon, America needed to move further toward taking the nation’s founding ideals and transforming them into a truer social republic and, overall, universal social justice. When the war came, Willich took on the position of adjutant for the all-German 9th Ohio Infantry. Soon after, Indiana Governor, Oliver P. Morton, gave Willich command of the German 32nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry. Dixon follows Willich’s journey through the Western Theater from an early fight at Rowlett’s Station to Shiloh, then on to Stone’s River where he was taken prisoner. Of special interest was Willich’s time in Confederate confinement, especially at Libby Prison. During confinement,Willich pondered tactics thereby developing a concept for advance firing. He also noticed many weaknesses of the Confederacy and questioned why the Union had not won the war sooner. Upon Willich’s release from captivity and reunion with his troops, the general took part in the Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Atlanta Campaigns. These struggles became successful proving grounds for Willich’s idea of advance firing. Throughout the hardships and campaigns of the war, Willich’s compassion and devotion toward his German immigrant troops continued to be one of his major priorities. It is difficult to say just how far in rank and responsibility Willich might have advanced. His active service was cut short by a wound received at Resaca. Although Willich recovered in Cincinnati, his future military positions were found to be anything but fulfilling. Willich mustered out of service at the age of 55. True to form, Willich expressed his attitude concerning how America made war and how far off the system was to trust in West Point. Instead, Willich truly believed that America needed to instill compulsory military service, a people’s army, to find the best leaders possible. While Willich’s ideas had merit, they were not considered. Dixon covers Willich’s final years into politics and the scandal that followed him while in office. Through many trials and political third party failures, Willich’s dream of communism in America died, leaving Dixon to rightly state, “August Willich was a man of big ideas, fervent commitment, and little talent for politics.” Willich’s death, by a possible heart attack at age 67, ended the intriguing story of an unlikely American hero. Dixon gives the reader an excellent overview of the life of a socialist German immigrant in America who, although he fought for the republic and democracy, had communistic aspirations in mind. The primary sources add strength to Willich’s personal background, relationship with Karl Marx, and the situations surrounding the 1848 European revolutions. Of special interest are the sketches drawn by one of the soldiers, Adolph Metzner, of Willich’s 32nd Indiana Infantry Regiment. These images give a contemporary account that words cannot. Jorgenson’s battle maps are clear, clean, and exceptional in partnering with Dixon’s narration. However, more primary source material covering Willich during the war, the 32nd Indiana’s fighting under Willich, and their feelings toward him would have bolsteredthenarrativeevenmore. This is especially true since one can assume that many readers will have interest in this work due to Willich’s connections with the war and the Union army. Overall, Dixon gives a fair and balanced appraisal of a failed European revolutionary turned successful Union general regardless of his communist leanings. Stewart Bennett is a Professor of History and Department Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Blue Mountain College in Blue Mountain, Mississippi. His latest contribution to Civil War literature includes “‘A Ghost on Horseback’: The Many Wounds and Curious Death of General William H.T. Walker,” in Lawrence Lee Hewitt and Thomas E. Schott, eds., Confederate Generals in the Western Theater: Vol. 4. He is continuing his research on the July 22, 1864, battle of Atlanta.