book review

“From Western Virginia with Jackson to Spotsylvania with Lee” by Peter Luebke

September 20, 2023 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

St. Joseph Tucker Randolph was 17 when the Civil War began in April 1861. He did what most young Virginians did and immediately signed up with a newly formed regiment. For a time, he participated in drills and preparations, but he also had time to continue working in the bookstore operated by his father.

The Randolphs had a storied heritage, one of Virginia’s first families with the Lees, Carters, and Tuckers. By the time of the Civil War, however, they had fallen on harder times, operating stores and other middle-class endeavors. Perhaps it was the influence of his father’s bookstore, or his own solid education, but Tucker, as he was called in the family, began keeping a diary from April 9 through about 1863. He also wrote letters to his parents and other family letters, and he showed himself a fairly astute observer of military operations, battles, officers, and his fellow soldiers.

Tucker’s regiment was eventually assigned to Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson’s army, operating in western Virginia. At one point, Tucker was wounded, but what looked initially serious turned out to be flesh wound. After Gettysburg, his unit was transferred to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, and it’s here that his observational talents truly shone.

He went through the Battle of the Wilderness, experiencing from the ground level Ulysses S. Grant’s military strategy of keep hitting at Lee’s army without respite. The Battle of the Wilderness was followed by Spotsylvania Courthouse, and Tucker’s account is still considered one of the best first-hand accounts of that battle.

Shortly after, however, at what is known as the Battle of Bethesda Church (a prelude to Cold Harbor), Tucker died in action. His death was confirmed, with no actual eyewitnesses (or ones who left any account), by his commanding officer, who wrote to Tucker’s parents that he had died during a desperate charge at the church. (The battle is also known as Totopotomoy Creek.)

Tukcer’s diary entries and letters have been published before, but a new edition has just been published, From Western Virginia with Jackson to Spotsylvania with Lee. Edited by Peter Luebke, it includes diary entries, letters, the letter announcing his death, and an account of Tucker’s military life written by another soldier and published in 1901.

The market for the Battle of Bethesda Church.

Luebke received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia. He has deep experience in the field of public history and he worked as a historian with history highway market program. He’s also written or co-edited numerous articles and books, including an edition of The Story of a Thousand by Albert Tourgee. For this work on Tucker Randolph, Luebke has arranged the chapters chronologically and provided helpful context for each. He’s also included an extensive notes section, bibliography, and an index. And the book is full of illustrations, especially of the people cited in Tucker’s narrative.

From Western Virginia with Jackson tells a story of a young man who, like many young men of his generation, fought a war against fellow Americans. Tucker Randolph didn’t survive that war, but he left behind an articulate and insightful account of his experiences.

Top illustration: a drawing of the Battle of Bethesda Church.

“The Civil War: The Final Year Told by Those Who Lived It”

September 13, 2023 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

It’s last of the four volumes of Civil War, told in the words of people who lived it. The Civil War: The Final Year covers the year from March of 1864 through June of 1865, and it’s every bit as somber and thought-provoking as its three predecessors.

The volume is edited by Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Fred C. Frey Professor and History Department Chair at Louisiana State University. The Final Year covers some of the final major battles of the war, including Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Atlanta, and Petersburg, as well as Ulysses S. Grant taking control of the Union army and William Sherman’s march across Georgia to the sea.

Using letters, diaries, memoirs, speeches, official orders and directives, newspaper reports, and much more, the book provides a broad telling of how civilians and soldiers on both sides lived that final year. You get the good and heroic, and you read the bad and the cowardly. You also see how newspapers on both sides, but especially those in the Union, helped fan the flames of hatred and desire for retribution.

You read the experiences of women and children in the path of Sherman’s army in Georgia, and how troops routinely ignored Sherman’s directive not to touch private homes (barns, stables, smokehouses, sheds, and henhouses were fair game). You read how a Louisiana woman deals with both Union troops and slaves who’ve freed themselves. You read letters full of hope and heartbreak. You see communications between generals and their subordinates. And you experience the presence of Abraham Lincoln, and what happens when the president is assassinated at Ford’s Theatre.

You can also read what was already emerging as the postwar sentiment on both sides, from radical Republicans and unrepentant Southerners, including and sometimes especially the women. It’s the Civil War in all its glory and terror, and the Confederacy in its death throes.

At LSU, Sheehan-Dean teaches courses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, history of the New South, nd a graduate readings seminar on 19^th century America. He received his B.A. degree from Northwestern University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia. In addition to the numerous articles he’s written on the Civil War and related topics, he’s also edited or co-authored several books on the war, including Why Confederates Fought: Family and Nation in Civil War Virginia and Concise Atlas of the U.S. Civil War.

The Civil War: The Final Year Told by Those Who Lived It is a fitting conclusion to the entire series. It’s the history of an event, a time, and the people who lived it whose effects we are still experiencing and living with today.

The Civil War: The Second Year Told by Those Who Lived It

The Civil War: The Third Year Told by Those Who Lived It

Top photograph: the McClean House in Appomattox Court House, Virginia, where Lee and Grant met to discuss surrender terms.

“The True Story of Andersonville Prison” by James Madison Page

September 6, 2023 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

Andersonville is a name that conjures up a dark history. It was a prison camp for Union soldiers, placed in the Georgia countryside about 100 miles south of Atlanta. It was operated for slightly more than a ear, from 1864 to 1865. Some 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned there; 13,000 of them died. It’s now operated as a historical site by the U.S. National Park Service.

For comparison, the prison at Elmira, New York operated by the Union at roughly the same time, housed 12,000 Confederate prisoners, of which almost 3,000 died. The Union prison at Alton, Illinois housed Confederate soldiers, Union soldiers, and civilians; of the 11,000 prisoners, some 1,534 are known to have died. (Alton was noted for outbreaks of smallpox and measles.)

Andersonville remains the Civil War prison with the worst, and largely well-deserved reputation. It’s also known for one other event – its commandant, the Swiss born Major Henry Wirz, was executed after the war for the crimes he allegedly committed at the prison. The immediate post-war period was a time of outrage and demands for retribution, and what had happened at Andersonville was exhibit No. 1.

In the years after the war, a number of its soldier-inmates wrote memoirs of their wartime experiences and especially Andersonville. James Madison Page, a Pennsylvania-born man who had moved to Michigan and enlisted with a regiment there, and he’d been captured after a battle in 1863. He and his fellow prisoners were moved around, but eventually they found themselves sent to Andersonville. Every move raised the hope of a prisoner exchange, which happened only very late in the war.

In 1908, Page published his own memoir, setting in motion a controversy that still exists after more than a century. In The True Story of Andersonville Prison: A Defense of Major Henry Wirz, Page said that many of the witnesses at Wirz’s trial had lied; that, contrary to testimony, Wirz had never shot prisoners; that Wirz had intervened many times on the prisoners’ behalf and to their benefit; and that the prisoners received the same food ration as the soldiers guarding the prison.

Page went further. He saw the true villain as being Edward Stanton, the U.S. Secretary of War. It was Stanton, Page maintained, who refused to allow prisoner exchanges, resulting in overcrowded soldier prisons. Stanton defended his decision at the time by saying the Confederates would get well-fed soldiers while the Union would get emaciated and sick men. Page also pointed to the Union blockade of Southern ports, which did hurt the Confederacy in many ways, including the blocking of food and medicine, but that also applied to the Confederacy’s prisoners.

At least some of what Page reported turned out to be true, especially about the conduct of Henry Wirz. The major was away from the camp recuperating from an old battle wound (received at the Battle of Seven Pines in 1862) during the entire month of August, 1864, which was the period alleged to be when he personally had shot prisoners.

During Wirz’s trial in 1865, Page had been called as a witness but was not called to testify; he claimed it was because the military tribunal didn’t want to hear anything that contradicted what they had already pre-determined.

Reading The True Story of Andersonville Prison today is eye-opening. Page never denies the harsh conditions with regard to food and medical assistance. He reports the deaths of friends. But he draws a picture of Wirz that is markedly different from the “devil incarnate” depicted in Union newspapers. From Page’s perspective, it was a very bad situation made worse by Stanton’s refusal to exchange prisoners, guaranteeing overcrowded conditions.

Page’s account isn’t a whitewash of Andersonville; it was a horrible chapter in Civil War and American history, and Page doesn’t dispute that. But he does call attention to exaggerations, and he especially defends the conduct of the man who came to personify the prison and paid with his life for it.

Top photograph: A scene of Andersonville Prison.

“Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers” by Rufus Dawes

August 23, 2023 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

Rufus Dawes (1838-1899) was a Union soldier and officer, a businessman, a congressman, n author, and the father of a man who won the Nobel Peace Prize and served as Vice President. He was descended from the man who warned of the coming of the British prior to Lexington and Concord.

He is also considered to have written one of the best, if not the best, memoirs of the Civil War, Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers.

Dawes distinguished himself as a member and officer of the famed Iron Brigade during the Battle of Gettysburg and other Civil War engagements. Comprised of regiments from Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan, its numbers and composition kept changing because of casualties. It was one of the most feared of all Union troops; it often stood its ground when other brigades were in full retreat.

He meticulously provided accounts of battles, engagements, and camp life to his family, his wife (they married during the war), and friends. Most of the letters were kept, and he had ready access to his own first-hand accounts when he finally wrote and published his memoir in 1890. He and the Iron Brigade were involved in some of the most famous battles of the war in the Eastern Theater. In addition to Gettysburg, Dawes wrote of Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, among others. And he was there at the Battle of the Wilderness and nearby Spotsylvania Courthouse, writing meticulous accounts of what happened.

His descriptions of the battles put the reader right in the thick of the battle. He describes each as would a trained and highly observant military journalist or historian. He explains what went right and what went wrong. He is always crediting his troops for bravery and courage; this is not a man who focused attention on himself (as so many officers and generals tended to do).

Dawes also describes his work as presiding judge during court-martials. He doesn’t explain why he served in this capacity, but it was obviously because of his trained eye, his military reputation, and his strong sense of fairness. His judgments reflected facts and evidence, not emotions or personal feelings.

Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers is more than a memoir of the Civil War; it is a fascinating account of some of the most important battles of the Civil War, written by a man who was both a strong partisan but a fair and observant one.

Top photograph: a few members of the Iron Brigade.

“The Civil War: The Second Year Told by Those Who Lived It”

August 9, 2023 By Glynn Young Leave a Comment

By late 1861 and early 1862, people on both sides of the Civil War had begun to understand that this conflict wasn’t going to be “over by Christmas.” There would be no knockout punch; instead, it was going to be a long, tough slog. And the outcome was anything but assured. While we have the benefit of hindsight, the people who lived through the Civil War didn’t have foresight.

You can argue that every year of the Civil War was a critical year in some way, and 1862 was no different. The naval blockade of the Southern states would tighten; New Orleans would fall to Union Admiral David Farragut; and some of the bloodiest battles of the war – like Shiloh and Antietam – would be fought, along with Second Manassas or Second Bull Run. And Abraham Lincoln had begun to move toward a proclamation to emancipate the slaves in the seceding states – a political move rather than a military one, and one fraught with political risk.

The Civil War: The Second Year Told by Those Who Fought It tells the story of 1862. And it tells it in the words of the political and military leaders, soldiers, and ordinary citizens who led it, fought it, experienced it, survived it, and, in some cases, died during it.

Edited by historian and author Stephen Sears, the volume is the second of four in the Library of America collection of first-account Civil War writings. Sears has made use of memoirs, newspaper reports, letters, legislative acts, speeches, proclamations, and more, providing a short introduction to each to provide context. But you read what was happening by the people who were there.

The volume includes accounts by well-known authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, who visited the White House and met Lincoln; the poet Emily Dickinson; the poet and author Herman Melville; and Ralph Waldo Emerson. You read minutes and letters by the members of Lincoln’s cabinet, and diplomatic summaries from Charles Francis Adams (grandson of John Adam and son of John Quincy Adams), reporting from London. A considerable number of Lincoln’s letters, acts and proclamations are included (including both the first-draft Emancipation Proclamation issued together with the suspension of the write of habeus corpus). Speeches are here, like by former slave and emancipation activist Frederick Douglass. The letters of soldiers and officers to loved ones are represented.

*The Battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, which led to the surrender of New Orleans*.

What emerges from all these reports is the understanding that the war would be costly, that there was nothing romantic about it, and that politics could be just as important in making military decisions as military objectives themselves.

Sears has published books on the battles of Gettysburg, Antietam, the Peninsular Campaign, and Chancellorsville, and on George McClellan, Lee’s lieutenants, Lincoln’s lieutenants, Lincoln’s generals, and related subjects.

The Civil War: The Second Year by Those Who Lived It is an often surprising, sometimes shocking, and always fascinating story of what happened in 1862. And it’s told by the people of the time.

Top illustration: The Second Battle of Manassas or Bull Run in 1862.

“If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania, Vol. 2” by Scott Mingus and Eric Wittenburg

August 2, 2023 By Glynn Young 1 Comment

Volume 1 of “If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania” covered June 3 – 21, 1863, when Robert E. Lee’s armies implemented the Confederate decision to invade the North. Volume 2, picks up with the period June 22-30, 1863, as Lee’s army and that of Major General George Meade moved into the positions that would eventually become the Battle of Gettysburg. Co-authors Scott Mingus and Eric Wittenburg continue the masterful job they did with the first volume, placing the reader right in the thick of events and happenings.

Because Lee’s army was now on official northern soil, there is considerably more information provided about the civilian response. Rumors had been circulating for days; many Pennsylvanians believed Lee was aimed for the state capital of Harrisburg. Many people fled, including free blacks, who knew the confederates would send them south to slavery. But many had no choice but to stay, hoping for the best. Surprisingly, some areas even welcomed the invading Confederates.

Units and advance troops encountered (or sometimes stumbled upon) each other, and the small battles and skirmishes of the previous three weeks were repeated. There was also considerable looting; the Confederates felt no hesitation in doing to Pennsylvanian farms what had been done to Southern farms. Lee had ordered that no destruction be undertaken; his order was generally followed, with at least one major exception. Confederate General Jubal Early came upon the ironworks owned by U.S. Senator Thaddeus Stevens, long an ardent abolitionist. Early deliberately disobeyed Lee and had the ironworks destroyed.

Like its predecessor, Volume 2 is packed with photographs of officers and soldiers as well as very helpful maps. The maps in particular allow the reader to track Lee’s progress north and Meade’s movement as well. While the two armies were moving toward confrontation, Union troops were making as effort to strike at Richmond, as so many Confederate troops were with Lee.

And Meade found himself in a surprising position. Gen. Joseph Hooker had been head of the army, but he was removed from command during the Union army’s movement north and replaced by Meade. Gettysburg would be Meade’s trial as commander, and he would do well.

While the two-volume work tops on the eve of the first day of Gettysburg, the authors include an epilogue which summarizes what transpired. And it was a crucial battle; a Southern victory might have led to the Confederacy’s recognition by Britain and France. The authors include what was happening in both countries as the two armies approached each other in America.

Mingus, an author and speaker, has written or co-authored some two dozen books on the American Civil War and Underground Railroad. He was previously a new product development director in the global paper industry, He lives in Pennsylvania. Wittenberg, a practicing attorney, is a Civil War historian, author, lecturer, tour guide, and battlefield preservationist. He’s written numerous books and articles on the Civil War and lives in Ohio.

Volume 2 of “If We Strike for Pennsylvania” is every bit as good as Volume 1. Both books make for riveting reading, even if we do know the outcome beforehand. The officers, soldiers, and civilians at the time did not know what would happened, and Mingus and Wittenburg neatly convey the hopes, the fears, and the terror that people experienced.

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