New and Noteworthy: A People at War

A People at War: Civilians and Soldiers in America's Civil War, Scott R. Nelson and Carol Sheriff, Hardcover: 384 pages, Oxford University Press, $25.00

Claiming more than 600,000 lives, the American Civil War had a devastating impact on countless numbers of common soldiers and civilians, even as it brought freedom to millions. This book shows how average Americans coped with despair as well as hope during this vast upheaval.

A People at War brings to life the full humanity of the war's participants, from women behind their plows to their husbands in army camps; from refugees from slavery to their former masters; from Mayflower descendants to freshly recruited Irish sailors. We discover how people confronted their own feelings about the war itself, and how they coped with emotional challenges (uncertainty, exhaustion, fear, guilt, betrayal, grief) as well as physical ones (displacement, poverty, illness, disfigurement). The book explores the violence beyond the battlefield, illuminating the sharp-edged conflicts of neighbor against neighbor, whether in guerilla warfare or urban riots.

The authors travel as far west as China and as far east as Europe, taking us inside soldiers' tents, prisoner-of-war camps, plantations, tenements, churches, Indian reservations, and even the cargo holds of ships. They stress the war years, but also cast an eye at the tumultuous decades that preceded and followed the battlefield confrontations. An engrossing account of ordinary people caught up in life-shattering circumstances, A People at War captures how the Civil War rocked the lives of rich and poor, black and white, parents and children--and how all these Americans pushed generals and presidents to make the conflict a people's war.

Scott Nelson is Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of Iron Confederacies: Southern Railways, Klan Violence, and Reconstruction and Steel Drivin' Man: The Untold Story of John Henry and the Birth of an American Legend. Carol Sheriff is Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary. She is the author of The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-1862. (Text supplied by the publisher.)

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: The Pennsylvania Bucktail Brigade on McPherson's Farm

Gettysburg Battlewalks: The Bucktail Brigade, John Heiser, Pennsylvania Cable Network, 1 hour 35 minutes, dvd, 2005, $20.00.

Army of the Potomac, First Corps, Third Division, Second Brigade, in which 2 of every 3 soldiers are killed or wounded during the battle of Gettysburg. The Bucktail Brigade.

Like other brigades of the First Corps on July 1st, it was assigned an area too large for 1300 soldiers to cover. Assailed on both flanks by Rebel soldiers from two different divisions, this brigade of Pennsylvanians retreated to Cemetery Ridge.

The commander of this brigade, Colonel Roy Stone, orginally served with the 13th Pennsylvania Reserve, the original Bucktail Regiment. In the fall of 1862, Stone was given command of three Pennsylvania regiments un-related to the Pennsylvania Reserve division. Derisively known at the 'Bogus Bucktails' by the Pennyslvania Reserve regiments, the 143rd, 149th and the 150th Pennsylvania entered the army in late 1862 and saw their first combat at Gettysburg.

John Heiser, GNMP ranger who manages the park's library and crafts maps for Gettysburg Magazine, gives an enthusiastic tour over the McPherson Farm in the steps of the Pennsylvanians. Capturing and having their own flags captured, repulsing Daniels' CSA brigade and then being routed on two flanks, gaining a Medal of Honor and making the McPherson barn their hospital, the story of the Bucktail Brigade at Gettysburg is one of victory and defeat.

Though only about 90 minutes, this PCN tour is one of the more enjoyable. Heiser's perseverance during the July morning heat, the stories of Yankee tactics and valor are well told, and walking among the Bucktail Brigades three monuments along Chambersburg Pike, give a strong sense of place. The viewer would be well served to have a copy of the McElfresh July 1 map that shows crops, buildings, fences and woodlots while viewing the dvd. This PCN tour is recommended for both the new and more experienced Gettysburg visitors and readers.

Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: Meade on July 3rd

Gettysburg Battlewalks: General Meade After Pickett's Charge, Troy Harmon, Pennsylvania Cable Network, 1 hour 50 minutes, 2005, dvd. $20.

Did Meade want to fight at Gettysburg? Did Meade want to retreat on the evening of July 2nd? Why didn't Meade counter-assault the Army of Northern Virginia after the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble charge? Troy Harmon, National Park Service ranger addresses these questions. He states the answers quickly with "Yes. No. He tried".

Harmon quotes the memoirs and testimony, before the Committee on the Conduct of the War (CCW), of Sedgwick, Hancock, Sickles, Butterfield, Birney, Pleasanton and Warren. He also cites Longstreet's memoirs. Each of these men were Meade detractors. Hancock and Sickles were wounded and off the field and yet testified as if they had been there on the late afternoon of July 3rd. Longstreet was on the opposing side. Pleasanton Birney and Butterfield were on the battlefield and testified against Meade in Congressional hearings. Warren's testimony wavered between 'he did-he didn't'. As a trend within the testimony, Harmon sees the CCW hearings as a 'clear Meade out of the way for Grant' mentality.

Harmon covers the Meade's actions from 1p until 7p on July 3rd. The ranger's conclusion is that Meade did try to organize an immediate offensive and that it was a partial success.

Pleasanton, commander of the Army of the Potomac's cavalry, recalled a provocative remark that he made to Meade. "I'll give you an half an hour to show that your are a great general." Like many of Pleasanton's recollections, this one was written and published after the chief witness, in this case Meade, is dead. Understating the irony, Harmon describes Meade's actual order to Pleasanton and Pleasanton's inability, as commander, to achieve the slightest degree of success. Farnsworth's Charge and Merritt's Charge, on South Cavalry battlefield, yeilded only Federal casualities.

The Sixth Corps had marched 32 miles on July 2nd and was the offensive/defensive reserve of the Army of the Potomac. With Sedgwick's Sixth Corps scattered about the battlefield tending to the support of the 11th Corps on Cemetry Hill, Meade personally ordered the advance of the two brigades of the Fifth Corps' Pennsylvania Reserves Division. As one brigade, located between the Round Tops, challenged CSA sharpshooters in the Devils Den, two brigades advanced for a second time across Plum Run. At dusk on July 2nd, these two Pennsylvania Reserve brigades cleared the north slope of Little Round Top, Plum Run and the Wentz Farm.

Harmon reports that at approximately4:15p on July 3rd, Meade met with Sykes, Sedgwick, Warren, Pleasanton and Crawford on Little Round Top. He ordered Sykes to advance Crawford's Division, called an armed reconnaissance to clear the Wheatfield. He also ordered Pleasanton advance the cavalry in an armed reconnaissance on to the Warfield Ridge and to the Emmittsburg Road.

Longstreet’s Corps stretched from the Trostle Barn to Bushman Hill, from McLaws' division's left flank to Hood's divisions right flank. The gap, which Hancock cites in CCW testimony, is to the left of McLaws' division, where Pickett reported to Lee, "Sir, I have no division." Longstreet's corps had no cavalry flankers. All the available CSA cavalry was east of the Army of the Potomac and fought that morning to gain the Low Dutch Road which led to Powers' Hill, the ‘Grand Central Station’ of the Army of the Potomac. If Meade had been forced to retreat he would have sent the army south on the Baltimore Pike and the Taneytown Road.
CSA cavalry success on the Low Dutch Road would have imperiled any Federal movement on the Taneytown Road, explains Harmon.

Though Pleasanton's efforts are in vain, Crawford's Pennsylvania Reserves and Niven's brigade are successful in checking for strenghth, location and morale of the rebel force in front of the Federal left. On the right of the Federal advance, several of Niven's regiments make it to the Emmitsburg Road where they discover McLaws' division in wait immediately to the west. On the left of the Federal advance, Harmon explains that about half of the15th Georgia was gobbled up along with their colors by the 6th Pennsylvania Reserves as they rushed the Wheatfield and Houck’s Ridge. The ranger keenly notes that Houck's Ridge and the crest of the Wheatfield is actually elements of the same topographic feature.

In closing Harmon cites Edwin Coddington’s conclusions that:
1. the Sixth Corps was not fully available
2. from 4:15p to 4:45p Meade was on Little Round Top with his commanders
3. at approximately 4:45p Meade ordered Sedgwick to concentrate the Sixth Corps' troops
and make an armed reconnaissance immediately
4. by 5:30p 10,000 men available Munshower Knoll, immediately north of Little Round Top

Harmon and Coddington both understand that the window of attack is 4:00p-5:00p and that sunset is 7:15p, three hours after the end of PPT charge. From reports, Harmon as found that Longstreet pulled out and moved west of Warfield Ridge by 6p. Harmon cites Federal cavalry general Merritt report as stating that a rainstorm began at about 7p.

Like nearly all PCN Gettysburg tours, the viewer needs to have readily available maps such as McElfresh's watercolor map showing 1863 roads, fences and crops and the Desjardin/Friends of Gettysburg map of troop movements, along with a Trailhead Graphics map of contemporary roads and monument locations. The viewer who has read one or two full length treatments of the battle, such as Trudeau's or Sears, is well served by Harmon's tour. The order of battle in these books are handy while viewing the dvd. Novices may find this description of this portion of the battle and battlefield perplexing.

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: Power's Hill

Gettysburg Battlewalks: Power's Hill, Troy Harman, Pennsylvania Cable Network, DVD, two hours, dvd, 2002, $20.00.

It was between 1867 and 1870, in Drayer's account of the battle, when the term 'fish hook' was first used in print to describe the Federal battleline at Gettysburg. Troy Harman, NPS ranger, understands that this term oversimplies the facts. He states that Gibbon and Haskell described the battleline as a 'U'. If it is a fish hook then the barb is the Power's-Wolf's-McAllister's Hills. Also in the vicinity is the McAllister family's mills, mill race, and the mill pond which as an impediment to a CSA advance, could not be improved upon by the Federals.

Furthermore, Harmon states that the Round Tops were not a major objective in the CSA battlefield strategy. He quotes Longstreet as stating that the point of reinforcement was Culp's Hill. The reinforcments sent July 2nd and 3rd battles for the hill speak to Harmon's point. Harmon further enhances his argument by stating that the only Federal corps to take the offensive was the Sixth and the point of attack was Culp's Hill on July 3rd which was initiated from the Power's Hill area. He does allow for the late afternoon of Fifth and Sixth Corps troops advance into Houck's Ridge/Wheatfield as an advance, but one smaller than the effort to retake the lower Culp's Hill on the morning of July 3rd. This advance was also generated from the Power's Hill area

Harmon entitles this particular tour as 'Power's Hill: The Grand Central Station.'
Power's Hill--the Granite School House Road area's story is one of logistics. The Federal attack on Culp's Hill and the support of the Federal center during the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge orginated in this area. Both the ammunition park and the ambulance park for the battle was along the intersection of the Baltimore Pike and the Granite School House road at Power's Hill. He uses Edwin Forbes eyewitness illustration to reinforce this point.

Power's Hill was the first stop George Meade made when he came to the battlefield and it held the potential of the last line of defense if East Cemetery and Culp's Hill fell to the relentless CSA onslaughts. During the battle, Power's Hill was the site of Sixth Corps's headquarters and three batteries, Rigby's Maryland battery, Knapp's Pennsylvania battery and Atwell's Maine battery. At the time, unlike today, the hill was cleared of trees.

This hill also offered fields of fire for Union artillery directed at the Confederate far left flank at Pardee's Field. Harmon estimates that approximately 200 to 400 Rebel sharpshooters were ordered to Wolf's Hill and ordered to scout the Yankee far right flank. These sharpshooters were hindered by the mills' dam, pond, resevoir, and mill race. McAllister's saw and grist mills, before the battle, was a station on the Underground Railroad. Also, in close proximity to the mills' ruins today is Neill (Lost) Avenue, which is a Licensed Battlefield Guide exam test quesiton. Farmsteads that covered Power's, McAllister's and Wolfe's Hill served as hospitals for generals Barlow, and Armistead.

Harmon's tour, as recorded by the Pennsylvania Cable Network, may be frustrating to the viewer who does not a detailed map of the battlefield while watching. At the time the tour was recorded, Power's Hill is overgrown with trees, a portion of the orginal Granite School House Road is cabled off, the McAllister Mill portion is approachable by foot, and Wolfe's Hill is not owned by the NPS. The tour is an excellent for those quite familar with battle but for those who are making a first or second visit to the battlefield or reading their first or second book on the three days\, they may be a little lost among the trees. Also, an order of battle is probably a requirement for most viewers.

New and Noteworthy: Torn Families at Gettysburg

Torn Families: Death And Kinship at the Battle of Gettysburg, Michael A. Dreese, McFarland Publishing, 232 pp. Spring 2007

The Battle of Gettysburg lasted only three days but involved more than 160,000 soldiers-Union and Confederate. Seven thousand died outright on the battlefield; hundreds more later succumbed to their wounds. For each of these soldiers, family members somewhere waited anxiously. Some went to Gettysburg themselves in search of their wounded loved ones. Some were already present as soldiers themselves. In this book are extraordinary-and sometimes heartbreaking-stories of the strength of family ties during the Battle of Gettysburg. Fathers and mothers, siblings and spouses all suffered together, even as they drew strength from one another. Their stories are told here with the help of excerpts from diaries, letters and other correspondence, which provide a first-hand account of the human drama of Gettsyburg on the battlefield and the home front. (Information taken from publisher)

Michael A. Dreese is the author of five books: 'The Hospital on Seminary Ridge at the Battle of Gettysburg' (2002) and 'The 151st Pennsylvania Volunteers at Gettysburg' (2000), 'This Flag Never Goes Down!: 40 Stories of Confederate Battle Flags and Color Bearers at the Battle of Gettysburg' (2004), 'Never Desert the Old Flag!: 50 Stories of Union Battle Flags and Color-Bearers at Gettysburg' (2002) and 'An Imperishable Fame: The Civil War Experience of George Fisher McFarland' (1997).

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: Artillery Front!

A Concise Guide to the Arillery at Gettysburg, Coco, Gregory A., Thomas Publications, photgraphs, maps, charts, order of battle, notes, glossary, 96 pages, 1998.

In countless ways, Gregory Coco has advanced our knowledge of the battle of Gettysburg. With books focusing upon the primary sources of the battle, such as anecdotes of the wounded and dying, the accounts of the hospitals, the farmsteads, and the soldiers' diaries, Coco has opened the study of Gettysburg for both the casually curious and the energized enthusiast. This particular volume, clearly and concisely provides an overview of the artillery slugfest at Gettysburg, its soldiers, their guns and the amunition of the artillery units engaged.

The Narratives of the Artillery in the Battle of Gettysburg section of the text is at the core of the material. For the Union army, the effectiveness of: each corps' artillery, the reserve artillery, the July 2nd and July 3rd Plum Run Lines, the Emittsburg Road and East Cemetery Hill concentrations, and the Horse Artillery are reviewed. For the Confederate army, the effectives of: each corps' artillery, the concentration fo artillery for the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge, the Horse Artillery and the artillery during the CSA retreat are presented. The contributions and failures of key officers, such as General Henry Hunt and General William Pendleton are reviewed. The successes of General Robert Tyler, Union Reserve Artillery Chief, Lt. Colonel Freeman McGilvery, organizer of the Plum Run Line, and Colonel Edward Alexander, organizer of the artillery of Confederate artillery for Longstreet's assualt and the July 3rd assault are briefly hightlighted.

Other strengths of Coco's work on the artillery is the order of battle, the list of the type and quality of the canons at Gettysburg, and the chart of canon tubes with calibers, powder charges, weight and range of projectiles. Also, brief and well done is the discussion of fuses and the glossary.

Though not a tour guide, this booklet is essential for those visitors driving or walking the battlefield park. Personal tours are enhanced by the maps in this brief volume; positions of the units on July 1 2:30-4:30p, July 2 7:15p, and July 3:15-5:00p are shown in a series of maps. This reader found these maps very helpful, but wished that a fourth and a fifth map showing artillery positions on July 2 4:00p and the East Cavalry Field had been included in the book. Also, the July 3 3:15-5:00p map does not include the artillery positions on South Cavalry Field. Unfortunately the booklet has not been indexed which limits ones quick and handy use of the material relating to commanders and units.

This booklet is recommended for those whose interest lies beyond the two hour driving tour of the battlefield. The best use of Coco's work on artillery will be made by those who have already a good knowlege of the infantry tactics used on the field.

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: Cavalry Battles South and West

Gettysburg's Forgotten Cavalry Actions, Wittenberg, Eric J., Thomas Publications, paperback, 182 pp., photographs, maps, notes, index, 1998, $12.95

The cavalry actions at Gettysburg are often reduced to Buford's Federal Cavalry Division defending itself from attacks from Heth's Confederate Division. Some narratives give a nod to the July 3rd cavalry fight, between Gregg and Stuart east of Gettysburg, especially as it relates to the Pickett, Pettigrew, Trimble Charge. Less frequently, the Federal cavalry charge on the Confederate right flank is discussed as a coda to the famed CSA charge on the Federal center. This book focuses upon the Federal cavalry attacks on the Confederate right on July 3rd: Farnsworth's Charge, Merritt's Charge, south of the Big Round Top and Starr's 6th U.S. Cavalry Charge at Fairfield, eight miles into the Confederate rear.

A reader who approaches this book as a story of Gettysburg cavalry triva, would be in errror. This work is the story of remarkable and heroic soldiers ordered into unplanned battles that occurred on the Confederate right flank after the Pickett- Pettigrew-Trimble Charge. The outcome of this late afternoon July 3rd fight set in part the tenor of the Federal pursuit on July 5th.

The author sets the stage for these climatic and crucial fights: two engagements of Federal cavalry versus Confederate infantry on the Rebel right and one engagement of Federal cavalry versus Confederate cavalry in the Rebel rear. Wiitenberg is thorough and brief in his presentation; the key officers, the terrain, the condition of the troops engaged and their weapons are concisely presented. The conflicts are illustrated with clear, well drawn maps. An ample number of portaits of officers, monuments, farmsteads, and terrain accompany the text. The strategic situation of July 3rd is covered as are the personalities of the leaders. Personal accounts of the battles from the rank and file are generous in number and appropriate the moving the action forward in the book.

The laziness of Major General Alfred Pleasanton, commander of the Federal cavalry of the Army of the Potomac is revealed. The rashness of Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick, commander of the 3rd Federal cavalry division is described. The heroic attributes of Brigadier Generals Wesley Merritt and Elon Farnsworth are presented. The question of Farnsworth suicide in order to escape capture is thoroughly grounded in both USA and CSA eyewitness reports. The story of the two troopers who won Medals of Honor at Fairfield leaves this reader asking for recognition for these heroics on this particular battlefield.

Infantrymen and artillerymen are not neglected in this book. It is refreshing to have Confederate diarists quoted in describing their enemy's assaults. The bravery of Law's Alabamians, Robertson's Texans, and Anderson's Georgians, supported by CSA artillerymen is equal to their Federal counterparts. Wittenberg's writing style is both clear and concise. No extra information pads the book; no essential information is left out. The book is not a tourguide with maps and designated stops, though it works well as such; the accompanying maps are not vague and the photographs of the monuments allow the reader to use it as a tourguide. This reviewer recommends this book to both the casual reader and those who subscribe to Gettysburg Magazine. It is essential reading for anyone taking the Licensed Battlefield Guide exam.

CWL --- Elephants at Shiloh

Seeing the Elephant: Raw Recruits at the Battle of Shiloh, Joseph Allan Frank and George A. Reaves, 215 pp., paperbound, bibliography, index, chapter notes, citations in text, University of Illinois Press, 2003. $14.95

The authors have created a marvelous study of the 90,000 soldiers who saw combat on April 6th and 7th, 1862 in western Tennessee, a few miles north of Corinth, Mississippi. Like First Manassas, Shiloh taught the citizens of the Union and Confederacy something unexpected. First Masassas taught that the war would not end in 90 days. Shiloh taught that the war would be extremely bloody. With 23,000 in two days fighting, Shiloh ranks with Antietam as one of the costliest battles in the briefest amount of time.

The authors' Introduction sets the tone by immediately presenting three soldiers' view of their experience of combat: drama, trauma, and matter-of-fact. They offer seven categories for how a raw recruit is prepared to preceive combat. A soldier's moral is conditional upon: tactical preparation, political attitudes, logistics, leadership, espirit de corps, comradeship and officier competence. Also, the authors present a bibliographic review of other writings on 'seeing the elephant.'
Studies of heroic romanticism, training and leadership, and combat morale are briefly discussed and the literature in the field is outlined succinctly.

The method of reseach is described and impresses the reader. The authors used 450 diaries and letter collections from 160 regiments and batteries that had not seen combat until Shiloh. Of the 450 soldiers' papers, Reaves and Frank retained 381 soldiers' works that contained enough information to be placed in a data set. Of course, the material was inchoate, spread among letters, diaries and reminiences.
The authors approached this material with 76 questions. If answers to 10 of these questions were found in the soldiers' material, then the source documents were admitted to the data set. The vast majority of the material in the data set was created during the first year of the war.

At the very beginning, the authors set aside "one-dimensional approaches emphasizing, for example, a Victorian heroic ethos or a single factors such as comradship." Reaves, a National Park Ranger serving at Shiloh National Battlefield Park, and Frank, a academic historian, offer an exemplary work of history.

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: East Cavalry Fields

Protecting the Flank: The Battles for Brinkerhoff's Ridge and East Cavalry Field, Wittenberg, Eric J., 201 pp., softcover, index, bibliography, endnotes, appendices, Ironclad Publishing, 2002.

In print Brandy Station, Aldie, Middleburg, Upperville, Hanover and Hunterstown may one day get their due as important and crucial components in the Gettysburg Campaign. If so, then this reader hopes that it is Eric Wittenberg who give it to them. He has produced a clear, concise and probably complete picture of the cavalry battle on Brinkerhoff's Ridge and on the Rummel Farm. I doubt if Wittenberg is an armchair historian. His presentation of these two crucial battles is well grounded upon an understanding of the terrain. (Yes, that was a pun.)

Three and a half miles east from the main Gettsyburg battlefield park is another portion of the park, one that did not contain the huge number of casualites that the main park has. Neverless, the importance of these battles are recognized when the Baltimore Pike is less than three miles away. As many have begun to realize, the eastern portions of the battle: Culp's Hill, East Cemetery Hill, Brinkerhoff's Ridge, and the Rummel Farm may have been more crucial to the outcome of the battle than Pickett's Charge.

The fight on Brinkerhoff's Ridge was between a portion of the Stonewall Brigade of Johnson's Division (CSA) and McIntosh's Brigade of Gregg's Divison of Federal cavalry. This book furthers the agruement in favor of Ewell's decision to use a portion of his infantry on the evening of July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd to cover his left flank due to the constant rumor that Federal troops were coming up the Hanover Road that runs straight through the cavalry actions of July 3rd.

The fight on the Rummel Farm was between three brigades of CSA cavalry and parts of three brigades of Federal cavalry. Chambliss', Lee's, and Hampton's brigades were to be the rope in the snare set for the Federal cavalry. Fortunately for Gregg's division, the commander sniffed a trap, triggered the bait, and then attacked those CSA troops that were advance to capture the Union force.

In dramatic fashion, Wittenberg combines descriptions of personalities with strategy, of hand-to-hand combat with tactics, and of heroism with fighting. The author balances the human element and the tactical element on the battlefield. He uses the soldiers words to both advance the story and bring the action to the climax.
Wittenberg handles the Custer anecdotes even handedly with the Hampton stories, the Wolverines tales with the Palmetto heroics.

The last third of the book is a driving/walking tour of these two cavalry battlefields, illustrated by 20 modern photographs, the majority of which are well composed. There are those several that are covered in shadows and do not give a clear idea of the monument.

The maps are informative and clear; the captions under the portaits include unit in which the officer served. The appendices are the Federal and Confederate order of battle of those units that served on the field that day.

This book is a welcomed addition to the body of literature on the Battle of Gettysburg. Well written and easy to use as a guide, this book is both informative and entertaining.

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: Hancock and the Union Center on July 2nd

The Battle Between the Farm Lanes: Hancock Saves the Union Center, Gettysburg July 2nd 1863, David Schultz and David Wieck, Forward by Jeffery Wert
301 pages, paperbound, endnotes, bibliography, index, Ironclad Press, 2006.

Paying close attention to the physical terrain of the battlefield, Schultz and Wieck offer an important re-visitation to familar material regarding the 'close run thing' of the Union center between 5:00 and 7:00pm on July 2nd 1863. A great amount of detail is offered and succesfully puts into context the charge of the 1st Minnesota, which in popular treatments of the battle, is second only to the 20th Maine's heroics on Little Round Top.

The authors make clear that the glory the 1st Minnesota gained during the charge was with the aid of the 111th New York infantry, commanded by Colonel Clinton MacDougall and the 4th U.S. Artillery, Battery C, commanded by Lt. Evan Thomas. The flanks of the 1st Minnesota were aided by artillery on the right, and on the left by a infantry charge immediately before the Minnesotans effort. The 111th New York was one of the three regiments that was unfairly lableled as the 'Harper's Ferry Cowards' stemming from an unfortunate command decision during the Sharpsburg Campaign of 1862.

The personality and presence of Winfield S. Hancock is a recurring theme in every chapter. He is the single most decisive element in the preservation of the Federal center along Cemetery Ridge. Lacking from the discussion is a description of Hancock's staff, which in this micro-history, would have been enlightening and enjoyable. This reader finished the the book thinking that Hancock was unaccompanied by couriers, advisors, and aides as he rode between the farmslanes during the afternoon of July 2nd.

Yet, there are some difficulties with this book. The size of the type font must be 18 point or larger. Initially I thought the publisher had sent me the Large Print edition for the visually impaired. There was a period of adjustment for my eyes to accommodate such large text. Also, some printer/publisher proofreading needed to be done before setting this book between its covers. The pages listed for the maps in the table of contents does not match with the actual page locations of the maps in the book. Also, the maps do not have the farmsteads labled which is a curious thing for a book that has the word 'farmlanes' in its title. Only one map, Tour Stop # 5, has a farm building labled. The maps have on them only the modern park roads and not the 1863 farmlanes. Furthermore, it would have been convienent for the reader if the publisher put a few maps in the first section of the book that describes the 1863 fighting. All the maps are in the second section of the book that describes the modern driving and walking tour.

In addition, the portaits of officers do not have their units in the captions. Lacking is a picture of Colonel William J. Colville (1st Minnesota) though it is located in the Library of Congress. At times the writing style doesn't carry the narrative consistenly forward. A favorite expression of the authors is 'by the time . . .' but there is very few statements of time in the book. Of course, given the fact that the book covers about two hours of fighting, the reader does not expect a minute by minute account, but an estimation of the range time, such as the phrase '. . .about 3:30pm . . .' or ' . . . probably sometime between 4:00pm and 4:30pm . . .' would have helped.

From the bibliography is missing Richard Moe's highly regarded 'The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers.' Missing from the book are appendices at the end of the book; especially helpful would have been an Union and Confederate order of battle of those units on the field at the Union center. There is an appendix which offers an essay on measuring the ground on which the fight occurred; the appendix is located in the middle of the book, between the narrative and the tour.

Though mechanically the book has its flaws, overall the discussion it offers is enlightening and clearly presented.

New and Noteworthy: The Civilians' Civil War in Petersburg, VA

Civil War Petersburg: Confederate City in the Crucible of War, A. Wilson Greene,
Hardcover, 384 pages, University of Virginia Press (Winter, 2007), ISBN: 0813925703

In the past ten years, the urban and civilian aspect of the American Civil War has started to be addressed. Gettysburg, Atlanta, New York City, Charleston, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Pittsburgh, and Knoxville have been received attention. Greene, historian working at Pamplin Park, Virginia and author of essays considering the character and memory Stonewall Jackson, addresses the urban wartime history of Peterburg, Virginia

Few wartime cities in Virginia held more importance than Petersburg. It's written history has lacked both an adequate military and civilian home front work. The noted Civil War historian A. Wilson Greene now provides an expertly researched and eloquently written study of the Virginia city that was second only to Richmond in size and strategic significance. Industrial, commercial, and extremely prosperous, Petersburg was home to a large African American community, including the state's highest percentage of free blacks.

On the eve of the Civil War, the city elected a conservative, pro-Union approach to the sectional crisis. Little more than a month before Virginia's secession did Petersburg finally express pro-Confederate sentiments, at which point the city threw itself wholeheartedly into the effort, with large numbers of both white and black men serving. Over the next four years, Petersburg's citizens watched their once-beautiful city become first a conduit for transient soldiers from the Deep South, then an armed camp, and finally the focus of one of the Civil War's most physically and environmentally damaging campaigns.

At war's end, Petersburg's antebellum prosperity evaporated under pressures from inflation, chronic shortages, and the extensive damage done by Union artillery shells. Greene's book tracks both Petersburg's civilian experience and the city's place in Confederate military strategy and civilian administration. Employing unpublished sources, the book weaves a uniquely personal story of thousands of citizen-free blacks, slaves and their holders, factory owners, merchants-all of whom shared a singular experience in Civil War Virginia.

(Source: in part, Book Description, Amazon.com)

New and Noteworthy: J. R. Meigs' Engineer Letters

A Civil War Soldier of Christ and Country: The Selected Correspondence of John Rodgers Meigs, 1859-64 by John Rodgers Meigs and Mary A. Giunta

Hardcover, 352 pages
University of Illinois Press; 1st edition (Summer, 2006), Hardcover, 352 pp, ISBN: 0252030761

From 'Midwest Book Review' post on Amazon.com

Ably edited by Mary A. Giunta (an historian with the National Historical Publications and Records Commission), A Civil War Soldier Of Christ And Country: The Selected Correspondence Of John Rodgers Meigs, 1859-64 is a collection of personal and official letters and original documents that provide the reader with a "window" into the doomed life of a young Union officer. Laid out in complete candor is the story of John Rodgers Meigs and his relationship to family and friends, as well as his experiences as a cadet at West Point (including a meeting with Abraham Lincoln), and his life as a combatant in the Civil War. The son of a Union Quartermaster General, John Meigs official correspondence reveals what his duties were like as a military engineer and aide-de-camp to Union generals. The young soldier was to ultimately meet his death in the war (a vivid account was provided in a post-war exchange of eye-witness statements) but his memory is preserved with an impeccable scholarship within the pages of A Civil War Soldier Of Christ And Country. A model work of historical import, enhanced with the inclusion of a glossary of names, places, and phrases, as well as a selected bibliography and an index, A Civil War Soldier Of Christ And Country is a welcome and invaluable contribution to the growing library of Civil War memoirs, biographies, and histories.

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: East Cemetery Hill

"The Hour Was One of Horror: East Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg," Archer, John M., 100 pp., b/w photographs, maps, appendix, endnotes, index, 1997, $10.00

About half of the East Cemetery Hill battlefield has been lost to development; a watertower, a high school and middle school, and a tour bus center may obscure a casual visitor's comprehension of this portion of the battle. "The Hour Was One of Horror: East Cemetery Hill At Gettysburg" by John Archer is essential in putting the strategic and tactical puzzle together when touring this part of the battlefield. When thinking of East Cemetery Hill, one may picture the Hancock statue, artillery redouts and the Evergreen Cemetery Gate House. Archer's book takes the reader much further than the crest of the hill. East Cemetery Hill was the first land to be set aside as a park, along with Culp's Hill; it is not surprising that public interest in these areas is lags behind the public interest in the Round Tops, Devils Den, and the High Water Mark areas. Though closest to town, economic development and the layout of the park roads do not encourage quick study of this segment of the battle.

The tactical and strategic circumstances of July 1st and 2nd are reviewed in the first quarter of the discussion; then Benner's Hill, the terrain of Early's advance, Brickyard Lane, the CSA breakthroughs at the base of the hill and again at the top, and repulse by USA reinforcements is presented. Archer's presentation of the East Cemetery Hill battle begins, not on the hill but streets of Gettysburg. The retreat of the Federal First and Eleventh Corps, on July 1st from west and north of town to Cemetery Hill, East Cemetery Hill, McKnight's Knoll and Culp's Hill clarifies the combat exhaustion and readiness of the Union forces which defend the Evergreen Gatehouse on July 2nd and 3rd. Archer's discussion of the placement of CSA troops in front of these positions and on Benner's Hill, east of Culp's Hill reveals the terrain and logistical problems that Ewell, CSA 2nd Corps commander had in coordinating the Confederate attacks. Benner's Hill on July 2nd became the platform for CSA artillery that aided the attacks on both Culp's and East Cemetery Hill. The Federal domination of the Confederate artillery on Benner's Hill is essential in understanding the heroic nature of the Rebel attacks, unsupported by artillery, Archer explains.

Though a tourbook with designated stops, Archer's work may be easily used as a general presentation of the combat. Ten maps guide both the armchair reader and the battlefield walker. These maps are original to the book and not generic; based upon the 1864 Bachelder Isometric Map, the 1869 Warren Survey Map, the 1876 Bachelder Maps, and the 1900 Cope Map, these maps are models of clarity and precise reinforcement of the text. Nearly forty historic and modern photographs and illustrations aid the reader in recollecting the site from the armchair or present the walker with the exact spot which soldiers' primary sources discuss. There are no portraits of commanders in the book; this is not lamentable. The text is consistently reinforced with the words of the rank and file soldiers. What is lacking in the book, but is probably on the reader's bookshelf or in the backpack, is an order of battle. The index is brief and adequate. The notes are thorough and add to the text. "The Hour Was One of Horror" is both a fine presentation of the combat and an essential guide to understanding the strategy of the battle, as it developed in the minds of the commanders. This book is highly recommended for the committed student of the battle.

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: The Weikert, Trostle and Klingel Farms

Gettysburg Battlewalks: The Weikert, Trostle, and Klingle Farms, barbara Sanders, Pennsylvania Cable Network, 2004, 95 minutes, DVD format, $20.

Before the battle, Adams County was home to prosperous farm families. Remarks by invading Confederates are found in most books that survey the battle. Jacob Hoke's 'The Great Invasion' and Wilbur Nye's 'Here Come The Rebels' provide many instances of the surprise and admiration by the Confederates of the size and prosperity of Pennyslvania's farmsteads. Nearly forty farms were occupied by the armies on July 1, 2, 3, 1863. Entire farms were destroyed; the Harmon farm and Herbst farm buildings were burned by Rebels on the mid-afternoon of July 1. Also, the Bliss farm had all its buildings and it house burned on the morning of July 3 by Union troops who were exhausted by the constant harrassment of Confederate sharpshooters. Most battlefield first aid stations and hospitals were located on farms.

The Weikert, Trostle and Klingel farms suffered on July 2 from the advance of Longstreet's corps and the resistence of the Third Corp. These farm families had little choice but to abandon their homes when the fighting were in there farm yards. National Park Service Ranger Barbara Sanders walks, with an audience of adults and children, over these farmsteads. Few subjects are neglected; Sanders covers fences as defensive barricades and offensive impediments, barns and houses as both sharpshooter posts and first aid locations, and springs and streams as unique meeting places for enemies. She depicts the corn as being 'knee high by the Fourth of July' and the oats, barley, and orchards ripening on the farms and being destroyed by men and horses.

Sanders discusses surgery and amupation as she and the audience stands near the spot of General Daniel Sickles' wounding. She describes the withdrawal of artillery by prolong in the fields of the Trostle farm and the hinderance to the battery's escape by occassioned by the stone and rail fence behind the barn. Of the many tours in PCN Productions' Gettysburg Battlewalks series, this ranks among the most enjoyable and informative. Sanders enthusiasm, point of view, and interactions with the audience adds to her attention to detail regarding the farm families' stories give this tour distinctive.

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: Culp's Hill

Culp's Hill at Gettysburg: "The Mountain Trembled", Archer, John M., Thomas Publications, 2002, 144 pp., paperbound, notes, index, $12.95


Among the least visited and walked areas of Gettysburg battlefield is Culp's Hill. This portion of the battlefield has an equal amount of fighting, heroism, drama, and human interest as Little Round Top or The Copse of Trees. Probably there are two reasons for the lack of popular interest in Culp's Hill. The first is that tourists can't climb over the rocks (Devil's Den) and there is no grand vista (Little Round Top). The second is that the story is difficult to tell, read and visualize. The switchback roads, the steep slopes, the monuments scattered about in the woods all hinder the imagination that tries to understand which unit did what and where. The compass spins through all four quadrants when you drive the Culp's Hill roads.

John Archer's guide is a great help for any student of the battle and probably is on the bookshelf of every licensed battlefield guide. An Adams County resident, Archer has spent hours upon hours on the Culp's Hill battlefield; this fact becomes obvious from his precise directions for driving and walking the tour. Accompanying the tour, is a very fine presentation of the troop movements, assaults and retreats. The clarity of Archer's organization of the material is consistent throughout the book. Keeping an eye on the battle's clock, Archer helps the reader keep moving forward with the troops.

His use of the veteran's words to describe the ground is exceptional and is often accompanied by both period and contemporary photographs. Archer selects the most descriptive accounts of combat and these occur frequently in the text. A quick look through the text shows that the words of soldiers are used on nearly two-thirds of the 144 pages of the book. In the three page
'Aftermath' discussion, Archer uses three soldiers' view of Union and Confederate burial.

Value is added to the book by a discussion of how this portion of the battlefield became a park. The installation of the roads and the loss of McAllister's mill pond are clearly explained; they are discussed as factors in interpreting the present day park. The maps are adequate for the tour but this reader wishes that one small- scale map covering the area bounded by East Cemetry Hill, the Daniel Lady farmstead, Wolf's and Power's Hills, and the McAllister Mill would have been included. Having a McElfresh watercolor map of the area aids in the reading of the book; the farmsteads and lanes, the original fences, crops and woodlots shown on this map guided the understanding of Archer's maps. A discussion of the 1863 farmsteads, their owners, tenant families, and damage claims would have been appropriate and enhanced both Introduction and the Aftermath. Citations in the text are found at the end of the monograph. Lacking is an order of battle but the index does list all the Federal and Confederate regiments. Listings of officiers' names give rank. Only a brigade commander commanders are designated as such. Other officers' commands, such as regimental, division, artillery, are not noted.

CWL --- Walking Gettysburg's Battlefield: The Rose Farm

Gettysburg Battlefield Walks: The Rose Farm, Tim Smith and Gary Adelman, Pennsylvania Cable Network, 2003. DVD format, $20.

The Pennsylvania Cable Network, owned and operated by the Commonwealth, broadcasts NPS Rangers' and LBG tours of the Gettysburg National Military Park. There are over sixty tours available on DVD format available from www.pcntv.com. At $20 to $25 each, they are an affordable means of learning more about the battle. These tours,filmed on the battlefield,work best with a battlefield map on your lap as the tour plays on your television. Recommended are the McElfresh water color maps that show only the roads, fences, buildings and crops at the time of the battle.

The Rose Farm tour, presented by Licensed Battlefield Guides Tim Smith and Gary Adelman, focuses on the bloodiest farmstead in the Civil War. The Rose Farm is located on the southern end of the battlefield, between Devil's Den an the Emmitsburg Road. The program is an enjoyable 70 minute tour of that portion of the battlefield and covers: the owners and tenants of the farm, Longstreet's attacks on the Wheatfield and the Stoney Hill, the successive attacks by U.S. through The Wheatfield and the Stoney Hill, the burials around the Rose Farm buildings, the post-battle photography on the farm, the first monuments and their mistakes, early tourism and the creation of the National Battlefield Park by the U.S. War Department.

Adelman and Smith, support and interrupt each other. At times the tour becomes a conversation between them; their congeniality avoids the common pitfall of 'the talking head' or 'the monotone' of public discussions presented in video format. Their tour offers period photography, maps, and portaits, enlarged for the audience. Anyone preparing for the Licensed Battlefield Guide exam would do well use this PCN tour in their studies.

CWL --- The Nature of Sacrifice: Charles Russell Lowell's Civil War

The Nature of Sacrifice: A Biography of Charles Rusell Lowell, Jr. 1835-1864, Carol Bundy, Farrer Strauss and Giroux, 560pp., endnotes, index, 2005, $35.00.

Within the first several chapters, this reader found Charlie Lowell a 'child of the(19)sixties living in the 1850s and not the Brahmin snob that he thought he would encounter.

Born in 1835, immediately before his family slipped from high social standing and wealth and into the 'poor cousins' category, Charlie the grew up in the 'high'culture' of Boston of close-knit kinship relations and opportunities.

With Transcendentalists and Abolitionists as neighbors and relatives, with books and debate as a part of family dinner discourse, and with newspapers and current bestsellers as a part of the table top literature of the household, Charlie grew into an apparently aimless but articulate Harvard student. Slight in build and height, surpassed all, after giving the commencement day address at Harvard in 1856, he took a manual laborers job on the Boston wharfs.

He approached manual labor and business in general with the soul of a philosopher and philanthropist. He was a subversive idealist in the workplace, a worker with a social conscience, and a son who wished to succeed where his father failed. Charlie chose the iron industry as his place in the world. By 1860, after an interlude in Europe recovering from tuberculosis, he was managing an iron foundry, west of Sharpsburg, Maryland. Voting Republican in the presidential election, he watched the secession crisis from western Maryland. The attack on Massachusetts troops by a Baltimore mob in the spring of 1861 brought him into the ranks of the Union army as a cavalry captain.

By 1863, after seeing action on the Peninsula and serving on McClellan's staff during the Sharpsburg campaign, Charlie Lowell commanded the 2nd Massachusetts cavalry in what he considered a 'backwater' assignment, Mosby's Confederacy. It was difficult and distastefull duty for him but one at which he excelled. Lowell collected near missed throughout the war; on the Peninsula he shook out his bedroll from behind his saddle and minie balls dropped out. At Antietam, he discovered his horse to be winded and removed the saddle and found the beast hit several times under it. As a colonel of a brigade during the 1864 Shenandoah campaign, he participated and rationalized the destruction of civilian farmsteads. He finally received a wound from a ball that clipped his elbow, traveled up his sleeve,crossed his shoulder, traveled down and cut a small portion of his spine. He died within 24 hours; he was survived by his wife whom he married in 1863 and was seven months pregnant.

The nature of Charles Russell Lowell's sacrifice was multi-faceted: the happy bachelor who left a wife and child, the workplace manager with a heart for the workers, sleight twenty-somenthing who had become a leader of cavalrymen, and the intellectual who became a anti-guerrilla fighter.

This biography surprises in many ways. Charlie Lowell is put in the context of a family on economic decline, of a social conscience within the environment of the empheral ideas of Transcendentalism, and of a top achieving Harvard student who condemns the college's curriculum of constant mind-numbing rote memorization. In 1861, few would have picked Charlie Lowell become a successful leader of cavalrymen. Appreciated by McClellan, Stanton, and Mosby, Lowell became a hero. The nature of Lowell's sacrifice was the loss of a future earned by a man who believed that there are no problems, only solutions and seized his duty to find a way to succeed.

CWL --- A Single Grand Victory: Manassas 1861

You may recall from you public library or you middle school/high school library a book, Edward Creasy's Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World from Marathon to Waterloo. You may have encountered a revised version that included all the 19th century or even the edition that included WWII.

The original edition was 1851 and became an immediate and constant bestseller for the remainder of the 19th century. John Keegan writes that Creasy's intention was to offer a 'jolly good read' and oversimplied his analysis in order to reach a general audience. Creasy's idea of indentifably decisive battles took hold among the general readership.

On a single day on a single battlefield an army could be annihilated or rescued, a nation could be destroyed or saved, and an empire could be founded or meet its demise. The general of the victorious army must be brilliant. Logistics, political factors, and strategy are secondary factors. The virtue and character of the commanders is the decisive factor of the decisive battle. Brillant commanders with courageous armies make decisive victories.

The expectations for a single, grand victory by Northerners and Southerners, their newspaper editors, and their political leaders were based up on the virtue of their societies. Having honor-bound societies with God-on-their-side, with superior versions of capitalism, the North and the South contemplated each other. In the eyes of the South, the North was a mud-sill society of wage slaves, ruled by Yankee merchants and bankers and the seedbed of radical, free love abolitionists. In the eyes of the North, the South was an indolent society of poor farmers and wealthly slaveholders, ruled by a Slave Power Conspiracy and the seedbed of mercenaries eager expand slavery into the American West and Latin America.

Aristocratic and chivalrous Southerners expected to be embraced by the aristocratic and chivalrous monarchs of Europe, who would despise the egalitarian North and who would submit to King Cotton. Southerners believed that the North did not have the capacity to accept the economic sacrafice of a war with the Kingdom of Cotton.

For the South, 'One Single Grand Victory' would be the story of the Southern War for Independence.

for the North, 'One Single Grand Victory' would be the story of the War of the Slaveholders Rebellion.

Looking back from the early 21st century upon the war and its interpretations, the Single Grand Victory notion worked its way into the Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War as well at the Centenial writings (and videos) of the 1960-2000 era.

Gettysburg is the turning point of the war.
Pickett's Charge was the turning point of the turning point.
Where did these ideas come from?

From Creasy's book written in 1851.

A Single Grand Victory: The First Campaign and the Battle of Manassas, Ethan S. Rafuse, Scholarly Resources, 2002.

CWL --- A Single Grand Victory

An immensely powerful idea---A Single Grand Victory--a victory that would be sufficient to convince the other side of the hopelessness of its cause and persuade its adherents to abandon their war aims.

Austerlitz, 1805, The War of the Third Coalition
Solferino, 1859, The Austro-Franco War
Sadowa, 1866, Prussia-Austrian War

These are single battles that ended a 19th century war.
In a era when leadership alone was viewed as the sole factor that could lead to a truely decisive victory, Davis, Lee, and McClellan were reading military history at West Point
Were they really looking for such a battle in 1862? 1863? 1864?

Ethan S. Rafuse examines the origins of the 'Single Grand Victory' perspective in his book on the first Manassas Campaign. The next entry will follow the development of this 19th century mind set and the constraints it put upon CW generalship as Rafuse describes the beginning of the war.

CWL --- O'Reilly on Burnside

McClellan's 'I can do it all' statement to his wife regarding his ability to be both the commander of the Army of the Potomac and co-ordinator of all the field armies of the Union contrasts well with Burnside's hesitancy and reluctance in accepting the position of commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Also, McClellan's decision to move the army as wings worked well but immediately before a battle he dispensed with the grand division command and relied on his corps commanders. Conversely, Burnside, who also used the grand division command system to move the army, kept the wing commanders during the battle of Fredericksburg. This decision was a detriment to the successful completion of his battle tactics, especially during the Prospect Hill attack. Franklin's non-support of Meade, as Burnside ordered it, is a case in point. Additionally, Franklin allowing Reynolds to focus upon the artillery and not his troops, worked to the disadvantage of the Pennyslvania Reserves under Meade.

Faced with the delay of the pontoons, Burnside waited until all was ready. McClellan may have done the same. Faced with similar situations, such as Yorktown, and June 1862 in front of Richmond, and after Sharpsburg, McClellan was deliberate and constantly addressed the issues of readiness. I suspect that faced with the delay of pontoons at Fredericksburg, McClellan too would have waited until they arrived. But instead of attacking over them, it appearsly probably that McClellan would not have attacked at all. Of course, McClellan may not have chosen Fredericksburg as a destination in November, 1862. Though, he successfully managed to get the Army of the Potomac between the wings of the Army of Northern Virginia in late October and early November, Rafuse is unsure what course McClellan would have taken if he would have stayed in command during November.

O'Reilly's choice of adjectives on several occassions in 'Winter War on the Rappahannock' lends a degree of triteness to his writing style. Fortunately, he holds close to the primary sources and quotes observers' impressions of Burnside as the battle slips beyond his grasp. A condition 'akin to desperation,' 'unbalanced,' 'dead with sleep,' having a 'great nervous exhaustion' led to Burnside's decision to personally lead the next day's attack. Stamina appears to be a major difference between McClellan and Burnside. McClellan kept his head during his times exhaustion though during these times he had the tendency to shove blame upon others shoulders. Burnside lacked the stamina that McClellan had, but Burnside did have a positive characteristic that McClellan did not have. He could accept blame and admit his faults. I can not recall an instance when McClellan accepted blame and admitted his faults, after reading Rafuse's 'McClellan's War'.

Next, Rable on Burnside.