Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home (review)

2007Book Reviews235 exhorts the Southern faithful: "We are retreating now. It is a military necessity and policy. But our army will by and by come back over this ground like a mighty flood. In Kentuckywe were among spies and enemies—here theywill be among Southern people, and when the tide turns, woe! be unto their army" (p. 34). In reporting to his readership about die batde ofShiloh inApril 1 862 (in which Bunting conveyed diat the Confederacy had won a marginal victory) , Bunting stylizes the Confederate army after the small army ofJoshua entering the Promised Land surrounded by Philistines. "Our brave litde army, many ofthem without coats, many with old flindocks, and the great majority woefully lacking in drill and discipline, has badly whipped the very best fighting troops of the federal army" (p. 51). Buntingfreely maligned Federal soldiers, depicting them as the most evil troops history could muster. "I have seen on every side die desolation ofthe enemy; everywhere his footsteps are marked with robbery, insult, theft, oppression, rape, and destruction" (p. 85). He was as openlycritical ofConfederate leaderswhom he thought deserved it, especially Gen. Braxton Braggafterhis abortive campaign into Kentuckyin late 1862. Bunting said that the expedition "widi the present light before us, is here universally pronounced, from beginning to end, a brilliant blunder and a magnificent failure" (p. 83). Ministering to his flock, Bunting said, however, that such setbacks would not sway Southern faith. "Our faith is again to be tested. In die hearts ofour people, uncorrupted by political chicanery, faitii still has her throne—and there she resides simple, pure, and perfect as in other dark hours ofdisappointment" (p. 84). Cutrer has assembled a great book. His narrative at the beginning ofeach chapter sets the context for Bunting's letters and helps readers interpret the primary source material. Clearly drawn maps put the letters in geographical context. The book well proves what Cutrer argues in his thesis, that Bunting's letters provide both a history ofTerry's Texas Rangers in the western theater and "a broad window on the mind of the Southern clergy in regard to the issues ofslavery, secession and thejust war" (p. xxxi). Southwestern Adventist UniversityR. StevenJones Germans in the Civil War: Thetetters They Wrote Home. Edited by Walter Kamphoefher and Wolfgang Helbich, translated by Susan Carter Vogel. (Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 2006. Pp. 560. Illustrations, map, table, notes, glossary, bibliography, index. ISBN 0807830445. $59.95, cloth.) Walter Kamphoefher and Wolfgang Helbich's goal was to "produce a text so accurate that ideally—except for issues ofpenmanship—no scholarwould ever need to consult the original letters" of those selected to appear in tfieir work Germans in the Civil War: The tetters They Wrote Home (p. xxvii) . They achieved this goal in what is a follow-up to their earlier work (along with Ulrike Sommer) , Newsfrom the Land ofFreedom (1991). This volume is a wonderful and sorely needed addition to an ever-growing body of German American historical scholarship. Germans in the Civil Warcontains excerpts from more than three hundred letters written by German immigrants living all over the United States who fought with both 236Southwestern Historical QuarterlyOctober Union and Confederate forces, as well as those by women and men not involved with the fight on die field. While the editors took great effort to provide a geographical balance, areas widi large German populations such as Missouri, the Ohio RiverValley, and Texas are naturally well represented. The first half of the book contains letters written by those fighting and living in the eastern theater and the second half by those found in the western theater. These letters contain details ofmajor batdes such as Vicksburg and Gettysburg as well as lesser known skirmishes; personal viewpoints on national, state, and local politics; struggles faced by women on the home front; hardships of soldier life; and so forth. Also, since diese letters were written by German immigrants, many events are filtered through their German cultural perspective, adding another dimension to their content for historians to sift through. Letters written by German Texans will prove useful for those researching this group. The better known German enclaves are well represented in the Texas section . There are letters...