An Army of the Potomac Engi
neer’s Unique Diary & Memoir
A Volunteer in the Regulars: The Civil War Journal and Memoir of Gilbert Thompson, US Engineer Battalion. Edited by Mark A. Smith.Photographs and drawings, maps, notes, index, 501 pp., The University of Tennessee Press, www.utpress.org, $58.00.
Unlike most young men who enlisted into their home state’s volunteer units following the start of the Civil War, twenty-twoyear-old Gilbert Thompson opted for the regular army when he volunteered in November 1861. Thompson was soon assigned to the Army of the Potomac’s 100man engineer battalion where he served for the next three years before mustering out in November 1864.
During those war years, Thompson diligently kept an almost-daily journal which ultimately filled three volumes, even as he referred to its proper
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upkeep as “dull business.” His observations vividly described the engineers’ efforts in building roads, bridges, and field fortifications, as well as surveying the ground and then producing maps needed by those assigned to create the army’s strategy and tactics.
Thompson’s boyhood upbringing in the utopian community of Hopedale, Mass., gave him a solid education and helped turn him into quite a literate young man. His talent in portraying routine camp life in both words and pictures resulted in a journal containing numerous artistic and literary references. Not only did Thompson produce the expected battlefield observations but he also offers acute insights into the ways and habits of his fellow soldiers.
Thompson did not stop with his wartime diary, however. In the years and decades following the war, Thompson turned to his memory and added postwar recollections to his journal. Given the relative paucity of Civil War primary sources written by trained specialists, Thompson’s keen engineer’s eye and thoughtful insights give the reader a distinctive and uncommon eastern theater account that covers the spring-summer 1862 Peninsula Campaign through the 1864 Petersburg siege. In counting up the battles, the author noted how he took part in thirty of the Army of the Potomac’s engagements yet was never wounded, though he admitted to coming perilously close in several instances. “I wonder how I wrote as much and as well, and am thankful I was so fortunate as to have the opportunity to do so,” Thompson acknowledged in his 1879 introduction, realizing how the hand of fate had spared him.
For this work, Editor Mark A. Smith, a professor of history at Fort Valley State University and the author of Engineering Security: The Corps of Engineers and Third System Defense Policy, 1815–1861, has skillfully merged the two seemingly disparate volumes to create an integrated whole. Passages from each work that pertain to similar events or timeframes are presented together and clearly identified so as not to confuse the reader. A key benefit is that by so doing, the reader may understand how Thompson’s perspective evolved over the years. Smith has also added his own editorial introduction, epilogue, annotations, and a whopping 109 pages of explanatory endnotes that further supplement Thompson’s writings.
Gilbert Thompson also possessed some artistic skills. In addition to his splendid wartime journal and postwar memoir, this book is profusely illustrated with 116 wartime sketches by Thompson that range from important figures to the mundane depictions of army life in a manner similar to those in the classic Hardtack and Coffee. Two modern maps and a handful of Thompson’s maps round out the hand-drawn illustrations. Collecting period photographs also happened to be a Thompson hobby. With a few clearly identified exceptions, the photographs included in this book were acquired by Thompson during or after the war and contained in his original work.
This handsome hardcover book features a printed case binding rather than the traditional clothcovered boards with dust jacket which, so I am told, appears to be a cost-savings trend within the university press /Civil War community. Sadly, this important book’s hefty $58 price tag will not help spur sales with casual readers. Despite that pecuniary disappointment, Thompson’s wartime journal and memoir stand as a welcome and valuable contribution to Civil War scholarship.
Paul Taylor is an award-winning author and editor of eight books pertaining to the Civil War era. His newest book is “My Dear Nelly”: The Selected Civil War Letters of General Orlando M. Poe to His Wife Eleanor which was recently published by the Kent State University Press.
Unlike Anything That Ever Floated: The Monitor and Virginia and the Battle of Hampton Roads, March 8-9, 1862. ByDwight Sturtevant Hughes. El Dorado Hills, California: Savas Beatie, 2021. 144 pp. appendices, $14.95.
Reviewed by John D. Fowler
The March 1862 battle between ironclads at Hampton Roads is a familiar story to most students of the Civil War. While it is certainly an interesting story of seapower and nineteenth century naval architecture and technological development, is there anything new to add to the story? Is there a need for another book on the battle? Well, the answer to the first question is probably no, but the answer to the second question is definitely yes.
Unlike Anything That Ever Floated is another volume of the Emerging Civil War series.
The author, Dwight David Hughes, is a Naval Academy graduate (1967) who served twenty years in the Navy before retiring as a Lieutenant Commander. He thus brings a wealth of sea experience to his retelling of the battle between the Monitor and Merrimac/Virginia just as he did with his book A Confederate Biography: The Cruise of the CSS Shenandoah (Naval Institute Press, 2015).
While the ground that Hughes covers has been plowed before, it still bears fruit with his approach, his presentation, and his timing. Like previous books on the subject, Hughes’s work begins with detailing and exploring the challenges the U.S. and Confederate navies faced in building and utilizing warships at the dawning of a new age of naval warfare. These two navies were not the first to use iron plating, high caliber guns, steam power, or any of the other innovations sweeping the navies of the Western world, but they put these ideas and technologies to use in a great conflict with limited time and, in the case of the Confederacy, very limited resources. The author does an excellent job of presenting each vessel’s design, along with its weaknesses and strengths. The J.M. Caiella illustrations of cutaways, ship profiles, and cross-section diagrams are invaluable and much appreciated; they give the reader an exquisite look into the vessels and their inner workings.
In addition to presenting a history and description of the Monitor and Virginia, Hughes provides a fantastic account of the epic March 9, 1862, Monitor Virginia vs. clash and the preceding day’s Hampton Roads battle. What makes Hughes’s account so engrossing is that it is written in much the way as a novel. He skillfully weaves real dialogue and events from firsthand accounts into an exciting and entertaining story. Given that the Emerging Civil War books are purposely designed to be gateway books, his writing style is right on point.
The book also contains an epilogue that describes the fate of the two vessels after their historic battle, as well as three important appendices. The first serves as a guided tour of sorts for the battle site today, the second is a discussion of Civil War ironclads, and the third an analysis of the USS Monitor preservation efforts at the Mariners Museum and Park in Newport News.
In sum, while the book tells a familiar story, Hughes manages to tell it with flair while providing the reader with a guide to discover even more of the story. Moreover, given that the military history of the war is disappearing from traditional academic study of the conflict, books such as this are increasingly valuable as introductions to important subjects. This is an excellent work, as is his previous study of the CSS Shenandoah. Hopefully the author will continue to explore the naval history of the war.
John D. Fowler, Ph.D., is the author of several books and articles on the Civil War Era. He is the author of Breaking the Heartland: The Civil War in Georgia. He is currently a Professor of History at Dalton State College.
A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood: The Bible and the American Civil War. James P. Byrd. Full notes serving also as bibliography, index, appendix, 376 pp., 2021. Oxford, University Press. $34.95.
Reviewed by Salvatore Cilella
In recent years, modern Civil War historians have grappled with the issues of religion, morality, and death, and the very human responses to them. In 2006, Professor Harry Stout penned his Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil War (Penguin). It was soon followed two years later by Drew Gilpin Faust’s ground breaking This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (Knopf, 2008) and Mark Schantz’ Awaiting the Heavenly Country: The Civil War and America’s Culture of Death (Cornell, 2008).
Joining that elite group is James Byrd’s A Holy Baptism of Fire & Blood: The Bible & The American Civil War. Byrd’s work is a follow on to his Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution. It is a most worthy addition to that company as Byrd further illuminates the very human reaction to death and destruction on a level never witnessed before, particularly here in America. Byrd’s difference is his discourse on the everyday American’s reliance on the Christian Bible. As one progresses through Byrd’s wellresearched and crisply written work, one concept surfaces continually: “Understanding.” This is not to distill Byrd’s work down to one word, but that term seemed to flow seamlessly through his narrative connecting all the dots. In effect, the 19th century American strove incessantly to “understand” the war and its brutality as it was visited on the land through its varied interpretations of the bible.
Setting the table is Lincoln’s Second Inaugural address, which is cited several times. Harry Stout, in his dust jacket blurb quotes it; Byrd’s publisher cites it on the jacket; and in the first paragraph of his introduction and countless times later in the book, Byrd reminds the reader that Lincoln said that “both sides read the same Bible and pray to the same God.” Byrd then proceeds to reveal before, during, and after the war, how Americans turned to the Bible for guidance, reassurance, and forgiveness. The King James Version was the “go to” catechism not just for the nation’s preachers, but its statesmen, soldiers, and civilians. North and South turned to the good book at every new
Reviewed by Richard J. Blumberg
Studying the state of Tennessee provides readers a unique insight into the Civil War. Its motto, “Agriculture and Commerce” portrays America’s economy during this time. Additionally, its three distinct geographic regions: eastern, central, and western, evolved with different economic, cultural, and political beliefs. “The Volunteer State” was the last to join the Confederacy and the first to be readmitted into the Union.
Dr. Liulevicius uses this development and read into the tea leaves their consoling, often contradictory thoughts. After a battle, it behooved the victor to thank God for his good fortune but also reminded him of the sin of pride and, as the saying goes, “pride goes before the fall.” “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18, is the actual wording.
Before the war, the toxic mix of religion and public policy reached fever pitch with John Brown’s raiding. It was not lost on abolitionists that Brown saw his attack as a sacred crusade to free those in bondage, while Southern plantation owners saw it as an evil conspiracy designed to rob them of their property and perhaps open the door to mass murder of whites. When secession came, the new Confederate constitution placed God front and center in direct opposition to the “godless” Union constitution. In Confederate eyes, Union loyalists had replaced God with their evil constitution. When war came, both sides struggled with the notion of a “just war.” In the South, the question was, did Lincoln unleash an “unholy war?” Americans wondered in their quest for “understanding” whether the Old Testament (“an eye for an eye”) or the New (“turn the other cheek)” provided a path forward.
Battles brought out the bibles on both sides. Beyond battles, Byrd cites numerous examples of religious reactions to nearly every major event. After First Manassas, to take the most exceptional example, Southerners saw a parallel to Exodus, twisting the
backdrop to analyze the initial trials, missteps, and execution of Reconstruction programs in Tennessee. She received her PhD in nineteenth century United States History at the University of Tennessee.
Reconstruction is considered a federally sanctioned program, implying a top-down management approach, but that was not the case, especially in Tennessee. In fact, the opposite occurred. President Andrew Johnson did not have a clear vision regarding the planning and execution of Reconstruction policies. As a result, a bottomup management approach evolved. Dr. Liulevicius states in her introduction, “This book examines the improvised and unpredictable process of pardon tale of freedom from slavery into a victory for slavery. Further, The Memphis Daily Appeal reminded readers that in the Old Testament “Manasseh” meant “making to forget.” In the Old Testament, Joseph had been put through many trials, including slavery at the hands of the Egyptians. When he became a father, he named his first born “Manasseh” “to forget” his youthful sufferings. When slaves began “understanding” Exodus, they saw it as a sign of eventual emancipation.
When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a whole new round of bible reading produced pro and con arguments of its wisdom, north and south, free and slave. Byrd also cites several examples of the nation’s reactions to Lincoln as a “savior” or a Moses leading his people out of desolation well before his death. His assassination sent Americans scrambling to their theology and bibles for “understanding.” He was shot on Good Friday, in a theater and by an actor, no less, died on Holy Saturday, forcing countless ministers, preachers, and priests to quickly re-write their sermons that Easter Sunday. The religious symbolism of Lincoln’s death was not lost on most Americans. To many, it was a hopeful sign that there was a hereafter and surely Lincoln had been lifted to heaven to dwell with the sainted Washington. Newly freed slaves saw their Moses taken away; some northern preachers lectured revenge. Some ministers viewed John Wilkes Booth as the American Cain. Others preached forbearance: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord”
and amnesty in Tennessee.”
Her exhaustive research includes records of more than 630 Tennessee petitioners representing all social and economic backgrounds. She clearly defines pardon and amnesty, which ensures the reader gains a better understanding of the process. A pardon usually was granted for an individual where amnesty was provided collectively to a group of individuals.
The prose is written with an anecdotal perspective giving readers insight on a variety of issues impacting each individual’s request. Some of these included: 1) political savvy, 2) economic and social status, and 3) honor and trustworthiness. Additionally, each soldier comes (Romans 12:19). Booth, as he lay dying, couldn’t “understand” why God had forsaken him. After all, hadn’t he slain the tyrant?
The most quoted biblical text used by Northern preachers, newspapers, and others was Acts 17:36, “and hath made of one blood all the nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bound of their habitation.” It was a citation that proclaimed brotherhood. The Southern verse most quoted was Job 1:21, “the lord giveth and the lord taketh away.” Byrd thoughtfully provides an annex listing the most popular biblical citations by both sides.
Byrd’s book is a gold mine of new insights that demand close reading. Thankfully the author writes in a clear, understandable language that draws you in. It belongs on the shelf with Shantz, Faust, and Stout. After all, it adds immeasurably to our “understanding” of America’s most tragic era.
Salvatore Cilella is the retired CEO of the Atlanta History Center. Between 2001 and 2006 he served as President and CEO of the Indiana Historical Society. He is the author of Upton’s Regulars, A History of the 121st New York Volunteers in the Civil War,University of Kansas Press, 2009; editor of The Selected Correspondence of General Emory Upton, 2017, University of Tennessee Press and Till Death Do us Part, The Letters of Emory and Emily Upton, 1868–1870, University of Oklahoma Press, 2020.
to life through the information he provided in his request. Some admitted treasonous actions while others denied doing anything wrong.
This work is an excellent reference tool describing the missteps, trials, and successes that occurred while charting a path for reconciliation and future race relations. Dr. Liulevicius’ work is well worth the $50 price tag. I give this tome high marks for a superb appendix including the petitioner records used, an excellent bibliography, and a comprehensive index.
Richard J. Blumberg has reviewed books for Civil War News for nearly twenty years. Several of his articles have been published in Civil War News.
This book has a lot going against it. First, no matter how good the concept sounds when you’re reading the publisher’s brochure, anthologies often disappoint. It’s hard to keep a tight focus and a consistent quality; then, any historiography, the study of how historians’ treatment of a subject has changed over time, is always hard to pull off. Finally, trying to deal in an academic fashion with an issue that is the subject of impassioned political debate is always perilous.
That being said, Astor and Buchanan succeed nicely with this project. Astor contributes a solid overview chapter that summarizes the book’s themes and another on emancipation, while Buchanan co-authors (with Kelly Birch) a chapter on free African Americans. But they
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also curate a set of six chapters, dealing with a wide range of topics such as slavery and the economy, politics, and resistance.
In the introduction, the editor’s note the political background that has made this topic so timely, and dangerous, notably the growth of white supremacy, the convulsions set off by the death of George Floyd, and the 1619 project and the controversies it triggered. They then go professionally about their business and avoid getting ensnared in these presentday controversies.
The treatment of the economy (by Calvin Schermerhorn) provides an example of the book’s approach. Schermerhorn notes that for many years, historians viewed the institution of slavery in primarily societal terms and considered the slavelabor-based plantation economy to be backward and inefficient. Along with many slaveowners and politicians at the end of the 18th century, many historians of that era thought slavery was an anachronistic institution that would soon die out.
Historians writing from an abolitionist perspective, starting in the 1830s, actually provided the most accurate economic analysis of slavery, correctly noting the economic importance of the internal slave trade and the widespread dependency of large sectors of the economy (bankers, manufacturers, shippers, and others) on the profits derived directly or indirectly from the labor of slaves.
Schermerhorn writes, “After the war, pro-Confederate apologists like Edward Pollard revived the script of slavery as a benign, organic social institution, viewing the prewar past through a mnemonic fog. Pollard contended that slavery was a blessing for the South and the nation.” Both Pollard and emancipationist historians continued to assert that economically, slavery was an economic dead end. W.E.B. DuBois was the first historian to link the development of the cotton south with broader worldwide industrial developments, such as industrialization in England, but even DuBois thought the development of the single-staplecrop-dependent economy stifled development.
This view prevailed well into the 20th century with the work of the enormously influential Ulrich Phillips. The Phillips school came under assault in the 1950s with the work of Kenneth Stampp and other revisionists, who argued that plantations were market institutions and business entities that fully participated in a global economy. With time, the view of slavery as an institution totally linked in with the international economy, with territorial expansion, and an expansionist foreign policy has been fleshed out by many historians and a more sophisticated view of the economics of slavery has begun to emerge.
This book isn’t light reading, but it’s essential. Anyone approaching the current discussions of the role of slavery in our society as a matter of inquiry rather than as a cudgel in present-day political debates must read this book to understand how the institution affected out politics and economics, and how historians’ views of this have changed over time.
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).
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Rose Greenhow’s My Imprisonment: An Annotated Edition. Edited by Emily Lapisardi. Illustrated, photos, notes, index, 398 pp., 2021. Winston Lewis Publishing, Matamoras, PA, 2021. www.winstonlewis.com. Hardcover. $45.00.
Reviewed by Juanita Leisch Jensen
Since the Civil War, historians have studied the arms & equipment and the hardtack & coffee minutiae of soldier life, but it is by highlighting the battles & leaders that most people come to understand the bigger picture and overall chronology of this primarily military event. As such, the subject of women’s roles and involvement in the Civil War sometimes encounters a big “so what”?
It’s widely acknowledged and easily proven that women provided logistical, moral, medical, monetary, mourning, memorial, social, spiritual, and psychological support for the war effort. So what? In evaluating the importance or impact of women’s roles the most legitimate criteria seems to be whether the soldiers themselves credited the women with making a positive impact on their ability to fight. Fortunately, thousands of contemporary accounts describe the importance and impact of women’s role on soldiers and on units. Historians have found it much more challenging to find similar contemporary accounts documenting roles in which women made a significant difference in a battle, much less an entire campaign.
In an effort to write women back into Civil War history, some modern historians celebrate the spouses of military and civilian leaders, but are unable to show many, or any, would have made a similar impact in the absence of their having a personal relationship with the leader. Other historians highlight individual women who served as soldiers, lauding them as prescient supporters and promoters of modern views of feminism. Still others think it remarkable that a few identifiable women in that period might have understood political situations to the point of making insightful, if caustic, comments about personalities and events. Even the most fervent of these historians struggle to find incidents where any of these women made a greater difference to battles or campaigns than to the women themselves.
Finally, when historians have found evidence that a woman provided advice that was later followed by military leaders, they struggle to find evidence that the military or political leaders of the time appreciated, much less implemented, advice from a woman. There is, however, one woman who is a notable exception.
Rose O’Neal Greenhow was a southern sympathizer and a self-identified spy. She admitted that she ‘used every gift God gave me’ to befriend and charm military and civilian sources in Washington, D.C. Starting in 1861, she arranged to pass valuable and actionable intelligence about planned military and political actions to southern contacts. The efficacy of her clandestine operation was acknowledged during the war, and by the civilian and military leadership of both sides. Rose O’Neal Greenhow made a difference to battles, leaders, and campaigns, and did so as a completely independent woman.
Some have asserted that General P.G.T. Beauregard, President Jefferson Davis, and members of his cabinet, including Judah Benjamin and Stephen Mallory, were simply being polite when they praised her efforts as a Southern spy. The same cannot be said of civilian and military leaders on the Union side, including General McClellan, Alan Pinkerton, William H. Seward, and Edwin M. Stanton, all of whom considered her a most dangerous person, and testified to her effectiveness.
In 1861 General McLellan complained that her treachery forced him to several times change his plans for the campaign that ultimately resulted in the Battle of Manassas. Officials in the Lincoln cabinet, including Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and command structure, such as General George B. McClellan, feared she would continue her espionage even if exiled to the South, so they instead took the extraordinary action of imprisoning her in Washington, D.C., for nine months.
When she was eventually released, Jefferson Davis personally thanked her for her efforts, and endorsed her selection as a semi-official emissary to undertake a diplomatic mission to Europe on behalf of the Confederate government. During her overseas mission, she met with high-ranking officials in England and France. As noted in the Introduction to Rose Greenhow’s My Imprisonment: An Annotated Edition, Greenhow’s biographer, Ann Blackman, argues that her mission as a female governmental emissary on foreign soil was unprecedented. In France, Emperor Napoleon III granted her a private audience. In England, Edward Smith-Stanley, three times prime minister of the UK, declared her the best diplomatist he had ever seen. While in Europe, Rose published an account of her imprisonment as part of her efforts to encourage England and France to support the Confederacy.
Rose drowned during her 1864return trip to America and was given a funeral with full military honors.
Why, you may ask, does she not top every list of the most important /most significant / most honored women of the Confederacy? In large measure it is Rose’ own fault.
Hundreds of women wrote diaries, journals, and memoirs focused on their lives and accomplishments; they are rightly lauded for their war-time activities. A small number even gave presentations after the war publicizing their activities. If Rose had named names, she might have had a best seller, but instead she wrote and published an account focused on exposing the wrongs of the Federal government. Her published work was an extension of her mission to generate support in Europe for the south.
Rose published her account in England, directing it to a European rather than American audience. Far from being widely read in the US, it was a very rare book until digitized and published online by the University of North Carolina. Even then, any juicy and informative bits were virtually inaccessible as Rose peppered her account with so many biblical and classical references, foreign phrases, and allusions to political and military events that the document is extremely difficult to read, much less fully understand.
Enter Emily Lapisardi. Emily has studied Rose Greenhow for twenty-four years, immersing herself in Rose’s life through reading, research, and travel. She has also portrayed Rose Greenhow for museums, historical societies, round tables, and educational institutions throughout the U.S., including the International Spy Museum, several National Park Service sites, the Surratt Society and book launching events for Ann Blackman’s biography, Wild Rose. Emily is currently serving as the Director of Musical Activities for the Catholic Chapel at the United States Military Academy.
After spending two decades studying Rose Greenhow’s life, Emily spent three years editing and annotating Rose’s account of her Imprisonment. Emily has made Rose’s account not only readable but also understandable. She uses clear and concise footnotes to explain each of hundreds of references to biblical, classical, and foreign words and phrases. In addition, she identifies people Rose has mis-named, mis-identified, or failed to identify by name at all. Emily’s encyclopedic knowledge of Rose’s world, neighborhood, and personality enabled her to provide backstories of people, places, and events that would be entirely lost to most modern readers.
In so doing, she reinforces the story of Rose as someone who not only observed, analyzed, and made caustic comments about political and military events, but also took actions supporting her beloved Confederacy. Her espionage network was so effective she was considered an ongoing threat by the highest-ranking general in the Union Army. The Confederacy considered her services so valuable she was compensated considerably more than other spies, the equivalent of about $65,000. Far more than a temptress and amateur spy; she was a valued and respected Confederate asset. The military and civilian leaders of the US government considered her so dangerous that they arrested her on August 23, 1861, and put her under house arrest. Since she continued her espionage while under house arrest, in January 1862, they moved her to the Old Capitol Prison, a building where she spent part of her childhood. They kept her imprisoned there for an additional five months until she was released and “exiled to Dixie” May 31, 1862.
Perhaps they expected her to follow their order to remain in Dixie. She did not. In 1863, Rose embarked on the semi-official diplomatic mission to Europe where she tried to generate support for and public recognition of the Confederacy and published My Imprisonment. On her return voyage, the blockaderunning Condor ran aground a few hundred yards off the North Carolina coast. Rose drowned when she tried to escape capture.
She is the only woman granted a funeral with full military honors during the war by the Confederacy.
In the study of women’s roles in the Civil War, Rose Greenhow stands alone as an independent woman whose successful espionage efforts were acknowledged by the civilian and military leaders of both sides and as the first independent woman sent on a diplomatic mission by an American president.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Emily Lapisardi for making Rose Greenhow’s account of her wartime activities both readable and understandable. Emily’s book and Rose’s account give us, at long last, an example of an independent woman who made a significant difference to the ‘battles and leaders’ of the Civil War.
This book is a must-have and must-read for anyone interested in women and their roles in the Civil War.
Reviewer Juanita Leisch Jensen is a Fellow and former Governor of the Company of Military Historians, and a past president of the Society for Women and the Civil War. She is the author of Who Wore What and An Introduction to Civil War Civilians.
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For the historian, first-hand accounts of events, whether important or mundane, are of great value. Letters and diaries are more useful than after-thefact reminiscences because they represent a record of what an individual saw, felt, and thought at a particular moment without any time lapse that will inevitably alter perspectives and memories.
In They All Wore a Star, Robert G. Miller attempts to use the first-hand accounts of Civil War soldiers to paint a picture of their experiences and thus provide readers with a better understanding of the men who fought in that great national tragedy. After conducting genealogical research to uncover more about his great-greatgrandfather Joseph Peters, who fought at the battle of Resaca, the author decided to tell the story of the 129th Illinois Infantry. On the positive side, the author uses myriad letters, diaries, newspapers, and even regimental histories to sketch a portrait of the regiment’s men. He also attempts to cover their story from enlistment through the battle of Resaca. The use of such sources is critical if one is to create a solid examination of a regiment, but it is an old-fashioned regimental examination.
On the negative side, the author failed to use the Compiled Service Records or any materials on the regiment available at the National Archives. The CSR could help with a detailed discussion of sickness, wounds, desertion, etc. Also missing is the census data of the men. This data would allow an examination of myriad items such as wealth and occupation, household proximity, and kinship patterns for the regiment’s soldiers. These two resources in particular are crucial to any comprehensive regimental study. They can provide an invaluable trove of information on the men’s background as well as each soldier’s individual military experience.
Finally, the author attempts to present the experiences of his ancestor and his comrades in a personal, storytelling style. This leads the reader down several roads that stray from the history of the regiment. Some will like this folksy style, full of literary quotes and musings, but others who are used to more traditional or academic writing might find it disjointed and disorganized, something akin to a long search through an attic full of related and unrelated items. While many readers will consider the book far too long because of this, however, the author is clear in the beginning that this is the style he has chosen. He did not intend the volume to be a narrative unit history or a modern study. Rather, it is a chronologically arranged collection of material through which the reader must sift.
This book was clearly a labor of love. It will certainly find an audience, but it could have had a much broader one had it been edited in a traditional fashion; if it had attempted to place the regiment in context of other units for Illinois, the Union Army, etc.; if it had contained greater prewar and post-war information on the men; and if it had focused on some of the larger issues of the war.
John D. Fowler, Ph.D., is the author of several books and articles on the Civil War Era. He is currently a Professor of History at Dalton State College.
Yank and Rebel Rangers: Special Operatives in the American Civil War. By Robert W. Black. Pen & Sword Books Limited, 327 pp. Softcover. $24.95.
It has long been my opinion that the Civil War was a modern war in many more ways than most even realize. Because of a personal interest in the Zouave infantry drill, the subject of Robert Black’s book is of particular interest to me. He carefully explains the difference between Confederate and Union partisan forces, explaining that Confederates were much more often willing to go outside the rules to achieve their ends. Aware of this, Confederate Major John Scott, one of the famed Black Horse Cavalry founders, wrote the Partisan Ranger Act in 1862. The act spelled out authorization for the army to “form bands of partisan Rangers in companies, battalions, or regiments, either as infantry or cavalry….” Although this act should have positively affected partisan groups, few gave it much consideration. Instead, they used it to cover their marauding.
Both the Union and Confederacy used small forces of fearless, highly motivated soldiers for special operations behind enemy lines. Skilled in infiltration, these men scouted deep into enemy territory, captured essential personnel, and disrupted lines of communication and logistics. Their lack of consideration for life, gender, age, or physical condition sowed confusion and fear among the civilians of both sides. Sometimes wearing the uniform of the enemy, they faced execution as spies if captured. The first half of Yank and Rebel Rangers focuses on operations in mountainous West Virginia and the lush Shenandoah Valley. The importance of these areas to the war was tremendous. In addition, the rural settlement of the population therein made it easier for Rangers, also known as bushwhackers, guerillas, and partisans, to operate with much secrecy. It is generally acknowledged that these groups were considered to be terrorists, especially those led by William Clark Quantrill, John Hanson, Jesse McNeil, Nathan Bedford Forrest, John Singleton Mosby, Alfred Pike, and John Hunt Morgan. Morgan, Forrest, and Mosby are not covered in this book. They are, however, the subjects of the author’s Black’s Ghost, Thunderbolt, and Wizard.
There are single chapters on such well-known Confederate partisans as the Hatfields and the McCoys, John Imboden, Turner Ashby, and Harry Gilmore. Additionally, groups like the Moccasin Rangers from West Virginia, the mountain clan of the Thurmond brothers (who sent seven sons to the Confederate army), the Iron Scouts (rangers who were part of J. E. B. Stuart’s famous ride around the Union Army in 1862), and the independent unit of Elijah White, which “pitched a fit” when it was mustered into regular Confederate service in late 1863, are covered Finally, there are separate chapters on the famous St. Albans Raid and Confederate Ranger Robert Martin’s plan to burn New York City on November 25, 1864.
The second half highlights the northern partisans. In a charming opening chapter, the author discusses Abraham Lincoln’s experience as a ranger. Apparently, his experiences in the Black Hawk War qualify him as such. As a result, Lincoln’s name is inscribed in the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame because, “Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger.” As a member of Captain Elijah Isle’s company of Independent Rangers, Lincoln qualified. Union army units such as the Loudon Rangers, the Jessie Scouts, the Snake-Hunters, the Swamp Dragons, and the Blazer Scouts are covered in depth, no matter how obscure they may seem at first. Ranger groups who worked as scouts for the Union army are given a chapter, as are rangers who worked farther west with the military to control violence between Native Americans and settlers.
“Grant’s Ranger,” C. Lorain Ruggles, is one of the more interesting men individually featured. He was based at the Union camp at Bolivar, Tennessee, and acted as a spy. He could easily pass for a Southerner and did—quite often. The information he was able to deliver to Grant gave the general the advantage many times. Ruggles was quite the character.
Author Robert W. Black is a decorated U.S. Army Ranger colonel who fought in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. In 1966 he was assigned to Military Advisory Command, Vietnam (MACV). Together with his Korean War experience, Colonel Black saw combat actions in eight campaigns. Twice awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge, he holds the Silver Star, three Bronze Stars (two for valor), the Legion of Merit, the Air Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, two Army Commendation Medals, the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry, and the Vietnam Cross of Honor. Perhaps because he truly understands the role of irregular warfare, Black makes no value judgments concerning any of these partisan groups. Instead, each is presented clearly and without prejudicereword “prejudice; he lets the
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readers”-let the readers make up their own minds about the moral implications of the actions of these groups and individuals. Because Black is so fair, I recommend Yanks and Rebel Rangers to anyone interested in partisan warfare in general and Civil War partisans specifically.
Meg Groeling received her Master’s degree in Military History, with a Civil War emphasis, in 2016, from American Public University. Savas Beatie published her first book, The Aftermath of Battle: The Burial of the Civil War Dead, in the fall of 2015, and she has written First Fallen: The Life of Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, which Savas Beatie will also publish. In addition, she is a regular contributor to the blog Emerging Civil War. She and her husband live with three cats in a 1927 California bungalow covered with roses on the outside and books on the inside.