Book News: The Great Partnership

Though Grant-Sherman adherents would surely beg to differ, I think you could make a strong argument that the close collaboration between Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson (as short-lived as it proved to be) overcame a rocky beginning during the Seven Days to become the war's premier command partnership. The news that Christian Keller's The Great Partnership: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the Fate of the Confederacy (Pegasus Books, July 2019) will be released next summer prompted me to consider what the current standard work on the topic might be. Standalone Lee books and Jackson books abound but the number of modern titles devoted solely to examining their relationship seems very limited. The description of Keller's upcoming book mentions that it will be the first joint study to appear in over two decades, which leads me to believe that the predecessor referred to is Paul Casdorph's celebratory Lee and Jackson: Confederate Chieftains (1992), which I haven't read. Is there something else that I'm missing?

Keller's previous scholarship is of a different sort, but I like everything he's done so far. The Great Partnership will attempt to answer big questions like "Why were Generals Lee and Jackson so successful in their partnership in trying to win the war for the South? What was it about their styles, friendship, even their faith, that cemented them together into a fighting machine that consistently won despite often overwhelming odds against them?"

More from the description: "The Great Partnership has the power to change how we think about Confederate strategic decision-making and the value of personal relationships among senior leaders responsible for organizational survival. Those relationships in the Confederate high command were particularly critical for victory, especially the one that existed between the two great Army of Northern Virginia generals."

Booknotes: To Hazard All

New Arrival:
• To Hazard All: A Guide to the Maryland Campaign, 1862 by Robert Orrison & Kevin R. Pawlak (Savas Beatie, 2018).

Most of the Emerging Civil War titles have a short tour of some kind that is either integrated into the main narrative or presented as a separate component. In Orrison and Pawlak's To Hazard All: A Guide to the Maryland Campaign, 1862, the tour is the book. Actually it is six day-trip sized tours in one, with each chapter having a dozen or more numbered stops.

The volume is a true campaign (rather than battle) guide, with Antietam covered in a single chapter. That and the other five tours—"Lee Moves North," "McClellan Responds," "Battle of Harpers Ferry," "Battle of South Mountain," and "Return to Virginia"—together cover the entire 1862 Maryland Campaign from beginning to end. 

The tour format will be familiar to those who have already read other titles in the series. Period and modern photographs accompany nearly every page, and detailed driving directions, facing instructions, GPS coordinates, and background history are provided for each stop. Hal Jesperson did the cartography, which consists of both tour route and battlefield maps. In this case, the tours take up all the available space, so there isn't room for the appendix section that has become a popular feature of the series.

Booknotes: Fighting for Atlanta

New Arrival:
• Fighting for Atlanta: Tactics, Terrain, and Trenches in the Civil War by Earl J. Hess
  (UNC Press, 2018).

When Earl Hess completed his highly-regarded eastern theater fortifications trilogy [Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861-1864 (2005), Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign (2007), and In the Trenches at Petersburg: Field Fortifications and Confederate Defeat (2009)], I'm sure many readers were like me in hoping that the author would do a similar treatment for the western theater. While, among other things, I think Hess could have put together a very interesting volume covering the development of river fortifications over the first half of the war in the West, it's hard to blame him too much for skipping all the way forward to the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, which from beginning to end involved vast, sophisticated field fortifications.

Indeed, Fighting for Atlanta: Tactics, Terrain, and Trenches in the Civil War takes a close look at eighteen distinct lines of Confederate defensive earthworks, from Rock Face Ridge in early May 1864 through Palmetto Station in late September. Union offensive and defensive earthworks are also discussed. I am less than fifty pages in at the moment, but it's readily apparent already that the book's topical range and overall style and presentation share a great deal in common with the earlier trilogy (particularly the Overland and Petersburg volumes).

In the book, "(l)eading military historian Earl J. Hess examines how commanders adapted their operations to the physical environment, how the environment in turn affected their movements, and how Civil War armies altered the terrain through the science of field fortification. He also illuminates the impact of fighting and living in ditches for four months on the everyday lives of both Union and Confederate soldiers. The Atlanta campaign represents one of the best examples of a prolonged Union invasion deep into southern territory, and, as Hess reveals, it marked another important transition in the conduct of war from open field battles to fighting from improvised field fortifications."

Booknotes: The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln

New Arrival:
• The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln: A Day-by-Day Account of His Personal, Political, and Military Challenges by David Alan Johnson (Prometheus Books, 2018).

With existing works from Starr, Trudeau, Harris, Reck and probably more I don't know about, the last hours, days, weeks, and months of Abraham Lincoln's life and presidency have been pretty popular book-length topics of study over the years. The newest entry is David Alan Johnson's The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln: A Day-by-Day Account of His Personal, Political, and Military Challenges, which examines the period March 4 to April 15.

During this time, Lincoln "delivered his second inaugural address, supervised climatic battles leading up to the end of the Civil War, learned that Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, and finally was killed by assassin John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre."

With the information presented in forty-one mostly daily chapters (two combine dates), "(t)he reader follows the president as he greets visitors at the inaugural ball, asks abolitionist Frederick Douglass's opinion of the inaugural address, confers with Generals Grant and Sherman on the final stages of the war, visits a field hospital for wounded outside City Point, Virginia, and attempts to calm his high-strung wife Mary, who appears on the verge of nervous collapse. We read excerpts from press reviews of Lincoln's second inaugural address, learn that Mrs. Lincoln's ball gown created a sensation, and are given eye-witness accounts of the celebrations and drunken revelry that broke out in Washington when the end of the war was announced." The epilogue briefly discusses the aftermath of the assassination and the troubled Andrew Johnson presidency. Rounding out the book's contents is an appendix section that contains the text of a number of remarks, proclamations, and official addresses originating from the period, mostly from Lincoln but also from Johnson and Jefferson Davis.

Review - "Decisions at Chattanooga: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle" by Larry Peterson

[Decisions at Chattanooga: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle by Larry Peterson (University of Tennessee Press, 2018). Softcover, 24 maps, 13 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xv,85/191. $29.95]

In 2018 alone, University of Tennessee Press has released the first four volumes of its unique Command Decisions in America’s Civil War series, which offers readers a new way of looking at campaigns and battles completely different from the traditional narrative history format. Preceding Larry Peterson's Decisions at Chattanooga: The Nineteen Critical Decisions That Defined the Battle were Decisions at Stones River, Decisions at Second Manassas, and Decisions at Chickamauga. That's a pretty remarkable pace of output for a single calendar year, and there are many more in the pipeline.

The earlier CWBA review of the Stones River volume referenced above discusses the series structure at some length (see the link), but it bears repeating just what the series definition of "critical decision" is. In essence, a military decision is critical if it is "of such magnitude that it shape(s) not only the events immediately following, but also the campaign or battle thereafter." In addition, these decisions involve a multitude of campaign facets both on and off the main battlefield, including "strategy, tactics, operations, organization, logistics, and personnel." The critical decision analysis follows a prescribed series pattern of:

Situation

↓

Options

↓

Decision

↓

Result/Impact

↓

Alternate Decision/Scenario

Situation establishes the context of the dilemma (most often high command related) to be decided, Options lists and describes the choices available (in this volume, 2-4 in number), Decision outlines the historical option chosen, and Results/Impact recounts the often multi-level consequences of the decision and explains how they affected the rest of the battle and perhaps beyond. Alternate Decision/Scenario is optional and delves into plausible conjecture of 'what might have been' had a different decision option been selected.

In this volume there are nineteen critical decisions in the areas of strategy, tactics, organization, logistics, and personnel. Though strict categorization isn't terribly important to the overall thrust of the analysis, operational decisions are absent from Peterson's list; however, one could make a good argument that sending Longstreet to Knoxville was an operational decision in addition to being an organizational and personnel-related one. With ten Union decisions and nine Confederate ones, the list is evenly balanced by side.

The fact that nine of the nineteen critical decisions preceded the November 24-25 battle by some time (with three more decided on the eve of the fight) serves as a signal reminder that the course and outcome of battles were very often significantly shaped long before the soldiers started shooting at each other. Bragg's limited pursuit after Chickamauga, poor layout of his siege lines around Chattanooga, dispatch of Longstreet to Knoxville, and retention in command—in combination with the actions of Lincoln (who consolidated his western command structure and sent heavy reinforcements from the east) and Grant (who ordered the "Cracker Line" fully opened and Sherman to Chattanooga)—all greatly stacked the odds against Confederate success before November 24.

On the 23rd, Grant ordered Sherman to the Union left to attack Tunnel Hill on the following day and directed Thomas to make a reconnaissance in force opposite Missionary Ridge in the center. On the Confederate side, in a move that would forever puzzle observers, Breckinridge directed engineers to construct a new defense line along Missionary Ridge's topographical crest rather than the military crest.

Six decisions are associated with the two-day Battle of Chattanooga. On the 24th, Bragg would reinforce one flank (by sending Cleburne to the north end of Missionary Ridge) and abandon the other (leaving Lookout Mountain to the Federals). That same day, an uncharacteristically hesitant Sherman would stop short of the Confederate Tunnel Hill position and entrench. For the decisive day of action on the 25th, Sherman would tentatively attack with only a part of his available force, Thomas would demonstrate in the center, and Thomas's army would famously make the collective decision to attack the heights on their own without orders. The book's single post-battle decision revolves around the Confederate retreat and Bragg's (probably self-evident) determination to entrust the rear guard to General Cleburne.

Generally speaking, one of the series directives is to avoid labeling decisions as "good" or "bad," but sometimes missteps are exceptionally egregious, leaving such characterizations unavoidable. In the case of Chattanooga, the battle's traditional heroes (Cleburne and the rank and file of Thomas's army) and goats (Bragg, Longstreet, Breckinridge, and Sherman) emerge from Peterson's decision analysis, and it's hard to argue with most of those conclusions. In hindsight, it's easy to make every big decision seem obvious, but Peterson does a good job on the whole of presenting reasonable options and plausible discussion of alternate outcomes and scenarios. Like other series contributors have done before him, the author also emphasizes connections between decisions where appropriate, with earlier ones opening up further options downstream and closing others.

There are twenty-four maps in total, evenly divided between the main text's decision discussion and the extensive battlefield tour appendix (the latter another primary and very useful feature of the series). These are mostly at brigade scale and above, and the tour maps do not show unit positions, emphasizing instead the modern landscape, road network, and stop locations. Union and Confederate orders of battle round out the appendix section.

With an admirably streamlined presentation that is both highly convenient for battlefield touring and able to be read at home in only a couple of sittings, Decisions at Chattanooga is another solid entry in the series. There's more to look forward to in the near future as well, with the author already at work on an Atlanta Campaign volume that has an expected 2019 release.

Booknotes: A Fierce Glory

New Arrival:
• A Fierce Glory: Antietam - The Desperate Battle That Saved Lincoln and Doomed Slavery by Justin Martin (Da Capo, 2018).

The exploration in books, essays, and articles of links between Lincoln and Antietam are probably second only to Gettysburg among the great battles of the war, but there's always room for another viewpoint. In A Fierce Glory, "Justin Martin, an acclaimed writer of narrative nonfiction, renders this landmark event in a revealing new way. More than in previous accounts, Lincoln is laced deeply into the story. Antietam represents Lincoln at his finest, as the grief-racked president--struggling with the recent death of his son, Willie--summoned the guile necessary to manage his reluctant general, George McClellan. The Emancipation Proclamation would be the greatest gambit of the nation's most inspired leader."

Martin also looks beyond Lincoln and the EP to other legacies of the battle.  "And, in fact, the battle's impact extended far beyond the field; brilliant and lasting innovations in medicine, photography, and communications were given crucial real-world tests. No mere gunfight, Antietam rippled through politics and society, transforming history."

Booknotes: I Am Perhaps Dying

New Arrival:
• I Am Perhaps Dying: The Medical Backstory of Spinal Tuberculosis Hidden in the Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham by Dennis A. Rasbach, M.D. (Savas Beatie, 2018).

Dennis Rasbach's I Am Perhaps Dying: The Medical Backstory of Spinal Tuberculosis Hidden in the Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham is a slim companion piece to The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865, a 2018 book edited by Janet Croon. A surgeon by profession, Rasbach served as an editorial consultant to Croon, using his expertise to shed light on the nature of Gresham's illness and contributing his knowledge of historical treatment methods and other medical matters in the footnotes and elsewhere.  Rasbach's own book serves as an expansion of the medical diagnosis and discussion contained in The War Outside My Window.

From the description: "Like a detective, Dr. Rasbach peels back the layers of mystery by carefully examining the medical-related entries. What were LeRoy’s symptoms? What medicines did doctors prescribe for him? What course did the disease take, month after month, year after year? The author ably explores these and other issues in I Am Perhaps Dying to conclude that the agent responsible for LeRoy’s suffering and demise turns out to be Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a tiny but lethal adversary of humanity since the beginning of recorded time."

I Am Perhaps Dying details how the many signs and symptoms found in the Gresham diaries led the author to the diagnosis of spinal tuberculosis. The nature of Pott's Disease, as it is also called, is explored at some length, as are the many physical and pharmaceutical treatments of the period. In the book, which is heavily illustrated, Rasbach pictures and describes many of the natural and patent medicines mentioned by Gresham. He also compiles and annotates all of the diary entries wherein Gresham directly addressed his condition, the material providing readers with a moving record of the disease's fatal progression.

Review - "A Family and Nation under Fire: The Civil War Letters and Journals of William and Joseph Medill" ed. by Georgiann Baldino

[A Family and Nation under Fire: The Civil War Letters and Journals of William and Joseph Medill edited by Georgiann Baldino (Kent State University Press, 2018). Hardcover, maps, photos, notes, select source list, index. Pages main/total:xiii,209/245. ISBN:978-1-60635-336-3. $34.95]

Edited by Georgiann Baldino, A Family and Nation under Fire is at its heart a collection of previously unpublished diaries and letters written by William Medill and older brother Joseph. Most Civil War students will have come across the name of Joseph Medill, the co-owner of the influential Republican newspaper Chicago Tribune, sometime in their reading. A lesser-known historical figure, brother William was an officer with the 8th Illinois Cavalry, a much-recognized regiment (frequently due to its association with the Battle of Gettysburg and Colonel William Gamble). During the pursuit of Robert E. Lee's defeated army after Gettysburg, Major Medill was mortally wounded on the picket line near Williamsport. The letters of both brothers are conspicuous for their outspoken opinions on military and political matters related to the conflict. Staunch Republicans of the more radical bent, both men openly criticized how the Union's civilian and military leaders conducted the war.

In a conflict that often exposed rifts in even close families, the Medill brothers were seemingly always on the same page when it came to intensely partisan zealotry that was radically antislavery in sentiment and wholly in favor of hard war measures right from the war's beginning. Joseph Medill is often portrayed as a friend of Lincoln but his rather violent assaults on Lincoln's practicality when it came to politics and slavery could be as harsh in tone as those launched by any enemy. Medill's rebuke of Lincoln's overruling John C. Fremont's emancipation and confiscation measures in 1861 Missouri is another example of the great strain that existed between ideological extremists like Medill and moderates like Lincoln (who could not afford to alienate his proslavery Border State allies wholesale). In his correspondence to Lincoln, Medill also criticized existing conscription loopholes (e.g. commutation fees) and agitated against limits on black enlistment.

Moving from the political to the military sphere, William Medill's frequent commentaries regarding his army service offer similar insights into the radical versus moderate divide within the Union war effort. In his letters, he expresses willingness from the very beginning to attack slavery wherever he encountered it and plunder without restraint the property of southern civilians regardless of allegiance. Interestingly, when it came to ratifying the new Illinois state constitution, William believed strongly in disallowing the soldier vote, citing an inability for those in field to adequately inform themselves of the relevant issues. Ironically, that was much the same argument that Democrats made during subsequent hotly contested mid-term and 1864 elections.

The letters of Captain, and later Major, William Medill to brother Joseph and several other family members comprise the great bulk of correspondence compiled in the volume. In addition to the perspectives already mentioned above, William Medill's lengthy and thoughtful letters are rich in military detail, covering both his 90-day service with Captain Barker's Chicago Dragoons and his tragically limited time with the 8th Illinois Cavalry (a three-year regiment). In addition to commenting on politics, William frequently complained of the slow pace of operations in northern Virginia and on the Peninsula during the first year of the war. During this period, the 8th primarily conducted scouting and recon operations that didn't particularly enhance Medill's generally poor view of army life. Also, like many of his fellow volunteers, he wanted the army to move faster, although his excoriation of "proslavery" generals didn't extend to McClellan personally until months later when Robert E. Lee's army successfully reestablished itself in Virginia after its close call in Maryland. Exhibiting an 'anyone but McClellan' attitude, Medill welcomed the general's dismissal and the appointment of Ambrose Burnside to head the Army of the Potomac, even though he questioned Burnside's competence and believed another heavy defeat would likely follow. In remarkably prescient anticipation of Burnside being undermined by a cabal of generals, Medill advocated a wholesale firing of the army leadership and fresh restart with what he felt was a more European-style (or at least what he viewed as such) organization. Like his brother, William proved to be more ideologue than democratic realist.

William observed Fredericksburg from afar and was away with General W.W. Averell's command during Stoneman's Raid, so he missed the most significant mounted operation of the Chancellorsville Campaign. Taken ill soon after, he bravely left his sickbed to take command of the 8th after the regiment's officer contingent was hit hard at Brandy Station in June 1863. His last letter home dated later that month described the Gettysburg Campaign fighting at the Blue Ridge Gaps. In the book, Baldino successfully bridges the gap between William's last letter and his July 16 death at the age of 27 with information gleaned from other sources. In piecing together Medill's activities (and that of his regiment) before, during, and after Gettysburg, she utilizes to good effect his own pocket journal, the diary of brother Joseph (who was with William when he passed), additional family letters, Abner Hard's 1868 regimental history, official reports, and other sources.

In addition to compiling the material for publication and integrating outside sources to fill in other gaps similar to the one mentioned above, Baldino contributes volume and chapter introductions, abundant bridging narrative, and endnotes. To enrich the reader experience even further, Baldino also weaves into the book other letters beyond those of Joseph and William. One of the more interesting ones is a letter from Joseph's brother-in-law that attempts to enlist the influence of the newspaper editor in gaining official approval of a speculative (and rather sketchy-sounding) scheme to sell horses to the army.

The volume's collection of Medill family letters and dairies, in conjunction with Georgiann Baldino's expansive editing, represents a significant contribution to both the political and military components of Civil War scholarship. William Medill's letters in particular offer valuable insights into the 8th Illinois Cavalry regiment's service in the eastern theater during the first half of the conflict. Recommended.

Booknotes: Mountain Feds

New Arrival:
• Mountain Feds: Arkansas Unionists and the Peace Society by James J. Johnston
  (Butler Center for Ark Studies, 2018).

As far as I know, James Johnston's Mountain Feds: Arkansas Unionists and the Peace Society is the first book that focuses entirely on the Society, its formation, its activities, and Confederate suppression measures.

A loosely organized collection of anti-secessionists, the Arkansas Peace Society sprung up in several northern counties in 1861. "In resistance to secession and to fighting for the Confederacy, they formed secret organizations—known commonly as the Arkansas Peace Society—and inaugurated their own leaders. Increased pressure from Richmond in the fall of 1861 for the Arkansas government to provide more soldiers pressed Arkansas’s yeomen farmers to enlist but only provided more incentive for the men to join the Arkansas Peace Society (later known as the Union League). Many Arkansas communities forged home protective units or vigilance committees to protect themselves from slave uprisings and what they saw as federal invasion. Unionist mountaineers did the same, but their home protection organizations were secret because they were seeking protection from their secessionist neighbors and the state’s Confederate government."

Adopting many of the practices of secret societies, members seem to have been primarily concerned with self preservation rather than overthrowing the Confederate government in Little Rock. However, as was the case in the handling of similar opposition groups in other states, Confederate authorities in Arkansas actively sought to quash the movement. More from the description: "In November 1861, the Arkansas Peace Society was first discovered in Clinton, Van Buren County, by the secessionist element, which rapidly formed vigilante committees to arrest and interrogate the suspects. The news and subsequent arrests spread to adjoining counties from the Arkansas River to the Missouri border. In most cases, the local militia was called out to handle the arrests and put down the rumored uprising."

By late 1861, local militia, state, and Confederate forces had broken up Society cells and arrested many of their members, offering army service as an alternative to incarceration. As expected, many of those reluctant Confederates deserted at the first opportunity and later-forming Union Arkansas regiments had numerous former Peace Society members or supporters in their ranks. "While some Peace Society members fled to Missouri or hid in the woods, others were arrested and marched to Little Rock, where they were forced to join the Confederate army. Leaders who were prominent in the Peace Society recruited and led companies in Arkansas and Missouri Unionist regiments, returning to their homes to bring out loyalist refugees or to suppress Confederate guerrillas. A few of these home-grown leaders assumed leadership positions in civil government in the last months of the war, with the effects of their actions lingering for years to come." The appendix section contains some useful additional documents and information, including a list of known Peace Society members and roster-histories of several companies that were filled with the reluctant Society recruits mentioned above.

Book News - Conquered: Why the Army of Tennessee Failed

Though the Confederate Army of Tennessee had moments of success in the early stages of several battles and won a decisive (albeit pyrrhic) victory at Chickamauga, it is generally considered a dysfunctional mess than never lived up to its potential. Opinions regarding just what went wrong with the army have been offered in numerous books and articles over the years. Comparing the Army of the Tennessee to the Confederacy's most successful field army rather than some kind of unattainable standard, Richard McMurry's Two Great Rebel Armies: An Essay in Confederate Military History (1989) remains one of the more interesting contributions to the conversation. Recognizing that the Army of Tennessee's problems went far deeper than the series of men at the top, the book convincingly examined the internal and external factors that together help explain Confederate failure in the West while also plausibly arguing why the Army of Northern Virginia proved to be a better army than the Army of Tennessee.

Also from UNC Press, Larry Daniel's upcoming Conquered: Why the Army of Tennessee Failed (May 2019) will also move beyond leadership questions. "Surpassing previous work that has focused on questions of command structure and the force's fate on the fields of battle, Daniel provides the clearest view to date of the army's inner workings, from top-level command and unit cohesion to the varied experiences of common soldiers and their connections to the home front. Drawing from his mastery of the relevant sources, Daniel's book is a thought-provoking reassessment of an army's fate, with important implications for Civil War history and military history writ large."

The author of well-received Stones River and Shiloh campaign histories, a study of the Army of the Cumberland (the Army of Tennessee's main antagonist), and a detailed examination of soldier life in the Army of Tennessee, Daniel is as well versed as anyone on the subject of the inner workings of the Confederacy's principal western army and its direct predecessors. Also informing Conquered, his book Cannoneers in Gray: The Field Artillery of the Army of Tennessee (rev. 2005) pointed toward a forced reliance on obsolete guns (in comparison to the Army of Northern Virginia) as having a significant negative impact on the army's effectiveness, particularly its offensive punch. Given the author's demonstrated knowledge and expertise, Conquered will join the list of my most highly anticipated titles of next year.

Booknotes: Military History of the West, Vol. 47

New Arrival:
• Military History of the West, Vol. 47 edited by Alex Mendoza (Univ of N Texas Press, 2018).

Distributed by UNT Press, Military History of the West "is a peer-reviewed journal focused on scholarly study of western US military history, including the Mississippi Valley and all states west of that line. The journal features articles on the Texas Revolution, the Mexican War, frontier military service, the Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War, Mexican border service, and the Texas National Guard in the twentieth century, including its service in World War I and World War II." The journal has gone through a number of iterations between 1961 and today, including Texas Military History, Military History of Texas and the Southwest, and Military History of the Southwest. The last is the version I'm most familiar with, having obtained numerous fine Civil War era articles from it through interlibrary loan.

Volume 47 has three essays covering diverse topics. The first examines General O.O. Howard's peace negotiations with Chiracahua Apache leader Cochise and Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, the second explores U.S.-Mexican War operations of Texas mounted volunteer units, and the final essay recounts the history of Lubbock civilian contractor Clent Breedlove's WW2 training school for pilots. As is the case with most scholarly journals, there's a hefty book review section in Vol. 47, with five of the twelve titles evaluated being Civil War related.

Booknotes: Crossing the Deadlines

New Arrival:
• Crossing the Deadlines: Civil War Prisons Reconsidered edited by Michael P. Gray
  (KSU Press, 2018).

In Crossing the Deadlines, editor Michael Gray has assembled nine essays representative of current trends in the Civil War prisons scholarship. It "crosses those boundaries of old scholarship by taking on bold initiatives with new methodologies, filling a void in the current scholarship of Civil War prison historiography, which usually does not go beyond discussing policy, prison history and environmental and social themes."

More from the description: "As the historiography of Civil War captivity continues to evolve, readers of Crossing the Deadlines will discover elaboration on themes that emerged in William Hesseltine’s classic collection, Civil War Prisons, as well as interconnections with more recent interdisciplinary scholarship. Rather than being dominated by policy analysis, this collection examines the latest trends, methodologies, and multidisciplinary approaches in Civil War carceral studies. Unlike its predecessor, which took a micro approach on individual prisons and personal accounts, Crossing the Deadlines is a compilation of important themes that are interwoven on broader scale by investigating many prisons North and South."

Gray's introduction informatively traces the evolution of the Civil War prison historiography. The three essays comprising Part 1 begin with a chapter that employs a "sensory approach" to studying the environment of Civil War prisoner of war camps. The self-described sense of being 'caged animals' is reinforced by the following essay, which looks at prisons and prisoners as tourist attractions for the home front civilian population. Prisoners seeking solace often turned to religion and the final contribution in the section examines the role of Catholicism and priests in military prisons.

Part 2 focuses on issues of race and retaliation, with the first essay discussing hostages and other punitive measures aimed at ensuring the other side adhered to what they viewed as the tenets of civilized warfare. The next offering looks at the experiences of black prisoners in Confederate POW camps, but it also studies interactions between slaves and white Union prisoners in order to show how such encounters shaped the latter group's views on race and emancipation. Another essay examines the use of black soldiers as prison guards.

Two essays in Part 3 recognize the important role of archaeology in the study of Civil War prisons. The first is an appreciation of both material culture studies and multi-disciplinary approaches as bettering our understanding of the captive experience at Johnson's Island, and the second, in another good example of the use of material culture to resurrect lost history, discusses the ongoing evolution of the work being done uncovering Georgia's Camp Lawton. The final essay in the volume investigates the topic of prison memory and the historical challenges it represents.

The Kent State UP makes frequent contributions to the Civil War prison literature, and this newest one looks like another very useful addition.

Review - "Five or Ten Minutes of Blind Confusion: The Battle of Aiken, South Carolina, February 11, 1865" by Eric Wittenberg

[Five or Ten Minutes of Blind Confusion: The Battle of Aiken, South Carolina, February 11, 1865 by Eric J. Wittenberg (Fox Run Publishing, 2018). Cloth hardcover, 5 maps, photos, footnotes, appendices, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:vi,138/183. ISBN:978-1-945602-06-1. $26.95]

While book-length studies of Civil War battles of all sizes abound in the literature, it's only been over the past two decades that most of the engagements associated with the 1865 Carolinas Campaign have been satisfactorily addressed. In the late 1990s, a pair of closely released Bentonville studies by Mark Bradley and Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes told the story of that climactic battle for first time in detail. These were followed by a history of the Battle of Monroe's Crossroads from Eric Wittenberg and Wise's Forks and Averasboro studies from co-authors Mark Smith and Wade Sokolosky, all three excellent contributions. The Union march through South Carolina has also been more generally covered in works from Tom Elmore and Christopher Crabb. The latest addition to this list is Eric Wittenberg's Five or Ten Minutes of Blind Confusion: The Battle of Aiken, South Carolina, February 11, 1865.

The early chapters do a fine job of situating the Aiken battle within the larger context of Sherman's march north through South Carolina. In addition to tracing the movements of Union and Confederate forces in the state prior to the fall of Columbia, Wittenberg provides a series of lengthy biographical sketches of major military figures involved in the Battle of Aiken. These range from notable regimental commanders (like Lt. Col. Matthew Van Buskirk of the 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry) on up to the highest ranking generals of both sides. Even more can be found outside the main text in the footnotes.

The Battle of Aiken, which lasted for perhaps one frenetic hour in the streets of the town and for most of the day in toto, is recounted in full by Wittenberg, who specializes in cavalry battle narratives of this type. The battle came about when Confederate cavalry corps chief Major General Joseph Wheeler disobeyed orders directing him to reinforce the thin Edisto River line defending Columbia and instead set up a cleverly arranged ambush for his opponent, Major General Judson Kilpatrick, well off to the west in the streets of Aiken. Both commanders were eager to face off against each other. Approaching the eastern outskirts of the town, Kilpatrick ordered Brigadier General Smith D. Atkins's lead brigade to push forward into the streets of Aiken, where it was in turn assailed in front and on both flanks by Wheeler's men, who were deployed in a wide "V" formation that overlapped the Union line and subjected it to converging fire. The Union hero of the battle was the aforementioned Buskirk, who, assisted by the high-volume fire of his outnumbered men's repeating arms, was instrumental in extricating the brigade from its hazardous predicament at Aiken and shepherding the retreating bluecoats back east to Johnson's Turnout. There, they rejoined the balance of Kilpatrick's division and together abruptly checked the pursuing Confederates.

Certainly every Civil War action is deserving of full documentation for the historical record, but Wittenberg makes a strong case that Aiken is worthy of deeper consideration, as well. Though it resulted in a Confederate tactical victory, Wheeler's impetuous move to Aiken completely compromised the planned line of defense in front of the state capital. While it's unclear how much effect the presence of Wheeler's men might have had in delaying the fall of Columbia, their absence rendered impossible any real defense of the city and its hasty, disorganized abandonment in the face of the enemy directly contributed to the fires and destruction that ensued. Interestingly, though there's no contemporary written evidence to support it, Wittenberg believes it more than likely that Sherman deliberately ordered Kilpatrick west toward Augusta to bait Wheeler, who he knew to be an ill-disciplined sort of general. It's certainly plausible given how heavily Sherman's conduct of the campaign up to that point relied on misdirection rather than brute force to achieve its desired results. Sherman's multi-axis advance through South Carolina kept the Confederates off balance and uncertain of Union objectives, which allowed Union forces to successfully navigate numerous potentially dangerous roadblocks and move forward against key strategic points in the state without fighting any major battles. Aiken fits well within this narrative. The author also believes the battle worthy of attention for being one of only four (by his estimate) urban cavalry battles fought east of the Mississippi during the war.

Period photographs are sprinkled throughout the volume (though there are unfortunately no images, modern or archival, of the town or battlefield environs), and the book's five original maps effectively support the text. However, tactical coverage between sides is a bit uneven in terms of small-unit detail. For example, in its discussion of the Aiken fighting, the book's regimental-scale depictions of Union movements and positioning are not similarly carried over to the Confederate side in the maps or narrative, which may well be a function of source limitations. The appendix section has three parts: an order of battle for each side, a list (probably incomplete) of known Confederate casualties, and an interesting short piece contrasting the battles of Waynesboro and Aiken (the 1864 and 1865 fights that were both thought at the time to have "saved" Augusta, which was never targeted). In the research sphere, the bibliography displays the expected depth and range of sources (i.e. newspapers, unpublished manuscript materials, and published primary and secondary sources).

Five or Ten Minutes of Blind Confusion is another winning account of a Civil War cavalry battle by the prolific Eric Wittenberg. The book also satisfactorily addresses one of the remaining gaps in the military historiography of the 1865 Carolinas Campaign.

Book News: The Vicksburg Assaults, May 19–22, 1863 (updated)

I always look forward to the next volume in SIU Press's Civil War Campaigns in the West series (formerly the Civil War Campaigns in the Heartland series). Five books have been published so far, the most recent covering the Tennessee Campaign of 1864, and I've liked them all. We now have some solid intel regarding when we'll see the next one.

The release of The Vicksburg Assaults, May 19–22, 1863 is currently scheduled for late spring 2019, so patient anticipation is in order. It picks up where the first Vicksburg entry in the series, The Vicksburg Campaign, March 29-May 18, 1863, left off and there will be more to follow. Grant's two failed assaults in front of Vicksburg after a string of devastating victories have never had an entire book devoted to them. I am very curious to discover what the contributing authors have to say.

UPDATE:
This is easily the most micro-focused of the series entries, and I did wonder how the editors planned to fill the typical Civil War anthology book complement of eight to ten chapters. More information has come out since the original news post, and the answer appears to be that they are breaking the mold and going with five, presumably longer form, essays (from only four contributors) instead. If accurate, that sounds fine with me.

From the description: "Ranging from military to social history, the essays examine the assaults while furthering historical debates on more prominent topics, such as the reactions of Midwesterners to the first failures of Grant’s Vicksburg campaign. The assaults symbolized a turning point in social and economic views of the campaign. Two essays from opposing sides analyze the controversial decisions surrounding the Railroad Redoubt, the site of the bloodiest fighting on May 22. Another examines how the tenacity of Texan reinforcements forced Union soldiers to abandon their gains." More: "By zeroing in on the two assaults, the contributors offer essential clarity and understanding of these important events within the larger scope of the Civil War’s Vicksburg Campaign."

The current release date is early May 2019.