An Excellent Introduction to the Capital of the Confederacy
Embattled Capital—A Guide to Richmond During the Civil War. By Robert M. Dunkerly and Doug Crenshaw. Maps, Photos, Illustrations, Bibliography. 177 pages. Savas Beatie, www.savasbeatie.com. Softcover, $14.95.
Horace Greely, the influential editor of the New York Tribune spoke for most northerners when he put “On to Richmond!” under the letterhead of his newspaper. Not surprisingly, the capture of the Confederate capital became one of the main objectives of the Union army. However, strong Confederate military leadership and poorly planned and executed Union campaigns allowed Richmond to avoid capture for almost four years.
Dunkerly and Crenshaw, two veteran authors with ties to the Richmond National Battlefield, have produced an excellent book aimed at the casual reader. It is both an introduction to what the city was like during the war and a guide book for anyone wanting to visit it today.
The book is divided thematically into twelve chapters. As one might expect, popular visitor destinations like museums and battlefields are covered. In addition, the authors discuss prisons and hospitals. Also mentioned are numerous little known, and out of the way sites.
There are also chapters dealing with difficult subjects like slavery in Richmond and the Reconstruction era. In the chapter about monuments, they discuss the on-going controversies regarding the many Confederate monuments around the city and the recent removal of some of them. To the author’s credit, these subjects are discussed in a very fair and impartial manner.
For anyone who wants to know more about Richmond during the Civil War, this book is an excellent starting point, and should be carried by any Civil War enthusiast planning a trip to the Confederate capital.
We Gave Them Thunder – Marmaduke’s Raid and the Civil War in Missouri and Kansas. By William Garrett Piston & John C. Rutherford. 2021, Ozarks Studies Institute of Missouri State University, Springfield. https://ozarksstudies. missouristate.edu/book-series. htm. 341 pp., $29.95.
Reviewed by Charles H. Bogart
In December 1862, Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke led a Confederate cavalry raid north from Arkansas into Missouri. The raid was directed at the Federal supply depot located at Springfield, Missouri. The purpose of the raid was to destroy sufficient Federal supplies to prevent the Federal’s planned 1863 spring offensive against Little Rock, Ark. Springfield was the Federal forward supply base supporting the advance of Missouri troops into Arkansas. Marmaduke’s raiding force was built around Colonel Joseph O. Shelby’s Brigade and Colonel Joseph C. Porter’s Brigade. These two brigades formed the core of the 4th Cavalry Division, Army of the Trans-Mississippi
The story of the raid is well told and contains details of the campaign of which I was unaware. The authors rightly point out the fortitude the Confederate cavalrymen displayed as they advanced into battle while operating behind enemy lines during a very cold and wet winter. That the Confederate plan failed to achieve its aims was not due to failure in the personal courage of its soldiers.
Overall, the authors’ story again brings to the forefront the common factors that hampered Federal defensive response to a raid, lack of knowledge of the raiders intended target, and the real time location of the Confederate’s main force. The lack of current knowledge was compounded by Federal commanders using a communication system dependent upon written messages delivered by horseback and made worse by the Federal need to defend numerous points thus negating their overall strength. Favoring the Federals were their earthen defensive lines supplemented by fortified log strong points. These fortified supply bases were defended by determined men who, faltered at times, overall stood their ground and denied raiders access to the Federal supply depots.
The authors concentrate their tale of Marmaduke’s failed 1863 raid around two Confederate defeats: Springfield on Jan. 8, 1863, and Hartville on Jan. 11, 1863. The tale of these two Missouri battles is well told, allowing the reader to follow the flow of the fighting. The authors do not simply report battle events but provide critiques of what went right and what went wrong. They speculate about what would have happened to Federal strategy if the raid had been successful.
A much more important topic, however, is the Federal response to the raid. They launched an 1863 spring-summer offensive designed to knock Arkansas out of the war. The results of this Federal campaign were that the Missouri Confederate state government would never return to Missouri, and the Arkansas Confederate state government would be deprived of its capital city, Little Rock.
The text of the book is supported
CHARLESTON IN THE WAR
by a number of well executed battle maps, rendered in color, showing the flow of the fights. The supporting photos are also in color. A topic hinted at within the book, but not deeply delved into, is the impact of the raid on the civilian population in its path. The Confederate troopers were forced to live off the land as they moved through Missouri. The land they traveled through was populated by subsistent farmers whose survival during a brutal winter was uncertain even in the best of times. Thus, the reader is faced with an unanswered question. After the land was stripped by the Confederate raiders of food, fodder, and animals, what happened to the civilian population? Tidbits within the overall story suggest death by starvation and diseases were the lot of these unfortunates, but the reviewer is uncertain if this is the correct answer.
If the Confederate Trans- Mississippi Department is of any interest to you, this book is a must read and an excellent addition to any Civil War library.
Charles H. Bogart has a BA from Thomas More University and an MCP from Ohio State University. He is employed as a tour guide at the Fort Boone Civil War Battle Site in Frankfort, Kentucky, serves as President of the Frankfort Civil War Roundtable, and is a board member of the Kentucky Civil War Roundtable. He has written a number of books and articles on military and naval history.
Kevin Waite, West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire. Notes, bibliography, index, 372 pp., The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, paperback. $29.95.
Reviewed by Thomas J. Ryan
Research about the Civil War generally focuses on the eastern part of the United States, yet, as Kevin Waite points out in West of Slavery, slavery-related issues led to confrontations in far Western states and territories as well. While on a smaller scale, fallout over slavery and related forms of bondage in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Utah led to political maneuvering and deadly conflict among partisan groups. The author labels this landmass the “Continental South,” and notes, “Proslavery partisans transformed the southwest quarter of the nation … into an appendage of the slave states.” California was the scene of confrontation between northern and southern oriented combatants, with the southerners endeavoring to achieve independence as a slave state.
The author sheds light on the “southern powerbrokers” who schemed to bring the western region into their “political and commercial orbit.” He explains why residents in these states embraced the pro-slavery agenda of their counterparts in the southeastern states; and how the idea of westward expansion shaped Confederate grand strategy during the war. He labels this “a study of failure—a catalog of dreams deferred, schemes interrupted, and plans forestalled….”
“West of Slavery” deals with the South’s desire for participation in the Asian market and its “600 million consumers.” This required construction of a transcontinental railroad that Northerners labeled “the great slavery road.” As early as 1852, Judah Benjamin, a future member of the Confederate presidential cabinet, commented that the Eastern world’s “commerce makes empires of the countries to which it flows….” The transcontinental objective had been under consideration since Thomas Jefferson’s presidency led to the Louisiana Purchase, and was later extended by the Republic of Texas and acquisition of territory including present-day California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. The discovery of gold motivated Southerners to transport as many as 1,500 black slaves to California, despite a stipulation in its constitution: “Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude … shall ever be tolerated in this State.”
Regarding the location of a transcontinental railroad destined to enhance commerce in the area it traversed, Mississippi’s Senator Jefferson Davis argued it was needed to maintain political and military control over newly-acquired areas in the West. He favored the railroad running through the South, and, after that region won the right to build an overland mail route in 1857, expectations were the future railroad would run over that same area. Later, as Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis envisioned the railroad running from St. Louis to San Francisco; and, after the “Gadsden Purchase” acquired land along the Mexican border with Texas, plans moved ahead for another Southern railroad terminating in San Diego.
Despite these railroads not being built during the antebellum period, the South still established itself politically in California, New Mexico, and the area later known as Arizona. Emigrants from the South managed to acquire positions in legislatures, courts, and as members of Congress, enabling them to influence political decisions. Eventually, railroad builders employed black slaves, captive Indians, and Mexican peons to extend the roads further westward. Slaveholders and Democrat Party officials in California and other western areas looked to Jefferson Davis for guidance and support from his influential position in the U.S. Congress. In Utah, Mormon leader Joseph Smith believed the “African race was divinely destined for slavery…;” both Utah and New Mexico passed laws that protected slaveholders, and attracted “a mass migration of southerners.” As a result, Waite concludes, “By 1860, slaveholding prospects in the Far West had never appeared brighter.”
So, when the people elected Abraham Lincoln as president and he took the oath of office in March, the Union not only divided between North and South, but also to a certain extent in the West, and Jefferson Davis was intimately involved in causing these divisions. Many Californians opted to join the Confederate military, and others posed a threat to generate an uprising within the state. Southerners in the U.S. military assigned to the Department of the Pacific, including such well-known stalwarts as Albert Sidney Johnston, George Pickett, Lewis Armistead, and Richard Garnett “resigned their commissions and fled east.” During the Civil War, Southern California remained strongly anti-Union and pro-South.
Following the collapse of the Southern rebellion, the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army, and the arrest of President Jefferson Davis, the situation out West stabilized. As the author points out, however, in his closing analysis titled “In the Shadow of the Confederacy,” the South rose again, so to speak, through the efforts of such organizations as the United Daughters of the Confederacy to sustain the memory of the Southern cause. The mindset and lifestyle of the South lived on through dogged efforts of “Lost Cause” revisionism. This too was true in the “Continental South,” including California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. For example, “No other free state housed more Confederate monuments than California.”
In West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire, Kevin Waite has created a fascinating study of a subject glossed over in other Civil War histories. This is a unique view of our country during the time of its greatest trial that all those interested in this period will find intriguing in its depth of research and clarity of narration. Readers will come away with a much expanded view of a conflict heretofore limited in both space and time.
Thomas J. Ryan is the author of the multiple award-winning Lee is Trapped and Must Be Taken: Eleven Fateful Days after Gettysburg, July 4-14, 1863 (along with co-author Richard R. Schaus), and 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.
Unsung Hero of Gettysburg: The Story of Union General David McMurtrie Gregg. By Edward G. Longacre. Illustrated, index, notes, bibliography, Potomac Books, https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/potomac/, 2021, 316 pp., hardcover, $34.95.
Reviewed by Wayne L. Wolf
David M. Gregg was the beau ideal of a mid-nineteenth cavalry officer. After graduating from the United States Military Academy, he spent six years honing his skills in the Southwest and on the Pacific coast fighting Native Americans and protecting frontier settlements. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he returned east and was appointed Colonel of the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Thus began the Civil War career of a modest, humble cavalry leader who would win the trust of superiors and the loyalty and affection of those who served under him.
Efficiently carrying out a variety of duties including supply routes and trains, skirmishing with Confederate raiders, and never holding back from an offensive assault when he thought an advantage could be gained, he still cared for his men and never needlessly placed them in danger. This philosophy held through engagements at Malvern Hill, Stony Creek Station, Second Deep Bottom, Haw’s Shop, Todd’s Tavern, Samaria Church, and countless other engagements in the Shenandoah Valley and during the Overland and Peninsular campaigns. Promoted to brigadier general in November 1862 upon General Bayard’s death, he inherited command of the 2nd Division. Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, a position he was to hold for the remainder of the Civil War.
Gregg’s moment of lasting glory however came on July 3, 1863, when in conjunction with General George Custer, he attacked and successfully prevented cavalry under Gen. J.E.B. Stuart from coordinating a rear attack on Union lines with General Pickett’s frontal assault. His preventing of this dual attack saved the Union line and ultimately the victory at Gettysburg for Union forces.
For the remainder of the war Gregg was attached to the Army of the Potomac and, except for a few tactical errors at Brandy Station (perhaps due to ill health) he competently led his cavalry through actions at Aldie, Middleburg, Upperville, and Sulphur Springs, then engaging General Lee’s forces on their retreat route while simultaneously acting as General Meade’s eyes and ears.
After the war, General Gregg served a brief stint as counsel at Prague and a term as auditor general of Pennsylvania. Yet, he was always cash strapped, never lived in a home he owned, and devoted most of his time to organizations that were military related, including the Loyal Legion where he served as Commander-in-Chief. He died on August 7, 1916, largely forgotten for his Civil War service.
Edward Longacre expertly combines primary source material with accounts of military engagements to craft a very readable, historically accurate, and unbiased biography of General Gregg. This is a much-needed biography of a general who gave much yet never sought publicity or self-promotion. Any student of Gettysburg would be well served by having a copy of this book close at hand.
Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College, past president of the Lincoln-Davis Civil War Roundtable and the author of numerous books and articles on the Civil War, including Two Years Before the Paddlewheel and The Last Confederate Scout.
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Juneteenth: The Story Behind the Celebration. By Edward T. Cotham Jr., Photographs, index, chapter endnotes, and bibliography. 344 pp. State House Press, Schreiner University, Kerrville, Texas. https://www.tamupress.com/consortium/texas-am-university-press. 2021. Distributed by Texas A&M University Press Consortium. Cloth. $39.95.
Reviewed by Richard J. Blumberg
Union Major General Gordon Granger’s General Order No. 3, is among the most misunderstood of all military orders issued during the Civil War. Its first line contains the phrase “all slaves are free.” It was issued and signed off on by a staff officer of the Headquarters District of Texas, Galveston, Texas, June 19, 1865.
“Mr. Civil War Galveston,” Ed Cotham, was intrigued by this rather simplistic statement and decided further research was needed. Ed has written numerous other books and articles, but this is perhaps his best work. He correctly asserts that readers need a great deal of background information and context to understand this order’s significance and its multiple impacts.
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Ed’s meticulous research makes Juneteenth a seminal work. A military order is more than the paper it is written on. General Order Number 3 affected various aspects of everyday life. Some of these included race relations, political considerations, military policies and procedures, and social and economic impacts. Ed analyzes each of these topics thoroughly. As a result, readers gain a deeper understanding of how military orders are created, enacted, and enforced.
Race relations are the hub of this study’s focus. Readers are challenged to determine exactly what freedom is for all parties and how it can be achieved. Lincoln and his Cabinet were conflicted about when and how to publish the Emancipation Proclamation which provided the foundation for General Order Number 3. Enforcement of General Granger’s order was very problematic for military troops trying to provide for freed Negroes and simultaneously conduct a war with the Confederates. Ed also provides interesting discussions about how Negroes were employed and reintegrated back into some Galveston area’s plantations, as well as in military service with the Union Army.
Juneteenth is a fascinating and provocative exploration of why June 19th of every year is celebrated in Texas. Cotham’s book is well worth the $39.95 price tag. Excellent research, a detailed bibliography, and numerous photographic images make this book one that should be on everyone’s reading list.
Richard J. Blumberg has reviewed books for Civil War News for nearly twenty years. Three of his articles have been published in various issues of Civil War News.
My Enemy, My Friend. By Georgiann Baldino. Illustrated, notes, Pearl Editions, 2020, 272 pp., softcover, $14.95.
Georgiann Baldino has fashioned this fictional novel around two composite portraits—one Union (Archie Ryan) and one Confederate (Elias Goodson). Likewise, Archie’s wife Jennie and Elias’ fiancée Liz Becker are fictional characters symbolic of women’s profound political and moral differences on the home front and their sufferings during the war. The battles noted represent engagements fought by the 99th Pennsylvania Infantry for the Union and the 2nd South Carolina Infantry for the South. An additional main character, Mary Morris Husband, was an actual Civil War nurse who saved both Archie and Elias from their war injuries. Mrs. Husband epitomizes the sacrifices of those who risked their lives and health to minister to the boys in the hospitals and prisons.
The author’s story is more than a simple recounting of two soldiers wounded in battle and serving their respective causes. Five themes that form its message emerge from this novel. First, despite a brutal war, combatants can put aside their differences after the war and work together for the common good of the country. Secondly, war has horrific costs for those left behind, years of separation, loss of affection, struggles to care for families, and death unattended by absent soldiers. Third, war is hell. Battles are not the sanitized versions recounted in newspapers. Instead, they are the blood, gore, pain, and suffering of human beings whose commitment by politicians with their rhetoric does not match brutal reality. Fourth, being exposed to war changes soldiers. In this novel, attitudes toward slavery morph into abolitionism. The soldier is deprived of his freedom in the army, is exposed to arbitrary military commanders, and is subjected to brutal punishments. Finally, shared wartime experiences can make enemies into friends. Soldiers come of age on the battlefield and realize they have more in common than supposed differences. Reconciliation is not only possible but preferred.
While this novel does not contribute new insights into battles or campaigns, it does present the human side of war, using both fact and fiction to illustrate war’s complex challenges. Readers of fiction will like this book for its character development and moral message. It is recommended for those who wish to forget the romantic side of war and focus on its human cost.
Wayne L. Wolf is Professor Emeritus at South Suburban College and the author of numerous Civil War books and articles, including Heroes and Rogues of the Civil War and The Last Confederate Scout. He is past president of the Lincoln-Davis Civil War Roundtable.