Pair of upcoming Longstreet studies

Just going from a prospective page length nearly double that of the second edition, I would imagine that Harold Knudson's The Confederacy’s Most Modern General: James Longstreet and the American Civil War, which was announced earlier this month in publisher Savas Beatie's February newsletter, will be a substantially expanded version of the author's earlier study of the same title, which first appeared in 2007 and was revised and expanded in 2010. I have not read either of the existing iterations, which argue that Longstreet was an important and underappreciated tactical innovator whose influences could be traced all the way up to modern twentieth-century military practices. According to the description of Knudson's upcoming book, Longstreet's generalship also demonstrated "progressive applications with artillery, staff work, force projection, and operational-level thinking." The new book "draws heavily on 20th Century Army doctrine, field training, staff planning, command, and combat experience, and is the first serious treatment of Longstreet’s generalship vis a vis modern warfare."

Colonel Knudson contributes the foreword to the other upcoming book, Cory Pfarr's Longstreet at Gettysburg: A Critical Reassessment (McFarland, Spring 2019), which is promoted as "the first book-length, critical analysis of Lieutenant General James Longstreet's actions at the Battle of Gettysburg." Out of all the thousands of Gettysburg-related books that have been published, how can it be that no one has produced a standalone study of this highly controversial topic before? From the description: By closely studying the three-day battle, and conducting an incisive historiographical inquiry into Longstreet's treatment by scholars, this book presents an alternative view of Longstreet as an effective military leader, and refutes over a century of negative evaluations of his performance."

Booknotes: Bluecoat and Pioneer

New Arrival:
• Bluecoat and Pioneer: The Recollections of John Benton Hart, 1864–1868
  edited by John Hart (Univ of Okla Press, 2019).

"In 1918, urged on by his son Harry, John Benton Hart began to tell stories of a three-year period in his youth. He recalled his days as a trooper in the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, fighting in Missouri and on the frontier, and his time as a civilian jack-of-all-trades doing risky work for the U.S. Army on the Wyoming-Montana Bozeman Trail in the middle of the Indian resistance campaign known as Red Cloud’s War. Once started, John Benton Hart became an enthusiastic raconteur, describing events with an almost cinematic vividness, while his son, an aspiring writer, documented his father’s testimony in what became several manuscripts." Compiled and edited by historian John Hart (John Benton Hart’s great-grandson) and published under the title Bluecoat and Pioneer: The Recollections of John Benton Hart, 1864–1868 "this memoir is a singular document of living history."

Hart enlisted in Col. Thomas Moonlight's 11th Kansas Volunteer Infantry in the fall of 1862 and fought with the regiment at the Battle of Prairie Grove that December, but the Civil War portion of his memoir does not start until late 1864, when he and his unit (which was converted into cavalry the prior year) opposed Confederate general Sterling Price's Missouri expedition. Hart's recollections of the fall 1864 campaign in Missouri are fairly extensive. 

From there, the memoir goes on to address the writer's participation in "such engagements in the Plains Indian Wars as the Battle of Platte Bridge in July 1865 and the Hayfield Fight near Fort C. F. Smith in 1867. In the engaging style of a natural storyteller, Hart re-creates these events as he experienced them, giving readers a rare glimpse at moments of historical import from the point of view of the “ordinary” soldier. In arresting detail, he also tells of crossing the Plains as a bullwhacker, carrying the mail between the beleaguered forts on the Bozeman Trail, and befriending scout Jim Bridger and Mountain Crow Chief Blackfoot."

Editor John Hart contributes an abundance of introductory sections and inserts connecting narrative throughout the volume. The text is supplemented by numerous maps and photographs as well as his "biographical, historical, and explanatory notes." In the general introduction, the editor mentions that he selected for inclusion in the book approximately one-third of the available material, a relatively common practice when editing large, sprawling manuscripts for publication. The only chapter reproduced in its entirety is the one covering the Platte Bridge battle (Chapter 2), and the book makes use of around half of Hart's Civil War Missouri text.

Review - "Thomas W. Knox: Civil War Correspondent in Missouri" by Robert Schultz

[THOMAS W. KNOX: Civil War Correspondent in Missouri edited by Robert G. Schultz (Camp Pope Publishing, 2018). Softcover, maps, photos, drawings, notes, appendices, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xxii,411/584. ISBN:978-1-929919-85-7. $27.50]

(Click image for more info)

A native of New Hampshire, young Thomas Wallace Knox was a teacher before embarking on a journalism career, first in Boston then out west in gold rush Colorado. With war clouds emerging from the bitter 1860 election, he quickly abandoned frontier pursuits and traveled back east, passing along the way through troubled Missouri. In New York, he met with James Gordon Bennett, editor of the influential New York Herald newspaper, and was assigned by Bennett in spring 1861 to report on developing events in Missouri. Knox would travel with Union military forces in person but also report extensively from several prominent communication hubs (ex. Rolla and St. Louis, particularly the latter). Collected and edited by Robert Schultz under the title Thomas W. Knox: Civil War Correspondent in Missouri, Knox's Herald articles offer today's readers a unique bounty of highly detailed reports of the 1861-62 fighting that escalated across the entire breadth of Missouri and into northwest Arkansas.

Though Knox's newspaper correspondence written during the first twelve months of the war addresses many topics and impressively fills hundreds of pages in Schultz's book, the most significant contributions are arguably those falling on the military side of things. Along this line, Knox's extensive coverage of General Nathaniel Lyon's campaign to secure Missouri and his detailed description of General Samuel R. Curtis's winter campaign in the Ozarks are particularly noteworthy. Knox accompanied both of these critically important expeditions in the field and apparently had free access to each commander. His initial account of Pea Ridge, a sweeping collection of vividly written first-hand observations of the battle and its aftermath, is arguably the book's most remarkable single report.

Knox's Herald articles suggest that he developed a close friendship with Lyon in Missouri. Unfortunately for us, such writings intended for a very public audience don't disclose much in the way of private insights into the personality of one of the war's most enigmatic generals. What does become clear is that Knox's Lyon is not presented as the ideological extremist that many observers believe him to have been. It's possible that Knox intentionally softened for public consumption his written portrayal of the general's persona  (ex. his account of the famous Planter's House Hotel meeting with Governor Jackson and Sterling Price omits mention of the general's most apocalyptic rhetoric), but it's perhaps just as likely that he simply didn't see Lyon that way.

While most of Knox's journalistic attentions were focused on military affairs, he did frequently comment on other matters. With the situation in Missouri very much in flux over the first year of the war, Knox can be forgiven for being a bit alarmist regarding the size, influence, and alleged plotting activities of St. Louis's secessionist population. His detailed observations of the military and political prisons in the city are valuable contributions to the historical record, though his statements regarding overgenerous treatment of the incarcerated need to be taken with a grain of salt. Knox's field reports are also occasionally colored by common eastern prejudices toward western frontier culture, manners, and mode of dress.

In keeping with the intensely partisan journalistic practices of the period, Knox paints starkly contrasting portraits of the pro-Union and pro-secession elements of Missouri's population. His oft-repeated contention that Missouri's Unionists acted with universal benevolence while the secessionists repaid such undeserved kindness with a litany of violence and abuse is ludicrous in retrospect but served well the partisan prejudices of his reading audience. In his reports, Knox strongly supported measures designed by Union authorities to punish those suspected of being secessionists by making them pay (through heavy monetary assessments and personal bonds) for the property losses of Unionists and for refugee services. His constant assaults on the character of enemy military and political leaders are, however, sometimes leavened with humor. For instance, while discussing Missouri State Guard commander Sterling Price's vulnerable position at Lexington in September 1861, Knox writes that "only the most powerful anti-laxatives will save him" (pg. 198), an obvious reference to the debilitating bowel troubles the Price experienced earlier that summer.

As mentioned above, Knox considered himself a friend of General Lyon, but he also seems to have made a concerted effort to bolster support for all members of the department's high command. While he might have been expected to do so, Knox did not join in the outcry against General Fremont for not provided Lyon with enough reinforcements to hold the army's position in SW Missouri. Unlike so many other journalists and war correspondents who relished active participation in factional wars fought among and between military and civilian officials, Knox mostly avoided them. When assessing the command tenures of generals Lyon, Halleck, Sigel, and Fremont, Knox typically published positive, and sometimes glowing, reports. While his support for Fremont was eroded by the general's determined isolation from the public and the increasing allegations of criminal misconduct within the quartermaster department in Missouri, Knox nevertheless criticized the decision to sack the general mid-campaign in the fall of 1861. The reporter's gushing praise of Franz Sigel's martial abilities, and sympathy with Sigel's unseemly squabbling over rank and credit, will perhaps surprise modern readers possessing better information of the general's overall war record. Though he accompanied the Army of the Southwest in the field, Knox did not claim the same type of close relationship with General Curtis that he had earlier with General Lyon, and his reports unfortunately offer little commentary regarding the victor of Pea Ridge.

Adding significant value of their own, Robert Schultz's editing activities go far beyond simply compiling the Knox newspaper reports for publication. His chapter introductions and supplemental narrative throughout offer useful historical background and context. In both text and notes, Schultz also helpfully points out Knox's factual errors and judiciously critiques the reporter's more questionable interpretations of events. In addition to fulfilling their typical role, the footnotes also contain much in the way of additional Knox material that the editor apparently felt would have disrupted the flow of the main text. Though infrequent, other sources (both outside ones and Knox's own wartime memoir Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field) are incorporated into the discussion as well. At the back of the book, a forty-page appendix section contains another collection of supporting documents, most of which are a variety of official military and civilian proclamations from both sides.

Though Knox would go on to witness other fighting fronts (and get into trouble with General Sherman), one could make the argument that his series of voluminous writings produced over the first twelve months of the war comprise his most significant contribution to the Civil War historiography. This proverbial 'first draft of history' collected and edited by Robert Schultz in Thomas W. Knox: Civil War Correspondent in Missouri is highly recommended reading, most particularly for dedicated students of the early war period in Missouri and Arkansas. Though Knox's writings have never been lost to history, he doesn't rank among the best-known Civil War journalists, and both editor and publisher deserve high praise for bringing the entirety of Knox's valuable Trans-Mississippi reportage to print for the first time.

Booknotes: Let Us Die Like Men

New Arrival:
• Let Us Die Like Men: The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864 by William Lee White (Savas Beatie, 2019).

Lee White's Let Us Die Like Men: The Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864 takes the Emerging Civil War series on another foray into a major western theater campaign. Beginning its narrative in September 1864, the book covers the initial stages of General Hood's meandering march north (i.e. Allatoona Pass, Decatur, and Columbia) before discussing the fighting at Spring Hill and Franklin, both events of enduring controversy. I will be curious to see if White holds any unconventional views on Hood and his ambitious Tennessee campaign.

You do get all the expected elements of an ECW series title, with maps (12 in number and very good) and/or photographs on nearly every page. There's a 14-stop battlefield tour and four-part appendix section, the latter covering Confederate artillery at Franklin, a list of regimental flags lost, a preservation discussion, and a brief personal "memories" of Franklin essay. The volume concludes with orders of battle and a suggested reading list.

Clearly the ECW crew has developed a winning formula that they are comfortable with, one that expertly condenses large (and mostly already popular) military topics and applies fairly lavish production values at a modest price, but I can't help but wonder if they could just as successfully integrate other approaches. I think the volume dimensions and overall format would be perfect for the inverse as well, giving full treatment to small but important battles that are often overlooked (i.e. those that might deserve more than an essay but couldn't otherwise fill a full-sized book). Anyway, that's not a criticism of the way they do things, just food for thought (and probably a guarantee of poorer sales!).

Booknotes: Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle Toward Freedom

New Arrival:
• Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle Toward Freedom
  by Elizabeth D. Leonard (Univ Press of KY, 2019).

In Slaves, Slaveholders, and a Kentucky Community's Struggle Toward Freedom, Elizabeth Leonard "examines a community of black and white Kentuckians whose lives were intertwined throughout the Civil War era. Bringing new insights into the life and legacy of Breckinridge County native Joseph Holt, Leonard exposes the origins of Holt's evolution from slave owner to member of Lincoln's War Department, where he became a powerful advocate for the abolition of slavery and the enlistment of former bondsmen." You'll perhaps recall that Leonard authored a Holt biography that was released in 2011 and well received.

In her preface, Leonard highlights the two primary goals of her study: (1) to provide "a close-up look at a few dozen slaves from Breckinridge County, Kentucky who served in Company A of the 118th United States Colored Troops," following them from "slavery through the Civil War and on into a postwar world where they hoped to capitalize on the promises of Union victory;" and (2) "detail the complicated tensions that characterized the intersecting communities—state, local, interpersonal—from which these black Kentuckians came and to which, in many cases, they returned after the war" (pp. x-xi).

More from the description: "One such narrative is that of Sandy Holt, who, in the summer of 1864, joined tens of thousands of former slaves and enlisted in the United States Colored Troops. He put his life on the line to secure the Union's survival and the end of slavery. Hundreds of miles away in a federal office, Sandy Holt's former owner, Joseph Holt, worked to achieve the same goals. No one could have predicted before the Civil War that these two very different but interconnected Kentuckians would be crucial participants in the Union war effort. Joseph Holt's radical transformation and the contributions of black Kentuckians in the United States Colored Troops have long been underestimated."

"Digging deep into Holt's past, Leonard explores the lives of Holt's extended family members and also traces the experiences and efforts of Sandy Holt and other slaves-turned-soldiers from Breckinridge County and its periphery. Many ran from bondage to fight for freedom in the Union army and returned, hoping to claim the promises of Emancipation. The interwoven stories of Joseph and Sandy Holt, and their shared Kentucky community during and after the war, show how a small corner of this border state experienced one of the most defining conflicts in American history."

Review - "North Carolina Unionists and the Fight Over Secession" by Steve Miller

[NORTH CAROLINA UNIONISTS AND THE FIGHT OVER SECESSION by Steve M. Miller (Arcadia Publishing & The History Press, 2019). Softcover, photos, tables, notes, index. Pages main/total:122/141. ISBN:978-1-62585-937-2. $21.99]

Many fine books have documented the struggles of moderate slave state politicians to head off the secession movements that gathered increasing momentum in their section of the country during the late antebellum period. Of course, the strength of these internal pro-Union factions greatly increased as one journeyed north from the Deep South and into the slave states of the Upper and Border South. Though as successful as their Border State brethren in blocking secession during the turmoil immediately following the 1860 election, the great majority of Upper South Unionists joined the secessionists (reluctantly or otherwise) after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's call for 75,000 militia to crush the rebellion. A focused selection of moderate North Carolina leaders, some slaveholders, who believed that the proslavery interests of the South were best protected within the Union are the focus of Steve Miller's North Carolina Unionists and the Fight Over Secession.

In the book, Miller provides informative capsule biographies of seven North Carolina politicians who counseled against secession for most of their public lives: George Edmund Badger, John Adams Gilmer, William Alexander Graham, John Motley Morehead, David Lowry Swain, Zebulon Baird Vance, and Jonathan Worth. Where relevant, the author briefly discusses their reactions to radicalizing events and their roles played in many of the legislative proposals and passed measures that preceded the Civil War (ex. the Wilmot Proviso, Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act, and more).

Any kind of comprehensive accounting and analysis of the composition, ideological principles, and actions of North Carolina's Unionists as a whole during the lead up to war is beyond the scope of this introductory-level book, and, as stated above, Miller chooses instead to focus on a select group of prominent individuals. While the Democrats became the state's dominant party during the 1850s and increasingly promoted secession over that decade, men like Badger, Gilmer, Graham, Morehead, Swain, Vance, and Worth (all ex-Whigs, lawyers, and proslavery moderates) led the opposition. With the exception of the youthful Vance, these were conservative figures of the older generation. Out of the eleven states that joined the Confederacy, only Tennessee held out as long as North Carolina did before leaving the Union. Sandwiched between Virginia and South Carolina, the geography of North Carolina did its Unionists no favors, but it was the outbreak of war that forced them to conclusively choose sides.

Because all seven abandoned their prewar stances against secession after Lincoln's call to arms and went on to serve the Confederacy in some capacity (with Vance being the only one young enough to fight for a period of time), some might be puzzled with the book's unqualified "Unionist" label. For the purposes of his main discussion, Miller does not differentiate between Conditional Unionists (a grouping that would include all seven of his main subjects) and Unconditional Unionists. Defining and making use of these historiographically mature labels would surely have clarified and enhanced understanding within the broad reading audience the book is intended to serve. Reconstruction authorities were certainly mindful of the distinction, blocking those of the seven that were popularly elected to political office from assuming their seats. Nevertheless, by introducing an important group of moderate North Carolina voices, Steve Miller has provided a useful service to Civil War readers wishing to learn more about the men who led antebellum opposition to secession in the Upper South.

Complete Roster and Service Records of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia during the Overland Campaign

Many readers know and are appreciative of Alfred Young's services in compiling Confederate reference material for the 1864 Overland Campaign. His 2013 book Lee's Army during the Overland Campaign: A Numerical Study was well received and positively reviewed. But now there's more, a great deal more. The Spring 2019 LSU Press catalog has an announcement of the upcoming publication of Young's Complete Roster and Service Records of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia during the Overland Campaign.

It is "the first compilation of the entire roster and service records for all the various units that composed Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia during the 1864 Overland Campaign. It is the ultimate reference guide to the more than 120,000 soldiers who served with Lee in Virginia as he led his army into a series of battles against Union General Ulysses S. Grant. While there are specific guides to several of Lee’s units, Young’s work is the first comprehensive companion that features data on all of the men who served under the general during this campaign. Using an array of primary source material, from official Confederate records to southern newspapers, Young provides the enlistment and unit data for each soldier as well as a concise history of their service, including records on their rank, time served, promotion, hospitalization, wounds, capture, desertion, absence without leave, furloughs, and death. An essential archive for both genealogists and Civil War scholars, the Complete Roster and Service Records of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia during the Overland Campaign is the most wide-ranging catalog in existence of each soldier’s record during the campaign."

Though the catalog lists a February release date, the press's website still has no product page up for the roster (or at least one that I could find), which will be e-book only ($65, ISBN:9780807170533). The fact that it is 5,580 pages in length surely figured prominently in the decision to go that route, along with the digital format's "enabling ease of search and annotation". This is definitely one of those daunting projects that you're glad exists and that someone else risked their sanity to do it.

Booknotes: Blue and Gray on the Border

New Arrival:
• Blue and Gray on the Border: The Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail by Christopher L. Miller, Russell K. Skowronek, & Roseann Bacha-Garza (TAMU Press, 2018).

After some neglect, Civil War era persons, places, and events of the lower Rio Grande have received rather abundant attention of late. The latest publication is a regional guidebook to historical sites from both the Civil War and Mexican-American War. Created by a trio of historians, Blue and Gray on the Border: The Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail weaves "together the history and archaeology of the Lower Rio Grande Valley into a densely illustrated travel guide featuring important historical and military sites of the Civil War period. Blue and Gray on the Border integrates the sites, colorful personalities, cross-border conflicts, and intriguing historical vignettes that outline the story of the Civil War along the Texas-Mexico border. This resource-packed book will aid heritage travelers, students, and history buffs in their discovery of the rich history of the Civil War in the Rio Grande Valley." This is the official website.

Funded and supported by a variety of public and private entities, the bilingual trail project guides readers and travelers through five border counties (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Webb, and Zapata). The book is a mixture of background narrative and historical site register. County-focused chapters are filled with photos, maps, and tables, and each concludes with a nice reading list. The project also places a heavy emphasis on the role of black troops in securing the border, both during and after the Civil War.

The companion essay anthology Civil War on the Rio Grande, 1846-1876, also edited by Miller, Skowronek, and Bacha-Garza, is available, too. It was released last month, but I don't have my review copy yet. You can view the table of contents at the link provided.

Booknotes: Politician in Uniform

New Arrival:
• Politician in Uniform: General Lew Wallace and the Civil War by Christopher R. Mortenson (Univ of Okla Press, 2019).

It's easy to see why Lew Wallace's life story still fascinates many Civil War readers and authors. For a politician-general he demonstrated real ability during the early war period before becoming embroiled in controversy at Shiloh. Sidelined by powerful critics, Wallace achieved a redemption of sorts at Monocacy in 1864. After the war, he became a celebrated author and was territorial governor of New Mexico during the infamous Lincoln County War. Even so, it is quite remarkable that, by my count, at least four major studies of Wallace's military career have been published over the past decade. Far more consequential officers have received only a fraction of that amount of attention. The newest examination is Christopher Mortenson's Politician in Uniform: General Lew Wallace and the Civil War.

From the description: "Where previous accounts have sought to discredit or defend Wallace’s performance as a general in the war, author Christopher R. Mortenson takes a more nuanced approach. Combining military biography, historical analysis, and political insight, Politician in Uniform provides an expanded and balanced view of Wallace’s military career—and offers the reader a new understanding of the experience of a voluntary general like Lew Wallace." Though I didn't get the chance to read it, the title of Getchell's 2013 study fairly trumpets the author's purpose, but I thought the excellent Stephens (2010) and Beemer (2015) military biographies were very even keeled in their warts-and-all assessments of Wallace's Civil War career.

Every author examining the topic has quickly come to the conclusion that Wallace possessed personality and character flaws that often made him his own worst enemy. More from the description: "A natural rivalry and tension between West Pointers and political generals might have accounted for some of these difficulties, but many, as Mortenson shows us, were of Wallace’s own making. A temperamental officer with a “rough” conception of manhood, Wallace often found his mentors wanting, disrespected his superiors, and vigorously sought opportunities for glorious action in the field, only to perform poorly when given the chance."

Finally: "Despite his flaws, Mortenson notes, Wallace contributed both politically and militarily to the war effort—in the fight for Fort Donelson and at the Battle of Shiloh, in the defense of Cincinnati and southern Indiana, and in the administration of Baltimore and the Middle Department. Detailing these and other instances of Wallace’s success along with his weaknesses and failures, Mortenson provides an unusually thorough and instructive picture of this complicated character in his military service. His book clearly demonstrates the unique complexities of evaluating the performance of a politician in uniform." I don't know about you, but I'm up for another Wallace book.

Booknotes: Rocks and Rifles

New Arrival:
• Rocks and Rifles: The Influence of Geology on Combat and Tactics during the American Civil War by Scott Hippensteel (Springer, 2019).

Officially a 2019 title though released in December 2018, this was one of my most anticipated titles of last year. I always appreciate it when someone takes a novel approach to Civil War military history. Rocks and Rifles "discusses the relationship between geology and fighting during the American Civil War. Terrain was largely determined by the underlying rocks and how the rocks weathered." In the book, author Scott Hippensteel "explores the difference in rock type between multiple battlegrounds and how these rocks influenced the combat, tactics, and strategies employed by the soldiers and their commanding officers at different scales." Sounds cool.

Hippensteel arranges his geology discussion by the earth's three basic rock categories: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. The majority of battle coverage is eastern theater (Second Manassas, Gettysburg, South Mountain, Spotsylvania, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Petersburg), with two western battles (Kennesaw Mountain and Stones River) and Morris Island included for good measure. While it's perfectly fine for the author to primarily follow his own geographical interests, it would have been nice to see at least one Trans-Mississippi battlefield in the book. Pea Ridge in Arkansas is an absolutely ideal fit for a study of this kind.

The textbook-style format (and list price) makes me think the volume is intended foremost for graduate course work. Overall presentation is highly appealing. Photographs (b&w and color) abound and the book is full of maps, tables, charts, and diagrams. Having glanced through it, I am pretty excited to read it. A full review will definitely appear on the site.

Review - "The Tarnished Cavalier: Major General Earl Van Dorn, C.S.A." by Arthur Carter

I finally got around to a much desired but too long postponed reading of an Earl Van Dorn biography. The first step was to decide which one. There are really only two choices: Robert G. Hartje's Van Dorn: The Life and Times of a Confederate General (Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 1967) and The Tarnished Cavalier: Major General Earl Van Dorn, C.S.A. by Arthur B. Carter (Univ. of Tenn. Press, 1999). I went with Carter's book on the presumption that it incorporated many sources unavailable to Hartje more than three decades earlier. Also, the historiography of Van Dorn's campaigns was infinitely better developed by the late 1990s. Indeed, excellent major studies of Pea Ridge and Corinth (the two campaigns during which Van Dorn led armies) shortly preceded the publication of Carter's biography.

Though his 1862 campaign strategies in Arkansas and Mississippi were not Beauregard-level flights of fantasy, Van Dorn was clearly one of the Confederacy's most exceptional devotees of 'high risk-high reward' generalship. Few readers or scholars would contest Carter's view that Van Dorn's boldness and operational creativity were not at all matched by sufficient attention to detail when it came to planning, logistics, intelligence gathering, and reconnaissance. This critical evaluation of the persistent flaws present in the general's pair of near disastrous army command performances is similar in nature to those found in William Shea & Earl Hess's Pea Ridge study and Peter Cozzens's Corinth campaign history. Carter's assessment of Van Dorn's leadership qualities is fair-minded and judicious, and his overview accounts of the campaigns and battles themselves fairly rigorous.

Though Van Dorn unquestionably failed as an army commander, the general came into his own as a highly effective cavalry general beginning in late 1862. It would be difficult to refute the book's conclusion that the overwhelming success Van Dorn achieved during his December 1862 raid on Holly Springs and his adroit handling of larger mounted forces in Tennessee (a signal triumph being his victory at Thompson's Station on March 5, 1863) marked the general as a rising star among the Confederacy's mixed bag of western theater cavalry generals. Carter makes a pretty solid case that the more contained aggressiveness and higher value placed on battlefield intelligence that Van Dorn demonstrated in Middle Tennessee meant that he was able to learn from his mistakes.

Hello, ladies!

Much like Grant's drinking, Van Dorn's alleged womanizing was a topic of open conversation and one complicated by mixtures of rumor, innuendo, and fact. His extended extramarital affair during his Old Army service that produced three children and noticeable neglect of his legitimate family during the Civil War are both black marks on his character. Of course, his wartime connection to Jessie Peters, whatever its full nature might have been, is his most infamous indiscretion, and the one that resulted in his violent death at the hands of her physician husband. In-depth discussion of the circumstances, myths, and conjectures surrounding Van Dorn's May 7, 1863 Spring Hill murder is another highly appealing feature of the book. While the author's far-reaching exploration into the details of the assassination (to include the true locating of the shooting, the weapon used, and other lingering debates) and the motivations behind the killing results in one of those historiographical situations where more interesting questions are raised than conclusive answers given, the process makes for fascinating reading. Though the idea floated by some that Van Dorn's killer, Dr. George B. Peters, was a Union agent is rejected, Carter notes that the assassin did escape to Union lines for protection and apparently had his extensive, and previously confiscated, Arkansas property holdings and slaves returned to him (though the latter seems highly unlikely due to the Emancipation Proclamation being in force). One of the more intriguing new elements introduced into the discussion is fresh information obtained from the author's extensive 1967 correspondence with Col. Manning M. Kimmel, Jr. (the son of a Van Dorn staff member), whose father kept secret from the public some details of the affair (ex. the site of the killing) that were deemed especially injurious to the general's reputation.

Though I had no reason not be be, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. Obviously I can't compare Carter's study to Hartje's biography, but I would heartily recommend The Tarnished Cavalier to anyone wishing to learn more about Earl Van Dorn's distinctly up and down Civil War military career and ignoble end.

Booknotes: A Burned Land

New Arrival:
• A Burned Land: The Trans-Mississippi in the Civil War by Robert R. Laven
  (McFarland, 2019).

From the description: "Often neglected by historians, actions in Missouri and Kansas had an important influence on the course of the Civil War, with profound effects for the communities and people in the region. This book focuses on the experiences of the soldiers, officers and civilians on both sides. Outside of Virginia and Tennessee, Missouri was perhaps the most hotly contested territory during the war. The author brings to life the events in the region that contributed to the internecine strife in the Western Theater. The fighting in Missouri culminated with an expedition that re-wrote the books on tactics and the use of mounted infantry."

While the full title A Burned Land: The Trans-Mississippi in the Civil War suggests a more theater-wide discussion, Laven's book is really about Missouri. Beginning in 1862, the book addresses a series of military topics in chronological order, with more than half the 150-page narrative devoted to Sterling Price's 1864 expedition. For visual aids, some photographs are included along with a line drawing of one of the forts guarding St. Louis and an old map of the Battle of Westport. Among the numerous appendices is a useful-looking order of battle series for some of the 1864 engagements described in the text. At a double-column page and a half in size, the bibliography is modest in scope.

Booknotes: North Carolina Unionists and the Fight Over Secession

New Arrival:
• North Carolina Unionists and the Fight Over Secession by Steve M. Miller (Arcadia Pub & The Hist Press, 2019).

Examining the period between the turbulent political schisms of the 1850s and the beginning of the Civil War, Steve Miller's North Carolina Unionists and the Fight Over Secession highlights the efforts of prominent Tarheel moderates to advance compromise and stave off secession. Major figures discussed in the book include George Edmund Badger, John Adams Gilmer, William Alexander Graham, John Motley Morehead, David Lowry Swain, Zebulon Baird Vance, and Jonathan Worth. From the description: "William Alexander Graham helped broker the Compromise of 1850. John Motley Morehead and Jonathan Worth led the campaign against secession in early 1861. Most continued to serve their state under the Confederacy. Although Zebulon B. Vance opposed secession, he served in the Confederate army and as governor of the state during the Civil War."

Coming Soon (Feb '19 Edition)

• North Carolina Unionists and the Fight Over Secession by Steve Miller.
• A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War by James Mendez.
• For Church and Confederacy: The Lynches of South Carolina by Robert Curran, ed.
• Leonidas Polk: Warrior Bishop of the Confederacy by Huston Horn.
• Approaching Civil War and Southern History by William Cooper.
• The Fight for the Old North State: The Civil War in North Carolina, January-May 1864 by Hampton Newsome.
• In God's Presence: Chaplains, Missionaries, and Religious Space during the American Civil War by Benjamin Miller.

I plan to put a 'coming this month' list like this together at the beginning of each month. With reprints omitted it won't be comprehensive, just new titles with some reasonable likelihood of reaching me. It's not a large list for sure this time around, but most months have their surprises and many January titles still haven't arrived yet either.