April 2024
Johnston: A Reappraisal” (January 1966), argues that Johnston had the potential to be a great general, but the circumstances of his several commands had placed him in history as rather mediocre. “I wish the man had achieved something,” the historian Gamaliel Bradford observed, as quoted by Dr. Luvaas.
Then there was the other Johnston. In February 1967, the esteemed Thomas L. Connelly offered an assessment of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston’s “Mystique.” “What kind of man was he? A soldier of great potential or an incompetent appointed, by a close friend, to command an army?” Even the author of The Army of the Heartland (1967) could only conclude, “a clear, convincing answer is impossible.”
No one can write on health and medicine like a physician. So CWTI published a study by an Ohio doctor, Byron Stinson, on scurvy in the war. “There is no Vitamin C. in cornbread,” Stinson wrote of the soldiers’ common ration. Similarly, Dr. Gordon W. Jones morbidly explains that human excreta and animal garbage, carelessly disposed, combined with primitive hygiene practices to kill thousands of men, “simply because they were not clean.”
Whenever I begin an article on a war-topic, CWTI is always the first place I turn—so much so that I laboriously prepared an index of articles in all the issues I possess
(quite a lot) and could consult. Here is a sampling: • •
Wilbur S. Nye tells the story of the famous painting in “‘The Burial of Latane’ and How it Moved (January 1964). By the way, a friend in Richmond who knows the family informs me that it’s LATnee, not LataNAY.
Since then, CWTI has issued indices of content in its early years of publication. But I wonder if you can still find them.
The renowned Bell I. Wiley was always a friend of the magazine. Despite his busy schedule of teaching and writing, Dr. Wiley would contribute such pieces as “The Story of 3 Southern Officers” (April 1964). One of the three was Lt. Robert M. Gill of the 41st Mississippi. Dr. Wiley told us in his class back in’68 that he had read thousands of soldiers’ letters for Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, and Gill’s missives were among them.On July 23, 1864, Gill wrote his wife Betty of his part in the previous day’s battle east of Atlanta, in which Confederates had temporarily broken McPherson’s line. “I never enjoyed a thing better in my life,” he trilled; “we had the Philip Secrist, “Life in Atlanta” (July 1970) Dr. John L. Margreiter, “Anesthesia in the Civil War” (May 1967) Larry J. Daniel, “Manufacturing Cannon in the Confederacy” (November 1973)
Southern Hearts” pleasure of shooting at Yankees as they ran without being shot at much.”
Among Dr. Wiley’s numerous submissions is “Jefferson Davis, an Appraisal” (April 1967). After reviewing the Confederate executive’s strengths and weaknesses, he asked, “Could the Confederacy have achieved independence under other leadership?” His answer was no, because only Robert E. Lee could have performed better than Davis—but he was needed in the field.
Dr. Wiley passed on in 1980, but he was writing till the last. In April 1977 there appears his appreciation of the famed diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut.
In August 1968, Francis A. Lord, the magazine’s weapons expert, related “Some Close Shaves,” when belt buckles, Bibles, even card decks saved men’s lives. This kind of variety in the magazine’s pages made even perusal a joy.
From time to time, CWTI asked readers about their favorite recent articles. In November 1966, editor Fowler announced that the handsdown favorite was Wilbur G. Kurtz’s piece the previous April on the Andrews Raid. (Second place was Glenn Tucker’s profile of George Thomas.) Atlantan Kurtz (1882–1967) was married to Annie Laurie Fuller, daughter of William Fuller, the conductor who so famously pursued Andrews’ train thieves after they stole the locomotive at Big Shanty. So Kurtz got the story direct.
Pictures have always been big in CWTI (note, Illustrated). One of my favorite articles is Frederic Ray’s “The Art of Gilbert Gaul” (April 1963). One of the most famous illustrations of Gaul (1855–1919) is “With Fate Against Them,” which was used as the frontispiece for the third volume of Battles and Leaders. Other pictorial features include Ray’s article on how Peter Rothermel produced his huge (32 feet-long) mural painting of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1963).
In a number of back issues one sees entertaining and challenging quizzes to intrigue (and stump) readers. Robert L. Brake, “What Do You Know?” (January 1961) lists twenty-six Civil War generals’ nicknames. A new one on me was “Old Skedad” for Sterling Price, whom I had seen dubbed “Old Pap.” In June 1970 the magazine started running quizzes prepared by Marshall Krolick of Chicago. Example: “Name the battle in which Kelly’s field and the Widow Glenn’s house were prominent landmarks.” (Answer at the end of this article.)
The magazine covers themselves were artful. The one for February 1966 shows “The Battle” by N.C. Wyeth, a noted illustrator in his day (and father of Andrew Wyeth— think of “Christina’s World”). The painting then belonged to a family in Pennsylvania; the magazine’s acknowledgment of their courtesy shows the zeal with which Art Director Ray sought his pictorial material.
I’m happy to say the magazine shined its spotlight on Confederate soldier-illustrators, such as Allen C. Redwood (June 1964). The April 1977 issue offers a portfolio sampling of Conrad Wise Chapman’s thirtynine paintings of the Charleston defenses. (Chapman had served there late 1863-early 1864.) One authority, Ben L. Bassham, has termed Chapman’s oils as “among the most successful works of art to emerge from the conflict.” His rendering of the H. L. Hunley, for instance, is iconic.
Another featured artist is William L. Sheppard (December 1962). Sheppard served in the Richmond Howitzers, and may have been on the scene at Appomattox when General Lee rode back from his meeting at the McLean house. Sheppard’s touching illustration has a downcast Lee riding slowly among the soldiers gathered around him. Some reach for Traveller’s reins; others sit nearby, just crying.
Then there were those special issues, whole magazines devoted to one topic. Gettysburg! (Volume II, Number 4) came out in July 1963, when the newsstand price was still $1. Here, a full-color foldout cover shows a segment of the famed Philippoteaux mural at the point of Pickett’s breach of the Federal line on July 3.
“I Thank
Eliza Frances Andrews (1840–1931) received a strong education and was
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a successful writer and educator. Her War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl
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surely ranks among the most observant
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and intelligent wartime memoirs by a Edited with commentary by Stephen Davis, I Thank the Lord I Am Not a Yankeeincludes selections of her wartime and postwar journals which are most expressive of her Confederate
patriotism and Southern pride.
Stephen Davisis author of ten books on the Civil War, most of which treat the Atlanta Campaign. His two recent volumes
on Confederate General John Bell Hood have won several prizes, including the Fletcher Pratt Award of the New York CWRT.
“Struggle for Vicksburg” (July 1967) had as its chief writer Stephen E. Ambrose, who at that time had joined Robert D. Hoffsommer as an associate editor. “Chancellorsville” (May 1968) serves up text by Joseph P. Cullen. Sidebars were a frequent feature of the magazine. “What Happened to Hooker,” by W.S. Nye, reminds us how Fighting Joe, corps commander under Sherman during the Atlanta Campaign, resigned in a huff when he was oversloughed for army command by Sherman. (McPherson got the job.)
An entertaining sidebar (July 1968) is the address by S.L.A. Marshall, the noted military historian, on “Unmilitary Military History.” The reason for so many mediocre Civil War books, he argued, was that their authors “were ignorant of command principle, of human nature under high pressure, and of troop behavior on the battlefield. They did not understand battle.” Hmmm…
“The Battles for Chattanooga!” issue (August 1971) includes four color maps showing Federal and Confederate positions. (Think of all the battle books you have, in which maps are few or even non-existent.) Other special numbers include Fredericksburg (December 1965, with text by Edward Stackpole), Chancellorsville (May 1968), the guerrilla war (October 1974), and wartime Richmond (June 1977). The May 1983 number focuses on Second Manassas, with text provided by Dennis Kelly, who worked at the battlefield park for five years. CWTI knew where the experts were.
Richard McMurry was a frequent contributor to the magazine. After he finished writing his doctoral dissertation for Bell Wiley, “The Atlanta
Campaign: December 23, 1863 to July 18, 1864” (Emory, 1967), rather than seeking its publication as a book, Richard mined it for a number of articles for CWTI: Kolb’s Farm (December 1968), Cassville (December 1971), New Hope Church (February 1973), Resaca (November 1970) and Kennesaw Mountain (January 1970). As scholarship from a professional historian, these articles remain staples in the campaign literature.
And just as Dr. McMurry drew from his doctoral dissertation, so too did Errol MacGregor Clauss for “The Battle of Jonesborough” (November 1966). Dr. Clauss wrote his dissertation under Bell
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Wiley (Emory, 1965, picking up the story of the Atlanta Campaign where McMurry would eventually leave it, in mid- July 1864). It’s amazing to me how Professor Wiley directed the writing of his doctoral students.
My copy of The Campaign for Atlanta issue of July 1964 is just about falling apart from overuse, and I’ll tell you why. Allen P. Julian surveys the fighting from Dalton to Johnston’s relief from command. Ned was an Atlantan of the old pro-Joe school, and closed his article with “the Army of Tennessee had little confidence in his successor”—a dated judgement since overridden by the recent writing on Johnston’s
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deficiencies as army commander. Wilbur G. Kurtz, famed Atlanta illustrator and historian—he wrote the text for most of the historical markers still dotting the city’s streets—covers the fighting around the city in July 1864. Franklin M. Garrett, famed here for his encyclopedic knowledge, wrote on civilian life in the city. Dr. Wiley contributed “The Ordinary Soldier in the Campaign for Atlanta,” based upon his studies of Johnny Reb and Billy Yank. “A Portfolio: Views of Atlanta and Its Defenses” offers ten photographs taken by George N. Barnard in the fall of 1864. Without Barnard’s work we would not know, for instance, what the massive railroad terminal in the center of town (“the car shed”) looked like, both before and after its destruction by Sherman’s engineers in mid- November 1864. Kurtz, technical advisor to Selznick’s Gone With the Wind, was thus able to oversee an accurate reconstruction of the depot for the film.
In the summer of 1989, the campaign’s 125th anniversary, CWTI published another special issue on Atlanta. The cover photograph famously shows an unsettled Scarlett racing through all the sick and wounded Confederate soldiers lying out in the open city square. David Evans, of Athens, Georgia, wrote the text covering the campaign. A special feature of the issue was “Gone With the Wind: The Film that Made Me,” by the late, great Albert Castel. Al explained how the movie of 1939 turned him on to the war. “Frankly, my dear,” he concluded, “we do give a damn!” echoing Rhett’s famous taunt in the movie.
Well, after all these years, we enthusiasts of the War can say with pride and defiance, “We do give a damn!” for any number of reasons. Civil War Times/ Illustrated (1959–2024), with its hundreds of issues, is one of the strongest.
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Quiz question answer: The Battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 19-20, 1863.
Stephen Davis, of Cumming, Ga., is proud to have contributed his own writing to CWTI: the big snowball battle at Dalton (June 1976), Cleburne’s emancipation proposal (December 1978), Port Republic (November 1980), Henry Timrod (February 1983), and Allen C. Redwood (October 1984). Steve’s article on the snowball battle was his very first published piece. Back then the editor was Jack Davis, to whom Steve is still grateful for that first big break. He adds: “When James Lee McDonough and James Pickett Jones’ War So Terrible: Sherman and Atlanta came out in 1987, I noticed that the authors’ account of the Dalton snowball fight had lifted, without quotes or attribution, exact phrasing I had written for my article in CWTI. Richard McMurry told me he had seen plagiarism from his Emory dissertation. I also heard that Prof. Tom Connelly was going to sue McDonough and Jones for lifting some of his material. The result was that W.W. Norton, the publisher, yanked the book from further sales. So if you’ve got a copy of War So Terrible, hold onto it.”
