Civil War on Western Waters (review)

Book Reviews93 confused state of mind is sounder than his misplaced optimism concerning the future of the South and the prospects of the negro race. The work of the freedmen's schools, the negro as laborer, the condition of the battlefields, and the poverty of the people are recurring themes. The editor's task has been to reduce the text by perhaps one-third, supply a brief biographical introduction, and substitute photographs for the contemporary maps and drawings. His work concerns the original edition of 1866 (a second, enlarged edition appeared in 1868), and Mr. Carroll's editorship is not of the best. He asserts that he has "removed nothing of significance," but he has eliminated the footnotes, "several chapters," and numerous paragraphs. He has recast phrases to improve the continuity. None of these changes or omissions is indicated in the text. There is no index. The student will prefer the original; the casual reader will find the present edition easy going. Robert H. Woody Durham, North Carolina Civil War on Western Waters. By Fletcher Pratt. (New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1956. Pp. 255. $3.50.) some of the current flood of writing about the Civil War is criticized as vainly repetitious, but this cannot be said of the late Fletcher Pratt's book, Civil War on Western Waters. Considering the enormous importance, to both North and South, of the Mississippi and its tributaries, the one needing the Father of Waters to ship out the iron of Pittsburgh, the coal of West Virginia, and the wheat and corn of the farm states, the other side absorbing at Memphis and New Orleans much of that commerce while using the river to ship cotton north, it is surprising that until now only Alfred Thayer Mahan has made a serious attempt to describe and evaluate the river war. This is the task set for himself by the late Fletcher Pratt, and in the main he has succeeded admirably. His book is written in racy journalese. This is a refreshing change from the academic jargon beloved of so many professional historians; occasionally inaccurate, it makes reading stimulating and interesting. However, this journalistic style occasionally carries over into more serious matters. Mr. Pratt is given to snap judgments about people and events and sometimes his slap-dash approach leads him into error, as, for instance, in his thumbnail sketch of Stephen R. Mallory, Secretary of the Confederate Navy, as "earnest, assiduous, and ignorant, who always wore tight pants." No one who has carefully read Joseph T. Durkin's recent biography of Mallory would unqualifiedly call him "ignorant." Furthermore, this book has altogether too many typographical errors. The place on the Tennessee River, for example should be spelled either "Mussel Shoals" or "Muscle Shoals" but not both. However, minor criticism aside, this book is a sizeable contribution to our understanding of the Civil War and of the role of naval power in military matters generally. At the very outset both sides were faced with the problem of trying to improvise ships, armament, and tactics to fight a sea war on the Mississippi and her tributaries. Nothing like it had been done before. The North was lucky, 94CIVIL war history because it possessed industrial might. To this was added the ingenuity and drive of civilians like John B. Eads, who designed shallow draft gunboats which pointed the way to all successful future construction for the river war. Samuel M. Pook contributed his armored "turtìes," which also saw yeoman service. On the other hand, the North was hindered by the fact that the army for a long time exercised command over these vessels and, indeed, even manned them. This was unification with a vengeance. Not until the days of doughty Farragut and David Dixon Porter, both newly appointed to the newly-created rank of Rear Admiral, would the navy exercise tactical control over the river vessels, although, of course, over-all direction remained in the hands of Grant and Sherman. For her part, the South had even greater troubles. Industrially, she was hopeless. Not a single marine engine could be manufactured anywhere in the South. No forge capable of turning out a proper shaft for a...