No comments about A Black Congressman in the Age of Jim Crow: South Carolina's George Washington Murray (New Perspectives on the History of the South).

1 comments about Rutherford B. Hayes: One of the Good Colonels (Civil War Campaigns & Commanders).

1. This book is another well done look at Rutherford B. Hayes by Dr. Ari Hoogenboom. In this volume the author tells the story of Hayes' Civil War experiences.

   Before joining up Hayes was not enthused about the War. But as a soldier he quickly became convinced of the value of his mission. By the end of 1861 he had come to see the war as "a crusade against slavery."

   Hayes started out as a major in the 23rd Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. He soon rose to colonel. By the end of the war he was a general. He served four years in all (1861-1865). Hayes last battle was in October, 1864. While still on active duty the voters of Cincinnati elected him to Congress.

   Hayes' war action was mostly in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. William McKinley stated that when Hayes was in battle he was "intense and ferocious." He was wounded five times in action but maintained his enthusiasm for being a soldier. He proved himself a capable officer who earned the respect of his men. He often defeated the enemy and helped achieve ultimate Union victory.

   Hayes had the luxury of seeing his family several times during the War. He wrote numerous letters home and kept a diary. These writings proved invaluable sources for this book.

   This book provides numerous detailed maps of the battles which Hayes fought in. There are also several bios given of the various generals Hayes served under or against.

   Dr. Hoogenboom clearly understood Rutherford B. Hayes and described him accurately. The reader gets a clear picture of the 19th President before he attained that office.

1 comments about The Civil War Journal of Colonel William J. Bolton: 51st Pennsylvania, April 20, 1861 - August 2, 1865.

1. I'm a genealogist and was looking for some specific information which I found in a short time. Interesting reading for anyone interested in the 51st PA.

No comments about Principles and Privilege: Two Women's Lives on a Georgia Plantation.

1 comments about Between North and South: The Letters of Emily Wharton Sinkler, 1842-1865.

1. I sought out "Between North and South" as one among many sets of letters (as well as diaries) written by northerners in the South around the time of the Civil War, and ultimately I found it to be a disappointment. First, the good parts. The editor, Anne Sinkler Whaley LeClercq (a descendant of Emily Wharton Sinkler) has done a good job of prefacing, bridging between, and annotating Emily Wharton Sinkler's letters to her family, although LeClercq does get a bit excessive with the context, sometimes overexplaining what's coming up in a letter. Indeed, often times the editorial comments between letters can be safely and easily skipped. Nonetheless, if one is going to err, it's better to err on the side of assuming that an early-twenty-first-century audience will need some help understanding how a mid-nineteenth-century woman lived her life. LeClercq has clearly put a good deal of effort into making her ancestor's correspondence available to a wider audience. Emily Wharton Sinkler was a steady, frequent correspondent, meaning that, especially toward the earlier portion of the focal period (1842-1865), readers can get a good sense of the day-to-day life of Sinkler, as events alluded to in one letter are, in many cases, commented on further in another letter.
   
   The chief problem here, though, is Sinkler's myopia, for which she can hardly be blamed given that she wrote for family and friends, not for publication. Sinkler's key interests, based on the letters, are getting letters (and chiding those family members who are tardy with such letters of their own), getting and receiving parcels from Philadelphia (her parents' home), visiting with southern neighbors and friends, and commenting on the development of her children, particularly Lizzie and Wharton (Bud). After but a short time, each letter feels almost exactly like the last, with many of the same concerns reiterated many times. Though Sinkler is clearly well-read and -educated for her day, she shows practically no concern with the wider world, so anyone expecting sociopolitical commentary will be sadly disappointed. True, ninteenth-century ideology did discourage women from concern with the public, "male" sphere of politics, but many women of the time nonetheless took an interest in it; Sinkler does not, in at least one case specifically shying away from such subjects as too inflammatory for her northern family members. While the relative absence of commentary about the institution of slavery, of which her family-by-marriage was a significant partaker, says something about the ubiquity and unquestioned status of the practice in many parts of the antebellum plantation South, the absence of commentary isn't very helpful for students of race and race relations. What we do get in this area are a few passing comments about the allegedly comedic aspects of the "blackeys," as she called them, and their seeming propensity to beg from her around Christmastime. While Sinkler presents herself (to the extent she even bothers to discuss the issue) as a fairly indulgent mistress, LeClercq as editor seems more than willing to let the entire issue slide, barely commenting on it in her extensive editorial remarks. Anyone expecting the veil to be lifted during the years just before and during the Civil War will be disappointed, as the period from 1855-1865 makes up a mere six pages. LeClercq, of course, can only work with extant materials, and she's hardly to blame for the lack of Sinkler letters, but it's still disappointing. The excerpts LaClercq gives us from Lizzie's memoir of the period fairly drip with energy, making the mother's silence-by-necessity all the more regrettable.
   
   What, ultimately, we're left with is a rather dry recount of a life of relative leisure in the prewar South. Sinkler herself warns her readers, both intended and unintended, that city life such as that in Philadelphia is doubtless far more interesting than what goes in on her day-to-day existence. True to this, the letters are in some ways like the life, or at least the life as Sinkler herself seems to have seen it.
   
   (As a side note, the University of South Carolina Press, though deserving of credit for publishing a series of women's letters and diaries, also deserves a demerit for its sales job in the dust jacket of Between North and South. While the text does note that much time is taken up with domestic concerns, it also suggests that there'll be an extensive discussion of black culture as seen by Sinkler and an account of her teaching the slaves despite the fact that such was forbidden by state law. While such elements are literally in the book, slave education is the focus of only part of one letter, while it is mentioned in passing only a few other times.)
   
   While no collection of letters and diaries from this period is without merit, it's doubtful that Between North and South will have a very broad appeal or historical useability. I'd recommend it only for serious (and patient) students of nineteenth-century domesticity, plantation life, or leisure practices, and even then LeClercq's other book about Sinkler, An Antebellum Plantation Household: Including the South Carolina Low Country Receipts And Remedies of Emily Wharton Sinkler / With Eighty-two Newly Discovered ... (Women's Diaries and Letters of the South), is, I would guess, a better place to start.

2 comments about I'm Surrounded by Methodists: Diary of John H.W. Stuckenberg Chaplain of the 145th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

1. "I'm Surrounded by Methodists..." is based upon the diary of Chaplain John Stuckenburg of the 145th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Gives a first-hand account of his experiences of the Civil War as he marched with the troops through each battle. Book also serves as the only regimental history ever written of the 145th, since no official records were ever composed.



2. I screamed loud enough to be heard to the next county, jumped up and down, and alarmed my entire neighborhood! And that was BEFORE I read the book! Okay, I read one page..no, two names on one page. This is the diary of Rev. Stuckenberg who was chaplain of the 145th PA Volunteer Infantry 1862-1863. It includes a copy of the pastor's list of the members of the Regimental Church, hand signed by 58 men. That's the reason a family historian of mature age would run 'round her house with abandon: for there in their own hand writing were two ancestors who had served with the 145th! The book , coupled with their military files, brought this period of the War of the Rebellion into sharp, detailed, focus. That alone would be enough to warrant its reading, however, I received an added bonus. Rev. Stuckenberg was Lutheran, as am I, and it's impossible not to finish this book without being spiritually moved by his observations, reflections, and foremostly, his love for the men to whom he ministered. His essay in appendix 1 and prayer in appendix 2 are extremely profound. If you are an ancestor of one of the men of the 145th, or even a general Civil War enthusiast, I highly recommend this book. Few scholars have studied Rev. Stuckenberg. After spending time with this man's words, I was left wondering at such a loss.
   I intend next to read a biography of him.

No comments about The Correspondence of W.E.B. Du Bois: Selections, 1944-1963 (Correspondence of W. E. B. Du Bois).

No comments about Smoke, Sound And Fury: The Civil War Memoirs of Major-general Lew Wallace, U. S. Volunteers.

2 comments about Blood Image: Turner Ashby in the Civil War and the Southern Mind (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War).

1. I rated this book very low as I was looking for a new book on a relative sparce topic Gen. Turner Ashby. I thought the book went into detail about the social "southern attitude" before the Civil War. I wish it had more "Turner Ashby" and less social commentary. I also didn't see anything new in the book, mostly
   quoted "Avirett" who still appears to have written the best book
   of Gen. Turner Ashby. I would like to see a writer take on the
   project of doing a updated biography of 'Ashby" as he was a very
   unique officer in the "Civil War. This book "Blood Image" did not
   do that.
   Bruce Borden
   7695 Main St.
   Middletown, Va.
   22645



2. Blood Image is a story of mentalities, not a biography, as the introduction and even the title make clear.

   Anderson presents an interesting study of Southern mentalities, ideals of chivalry and honor (with a fascinating aside on horses), and how Turner Ashby, as both chivalric and violent, provided his supporters with a vital image with which to construct their wartime behavior.

   Occasionally Anderson's prose is not as lucid as it might be, and he doesn't distinguish Ashby's supporters demographically as clearly as I wish he had. Coming from the Shenandoah Valley area as they did, one imagines that some of his followers were really from the mountains: did they share images of chivalry? In addition, I'd have liked to see more quotes from the irregular cavalrymen who presumably made up most of the supporters Anderson is studying.

   Overall, I found this to be an interesting, if not flawless, study of mentalities, and a unique addition to Civil War scholarship. Anderson's descriptions of Ashby's personal experiences are especially vivid.

4 comments about REQUIEM FOR LOST CITY (Civil War Georgia).

1. This is a wonderful story based on the true life of a young girl. The author has taken Sallie Clayton's diary and turned it into an account of life before, during, and after the Civil War.

   The only problem is the long footnotes. Some of these notes take up most of the page and tell boring historical information. Sometimes, it helps set up the plot. At other times, it's annoying and makes me want to throw the book against the wall...

   I say you should read this book if you want to look inside the life of a Civil War woman, or if you just want to learn more about life during the Civil War...either way, it's a wonderful book.




2. An interesting and provocitive account of the attacks on the civilian population of Ante-bellum Georgia by Federal forces under command of William (kerosene) Sherman. This book substanciates that the "Lincoln-Sherman Plan" to make Georgia "howl" was an unpresedented reaction to propaganda and political gain. The sacking and burning of Atlanta and its long term effect on the state are sobering. Another book related to this topic that fully illustrates this unlawful and evil destruction is "The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl," by Eliza Francis Andrews.

   The "Hounds of War" destroyed Georgia's economy well into the 20th Century.




3. I found this work fascinating! Sallie Clayton's account was so descriptive as to make day by day life in war time Atlanta come alive. Her account of Sherman's seige was particularly engrossing. A must read along with other such biographical accounts of the period.



4. I edited this work for publication. It should appeal to anyone interested in real Civil War experiences. Sallie Conley Clayton came from one of the most prominent families in Georgia and she survived Atlanta at the same time and age as the fictional Scarlett O'Hara. Her account spans from pre war slave revolt scares in Kingston, Georgia; to a visit to General Bragg's headquarters during the Battle of Chattanooga; to the shelling of Atlanta; to a preposterous Yankee plantation in Montgomery, Alabama; to riots in Augusta and Athens, with many other stories in between. However, Sallie's adventures actualy happened and are told from a real human heart.
   
   All memoirs are prejudiced and all the more so for white former slave owners. In the introduction, I have tried to balance her extraordinary account with the details of what she did not say and, in some instances, did not know. Today Sallie lies in Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery and only a few feet from the grave of GONE WITH THE WIND author Margaret Mitchell. Sallie's grave is part of the Oakland Tour.