Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table

The Civil War in the West by Earl E. Hess

Review By David Lady

This book was a happy surprise; what I took to be a straight chronological history of the Civil War between the Appalachians and the Mississippi is actually an extremely interesting study of the importance of logistics and Federal occupation policies to the outcome of the war in the west.

Dr. Earl J. Hess, the author, analyzes why the war in the west ended as it did. His theme is found in the introduction, where he writes “…the Federals made more astute use of their available resources for war making than did their opponents.” By resources, he means the Northern industrial base and the western transportation infrastructure (railroads, improved roads, shipyards and river vessels).

Dr. Hess has been a student of Civil War history since he was a teenager, and since 1989 he has taught at Lincoln Memorial University, in Harrogate, Tennessee. Dr. Hess has published nearly twenty books, over twenty journal articles, and more than a hundred book reviews for academic history journals. Among his books are Kennesaw Mountain: Sherman, Johnston, and the Atlanta Campaign and The Knoxville Campaign: Burnside and Longstreet in East Tennessee.

This book’s structure is largely although not strictly a chronological account of campaigns and battles. Dr. Hess looks at the logistical and transportation aspects of the military movements and maneuvers. He also covers the many problems Federal commanders faced as they sought to deal with rebellious civilians and guerillas, and to provide for thousands of blacks who chose to leave their plantations while utilizing this population of newly freed-men as laborers and later as combat soldiers. He includes three topical chapters: “Occupation,” “Administering the Western Conquests,” “Behind the Lines.” These emphasize what was happening in the wake of the armies; Federal forces had the job not only of pushing back the Confederate armies from contested territory but also of reclaiming a rebellious population which lived in the area. That job proved to be more complex and difficult than defeating enemy armies on the battlefield, and by the winter of 1863 the senior commanders in the West, Grant and Sherman, ceased to emphasize seizing territory but instead developed a policy of only temporarily controlling the area through which their armies passed, focusing on destroying the war-supporting factories, railroads, arsenals, and even cities in an effort to destroy southern ability and will to continue the war.

Dr. Hess succeeds in defending his theme, but he takes a consistently northern point of view. The book’s weakness lies in his not covering in similar detail Confederate logistics and civil policies in the west, and accounting for their insufficiency in supporting the war effort. He makes no more than passing reference to southern use of the railroads, and makes little mention of the considerable Confederate efforts to build a network of factories, arsenals, and depots in the lower Confederacy after the loss of Kentucky and most of Tennessee in the winter of 1862.

I owe a great deal to our fellow member, Bill Stadtlander, for loaning me this book. Dr. Hess has written a better than good military history that adds a great deal to our understanding the  important logistical and political problems of successfully conducting war over the vast and difficult-to-traverse western Confederacy. It is not so much Federal manpower and manufacturing but rather in the Federal solutions to particular logistical problems of winning the war in the southern heartland that we can find out how the North won the war. This book is well worth your time to read and study.

The Reviewer is; David Lady is a native of Washington, D.C. and grew-up in Virginia during the Civil War Centennial. His father took him to most of the Virginia battlefields, Antietam, and Gettysburg before he was thirteen-years old. His branch of the Lady family lived in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia during the Civil War. Three ‘Lady men’ served in the 1^st Tennessee Cavalry (United States Volunteers), and another served as Lieutenant Colonel of the 20th Virginia Cavalry (Provisional Army of the Confederate States). David graduated from Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH with a degree in History. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1974, and during his thirty-three year military career he served as an Armor and Cavalry soldier. He and his wife Ellen reside in Huntsville, where he is employed on Redstone Arsenal with the U. S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. David has published thirty-two articles in Army Professional Journals, and has led groups of Soldiers and civilians on battlefield tours and military ‘staff rides’ to the Perryville, Fort Donelson, and Gettysburg battlefields. He is currently studying the Civil War in Eastern Tennessee and along the Kansas- Missouri border and is the Round Table Membership Chairman.

Bushwhacking on a Grand Scale, the Battle of Chickamauga, Sep 18-20, 1863

By William Lee White

TVCWRT Book Review, by David Lady

The three-day battle fought along Chickamauga Creek was the second-bloodiest battle of the American Civil War, fought in the old-growth timbered forest of northwestern Georgia. There, hindered by very poor visibility due to thick undergrowth and deep shade, commanders on both sides often lost track of the enemy and even of their own men as black-powder smoke and dust gathered into a deadly fog that made it nearly impossible to command or maneuver effectively. Regiments stumbled into each other quite by surprise, and the chaotic, close-range engagements were indeed “Bushwhacking on a grand scale.” These battlefield conditions forced each individual soldier to become ‘the captain, the general, and the grand private” all in one, asserted one frustrated commander, Brigadier General John Turchin.

William Lee White attempts to bring order to the story of this battle as part of Savas Beatie Publishers Emerging Civil War Series, popular histories offering   “… compelling, easy to read overviews of some of the Civil War’s most important stories. “

Chickamauga is certainly one of the war’s most important stories, for the battle’s outcome not only confirmed the Union hold on Chattanooga (by 1863 the most important railroad junction remaining to the western Confederate armies), but also directly caused the Federal government to appoint General Ulysses Grant to the supreme command of all Federal armies in the west. This battle ruined the reputation of one Federal commander, William S. Rosecrans, and significantly boosted the reputation of another, General George H. Thomas, since known to history as the ‘Rock of Chickamauga.” This battle was Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s only victory of the war, yet his fellow Confederates and many historians have since argued that Bragg ‘lost’ the battle almost as soon as he won it.

Author William Lee White is a National Park Service Ranger and historian at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, and he is the only currently serving Chickamauga ranger to be born on the battlefield (the hospital that he was born in has since become part of the park grounds). He has spent most of his park service career explaining this battle to thousands of visitors as he led them through the heavily wooded landscape, telling the story of this largest engagement of the Western Theater.

I find his book to be a useful combination of battle narrative and battlefield driving tour. It departs from the National Park Service Driving Tour, which only covers the events of the third day of the battle. White’s book allows you and your party to view the battle from sites where the significant events of all three days of fighting took place, in the chronological order that the events took place.  Although this route is longer and will require backtracking, the time spent will repay you with a much better overview of the battle.

The book is extremely well-illustrated with photos of participants, points of view, and notable and sometimes unnoticed monuments. Very useful is White’s including GPS coordinates for each dismount site on the route. Log these coordinates into your navigation device, and enjoy a less-stressful touring experience.

William White writes a brisk, interesting narrative, covering the movements by both armies which led to their meeting in this wilderness. He briefly, but clearly presents the reasons why Army commanders Rosecrans and Bragg tried to conduct the battle as they did. White adequately covers all of the significant events of the three days and takes on a number of long-standing myths about the battle, doing an especially good job of accounting for General Rosecrans notorious “ill-written order” that caused a gap to appear in the Federal line of battle, leading to the Federal defeat. Several excellent appendixes conclude the book: one devoted to the movement of Longstreet’s Confederate Corps from Virginia to the battlefield; the  ‘Civilians at Chickamauga;’ ‘Chickamauga in Memory’- the development of the National Park, erection of memorials, and reunions conducted by Civil War veteran’s on the battlefield.

There are some weaknesses with White’s presentation of the facts. His maps are only average and depict the battle action at a very high level; they are not much help in visualizing the narrative. Two of White’s key assertions are open to criticism:  his defense of Rosecrans’ abilities goes too far as he argues unconvincingly that Rosecrans should have been left in command of the Army of the Cumberland after the battle, rather than replaced by General Thomas. He also gives short shrift to Confederate General Longstreet’s skill as a battlefield tactician, attributing Longstreet’s placement of his units for the critical breakthrough attack of the third day to as series of accidents rather than to good leadership and good staff activity. This attack was the decisive event of the battle, breaking the Federal Army in two and routing nearly half of the it along with Rosecrans and  two of his Corps commanders, into flight all the way back to Chattanooga.

Finally, this first edition needs editing by a good proof-reader to eliminate irritating spelling and grammatical errors. Savas Beatie publishing house has lost some credibility while saving an editor’s salary.

This is not a definitive study of the battle; it is not intended to be that. It is a good introduction to the battlefield which I hope will be carefully proof-read before the second edition. I cautiously recommend it for someone seeking an understanding of the battle and the battlefield without becoming mired in tactical and organizational details.

For detailed accounts of the battle, use Peter Cozzens This Terrible Sound and Powell and Patrick’s The Maps of Chickamauga, or the US Army War College Guide to the Battle of Chickamauga (pub U. Kansas Press and my personal choice for a battlefield guide).

Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama; by Walter Lynwood Fleming 

Fleming is a noted Southern historian that published this work while a professor at Louisiana State University. He details the key events, actors, and the political and social environment and decisions that paint such a dark spot on the culture and evolution of the Southern society. Many regard this work as the baseline for study of Reconstruction as a whole and Reconstruction in Alabama specifically. His analysis is based on key topics and individuals rather than sequentially addressing events over time. Consequently, there are redundancies but they are essential to understanding the circumstances driving the political and social developments of the period. Some reviewers regard his assessment as glorifying the Lost Cause myth a little too much and others indicate his assessment is balanced holding the principle political parties responsible for events. His work does not support the “Birth of A Nation” illustration of African American law makers and office holders as bumbling buffoons although admitting some were not literate and bantered to the gallery of onlookers in the balcony of Congress. He also does not address the Ku Klux Klan as indiscriminate wandering bands of terrorists although under today’s standards the description fits. For those interested in details seldom found regarding Reconstruction this book is the place to start and it can be found on the internet and downloaded for free. Google the title and down load the volume, then use the next month learning about reconstruction in Alabama.

The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns

 Bradley M. Gottfried

TVCWRT Book Review (by David Lady)

This book is the latest of the Civil War Campaign Maps series (Savas Beatie, publisher). It covers the fighting between the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac in the months after Gettysburg; fighting that lasted into the winter of 1863. These campaigns began along Virginia’s often fought over ‘Dare Mark,’ the Rapidan-Rappahannock River Valleys, from where Confederate and Federal armies had and would launch attacks over three separate campaigning seasons: 1862 (Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run), 1863 (Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Bristoe Station, and Mine Run), 1864 (Wilderness and Spotsylvania).

Generals Robert E. Lee and George Meade led armies not yet recovered from the losses of the Gettysburg Campaign, both weakened further by detachments to the western theater, the South Atlantic coast, and even New York City. Efficient and well-seasoned leaders such as Longstreet, Hancock, Jackson, Reynolds, Hood, and Slocum were no longer with the armies. Their places had only been recently ‘filled’ by unproven or undistinguished successors. These less capable lieutenants would miss opportunities and both Lee and Meade’s offensives would end without significant results.

The author, Dr. Bradley M. Gottfried, is a career educator with a PhD in Zoology who is currently the President of the College of Southern Maryland.  He is a prolific and esteemed Civil War historian who has authored nine histories including Roads to Gettysburg, Kearney’s Own: the History of the First New Jersey Brigade, and three earlier volumes of the Civil War Campaign Maps series (First Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg). These three previous map series works have each received a good deal of praise for making extremely complex battles much clearer for the modern reader.

In this book, Gottfried does a very good job relating the goals and plans of the army commanders, as well as depicting the maneuvers and actions of the two armies. His technique is to carefully break the two campaigns into ‘map-sets,’ each comprised of at least one and as many as twelve ‘action-sections.’ Each action section consists of a map depicting the action and, on the facing page, detailed text explaining the action; the text describes the movement, combat, personalities and units involved, and quotes from the participants. These action-sections are heavily footnoted and exhaustively researched, utilizing the Official Records, personal memoirs, and well-regarded secondary sources.

This book fills a gap in Civil War scholarship: The Bristoe Station and Mine Run campaigns are among the least-studied in the eastern theater. Given their inconclusive outcome this is understandable, yet the campaigns contain a number of interesting episodes:  Large cavalry battles such as Second and Third Brandy Station, Jack’s Shop, Buckland; audacious infantry assaults at Bristoe Station, Rappahannock Station, and Payne’s Farm; the very unusual rear guard fighting at Auburn, where Ewell and Stuart attempted to catch II US Corps on the march, missing their opportunity to destroy this organization by failing to carefully coordinate their attacks against very competent Federal opponents.

After one of the most notorious ‘non-battles’ of the war along the Mine Run Creek, both sides finally entered winter quarters in December, 1863. The armies finished the year where they began it, on the opposite banks of the Dare Mark. General Meade had tried three times to take the offensive during these campaigns, but was each time thwarted by Confederate counter-moves. He knew that he had lost President Lincoln’s confidence and expected to be relieved. He was not relieved, but before the next campaigning season President brought the Union’s most successful general to Washington in order to manage the war effort and command the eastern as well as the western armies.

By contrast, General Lee retained the confidence and support of President Davis, despite Lee’s being only able to “…derange the [Federal] plans of campaign and prolong the conflict.” [Quote of COL Walter Taylor CSA, ADC].  He was deeply disappointed with his own failing health and with not being able to do more to damage the Army of the Potomac.

Some errors will be noted by careful readers, due to incongruities between the text and a number of the accompanying maps: A particular incident will be mentioned in the text and given a reference number, to guide readers to a particular spot on the facing map; yet the number does not appear. Apparently some of the text was edited after the facing maps were developed, and the particular action-section was not given a final reconciling edit. Otherwise the text is generally clear, and most engagements and movements are accurately indicated on the maps.

I recommend this book for students of the eastern theater of the Civil War with an interest in operational (that is to say Army and Corps level) maneuver, and for those interested in combat tactics detailed down to brigade and regimental level.

Sava Beatie publishers plan for this series to cover all of the major eastern campaigns; the next by Mr. Gottfried will be the Maps of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Campaigns.

David Lady is a native of Washington, D. C., and grew-up in northern Virginia during the Civil War Centennial. His branch of the Lady family lived in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia during the Civil War and his forebears served on both sides of this war. David’s  paternal great- Grandfather  served as a Detailed Conscript in the Confederate States Bureau of Nitrates and Mining, while his maternal great- Grandfather  served as Quartermaster Sergeant of Company C, 1^st Tennessee Cavalry, United States Volunteers. David graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield OH with a degree in History. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1974, and during his thirty-three year military career served as an Armor and Cavalry soldier and later as the Command Sergeant Major (CSM) of the U. S. Army Armor Center, the U. S. Army Europe, and the U. S. Army Strategic Command. He and his wife Ellen reside in Huntsville, employed on Redstone Arsenal with the U. S. Army Strategic Command. David has published in professional Army journals and led groups of Soldiers and civilians on battlefield tours and military ‘staff rides’ to the Perryville, Fort Donelson, and Gettysburg.  He is currently studying General Grant’s eastern campaigns of 1864-65.

Battle of Big Bethel Crucial Clash in Early Civil War Virginia by Michael Cobb, Edward B. Hick, Wythe Holt

On June 10, 1861 near Big Bethel Church in southeast Virginia, Confederate forces under Col. John B. Magruder clashed with Union forces under Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. The significance of this very important part of Civil War history has been greatly overshadowed by the massive battles such as Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Stones River. Though Big Bethel did not have the large casualties and intricate tactical maneuvers employed later in the war it was full of a number of Civil War firsts that have been well laid out for the reader in the new work by Cobbs, Hicks and Holt “Battle of Big Bethel: Crucial Clash in Early Civil War Virginia.”

This is the first full length book on this small but important part of the Civil War in Virginia. The authors have laid out very succinctly the number of Civil War firsts that happened on the marshy lands near Elizabeth City and York counties in southeast Virginia. The commanders Col. Magruder CSA and Maj. Gen. Butler are well researched and their parts in success and failure are equally pursued. The important work laid out in this in depth study lays out some of the personalities of the commanders as well as the private soldier helping the reader understand both the military and political stances of the volunteer soldier on both sides at this critical part of the America’s most bloody contest.

• The authors pointed out several remarks made by the soldiers about the reality of war that was setting in among them. One soldier was quoted “This is not playing soldier now, it is a stern reality” speaking of the shrinking rations with rapid influx of southern troops at Big Bethel. The authors pointed this out to show the harsh reality of war which had not been felt until this point in the conflict.
• Only skirmishing had taken place until Big Bethel and it shocked both sides to see the horrors of the battlefield. “A Union soldier sat in the middle of the field exposed to Rebel fire cradling the head of a fallen comrade.” The authors laid out several first-hand accounts of the bloodshed and the “hailstorm of minie balls” that would be a part of so many battles to come.
• The use of spies on the battlefield also came into play at Big Bethel. It was noted by the authors that a young Mrs. Tunnel take advantage of an opportunity to warn the Rebels of the approaching Union forces. Spies and particularly female spies were used by both sides extensively as the war progressed on.

The spies, harsh conditions and the horrors of the battlefield were but a few of the firsts that were encountered by the soldiers and commanders at Big Bethel, but it was certainly not the last for most of these men. The war would stretch for nearly four more years and cost the lives of hundreds of thousands. The authors have ably set down a great work that is well footnoted providing the reader plenty of more research material. The flow between beginning, middle and end is slightly choppy with the transition of author to the next but overall a well-researched study of The Battle of Big Bethel.

A WORLD ON FIRE: BRITAIN’S CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR” by Amanda Foreman

Submitted by E. W. Stevenson, M.D. Hoover, AL 

I have often wondered why Jefferson Davis did not foresee the inevitable defeat of the Confederacy after Gettysburg and Vicksburg, and begin peace negotiations “to stop further effusion of blood”.

This book goes into great detail about the inner workings of the English government; and the work of the Federal and Confederate diplomats in London. Two mighty forces were at work in the English population, bringing immense pressure on their government. One was the English workers, responding to the severe economic depression caused by the federal blockade of the CSA southern cotton ports; and the other was the substantial antislavery movement in the English population. The English government simply elected to do nothing.

Obviously, the English navy could have broken the blockade, had they entered the war on the side of the Confederacy, as well as interdicted federal trade at sea. In which case, the northern population would have pressured Lincoln to cease his campaigns of “Southern aggression”.

I highly recommend that any serious student of the Civil War read this book, which fills in a gap in our usual understanding of “The War”. The book is an 807-page scholarly and well-researched study, written in an easy-to-read style.

A Civil War Round Table Quiz Book; by Dave Smith,Dulles

I could not pass this book up, for reasons easily guessed from its title.  And the book is exactly as described by that title.  It is a compilation of 75 questions spread over 8 subjects pertaining to various aspects of the Civil War.  Its purpose and format is much the same as our Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table uses to set up our monthly Little Round Table discussion groups: a series of topical questions to stimulate thought, each with a substantive answer.  The questions cover the gamut of the war:  causes, trends, casualties, leaders, battles, events, and its end.  The answers provided are concise and informative.  A great challenge for readers will be to take the quizzes and see how well you do before you turn to the answers.  The book’s format lends itself to that approach.  Of course, if you just want to casually troll for information, you can do that, too.  In either case, this makes for a great coffee table book or a book for the “throne room”.

Dave Smith, the grandson and great-grandson of Civil War soldiers, earned a degree in journalism from Boston University after serving with the Marines Corps in Korea during the Korean War.  After working for several years as a newspaper writer and editor, he spent 28 years with a major insurance company as a division director of communications. He lives in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.  Along the way, he joined the Harford Civil War Round Table.  Wanting to contribute to the Round Table members’ experience, he offered to produce a monthly quiz.  It would go out with the monthly bulleting, and answers would be discussed at the next meeting.  It caught on quickly and became a popular feature of the meetings.  (Again, reminiscent of our Little Round Tables.)  This book is a compilation of those quizzes.

The book serves its purpose well.  Many questions deal with lesser-known aspects of the war rather than the best known topics, so they can pose a challenge even to the most seasoned Civil War buff.  It is a valuable read for anyone, seasoned or novice, interested in the Civil War, and is one easily passed on to other family members to get them interested in learning about the Civil War.  I highly recommend it.

   Your reviewer is Emil L. Posey, TVCWRT Vice President. His work history spans almost 45 years of military and civilian service to our country.  He retired from NASA/George C. Marshall Space Flight Center on December 27, 2014.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Hood College, Frederick, Maryland; is a former president of the Huntsville chapter of the National Contract Management Association, and is a life member of the Special Forces Association.  He is also a member of Elks Lodge 1648 (Huntsville, AL) and the Tennessee Valley Genealogical Society.  He is happily married and has three children and (so far) two grandchildren.  He is a dedicated bibliophile, and is a (very) armchair political analyst and military enthusiast.

A Generation at War – The Civil War Era in a Northern Community by Nicole Etcheson reviewed by Kathi Arnold

In this book, A Generation at War, author Nicole Etcheson delves into the lives of the folks in a farming community in Putnam County, Indiana.  Using personal papers, local newspapers, pension petitions, Exoduster pamphlets, and other documents, Etcheson plots the course of the politics, race relations, and women’s rights from the 1850s through the 1880s.  She seeks to show how this community in the Midwest heartland responded to and was shaped by the war.

The premise is that there have been many books about how the war affected the people of the south and the northeast, but no one has examined how Midwestern communities were affected by the War Between the States.  As a native of neighboring northwest Ohio, I was hoping the history would be interesting and perhaps close to what my ancestors experienced.

The book is divided into three parts:  Before the War, The War, and After the War.  Etcheson makes meticulous use of notes; fully one quarter of the book consists of notes and bibliographies about the sources of her reports.  She also mentions in the text which party the newspaper leaned toward so you can take the paper’s prejudice into account.

Although I am not a big student of politics, I found the book very readable.  The author uncovered a great deal of information about which I was totally ignorant.  For example, I was unaware that free blacks were not allowed to live in Indiana.  A slave, freed in Indiana, had to leave the state!  I was unaware of the racial prejudice that existed in the north before the war.

A Generation at War is a well written chronology, taking the reader through the issues of the community:  race and sectionalism, economics and temperance, race relations, Civil War pensions which allowed war widows certain freedoms, and the exodus of blacks from the south.  By using real people with real stories, Etcheson has put the war – and its northern ramifications – into better focus.

Kathi Arnould, Member

Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table

Huntsville, Alabama

January 10, 2012

About the reviewer: Kathi Arnould was born in the south — the “south end” of Toledo, Ohio!  Dedicated to helping others, she works at the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind in Huntsville, AL, and as the volunteer director of Happy Trails Therapeutic Riding Center (A Spirit Horse Facility) at her farm in New Market, AL.  Kathi became interested in the Brothers’ War as a teenager reading Gone With the Wind and became a Civil War enthusiast through attending the Round Table and participating in the field trips.  Most members of the Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table will recognize Kathi as “The Voice” of the Round Table because she records the Public Service Announcements for the public radio station WLRH, 89.3 FM.

Corinth, 1862 Siege, Battle, Occupation Timothy B. Smith

Corinth, Mississippi was described as the “…the vertebrae of the Confederacy” by Confederate Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker. This railroad crossroads in northern Mississippi served both the Memphis and Charleston railroad and the Mobile and Ohio railroad. It was the major Confederate railroad hub and logistics center in the western theater, and in 1862 the opposing Army commanders, P.G.T. Beauregard and Henry Halleck, ranked Corinth with Richmond as one of the two places most essential to the survival of the CSA.

Since 1862, Corinth’s importance has been de-emphasized by historians, but Timothy B. Smith may reverse this trend with this comprehensive account of Corinth’s significance in the American Civil War as it was besieged, battled over, and occupied by Confederate and Federal forces.

Mr. Smith is well-qualified to write this history, serving as a teacher and researcher with the University of Tennessee. He has authored three previous books about the Civil War in Mississippi and Tennessee, the Battles of Shiloh and Champion Hill.

This book covers the military activity around Corinth throughout the War. Smith makes extensive use of the official records, regimental histories, letters, and memoirs of the Soldiers and civilians. He covers the ‘siege’ and occupation of Corinth in May, 1862 and the bloody Battle of Corinth in October, 1862, as well as some of the first efforts by Federal commanders to implement Abraham Lincoln’s contraband and emancipation policies in 1863. Until reading this book I did not know that Corinth was the site of the largest contraband camp in the Western theater as well as the one of the first recruiting sites for the United States Colored Troops; the First Alabama Infantry (African Descent), later re-designated 55th USCT, was recruited there.

Smith also describes the lives of Corinth’s civilians during the war; Southern inhabitants both white and black as well as Northerners arriving after the Federal occupation. He ably describes how the town and Tishomingo County governments adapted to Federal occupation while continuing to operate and participate in the Mississippi state government throughout the war.

Understandably, the author focuses on the military operations in and around Corinth throughout 1862. Beauregard’s defeated army retreated from into Corinth from Shiloh but then regrouped and resisted the painfully deliberate advance of Halleck’s huge Army of the West for over a month, until all railway links with the deep south were severed but one; then the Confederates skillfully withdrew to Tupelo, fooling the Yankees so completely that they were able to evacuate all sick, supplies and munitions without molestation.

Occupied by Federal forces under U.S. Grant and William Rosecrans, Corinth was attacked once again, and the chapters concerning the Battle of Corinth thoroughly cover the two-days of fighting. Attempting to support the Confederate invasion of Kentucky, Earl Van Dorn mismanaged his army’s assault on Corinth, suffering a sharp defeat and dashing any hope for continuing the offensive into Western Tennessee toward Columbus, Kentucky. The tactical movements are illustrated with a fine series of maps that add a great deal to the author’s narrative.

Mr. Smith is successful in presenting this comprehensive study of the political and military importance of Corinth during the first three years of the war, as well as of the civil affairs of Corinth throughout the War. His only failure is in arguing that Halleck practiced sound military strategy when advancing on Corinth and then splitting his Army in order to occupy a region stretching from Memphis to Bridgeport, AL. This permitted the Confederate Army of Mississippi (later known as the Army of Tennessee) to regain the initiative and maintain the fight over the western Confederacy another two-and-a-half years.

This is an excellent military and social history that fills a gap in our Civil War knowledge of the Western theater in the period between the Battle of Shiloh and the fall of Vicksburg. It will both entertain and inform you, and I highly recommend it to you.

The Gettysburg Cyclorama:  The Turning Point of the Civil War on Canvas

By Chris Brenneman and Sue Boardman

Review by David Lady

When first I saw the surviving copy of The Battle of Gettysburg, commonly known as the Gettysburg Cyclorama, it was a disappointment; the enormous (40 by 400 feet, weighing about six tons) painting of the Picket’s Charge defeat was poorly displayed in a cramped and ill-lit building; the painting itself was so dingy and sagging that it actually contributed little to my Gettysburg experience. Yet in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, many visitors to the four traveling exhibits of the Gettysburg Cyclorama had marveled at French painter Paul Philippoteaux’s artistic achievement; for generations of Americans it was easily the most recognized artistic representation of the battle.

Since 2008 visitors to the battlefield benefit enjoy a much better experience, for the repaired and re-stored Gettysburg Cyclorama painting has been housed in a magnificent building on the battlefield, very close to the ‘High-Water Mark of the Confederacy.’ The significant upgrade to the painting and facility inspired Registered Gettysburg Battlefield Guides Chris Brenneman and Sue Boardman, assisted by photographer Bill Dowling, to create this extremely interesting study of the creation and exhibition of the Cyclorama, as well as its restoration and display at Gettysburg.

The book begins with an explanation for the development of Cycloramas, used to illustrate great battles or events in Europe and America. The authors then provide a behind-the-scenes review of the motivation for Philippoteaux, a very famous cyclorama painter, being commissioned as chief artist to create four massive Gettysburg paintings. Also detiled are the  marketing and exhibiting strategies followed by entrepreneur Charles Willoughby, as he coordinated the display of these paintings throughout the nation up to the early twentieth century. Some detective work was required to finally identify which of the copies was finally permanently emplaced at Gettysburg in 1913.

Ms. Boardman explains the techniques employed when drawing, painting and hanging such a large canvas. The team of artists used specially commissioned landscape photographs by William Tipton to orient themselves to the battlefield from the perspective of the famous Copse of Trees, chosen focal point for the painting. Senior Federal officers such as Winfield Hancock, Abner Doubleday, and Alexander Webb were consulted for details of the battlefield events.  The artists inspected Civil War artifacts to correctly portray the uniforms, weapons, wagons of the battle (there are a number of inaccuracies; only one type of cannon is portrayed in all of the batteries, and some soldiers are wearing uniforms that look suspiciously like French Army uniforms of the eighteen-eighties). Many corrections were made to the Cycloramas over the years, some as a result of the complaints of veterans viewing the exhibit, and some to add to local interest in a particular exhibition (Eg., some changes were made during a Boston exhibit to highlight Massachusetts officers portrayed in the painting).

The National Park Service “Mission 66” initiative, to provide a new building for the cyclorama, and the successful work of Olin Conservation, Inc. to painstakingly clean, restore/repair, and rehang the cyclorama is a fascinating part of the book. Yet the highlight of the book for me are the ten chapters devoted to scene by scene explanation of the events portrayed in the cyclorama, highlighting the personalities, buildings, units, equipment and terrain features of The Battle of Gettysburg.

The brilliant work of Philippoteaux’s team and the Olin renovators is lovingly illustrated with high-quality photos and thorough explanations. While the cyclorama is not a perfectly accurate portrayal of the fighting at Bloody Angle, this book is a marvelous review of a great work of art that has entered the fundamental layer of the public’s knowledge of the Battle of Gettysburg. I strongly recommend it to you.

   David Lady is a native of Washington, D. C., and grew-up in northern Virginia during the Civil War Centennial. His branch of the Lady family lived in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia during the Civil War and his forebears served on both sides of this war. David graduated from Wittenberg University in Springfield OH with a degree in History. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1974, and during his thirty-three year military career served as an Armor and Cavalry soldier and later as the Command Sergeant Major (CSM) of the U. S. Army Armor Center, the U. S. Army Europe, and the U. S. Army Strategic Command. He and his wife Ellen reside in Huntsville, and he is employed on Redstone Arsenal with the U. S. Army Strategic Command. He serves on our Board of Directors as membership chairman, and is an enthusiastic participant in the Little Round Table and the Round Table Brigade.

Ruin Nation; Destruction and the American Civil War by Megan Kate Nelson

Review by Emil L Posey

According to the Civil War Trust, the ACW cost 625,000 lives (some estimates are significantly higher) – nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country has fought combined – and was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.  Ms. Nelson goes into detail.

  Megan Kate Nelson is a lecturer in history and literature at Harvard University.  She is the author of Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp.  What she presents here is a panoramic view of the extent of the Civil War’s ruination and its effect on us as a people.

The ACW was not just a political upheaval.  It was a social, environmental, and social upheaval of the first order, as well.  Its violent nature not only took hundreds of thousands of lives – almost 2% of the total 1860 resident population of some 31,443,000 (US Census Bureau) – and many, many more wounded (many grievously and long lastingly), its devastation extended to cities and villages, industrial and transportation infrastructure, farms and livestock, fields and forests and waterways, and, most importantly, peoples’ sense of themselves – their realities, relationships, aspirations, and futures.

The war, particularly in the South, touched everyone.  It was a shared experience, yet “Americans read the ruins in different ways depending on who they were, where they lived, the type of object destroyed, the moment in time, and who had done the destroying.”  Ms. Nelson elaborates: “Nevertheless, northerners and southerners reacted in similar or even identical ways to wartime ruination.  Therein lies one of the ironies of the war’s ruin narrative…its participants found common ground in their consideration of the costs.”  And it is these narratives and descriptions that she captures and shares with us.

The book is divided into four broad chapters, each dealing with separate but entwined categories of ruin: cities, houses, trees, and people.  War unmakes and remakes the landscape and society, and so these categories describe ephemeral ruin.  As she puts it: “Within a generation of their production, most of them had disappeared from the American landscape.  City buildings and homes were rebuilt or their materials were repurposed as southerners got on with the work of literal reconstruction.  The acres of stumps and tree shards that soldiers created on the march, in camp, and in battle grew over with successive species.  The men who fought lived the longest; veteran amputees survived into the twentieth century, but then they, too, were gone.  What are left are merely traces, not ruins: stone foundations, a lone chimney here or there, grassy mounds marking former earthworks, fragments of bone in a medical cabinet.”

The book doesn’t have the fast-paced flow of a battle narrative, but it is quite readable.  Relying heavily on period letters, literature, news media, drawings, and cartoons, it is a solid work that opens the door for many of us to a different way of looking at the ACW.  It is a valuable read for anyone, seasoned or novice, interested in the Civil War and its cultural significance.  I highly recommend it.

   Your reviewer is Emil L. Posey, TVCWRT Vice President. His work history spans almost 45 years of military and civilian service to our country.  He retired from NASA/George C. Marshall Space Flight Center on December 27, 2014.  He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Hood College, Frederick, Maryland; is a former president of the Huntsville chapter of the National Contract Management Association, and is a life member of the Special Forces Association.  He is also a member of Elks Lodge 1648 (Huntsville, AL) and the Tennessee Valley Genealogical Society.  He is happily married and has three children and (so far) two grandchildren.  He is a dedicated bibliophile, and is a (very) armchair political analyst and military enthusiast.

Appomattox; The Last Days of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia by Michael E. Haskew, reviewed by Arley McCormick; Newsletter Editor

You know how it ends. You have read about Appomattox before. But, you have never read it like Michael E. Haskew writes it. It is certainly about the end of an era that punctuates 19^th Century America and yet it is more than that. The author illustrates his book, not with maps focused on troop movements but on leaders, decisions, and lost opportunities. He accentuates it all with firsthand accounts, recollections, orders, and letters. He introduces key characters on the battle line with short enlightened biographies that provide insight to their personality and the impact upon decision making. He integrates the combat action with accounts of President Lincoln’s observations and comments while close to the battlefields and visits to Petersburg and Richmond. The judgment of General U.S. Grant and Lee are not questioned but explained in terms that make sense for that specific moment in time when a decision was necessary. The author mater-of-factually describes the killing and inadvertent loss of key leaders and men, both North and South, accentuated by prose from men that were there. Michael E. Haskew captures the very essence of soldering during adversity and the respect leaders and men earned during those final contested days and demonstrated later when former soldiers, in their twilight years, met as friends during reunions at contested battle sites.  The Army of Northern Virginia steadfast in their resolve till the bitter end and tarnished only by the reference that it fought to preserve slavery. If you don’t read it your understanding of the Appomattox will be lacking.

The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood, Stephen M. Hood, Savas Beatie Reviewed by John Scales.

This book is an interesting collection of documents that were passed down through the Hood family and not made available until recently, buttressed by the author’s introduction and explanatory material between documents.  The foreword is by noted historian Richard McMurry. There are 126 primary source documents ranging from letters written by Hood as a lieutenant on the frontier to condolences written to his family after his death.  The editor/author is a distant relative of John Bell Hood who shares the nickname “Sam.”

The items of particular interest to the Civil War buff are in those chapters concerning his wounds and their treatment, the Atlanta Campaign, and the Nashville Campaign.  Much of the material was assembled by Hood from friends and subordinates for his use in writing his book, Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate Armies, which was originally published in 1880.  In many respects that book was a reply to Joe Johnston’s Narrative of Military Operations Directed during the Civil War (1874) and Sherman’s Memoirs of General William T. Sherman (1875), both of which were highly critical of Hood.  Hood solicited letters to refresh his recollections and to provide data to refute the allegations of Johnston and Sherman, while the medical reports shed new light on his mental and physical condition after his devastating wounds at Gettysburg and Chickamauga.

The chapter concerning Hood’s wounds contains the daily notes of the attending physician, Dr. Thompson Darby, and Dr. Darby’s medical reports on his condition.  Not only do these documents give a fascinating glimpse into Civil War medicine, they also decisively refute many theories concerning Hood’s physical abilities and mental sharpness.  According to the reports, Hood had significant use of his injured arm and was no longer using any pain medication by the time he returned to duty after his leg amputation.

Unfortunately, with a few exceptions the letters and documents concerning Atlanta and Nashville are of lesser interest.  All these were written well before the Official Records were issued, so they address opinions and controversies that, in the main, were resolved when these records were published.  Yes, Johnston understated his strength and his casualties in his book, although not quite to the extent Hood alleged.  Hood excused his failure at Cassville by quoting a Union report (included) that documented two Union regiments  (less than 1,000 men) were threatening the rear of his 20,000 man corps—not particularly convincing.  These letters and documents do not address the period when Hood had overall command around Atlanta, but pick up again after its fall and address the Nashville Campaign.  The most interesting new information in this whole section is relayed in a letter written in 1875 from S. D. Lee to Hood, alleging that A. P. Stewart told him Cleburne was overcome by remorse concerning the failure at Spring Hill and hinting that Cleburne pressed the attack at Franklin suicidally because of this.  This second-hand opinion is interesting, although a close reading of the Spring Hill engagement would suggest the primary fault lay first with Brown and then with Cheatham.

To understand many of the points raised in the various letters (and the point of view of the letter writers, both Hood and the others) requires a fairly detailed knowledge of the campaigns and the personalities involved.  For instance, the average reader could hardly be expected to understand why Francis Shoup was supportive of Hood and dismissive of Johnston, while A. P. Stewart inclined to supporting Johnston’s positions over Hood’s.  Some of the author’s notes allude to a few of the issues but not to all.  All in all, this is a book directed more to specialists rather than the general run of Civil War buff, yet it contains interesting sidelights and insight into Hood’s character as well as documenting some of the sources Hood used for his book.

Your reviewer is John Scales is a retired Special Forces Brigadier General, living in Huntsville, Alabama. A veteran of both Vietnam and Afghanistan, he is a senior systems engineer for SAIC. He is also the former President of the Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table and the author of Sherman Invades Georgia, 2006. He will publish his next book with Savas Beatie in the fall. The book is about Nathan Bedford Forrest and the cartographer used in the book No Turning Back, Hal Jesperson, is the cartographer used for his next book.

“Fight like the Devil:” The First Day at Gettysburg July 1, 1863

By Chris Mackowski, Kristopher White, Daniel Davis (Savas Beatie, Emerging Civil War Series, 2015)

A TVCWRT Book Review by David Lady

The first day of the Battle of Gettysburg is sometimes overlooked by students of the battle, dismissed as a mere prelude to the more significant combat taking place on 2d and 3d July, 1863. Many casual students of the battle recall the first day for the “missed opportunity” when the Confederate Army failed to seize Culps and Cemetery Hills at the end of the day. This failure permitted the Federal Army to rally on this commanding ground, then fortify and reinforce the terrain to anchor their defensive line for the next two days of battle.

The authors argue that the first day’s fight deserves greater attention from the Civil War students, and have written a provocative if brief history and driving-tour guide to assist visitors better understand the significance of the fighting north and west of Gettysburg town.

Part of the successful Emerging Civil War series, this book is the first of at least three that Savas Beatie will publish on the Battle of Gettysburg. The authors are all former or current National Park historians and together have published over a dozen books on Civil War topics.

After a short review of the Confederate invasion and the Federal countermoves, the narrative chronologically reviews the first day’s events, completing each episode with a ‘Stop;’ generally a statue or battlefield marker. These dismount points are provided with GPS coordinates, and the text orients the reader to the ground, as an aid in better understanding the importance of the terrain to the event.

The authors contradict two of the ‘myths’ of the Battle of Gettysburg, devoting space in the main narrative and in more detailed appendices:  That Gettysburg contained large supplies of shoes, and that Stonewall Jackson could have and would have seized the high ground south of Gettysburg, had he been spared to command his troops that day.

For me those appendixes, and several others written by noted experts such as Eric Wittenberg, are the most interesting parts of the book. One appendix re-considers the ability of Federal General John Reynolds (who was killed during the first day’s battle and is often given credit for choosing Gettysburg as a battleground). Another explains the significance of General George Meade’s “Pipe Creek” memorandum, and still another explains just what happened in the course of General Stuart’s ride around the Federal Army and why Stuart’s absence disabled General Lee’s campaign plan.

The authors pack a great deal of information into this small book. The maps are very well done and will add considerably to understanding unit movements. It is a good beginner’s guide to the battle.

“To the Bitter End” by Robert M. Dunkerly, (Savas Beatie, 2015)

TVCWRT Book Review by David Lady   10 April 2015

This volume covers the surrenders of all the major Confederate military and naval forces, including the forces of Native American tribes allied with the Confederacy. The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865 was only the first of the Confederate Army surrenders in 1865. Large Confederate organizations still remained in North Carolina and the southeastern states, in Alabama and Mississippi, and across the Mississippi River in Texas, Arkansas and the Indian Territory. With the Confederate capitol occupied by the United States Army, and with President Davis and his government on the run, the surrender of this most famous Confederate army only indirectly led to the suspension of hostilities throughout the former Confederacy.

Robert Dunkerly is a National Park Service Ranger and historian who has worked at Appomattox Court House, and who currently works at the Richmond National Battlefield Park, and is president of the Richmond, VA Civil War Round Table. He is a regular contributor to the Emerging Civil War blog and has co-authored this book as part of the Savas Beatie Emerging Civil War Series. Among his other books is No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign.

Dunkerly has written a very interesting and informative account covering the series of Confederate surrenders that took place over an almost-three month period. He startled me by pointing out that Appomattox was an anomaly among the surrenders: The Federal and Confederate armies were in very close proximity to each other; the surrender terms were decided upon and signed at one meeting; a formal ceremony took place at which weapons, munitions and army property were surrendered; paroles were issued to all Confederates that surrendered. Nowhere else in the South was surrendering a major organization so quick and formal.

In contrast to the surrender at Appomattox Court House, the surrender of the other major Confederate organizations were sloppy affairs, requiring two or more meetings to develop acceptable surrender terms. These surrenders encompassed larger Confederate forces over very large ‘departmental’ areas, and the Federal and Confederate combatants were not in close proximity of each other. Paroles were issued to the surrendering forces at various places over a period of weeks and months; many Confederates never receiving their paroles. More weapons were simply abandoned in place than ceremoniously turned-over to the U. S. government.

There was much unrest and some disobedience among the remaining Confederate forces and many soldiers simply went home, causing some organizations to dissolve.  One Confederate department commander, General Edmund K. Smith, surrendered the Trans-Mississippi area because his Texan and Louisianan troops became mutinous and forced the decision on him and his subordinate commanders. The last Confederate organization to surrender was the First Indian Cavalry Brigade on 23 June, 1865. This unit was commanded by Brigadier General Stand Watie of the Cherokee Nation and composed of Cherokee, Creek, Seminole, and Osage soldiers.

Although the terms of the Appomattox Surrender applied only to the Army of Northern Virginia and a few attached organizations, this event was invested with symbolic importance by both sides. The surrender involved both commanding generals, Lieutenant General Grant of the U. S. Army and General Lee (Confederate commanding general since January, 1865). These men were the greatest and most respected generals of their respective sides, and the terms offered by Grant and accepted by Lee represented President Lincoln’s ‘let ‘em up easy’ philosophy. These terms were approved by Lincoln, reiterated by the U. S. War Department, and were used by the other Federal and Confederate army commanders to guide their negotiations.

With news of General Lee’s surrender, the attitudes of most soldiers on both sides changed after 9 April, 1865. Most accepted that the war was nearly over, and many Federal and Confederate leaders discouraged further combat. Federal commanders adopted a largely peace making and civil support role; Confederate commanders negotiated to define and secure the legal status their soldiers and themselves within the United States. The soldiers of both sides longed (and sometimes simply left) to get home as quickly as possible. Evidence that most Confederate commanders advised their soldiers to resume law-abiding civilian lives is represented by quotations from the farewell messages of Generals Lee and Forrest to their soldiers.

Mr. Dunkerly also writes of how the Confederate surrender has been remembered in history and literature and of how the respectful and generous terms and ceremonies of Appomattox came to represent the reconciliation between the white citizens of the North and the South.  The various and sometimes unexpected fates of the various surrender sites are explained. Finally, Dunkerly provides visitors’ information for those interested in the sites, monuments, and museums devoted to surrender ceremonies.

I recommend this book as a good read and a road-trip guide.

   David Lady is a native of Washington, D. C., and grew-up in northern Virginia. His people lived in eastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia during the Civil War, and his ancestors fought on both sides. He was a career U. S. Soldier, has published articles in Army professional journals, and has led groups of soldiers and civilians on battlefield tours of both eastern and western battlefields.  He and his wife Ellen reside in Huntsville, where he serves as membership officer for the Tennessee Valley Civil War Round Table.