ysis of the latest and most sign arship. Contact Stephen Davis, C
The Fight for the Old North State: The Civil War in North Carolina, January-May 1864. By Hampton Newsome. Illustrations, maps, notes, appendices, bibliography, index, 467 pp., 2019. University Press of Kansas,
The Fight for the Old North State takes us on a detailed, fa filled journey through joint lan and water operations by Federals and Confederates in their strugg for North Carolina during the ea ly part of 1864. The social and political clim in the state is expertly relayed by Hampton Newsome through his thorough research. Early on Newsome writes, “As 1863 came to a close, there was much to fuss about. The growing distrust between North Carolina and Virginia, a situation that preda the Civil War, remained a source of tension.” I add a comment from my research that also helps set the s for what was on the horizon for the Tar Heel state. Greenville judge George Howard in a letter to his wife in July 1863 (whom he had sent away for safety),
wrote, “I am as busy as a bee preparing for the coming of the
ur readers with timely analCivil War research and scholr News Book Review Editor.
Yankees, probably here this summer.” Governor Zebulon Vance’s cries for help went unfulfilled a Federal forays created more and more panic. “North Carolina was not left with enough troops ‘to protect a potato patch,’” he complained; “our state is not receiv ing justice.” Along with the narrative of op erations, battles, and listing of participants, the author’s selection of maps and illustrations pr vides a clear “lay of the land” f those not familiar with the state vital supply network of rail line coastal region, and ports. New Bern was the significant prize for the Federals, though additionally of importanc were Wilmington, Washington, Roanoke Island, Morehead City, Beaufort and crucial Plymouth, known for the success of the iron clad CSS Albemarle in its clash with the USS Southfield gunboat. Newsome explains the plans devised by both sides at the high est levels, including Burnside, Butler, Peck, Foster, Cooke, Pickett, Ransom, Wood, Hoke, Terry and those of naval note. Perhaps some will recall Sherman’s notice to his commanders while he marched north toward Richmond: “Do not let your command rest on its oars, but keep them going all the time, even if for no other purpose than to exhaust the enemy’s country, or compel him to defend it.” Hampton Newsome’s recommended book tells the chain of events—the highs and the lows, the bumbling and the courageous, from January to May, 1864 in the Old North State. It’s all here.
Joan Wenner, J.D. is a longtime native New Yorker based in eastern North Carolina, she has visit
ed many of the sites mentioned. She has a special interest in nav
Rehabilitating Meade’s Reputation as Commander Meade: The Price of Command, 1863–1865. By John G. Selby. Notes, index, maps, 370 pages, 2018. Kent State
John Selby’s goal in this stu is to “reassess [George G.] Meade’s leadership” as the commanding general of the Union Army of the Potomac during two harrowing years of the Civil Wa He desires to amend the view of Meade as a “thin skinned leader of limited imagination, nerv and drive” who was dependent on Gens. Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan in his quest to feat Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia on the fie of battle. The author challenges the eva uations of other historians regarding Meade, including Allen Guelzo’s contention that Meade did not want to “risk battle at Gettysburg” and preferred “with drawal” from the area. He diffe with Gordon Rhea’s views regarding who made the decisions when Meade served directly under General in Chief Ulysses S. Grant, and relies on a variety primary and secondary sources t counter assessments he consider unnecessarily critical of Meade on the personal level as well a his military leadership. While the focus remains primarily on Meade, Selby provides a comprehensive discussion of Army of the Potomac operations from Gettysburg to Appomattox. He gives Meade the benefit of the doubt regarding his command ability and personal conduct gi
en the stressful and physically demanding conditions in which
he operated. He describes Meade as competent and reliable, if n
inspirational and heroic, and a man who, at times, was sarcastic, impatient, quick-tempered, reserved, suspicious of the press and wary of politicians. Most importantly, he lacked “a deep reservoir of support among the foot soldiers of the army.” Yet, in Selby’s view, Meade
McClellan, tolerated a high casualty rate on offense or defense, avoided open fights with politicians, never boasted like Gen.
John Pope, managed an army of 100,000 men, worked closely
with his corps commanders, and exhibited better tactical instinc and more resolve than Gen. Joseph Hooker. John Selby has invested considerable time and effort in making the case for a more favorable and realistic view of Meade’s generalship, and his presentation is clear, concise, and offer a scholarly contribution to the historical record. However, it should be pointed out that Meade had opportunities to gain the advantage over Lee that he ignored. For example, message exchanges in the Union Bureau of Military Information (BMI) files at the National Archives and Records Administration demonstrat that multiple options existed for Meade other than a frontal attack on Lee’s fortified position near Williamsport, Maryland. Meade learned that Lee’s army was clustered around Hagerstown on July 9 and 10, which provided the opportunity to march part of his army to Williamsport and block Lee’s forces from gaining access to the river. However, he missed or ignored this opportunity. Meade took no action when the BMI informed him that Rebel wagon trains of pontoons and ammunition were moving from Winchester, Virginia, to Williamsport, and the fact that Lee deployed a detachment of cavalry to hold open an escape route upriver. Meade also chose not to send a force across the ri to destroy Lee’s pontoon bridge under construction at Falling Waters. This would have prevented Lee’s ability to move his artillery and wagons loaded with wounded soldiers, munitions, supplies, and a sizable amount of booty across the swollen river. Meade also ignored the BMI’s estimates of Lee’s troop strength
that were accurate within a small percentage of the actual figures,
insisting the enemy force was equal in size to his own—while
providing no evidence for these erroneous assertions. At Williamsport following the Battl of Gettysburg, Meade’s forces outnumbered Lee’s by a ratio of about 2 to 1. Selby would have benefited by consulting published sources suc as The Secret War for the Union
articles in Gettysburg Magazine that address the BMI’s operation
during the Gettysburg Campaign. Similarly, Grant’s Secret Servic
by William B. Feis, Scouting for Grant and Meade, edited by Peter G. Tsouras, and Southern Lady, Yankee Spy by Elizabeth R. Varon provide insight into the i telligence advantage that Meade and Grant had over Lee during the Overland Campaign and the siege of Petersburg. Information available from these resources enhances the ability to evaluate Meade’s performance during two years as an army commander. Read Meade: The Price of Command, 1863– 1865 for a perceptive analysis o George G. Meade’s personality traits and command preferences, while consulting the other recommended sources for consideration of Meade’s operational alternatives based on information the BMI provided regarding the enemy’s strength, disposition, and intentions—vital factors in hastening an end to the war in t East. The collection, analysis, and effective use of intelligence is a fundamental requirement for successful military operations, concept that Meade struggled to accept during his tenure in command of the Army of the Potomac. Advantageously for the Union cause, U.S. Grant came to embrace and employed these functions to defeat the Confederate forces.
Thomas J. Ryan is the author of Spies, Scouts, and Secrets in the Gettysburg Campaign: How the Critical Role of Intelligenc Impacted the Outcome of Lee’s Invasion of the North, June-July 1863. His latest book, written w co-author Richard R. Schaus, titled “Lee is Trapped, and Must be Taken”: Eleven Fateful Days after Gettysburg, July 4-14, 186 is scheduled for publication by Savas Beatie later this year.
Mortenson. Annotations, bibliography, illustrations, maps. 298 pp., 2019. University of
Civil War students’ knowledge of Major General Lew Wallace’s military career is generally limi ed to the unending debate over hi division’s failure to timely arri on the field at Shiloh on April 6 1862, during the first day’s cris for Ulysses Grant’s Army of the Tennessee. Most also have some familiarity with the crucial stan at the Monocacy River outside Washington in July 1864 when Wallace, in command of an outnumbered force, including his own VIII Corps, held off Jubal Early’s raiding Confederates long enough to nullify the Rebel assault on the capital. Christopher Mortenson has ably covered these events and much more in his new assessment of Wallace’s Civil War experience. Like Gail Stephens in her 2011 book Shadow of Shiloh, Mortenson confines himself to brief background on Wallace’s youth, his military service in th Mexican War which (to Wallace’s chagrin) did not involve combat, and his pre-Civil War activities a lawyer and Indiana state legislator. Mortenson also gives minimal coverage to Wallace’s postwar accomplishments, including his authorship of the novel Ben Hur. Beyond that, as Stephens did the author tightly limits his foc on the Civil War, beginning with Wallace’s command of the 11th Indiana infantry (which he helped raise), his elevation to brigade and then division command, his promotion to major general, and his role in commanding various
military departments. Mortenson finishes with Wallace’s clandestine mission to negotiate a peace
in Texas and to support Mexican liberationists, as well as his prominent role on the tribunals convened for the Lincoln assassination conspirators and for the trial of Henry Wirtz, commandant of the notorious POW facility at Andersonville. Despite similarity in scope, Mortenson’s approach differs from that used by Stephens. Mortenson examines Wallace’s Civil War experience through dual lenses—(1) the clash between the values of the professionally-trained soldier and thos of the amateur civilian/“politician” and (2) the aggressive “mar tial”/“rough” notion of manhood which was prevalent in the era. In Mortenson’s eyes these factors combined to make Wallace his own worst enemy and accounted for the frustration of his own military ambitions. Mortenson’s framework is useful but the author may take the analysis too fa in some instances. Mortenson’s repeated apportionment of the lion’s share of blame to Wallace for his several disputes with his superiors causes some skepticism. Wallace was far from alone on any list of officers, both professional and civilian, who ran afoul of Secretar of War Edwin Stanton, Chief of Staff Henry Halleck, or Indiana Governor Oliver Morton. Even his clash with Grant seems to have resulted mostly from a misunderstanding regarding the “wrong road” question at Shiloh, for which both were in part responsible. As for the “professional–citizen/politician” dichotomy, plenty of West Point-trained officers shared traits of untrammeled ambition, glory-hunting, and contentiousness. Names such as Joseph Hooker, Judson Kilpatrick and George Custer come to mind. In contrast, a vari ety of citizen-soldiers fit into disciplined military culture, including John Logan, Jacob Cox, James Wadsworth and Frank Blair. There was no shortage of disdain by West Pointers for politicians-turned-officers—with some justification--but the role which that played in Wallace’s experience may be overly emphasized. Mortenson also seems unduly inclined to attribute every decision by Wallace to a consuming drive for military fame. Indulging in the “mind reading” of historical figures can be risk business. Mortenson’s decision to focus
on Wallace’s shortcomings certainly is reasonable, especially when compared with Stephens’
tendency to favor Wallace in his persistent friction with superiors. Occasionally, however, this approach seems to minimize Wallace’s military accomplishments. For example, Wallace clearly played his part in his division’s leisurely, “by the book” march to the field of Shiloh on April 6. But on April 7 Wallace twice executed careful, effective turning movements on the Union right which forced the Confederate line to retreat. Mortenson gives Wallace sparse credit for this achievement. Mortenson’s most persuasive analysis covers Wallace’s performance in non-combat roles. This includes his orchestration of an effective defense at Cincinnati during the Confederate invasion of Kentucky in fall 1862 and his adept handling of the Middle Department during much of 1864. Mortenson compellingly demonstrates that Wallace’s skills as politician and lawyer helped him gain objectives which might have eluded a military professional. There are thoughtful insights as well. For example, in his autobiography Wallace claimed that on April 3 or 4, 1862, he forward ed to Grant intelligence from his scouts that Albert Sidney Johnston’s 40,000 Confederates were on the march to assault the bulk of Grant’s army at Pittsburg Landing. Mortenson flatly states that the story is “hard to credit This reviewer has extensively researched the claim and concludes that it was almost certainly a fa rication concocted by Wallace after Grant’s death. Mortenson has used a number of primary sources as well as sev eral reliable secondary works. If have a criticism about the latter it is the author’s apparent failure to access some of the recent scholarship, such as Timothy B. Smith’s excellent and somewhat revisionist Shiloh: Conquer or Perish (2014). Notwithstanding these criticisms, Mortenson’s book is an important addition to the literature on so-called “political gene als.” The book also is well worth purchase by those with an interes in Wallace’s campaigns, especially as a complement to the equally well-done Stephens book.
John Foskett is a practicing atto ney in Boston. In addition to nuhe has given Civil War Roundtable presentations on the subject of Civil War field artillery tactics
Relationship Clarified Lincoln and the Abolitionists. By Stanley Harrold. Images, notes, bibliography, index, 168 pp. 2018. Southern Illinois
A welcome addition to the ever-growing Concise Lincoln Library, published by Southern Illinois University Press, is no ed abolitionist historian Stanle Harrold’s contribution, Lincoln and the Abolitionists. In order to understand the re lationship between Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionists, Harrold contends that it is important to understand their vast different backgrounds. Lincoln, born in slaveholding Kentucky, raised in southern Indiana and frontier Illinois, was a product the environment and the people he grew up with. Although often commenting on the basic immorality of slavery, largely as a lation of the revered Declaratio of Independence, as a young man, and even deep into his political career, Lincoln felt sla was a political conundrum that would be difficult to solve. And as Harrold puts it so well, “bei ‘antislavery’ was not the same thing as being an abolitionist.” Harrold explains that once Lincoln embarked on his political career, it was those politi that kept him from moving into the abolitionist camp. Taking on a political life as a Whig and r vering “The Great Compromiser” Henry Clay as his ideal politici left Lincoln with a pragmatic approach to what would be the future of slavery in the United States. The man who would be one day become known as “The Great Emancipator” knew that
any success he was to have in politics—particularly in local and state politics—depended on meeting in agreement, at least on a certain level, with those who cast the votes. Lincoln often saw abolitionists as disrupting the Union and thus chose to maintain a rather conservative stance on the institution of slavery and ra relations in Illinois, and reject more radically perceived abolitionist view of immediate and uncompensated emancipation. He knew doing so was instrumental to his success in climbing the po litical ladder. The majority of Lincoln and the Abolitionists focuses on the Railsplitter’s rise to the presid cy, and rightly so. As mentioned above, understating Lincoln’s background is prerequisite to understanding how he viewed abolitionists and approached their methods. However, the short treatment—always a challenge with a “concise history”—on the often fraught relationship between President Lincoln and abolitionist leaders like William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Horace Greeley, and Frederick Douglass leaves considerable room for further examination. Despite this fact, Harrold makes clear that abolitionist pressure fluenced many of Lincoln’s decisions regarding slavery during his presidential terms. Lincoln and the Abolitionists clearly achieves its goal in providing a short, thoroughly researched, yet highly-readable explanation of the sometimes rocky relationship between the two parties. Despite their differences i backgrounds, political ideology, and ultimate goals, both Lincoln and the abolitionists, and thus their interactions, left a tremen dous impact on the history of the United States that still resonate today. Harrold’s book makes that particular relationship dynamic ever so more understandable for both casual learners and wellversed historians.
Tim Talbott is the Director of Education, Interpretation, Visito Services, and Collections at Pamplin Historical Park and the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, Va. He is currently researching the various combination of elements that ulti mately led to emancipation.
The Confederate Culture of Invincibility. University of Ge Press, 2007.
James Marten, The Children’s Civil War. University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Michael T. Bernath, Confedera Minds: The Struggle for Intelle Independence in the Civil War South. University of North
Coleman Hutchison, Apples & Ashes: Literature, Nationalism, the Confederate States of Ameri University of Georgia Press, 20
Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Why Confederates Fought: Family & Nation in Civil War Virginia. University of North Carolina Press, 2007.
In January 1862 a Georgian serving in Virginia wrote home about the sunny prospects for t
whip us,” he declared, “than th chicken can teach Latin.” I quote from a recent book, George C. Rable’s Damn Yankees! Demonization & Defiance in the Confederate South (2015) as a w of introducing a point that has cently struck me: the surge of ademic interest in cultural exp sions of Confederate nationalis By the way, when George told hi chicken-teaching-Latin yarn to Atlanta Civil War Round Table,
we all laughed. Historiography routinely records historians revising the find ings of earlier generations of scholars—which is sort of reflected in what Henry Ford, the carmaker, once said: “history is more or less bunk.” Ahem. Thirty years ago I reviewed Why South Lost the Civil War (1986),
by Richard E. Beringer, Herman Hattaway, Archer Jones, and
He examined Southern newspapers, speeches, letters, and diari searching for Confederates’ denunciations of the enemy. He found that the longer the war dragged on the more poisonous and pervasive the anti-Yankee invective became. Jason Phillips, who teaches his ry at Mississippi State, is author Diehard Rebels: The Confederate Culture of Invincibility. He worke this book from his doctoral disser
Confederate culture. Dr. Phillips is at his best in scribing Confederates’ characterization of Yankees. Southerners
found them at once weak, brutal, “fanatical Puritans,” “brutish mer cenaries,” “immigrant trash,” and “cowardly shopkeepers.” No wonder that, as the wartime children’s math book taught, one Confederate could whip ten Yankees! …er, make that seven, at least in An Elementary Arithmetic,
can whip 7 yankees, how many soldiers can whip 49 yankees?” This brings up another of my favorites, James Marten’s The Children’s Civil War, which deals a lot with Confederate primers. It’s not so recent, but I turned t it while preparing a slide talk for the Georgia Obstetrical & Gynecological Society on women and children in the Civil War. President at the time was Dr. Cind Mercer of Athens. I addressed her
from the lectern when I told the story of the old slave woman on the plantation of Howell Cobb (also from Athens) who explained to the Cobb children that there’d be no Christmas toys that year because the Yankees shot Santa (the audience howled). The title of Michael T. Bernath work tells it all: Confederate Minds: The Struggle Intellectual Independence in the Civil War South. A reviewer for the Journal of American History judged, “this valuable work finally puts to rests the notion that t Confederacy was an intellectual wasteland and that Confederates had nothing to say aside from thei
…which is the point that Coleman Hutchison makes in
seriously.” Way to go, Professor! I find striking a statement that Dr. Hutchison makes in his opening pages: This book is by no means an apology for the Confederacy or Confederate nationalism. I find al most nothing that is admirable in the politics and culture of the Ci War South. Much of Confederate literature was deeply conservative
racist and racialistic rhetoric an makes the case again and again for an antidemocratic republic. But here’s the clincher: “No
matter how unsavory that story proves, I think it is important th it be told.” Reading this, I couldn’t help but think that it’s peculiar: whil everyday Americans are pulling down or hiding away Confederate monuments, a growing number of academic scholars are studying aspects of Confederate national-
are detailing Confederate culture without dignifying it. The conundrum is ably expressed by Professor Aaron Sheehan-Dean in his Why Confederates Fought: Family & Nation in Civil War Virginia: “While it is certainly t that simple answers to the questio of why men fought, such as ‘for their way of life,’ or ‘for freedo or even ‘for independence,’ conceal the reality of slavery, hiera chy, and inequality in the souther
ial order, it is equally true that ple at the time incorporatthe oppressive elements of the ebellum South within abstract meworks such as democracy, f-determination, and cultural onomy. The fact that we value se abstractions but not the uses which Confederates put them plicates matters still more.”
George N.The Barnard’s Atlantaphotographs Campaign of the Atlanta Campaign The American Civil War was the first used entrenchments, repeating rifles, communications.
It was also the first American War to While Mathew Brady, Timothy Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner and T having made iconic photographs in the O’Sullivan and a few others won fame George N. Barnard deserves to be rank work in the war’s western theater.
A civilian photographer hired by Gen. as photographers of the American take pictures of fortifications aroun them in and around the city in the fa Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s Civil War’s eastern theater, George N. 1864. Thus far, no comprehensive, definitiv Barnard earned a reputation as the key work. The Library of Congress has 130 image Point, New York, has at least 98 phot cameraman of the war’s western area. Other repositories, such as the Gilde New York City, have smaller collectio Evidence of this is Barnard’s hundreds For this book we have chosen a hundre
We hope that this work will stimulate of photographs taken of Atlanta Barnardiana, and that other scholarly
Campaign scenes. Some were published in 1866, but many more have
A Long and Bloody Task The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee Ri May 5–July 18, 1864
All the Fighting They Want The Atlanta Campaign from Peachtree Creek to the City’s Surrend July 18–September 2, 1864
With the Yankee army five miles outside of Atlanta, Hood promised not to give up with city without a fight—
asked. Davis’ companion volume, All the Fighting They Want, describes Hood’s efforts to defend Atlanta. Its fall in early September 1864 was a mortal blow to Confederate hopes for independence and a big boost to Lincoln’s hopes for presidential reelection. Paperback, 192 pages.
To order a signed copy from author Stephen Davi
Davis’ nar Campaign i backs from Civil War and Bloody forces fro
Who sent this note to Pick “The 18 guns have been dri en off. For God’s sake com on quick or we cannot support you. Ammunition nearl out”? Who was the Gettysburgher who fought i the battle near his home? Which two regiments fought each other at Little Round Top on the afternoon of Ju 2? Who commanded the 20th Maine during the battle? Which Confederate division commander was seriously wounded in the arm at the start of Longstreet’s atta the afternoon of July 2? Federal III Corps commander took a wound to his leg the afternoon of July 2 th led to amputation. Which general? Who commanded the newly
Since 1979, MI has been America’s only publication
dedicated to historic photo of soldiers and sailors.
formed Third Corps army? uring the battle, commander of the U Corps, which took of the attack of P Pettigrew, and Tri the third day? ho commanded Lee’s alry in the summer who proved himself ly absent in the s before the battle? Which one of Picke brigade commanders his horse ahead of in the charge of J killed, and whose never identified f
e Davis is the Civ Review Editor. an be contacted by
The Complex Creatures That Were Southern Ironclads Engines of Rebellion Confederate Ironclads and Steam Engineering in the American Civil War. By Saxon T. Bisbee. Photos, drawings, ap pendices, notes, bibliography, index, 280 pp., 2018. Universit
As everyone who reads much of anything about the Confedera Navy soon realizes, Secretary Stephen Mallory managed to accomplish quite a lot with very tle—especially when compared to the deployable assets availa
in the North. He and the South were not always (or often) well served by those tied into the n val industrial complex. Because of Engines of Rebellion, a new book by Saxon T. Bisbee, it is
much easier to understand the rich complexity of what went on
ery needed to operate the vesse Early on Mallory realized th the Confederacy could not compete with the Union in building traditional warships and decide instead to pump resources into ironclad construction. By the time the war ended, the South had begun construction on fifty such vessels and had completed or nearly outfitted twenty-eigh of them. The iron ships proved they were powerful in battle in Hampton Roads (CSS Virginia), on the Yazoo and Mississippi ri ers (CSS Arkansas), in Charlest
against the Federal blocking squadron (CSS Chicora and Palmetto State), and in Mobile Bay (CSS Tennessee) and elsewhere. What they lacked was the
machinery capable of handling their massive weight. We know a substantial amount about the
ships themselves and their (usually) short lives, but until now almost nothing about the engines and other important equipment found below decks.
Bisbee begins with something of an encapsulated overview of
the book as a whole, a very detailed and technical introduction (though it is much more than that) describing the steam power plants of the day, the Confederat ironclad program, hull-types, auxiliary machinery, etc. While interesting, it is also very detailed and littered with engineer ing jargon that had me flipping to the back of the book to study the glossary (thereby proving its worth). Whether this level of detail is needed is arguable, but i sets up a much better understanding of the balance of the book fo readers determined to understand the minutiae included within these pages. The first iron ships were conversions from existing ships: the CSS Manassas from the steamer Enoch Train; the CSS Virginia from the steam frigate USS Merrimack; and CSS Baltic from a prewar iron and cottonclad sidewheeler. Unable to match their needs with the right engine and machinery, the South had no choice but to use what was available. That they proved ineffectiv
is no surprise, but the technolog was still in its infancy, and tha worked as well as it did under th circumstances is something of
which the author takes note. Most of the balance of Engines
of Rebellion is segmented by the type of ship under discus-
Chicora, Palmetto State, etc.— the Tennessee Class—CSS Tennessee, Columbia—and so forth, and how the various designs selected worked with the machinery available to power them. Different hull designs, for example, worked better with different engine plants, boilers, an so on. One thing made clear is that the Confederacy got better a designing and building ironclads as the war went on. To a degree, part of the failure of the ironclads had to do with their conflicting purpose.
Harbor defense or oceangoing to break the blockade? Slow lumbering behemoths in still waters, or faster offensive ships, nimble but powerful? The conflicts led t
compromises that created serious flaws in each of the ships built from scratch, rather than created
on the fly via conversion. As the war progressed, the Confederacy needed smaller and simpler designs with a focused need on ships capable of
defending harbors like Mobile, Wilmington and Charleston. Still, the iron added significant weight that increased draft in often notoriously shifting and treacherous waters. Finding good reliable steam plants plagued the South until the end of the war. Dwindling skilled labor helped induce cleaner designs, including diamond-shaped hulls, though few records seem to exist to make definitive conclusions as to their efficacy (the Albemarle being, perhaps, the lone exception) Late-war designs came too late to see any combat but promised much, since they were constructed or undergoing construction on the shoulders of several years of trial and error. Readers seeking a complete history of ironclad warfare will be disappointed, but that is not purpose of Engines of Rebellion. An appendix featuring a list of each of the ironclads, its specif cations, machinery and final loca tion (if known) is interesting an helpful. What is not helpful is t manner in which the nearly 50 illustrations were reproduced. The drawings, plans and photographs
are especially valuable because o the technical nature of this stud Unfortunately, most of them are reproduced too small to be of any
use—a curious design oversight for a book of this nature.
Those caveats aside, Bisbee is to be applauded for his level of research and the organization of
information is available nowhere else, and without it students onl had an incomplete picture of the complex creatures that were Southern ironclads. Why they worked as well as they did—and why they didn’t—has now been answered much more satisfactorily. Stephen Mallory was right: Southern naval efforts accomplished much more than most people ever realized.
Theodore P. Savas is the owner and managing director of Savas Beatie Publishing in El Dorado
Hills, Cal. He has written about and lectures frequently on Civil War naval topics.
Archives So Lo ry: existed in uman Bondage, of Modern Visu erica. By Matt color photobibliography, 2019. Oxford
rkable book, eeing (2011), s the mysterie , especially i ical events an
in that spirive scholarshi ato’s Exposing graphy, Human he Birth of Mo s in America. tion of slaver
centuries when daguerreotypy was invented in France in 1839 Reported in newspapers, the pr cess was brought to this count where experimenters improved i as wet-plate collodion photogr phy. By 1850 almost a thousand cameramen were in business in the U.S., offering everybod a chance to have their picture taken. Enter Prof. Fox-Amato, who teaches at the University of Idaho, and who developed this book from his doctoral dissertation at Southern California. Exposing Slavery looks at how photography was used in distin ly different ways by slaveowners, abolitionists, Union sold and enslaved African Americans themselves. Take the photograph on the cover of the book, that of lit Charlotte Middleton and her en slaved nurse, Lydia, taken by Charlestonian George S. Cook i the late 1850s. The author put best: “through the circulation display of images of well-dres bondspeople and portraits of e slaved caretakers with white children, enslavers projected comfortable, harmonious, and f milial form of bondage,” allow ing Southern whites to “persua themselves and others of the j and beneficial nature of slave But danger lurked here. The Lydia posing as “property” is simultaneously having her personhood affirmed and preserved by Cook’s camera. “In the firs
Programs for Civil War Round Tables and Historical Societies
thor explains, “enslaved people had begun entering southern daguerreotype saloons of their ow volition, posing for cameras, a leaving with visual treasures t could keep in their pockets.” The same thing happened in the antebellum North. Frederick Douglass had his picture taken more than 160 times—more than Lincoln—and in doing so he was casting his image as not only a man, but a defiant one at that Samuel Miller’s daguerreotype 1847/1852). In his chapter “Realizing Abolition,” Fox-Amato discusses how abolitionists recognized and employed photography as a powerful antislavery weapon. The Branded Hand of Captain Jonathan Walker, a daguerreotype made in 1845, shows closeup Walker’s outstretched left hand branded with “SS”—slave stealer. (Walker, a northern wh shipwright, had helped seven slaves escape from Florida to the Bahamas, but was caught, tried and sentenced to brief im prisonment but a lifetime scar. Abolitionists reproduced the picture widely in newspapers and pamphlets as an irrefutable portrayal of slavery’s horrific violence. “Years later, as the Civil W raged,” the author states, “Uni soldiers would orchestrate pictures with fugitive slaves that envisioned racial hierarchy as slavery fell.” When Timothy O’Sullivan photographed a group of Union officers in Virginia i spring of 1864, he included in scene a young black man holding a pitcher—an image, Fox-Amato writes, that “fused racial hier
chy with a sense of place, whit privilege, and black subservience.” To Northern whites worried about the status of millio of soon-to-be freedpeople, such pictures offered assurances tha after emancipation, blacks were ready to accept a subordinate r in white society. These instances only hint at intellectual richness of Exposi
Slavery. I echo the observation of one admirer of Fox-Amato’s book: “the links between
of the Civil War--Atlanta Campa is due out August 2019.
Private Confederacie The Emotional Worlds of Southern Men as Citizens and Soldiers. By James J. Broomhall Illustrations, notes, bibliogra index, 240 pp., 2019. Universit
Author James J. Broomhall is an assistant professor of histo at Shepherd University and director of the George Tyler Moor Center for the Study of the Civ War. This book is part of Civil War America, edited by Peter S. Carmichael, Caroline E. Janney, and Aaron Sheehan-Dean. Civil War America is a series of book interpreting the history and cu ture of the Civil War-era and beyond in a broad and diverse manner. Broomhall has followed the
private writings (letters, diar of several Southern men from
the antebellum years through the Civil War, emancipation and Reconstruction. He has chosen a diverse group of men, although each is from a slaveholding fam ily. For example, Georgia nativ George Anderson Mercer kept a diary from the age of fifteen His words represent a complex but familiar portrait of southe masculinity based on “Christian
gentility, ideological expression, and emotional communication.” Future Confederate gener
defined himself by his relationship to slaves, women, and
children. White supremacy and control denoted his role in soci ety. In the Confederate armies, however, men were forced to associate with a variety of other men, many not from the elite or even middling class. The decisions of other men now controlled his daily actions, his f and his clothing. Men, now separated from their families, created other support groups from within the military. Without thi support, the chaos and trauma of battle, wounding, illness, an death could have seemed impossible to bear. How each man deal with these issues is the premise Private Confederacies. When southern soldiers returned to civilian life, the cha es they experienced once again left many emotionally vulnerable. There were several outcomes of these experiences. Most men found ways to define themselves once again, even in times of ema cipation and Reconstruction. Some others, however, found that bitter, aggressive masculinity d fined their reaction to such sig nificant changes. Sadly, the lat choice led to the creation of vi lante organizations with their l acy of lynchings and the Ku Klux Klan. Private Confederacies is an e sential contribution to a growin number of resources concerning the mentality and actions of southern men and women before, during, and after the Civil War. Good, new work is appearing in this area, and each one takes a step toward helping readers understand just how the myth of
the Lost Cause not only came into existence but persisted for so long. Books such as Joanne Freeman’s The Field of Blood, Ben Wynne’s The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis, Diane Miller Sommerville’s Aberration of Mind, and Jarret Ruminski’s The Limits of Loyalty join Tony Horowitz’s seminal Confederates in the Attic as the waning of th Lost Cause pushes us to more clearly understand the hearts
and minds of southerners who fought in the Civil War. James J Broomall’s book makes a signif-
Ellsworth, will be published by Southern Illinois University Pre
In Single, White, Slaveholdi Women in the NineteenthCentury American South, historian Marie S. Molloy examines a relatively overlooked group in nineteenth-century Southern society: single white slavehold ing women. Traditionally, studies of slaveholding women have focused exclusively on married plantation mistresses and socia ites. Molloy brings slaveholdin single women into the spotlight by highlighting how these women maneuvered in a society that expected them to marry and bear
New 392 page, full-color b Civil War Artillery Projecti The Half Shell Book. For more information and h
n Woman Scabs and Scabbards children. Molloy argues that the Civil War provided single women with the opportunity to accel erate personal, social, economic and legal change that fostered t acceptance of their existence in society. Molloy’s work covers a wide expanse of time by considering gender norms and behavior from the antebellum through the postwar era. Molloy defines singleness to include nonmarriage, widowhood, separation and divorce. Through the stories of in dividual women, she highlights how all varieties of single wome navigated their precarious position. To place these single women in context, Molloy begins wit a description of the gender role of Southern society. She investigates the hierarchical structu of Southern society and how the position of women in this structure dictated acceptable behavio for women. In Southern society, women were expected to conform to the social paradigm known as “The Cult of True Womanhood.” To be an ideal Southern lady, women were expected to uphold “the four cardinal virtues”—piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. Along with exemplifying these traits, women wer valued for their roles as mother and wives. This left single women with few options. Single women were viewed as redundant, odd, or even socially deviant by choosing not to marry and have children. Molloy describes how single women found ways to define themselves as valuable and respected members of society.
Single Southern women coped with societal constraints in vari ous ways. Molloy argues that the Civil War allowed these women to forge a legitimate rival to th Cult of True Womanhood with the Cult of Single Blessedness, which emphasized the contributions of single women inside and outside of the home. Women expanded the traditional and acceptable roles of domestic caregivers, nurses and teachers. The Civil War and subsequent postwar challenges provided single women with ample opportunities to augment these home roles and find a place for themselves i society. And, in turn, these new roles gave women greater autonomy and economic independence. This book is broken down into five chapters. Each chapter ends with a brief summary that provides an excellent wrapup for each of Molloy’s main points. The chapters focus on topics including the construction of Southern femininity, the role of single women in the family, work, female friendship, and law, property and the single woman. Molloy uses diaries, letters, journals, court cases, petitions and laws to paint a picture of challenges and triumphs of unmarried, divorced and widowed women and how their situations changed throughout the nineteenth century. However, the women investigated in this work are of the highest class. A look at middle- and lower-class single women would round out this already excellent study. This book is an essential read for those interested in gender and sexuality. It provides a more positive look at the role
of single Southern slaveholding women in society. Single, White, Slaveholding Women in the Nineteenth-Century American South delves beyond the traditional plantation lady
to provide a nuanced look at the Southern female experience.
This past spring Claire Affinito graduated from Shepherd University with a bachelor’s degree in history. She has recently begun a nine-month internship at the Antietam National Battlefield In this internship she will focus on providing education and interpretive programs to visitors that focus on the battle, the aftermat and its impact on local citizens.
War Matters: Material Culture in the Civil War Era. Edited by Joan E. Cashin. Photos, notes, index, bibliography, 263 pp., 2018. University of North
When I was in museum school (during the medieval ages), we learned that material culture was all those “things” that man has produced that have earned him money, made him comfortable, made him uncomfortable, increased his lot in life, decrease his lot in life and generally cou be described as all those things you see in museums. The term came into the mainstream museum world in the 1970’s when James Deetz, a young anthropologist/archeologist, began using the term to help identify different cultures and societies throug his diggings and explorations.
A classmate of mine, Thomas Schlereth, also helped popular-
ize the term in the museum field when he recognized that all those everyday things in our attic and basement were worthy of our study to understand our and other cultures. Indeed, Deetz’s book, I
Small Things Forgotten, argued that the written word alone faile to provide an adequate picture of the past. Schlereth’s Artifacts a the American Past explored in detail the motivations driving th production of material cultures. All human creations— maps, photographs, art, music,
Publishers: Send your book(s) fo CWN Book Review Editor, Ste 3670 Falling Leaf Lane, Cumming
artifacts—are all central to our study of history and anthropology. Editor Joan E. Cashin’s War Matters narrows the microscope on the material culture to that produced during the American Civil War and comes up with some pretty surprising results, along with some more traditional “things.” Her introduction, aptly entitled “The Idea of Things,” ex plores the current academic controversies surrounding the concept of “material culture,” and the ten essays that follow illumi nate the “battle.” Traditional pieces with self-e planatory titles include Jason Phillips’ “John Brown’s Pikes,” Ronald and May Zboray’s “Saved by a Testament, Books as Shields Among Union and Confederate Soldiers,” and Earl Hess’ “The Material Culture of Weapons in the Civil War.” Two of the most compelling essays are Peter Carmichael’s “The Trophies of Victory and the Relics of Defeat: Returning Home in the Spring of 1865,” and Yael Sternhell’s “The Stuff of Defeat: Material Culture and the Downfall of Jefferson Davis.” Carmichael examines a witness tree under which Robert E. Lee stood prior to his meeting with Grant at Appomattox. Once the surrender was announced, soldiers from both sides recognized the importance of the tree and li erally tore it to shreds for a so venir of the day—for one group, a sad remembrance of defeat, for the other, a reminder of victory both sides seemed to understand it was symbolic of peace at last. Sternhell’s essay recounts the brief history of Jefferson Davis’
personal effects after his captur their confiscation and his twenty-year struggle to regain posses sion of them. To Davis, Sternhell argues, his loss of his possessio was the final indignity. Perhaps the most arresting art cle in this slim volume is Robert
D. Hicks’ “Scabrous Matters: Spurious Vaccinations in the Confederacy.” After presenting the traditional definitions of ma terial culture, Hicks argues the
44 Civil War News August 2019 H Scabs . . . . . . . . . . from page 43 aspect of the historical narrative. To whom would a book like this appeal? Do you read for informaThe Seventh West Virginia: “lymph and crusts (scabs from vaccinations) are artifacts” as tion or affirmation? Probably the general reader and student of the “Their Deeds Are Their Monuments” well. After all, they are produced war will find new information and used by man. If a doctor’s and thus greater knowledge con- The Seventh West Virginia members of the Seventh West not secession. As a result, many bag included all manner of instru- cerning our great national trage- Infantry: An Embattled Union Virginia Veteran Volunteers and fought against the Confederacy ments to cut and probe, why not dy. Museum leaders who have not Regiment from the Civil were present when Robert E. and the slave oligarchy of eastern dead smallpox virus that can be gotten wind of this work should War’s Most Divided State. By Lee surrendered the Army of Virginia in support of the Union. used to inoculate? Hicks argues read it. The voracious reader of David Mellott and Mark Snell. Northern Virginia at Appomattox This classic study would have successfully that the samples of battles and leaders will probably Appendices, notes, bibliography, Court House. been enhanced by an order of virus, crusts, lymph, and vaccine take a pass on this, much to his or index, 368 pp., 2019. University This monograph is the result battle, a listing of soldiers who
In the end I had to admit that, as has occupied the American imag- Mark Snell. The statistical appen- the Seventh West Virginia Veteran strange as smallpox vaccinations ination for the last 150 years. Reviewed by David Marshall dices included are the result of Volunteers received honorable or are as an indicator of materi- research by Professor Snell that medical discharges at war’s end al culture, they do indeed fit the Salvatore Cilella is the retired was originally entered into a data and made it back home. definition and are worthy of our CEO of the Atlanta History Center, base of West Virginia soldiers This is a well-written book attention. after serving 43 years in the mu- created during his tenure as the on the Seventh West Virginia The most important theme in seum field. He is the author of founding director of Shepherd Infantry. Each battle this regiall ten chapters is how differ- Upton’s Regulars, (University of College’s Center for the Study ment participated in is covered ent groups learn that the objects Kansas Press, 2009) and editor of of the Civil War in 1993. It is in detail. Students and enthusicould “speak” to them. Each may The Selected Correspondence of not written in the standard for- asts will gain a great deal of inhave interpreted them differently, General Emory Upton (University mat of well-respected military sight into common soldiers and but on the bottom line, each au- of Tennessee Press, 2017). He is works such as John Pullen’s their officers. Like most modern thor presents sufficient arguments currently editing Upton’s letters to Twentieth Maine Infantry, The regimental histories, the authors that historians who dismiss mate- his wife (1868–1870) for publica- First Minnesota by Richard Moe, do not seek to glorify the men rial culture and rely only on the tion by the University of Oklahoma The Twentieth Massachusetts of the 7th, but simply to underwritten word, miss an important Press. by Richard Miller, or The 11th stand and report the reality of Pennsylvania Reserves by Joseph the soldiers’ experience. The text Gibbs. However, it utilizes so- is complemented by 38 photocial details that provide a greater graphs and twelve outstanding
alone or with print plus CWN archives at and their political history. The Hal Jespersen. authors provide an in-depth look This narrative is a first-rate After fighting a few minor skir- at the regiment’s members from work that should appeal to any-
named this regiment from West a socioeconomic, military, medical, and personal point of view. one with an interest in regimentals in general and West Virginia Virginia the Bloody Seventh. Statistics include casualties for in particular. I highly recommend By the end of the Civil War, 315 all of the Seventh’s engagements. this publication as a memorable members died of injuries, illness, An Embattled Union Regiment regimental history. or from other causes. Out of a to- from the Civil War’s Most Divided tal four-year enrollment of 1,528 State successfully tells the story David Marshall has been a high enlisted officers and men, the of individuals and their place in school American history teacher Seventh’s mortality rate was 20.6 West Virginia’s Civil War histo- in the Miami-Dade School district STAY INFORMED! percent. After a year of skirmish- ry. In 1860 more than half of the for the past thirty-two years. He ing, marching, serving on occu- families living in the Southern is president of the Miami Civil pation duty and participating in Appalachian region were poor War Roundtable Book Club. He a few battles in the Shenandoah and only 18 percent were sla- has given presentations to Civil S ISSUE: THE MONTHLY HIZER JIM LIGHT INSIDE THI EFIELD BY LD HOLZER Valley, the Seventh was trans- veowners, with the fewest livUS BATTL L. SELL JR War Round Tables on Joshua MOST FAMO ND BY HARO G AMERICA’S ESS BY CARL WING THAT GROU LEE’S HOST HALLO • PRESERVIN PSON - ROBERT E. TING AND H F. WILSO N CONSECRA BY JOSEP • MARY THOM REVISITED: STILL CW N THE FIGHT News CURRENT EVENTS 2018 G • GETTYSBUR NIA RESERVES: BACK IN ZKOW SKI Civil War FER SYLVA BY JOE MIEC MICHAEL K. SHAF LIN • THE PENN MIKE SHOV DRAFT RIOTS STORS BY SBURG BY ferred to the Army of the Potomac ing in West Virginia counties. • NEW YORK G CIVIL WAR ANCE OF GETTY LA Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, SPEO PLE CILEL BY THE TOWN SALVATORE • RESEARCHIN SBURG BY NON PRITC HARD ATION FACED BATTLE OF GETTY ED BY SHAN NEWSPAPER • CONTAMIN AND THE REMEMBER Y R. WAUD NT 4TH TEXAS BY THOMAS P. LOWR • ALFRED CW N OF THE GALLA • COLONEL GETTYSBURG TRAN SLATED Pages,War Civil News April 2018 AT • ESKIMOS War Enthu siasts vation in early 1862. There it remained Most people living in western aper For Civil to Preser Abraham Lincoln and the battle of Monthly Newsp FREE America’s Trust’s Path
Vol. 44, No. RPWKDW YHVEDWWOH¿HOGVIU Civil War Q LV DW ZKLFKVD QGWKH:DURI -FOROO 7KH FROOHFWLR EH FRQÀLFWD ZKHUH KLVWRU\ PLOLWDU\ &DPSEH RUJDQGRQ<RX7X 2Q WKH JURXQG DQG 'RROH\ 2018 KHU FDUH DW WKH ODUJHVW FLYLOZDU HFRPPRQZ HDOWK¶V G +LFH XLVLWLRQ War Enthusiasts 48 Pages, January UOG:HUHLWQRW )XQG KDSSHQH HGDDFUHDFT an integral part of the Second Virginia favored the Union and ,Q9LUJLQLDWK Civil KRVSLWDO LQWKHZR3HPEHU¶V YLYLG Gettysburg. 3UHVHUYDWLRQ VWDWH DQQRXQF Newspape r For WKH VL]H DQG %DWWOH¿HOG America’s HIIHFWLYH Monthly WKDQ WULSOHV Away Dancing the Night
DFFRXQWVVol.44, No.V 1 KLVWRULDQ SRRUHU RQH EDWWOH¿HOG JUDQW SURJUDP RI .HWWOH KDYH D IDU WRQ *D 7KH CIVIL WAR WRGD\ ZRXOG RI WKH QDWLRQ¶V OHYHO ZDV UHFHQWO\ Lincoln Scholar QHDU :DVKLQJ LQ WKH FRXQWU\ DV WKH 9LUJLQLD 3DUN LQWHUSUHWV D 5HYROXWL WKH RQDU\ Hotel at the Gettysburg XQGHUVWDQGLQJ SDUN WKH VSRWOLJKW \ FRQVLGHUHG WKDW ZDV GHDGOLHVWFRQÀLFW UV RI DQRWKHU LQ HQJDJHPHQW LQ *HRUJLD $VVHPEO 2S :DU 6RRQ YROXQWHHLQ WR EHDXWLI\ *HQHUDO O IXQGLQJ IRU LW SDWULRWV¶ ¿UVW YLFWRU\ QWU\ Harold Holzer’sersary SLWFK DGGLWLRQD %DUU\ WKDW EDFNFRX or not you believe VRUW ZLOO VLWHV 'HOHJDWH IRUHWHOOLQJ UHVLVW Whether DQG KLVWRULF 'D\ HGV E\ 9LUJLQLD WLRQ OHDGHUV ¿JKWHUV ZRXOG ¿HUFHO\ By Joseph Bordonaro the ballroom in the Corps until the end of the conEDWWOH¿HOGV 3DUN DQG SUHVHUYD VXEGXH WKH Penn.— these stories, QDWLRQ IRU H .QLJKW HU DQG .HYHQ ELG WR GETTYSBURG, Gettysburg Hotel is an excellent DFURVV RXU 7UXVW¶V VSULQJWLP -DPHV /LJKWKL] LQVHYHUDOVWDWH %ULWDLQ¶V ZDVDWDVWHRIWK HVSLULW believe that spirits a banquet dinner WKH &LYLO :DU Anniv WR Many people of place to enjoy Oration at the 154th RSOHWRH[SUHVV XEOLVKHG IXQG¶V 6RXWK,W H WKDW ZRXOG OHDG Q of slain soldiers visit the place era ballRSSRUWXQLW\IRUSH IRU WKH VLWHV :DONHUSHUV QRWHG WKH and participate in 1860’s WLRQ J RI UHVLVWDQF RI .LQJ¶V 0RXQWDL or death, and the dancing. The organizers of WKHLU DSSUHFLD HULFDEHJDQDQG QHZVSDSLPSRUWDQFH WR SURWHFWLQ Address EDWWOHV VH their wounding Penn., has a room of the Gettysburg :DU WKH *XLOIRUG &RXUWKRX town of Gettysburg, Day dinner WKDWWHOO KRZ$PLV\HDU¶VIDPLO\ FULWLFDO:DU 5HYROXWLRQDU\ &RZSHQV the Remembrance ULFDQYLFWRU\DW cottage industry of sorts devot- and ball, John and Nancy NewENTHUSIASTS GH¿QHGLWVHOI7K SUHVHUYDWLRQ &LYLO RIKLVWRULFVLWHV Q DQGXOWLPDWH$PH people around town Penn., and IULHQGO\ KDQGVRQ G IRU 6DWXUGD\ DQG:DU RI WKH $PHULFD <RUNWRZQ LV ed to taking spirits. It bold of Gettysburg, Louis, Mo., )RU IDQV HDVW*HRUJLDJRW :DU 7UXVW W to hear stories of these Karen Duffy of St. HYHQW VFKHGXOH YHQXHV LV WKH 7KH &LYLO flict. These fighting men fought in QRQSUR¿ might make more sense, though, their event DW PRVW National Gettysburg $SULO HYHQW $W 5HYROXWLRQQRUWK )HEUXDU\IURP QRQSDUWLVDQ sol- have been presenting HPHWHU\² XWRXWLQ +LFH D WR WKH places where slain ELJJHVW DQQXDO 6ROGLHUV·& 7UXVW¶V VLWHV LQ DELJVKR VPDQ -RG\ WLRQ GHYRWHG ¶V to visit likely to since 2003. several other celebraSULRU \HDU·V SUHVV WLPH D UHFRUG November 19 '& 86 &RQJUHV *HRUJLD IRRWEDOO RUJDQL]D WLRQ RI $PHULFD diers would be more a town There are SRUWUDLW GXULQJ D OG DQG :DVKLQJ WRQ seven 8QLYHUVL W\ RI DQG WKH SUHVHUYD XQGV visit, such as a ballroom in on the Saturday of RememD JURXS LQ %DWWOHÀH and VWDWHVthree score7KH\ LQFOXGH 9LQFH 'RROH\ WLDWLYH KDOORZHG EDWWOHJUR fought. If this tions Day, including the largest SDXVH IRU &HGDU 0RXQWD in Some XS where a battle was 9ROXQWHHUV WKH VFHQLF Cedar Mounta ZHUH VLJQHG from this RQDU\ spot—in :DU OHJHQG LQL Hotel brance Hotel FOHDQXS RQ Friends of U7UXVW miles 5HYROXWLa statue of 7UXVW¶V&DPSDLJQ is true, then the Gettysburg held at the Eisenhower 3DUN 'D\ Virginia. The &LYLO:D &LYLO :DU standsVFHQHV /HDUQ just the place one, Since it r County, UW Washington— RI ballroom might be Conference Center. in Culpepe KHDGHGWKHHIIR DQG :DULincoln. Abraham DWFLYLOZDURUJ departed sol- and GLI¿FXOWWRDWWHQG one; another one: to seek spirits of %DWWOHÀHOGVSHDU IRPHQW KRZ\RX Not that FDQKHOS seek- ZRXOGEHYHU\ this diers who are themselvespeople all the affairs in one night, more major battles in the eastern WRR ZRXOG of Lin-RKQ RU WKH\ 'XULQJ WKH ZDU Thomas SDUNGD\ Ball’s statueWLRQ QHZV where from and SUHVHUYD with one ing a place of joy features photographs and dancing as story SINCE 1974 War Trust Q coln,Q asRWKHUa liberator, EHHQ DGGHG can be seen eating at the GettysThe Civil D UHYROXWLR JHQHUDOV² DFUHV KDYH the Emancipation only the one held rs have saved WKH ZLYHV RI VHYHUDO HO *UHHQH arm clutching &UHHN 1DWLRQDO they would have in 1863. This is not meant to our membe in 24 states! 1DWKDQD WR :LOVRQ¶V the0LVVRXUL other extend E\ WKH in 1797, burg Hotel. are +HQU\ .QR[ UH Proclamation, Established as a tavern tavern slight the other balls, which 48,000 acres :DVKLQJWRQ²ZH DQG *HRUJH HQFRXUDJLQJ DQG ed%DWWOH¿HDQG WKH OG LQ lifting a shackin a blessing, &UHHN the 3HUKDSV LQ WKH at the time of the Battle 12 ISSUES Trust LQ half-naked :LOVRQ¶V African AmericanRQ Brother’s, YHU\ ¿QH DIIDLUV will War 7UXVW led, )RXQGDWL was called McClellan’s additional stories From the Civil RI DV KHOSIXO VLFN DQG ZRXQGHG from %DWWOH¿HOG his knees. then-current future, GH¿QLQJ ZDUV IRU RI 1DWLRQDO WKH SDUN it was fundRQ DOORZV after the name of its In the meantime, ,Q WKH WKUHH ZRPHQ FDULQJ ZHUH WKH VSRXVHV because in feature them. ¶V ¿UVW FHQWXU\ UROHV VROGLHUV DV 7KH DFTXLVLWL It’s unique WKH LQLWLDO SRVLWLRQ American owners. Several ghosts are, please enjoy the accompanying by African theater than any other from the $PHULFD LQWHUSUHW entirely the 1890’s the SOD\HG NH\ WKH HYHU\GD\VROGLHUV WKHedWR &RO )UDQ] 6LJHO¶V fact, now said to haunt of dancers enjoying KDYH DOZD\V DUWLFXODUO\ RI 8QLRQFrederick Douglass site of the old photos IURQW RU EHKLQG 7KHVH ZDUV²S freedmen. L¿FDQW WKLVVLJQ¿UVW hotel built on the Hotel ball. ZKHWKHU RXW &LYLO :DU 7UXVW :DU²FK DQJHG ZRPHQ¶V KLPVHOIGHGLFD WURRSVS WHGLW³)RUWKH UHVHUYLQJ ¿UVW PDMRU These ghosts include Gettysburg VFHQHV 7KH &LYLO HQDEOLQJ WKHPtime H RIheWKH in history,” declared that7KH tavern. nursed RQWHQWRQVXFK VRPHWLPHV ODQGVFDS EDWWOH at the “Rebecca,” a woman who ZLWKULFKRQOLQHF WKH 5HYROXWLRQ OLYHV SDWKV SUHYLRXVO\ SXUVXHG color:DUhad “unveiled the annual oration IURP WR WURG day, people of LV WKH ZHVWHUQ &LYLO monumentVRXWKZH of en- Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer delivers \RQ1RYHPEHU WKH wounded soldiers, a woundedbeen VW sol+ Dancing LQGLYLGXDOV WKH &LYLO E\ PHQ 1XUVLQJ &ODUD[and] set apartG a ORFDWHG who has page 27 RI WR QW ODUJHO\ EDWWOH¿HO bronze, OG LV ZKHUH in every featureWKHof¿UVW DWLRQDO6ROGLHUV·&HPHWHU /RRNLQJRQ dier, and a woman . . . . . . . . . . . see WR WKH :DU WHG VLJQL¿FD H[DPSOH ZLWK 6DOO\during RI 6SULQJ¿H O /\RQ*HWW\VEXUJ1UVDU\RI/LQFROQ·V*HWW\VEXUJ$GGUHVV H seen dancing in the ballroom. :DU KLJKOLJK EHVWNQRZQ men of 1DWKDQLH after-coming WKDQQLYH +HQU\%DOORQ HYHQWV DQG %DUWRQ VHH SDJH which8QLRQ the JHQHUDO something LV/LQFROQUHDFWRU*HRUJH%XVV PER YEAR ¿JXUHV KLVWRULF RQ RI DQG +DUULHW 7XEPDQgenerations GLQWKH& may readLYLO:DU men are creatOXQWHHU ZDVNLOOH HQWO\ all here—that all newly admitted thirty-fifth state, UHODWHG VLWHV LQ FHOHEUDWL 7RPSNLQV and great characterVWKDVUHF exalted O:DU7UX We gather here above a ed equal—remained a promise 0RQWK GXULQJ EHLQJWKHPRVWIDPRXVYR &LYLOof the7KH&LYL QHZVWDWHVWRLWVcountry. speech on
Lincoln.” :RPHQ¶V +LVWRU\ GXULQJ WKH works of DGGHGDY Abraham DULHW\RI 6WDWH to remember a great is not XQIXO¿OOHG SUDFWLWLRQHUV today, RQOLQH ³<RXU Douglass’s in an often 0DUFK Q :DU IRU :DU FROOHFWLRQ RI been But HDWXULQJ forgotten. sacred spot. But Gettysburg KRVH Now we are engaged ,Q WKH $PHULFD FRQWULEXWLRQVendorsement has YLGHRVI war—a day of reckoning ew KLVWRULDQ &RNLH LQWKH&LYLO:DU´ VWDWHV 7KH\ RQO\D¿QDOUHVWLQJSODFHIRUW &RQVLGHUWRRWKH PHPRLULVW lives that the uncivil WarN is outWKRVHof fashion— some ,QGHSHQGHQFH V WKHVH ZRPHQ &DUROLQD statue IURP TheSHRSOH WR WKH UROH who here gave their coming—in which RI 6RXWK DVWXWHREVHUYHU D EULHI JXLGH It is an out- long civic 5REHUWV FRQVLGHU J 0RWKHUV´ politically incorrect. H&LYLOnation might live. have condemned, 0DU\&KHVQXWDQ VRFLHW\ DQG ToSURYLGH too, with historians .Civil of Lincoln image\HGLQWK RXU ³)RXQGLQ ZLIH RI -RKQ some, the VWDWHSOD door sculpture gallery, removed, and activistsny. SROLWLFV KLJK 3HPEHU DQ WKDWHDFK LQFOXGH HQWULHVslave a kneeling hundred mon- leaders ceremoas $ELJDLO $GDPV G SROLWLFV DV RI looming above 7KH ODWHVW believe more than thirteen Creek Today, defaced, statues. www 3KRHEH D]R :DU Critics D .HQWXFN it’s \ Lee; Long- have g at the Kettle U7UXVW V¿Qincluding Winchester, Antietam, $GDPV LQÀXHQFH ZLIH RI ZDUIDUHUDWRU RI &KLPERU is degrading. )ORULGD it/RXLVLDQ and erase &DOLIRUQ uments: Meade andDooley speakinZHUHPHPEHU it LD &LYLO:D /LQFROQDQGKL GLG 0HUF\ 2WLV :DUUHQ DGPLQLVW G KDG time to take LFXW downDQG and Vince streetCoach Buford; Wadsworth est hour, a speech that went on to -RVHSK :DUUHQ DW 5LFKPRQ XQGHU &RQQHFW and pop- IHDWXUHV of its own, we face 31st Edition %RVWRQ SDWULRW ODGLHV´ LQ WKH +RVSLWDO VROGLHUV fromWKH bothODWWHU VWDWH¶V YLGHR the cityscape and Warren. VPDQ -RKQ a time inspire statues — MAKER — WKH WKDQ Despite Douglass’s other ³5HPHPEHU DGYLVHG PRUH ular memory. IRUPHU 86 &RQJUHV long endure, These statues recall values, a challenge to countless $ELJDLO not than QHZJRYHUQPHQW hopes, it may when valor, more issue: statuesDo²7KHand to collective memory subjects onto thispedestals, 8QÀQLVK HG)LJKW it, revise it, ¿WWLQJ DQG elevated Inside after all. PRINT & DIGITAL itself. we embrace That ,W LV DOWRJHWKHU and when, admit, the let’s LF·V&RUQ HU real 20it?– This And H/HQV contested ²&ULW and or erase proper to recall such erWe can- issue that ignited secession Section That ²7KU RXJK7K Thomas controversial and now. Index 41 – Events shadtheARMS! Talk-Trivia sculpture47 here– Advertis er rebellion receded 18 – Inspecti intoon, recalls an age when 35 – Small was JBall Lincoln Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, 26 – Ask this Apprais The hallowed Smoke the Lost Cause ·&:%OR undisputed title the of motion as he guides UR re-consecrate Since 1999 not White acknowledg- ows; when²-RKQ%DQNV Lincoln held the ground without 6 – Black Powder, retrievable, and Poretsky is a blur Reviews the still considered 12 – The Source echoed Floor Master Jeff -RH%RUGRQD ing the statue 32 – Book controversy— ²&ODVVLÀHGV roiling the the words that Lincoln + Holzer GDQFHUVLQDQLQWULFDWHÀJX UH page 9 memory crisis—now . . . . . . . . . . . see EDITIONS AVAILABLE Inside this issue: ²7KH8QÀQLVKHG)LJKW ²&ULWLF·V&RUQHU 18 – This And That Index Lens LEATHER WORKS 47 – Advertiser 39 – Events Section 8 – Through The Gettysburg, the Overland 22 – Ask The Appraiser Smoke 16 – Inspection, ARMS! 2 – Roundtable News White 6 – Black Powder, ²-RKQ%DQNV·&:%ORJ 33 – Small Talk-Trivia 30 – Book Reviews 10 – The Source ²&ODVVLÀHGV Campaign, and Petersburg. In
INSIDE EVERY ISSUE name was changed officially Museum Quality UP-TO-DATE COVERAGE • PRESERVATION NEWS • BOOK REVIEWS to the “Seventh Union Virginia Dedicated to the SHOWS, LIVING HISTORY AND REENACTMENTS • HISTORICAL ARTICLES Volunteers.” Following offi- Common Soldiers MONTHLY COLUMNS • CALENDAR OF EVENTS cial statehood on June 20, 1863, Who Fought in CALLOnly
the regiment was renamed the The War Between The States “Seventh West Virginia Infantry”
Brigade. One third of these fight- “Raising The Standard” The USA
520 Folly Road, Suite 25 PMB 379 Charleston, SC 29412 Mountain State, including near-
