Gunner With Stonewall: Reminiscences of William Thomas Poague (review)

446CIVIL WAB HISTOBY The authors deserve high praise for the lucidity which marks their descriptions of the skirmishes and battles in which Johnston took part, and for the manner in which they have interwoven military events with political and other developments. Praiseworthy, too, is the careful and complete use of sources (unfortunately, documentation is inconveniently lumped into the back of the book). Excellent maps grace pages in useful juxtaposition to textual material dealing with the mapped region. Careful proofreading left few errors to mar the final presentation. Equally noteworthy is the contribution this volume offers to the growing body of information on the internal workings of the Confederate army strueture . In this connection A Different Valor is a valuable supplement to such works as Frank Vandiver's Rebel Brass. And Johnston's Civil War experiences tell again of the often-incredible obstacles which Yanks and Rebs alike faced in their trial of arms. When railroad travel from Gordonsville to Manassas consumed thirty-six hours even in early 1862, or when, during critical days on the James Peninsula, the telegraph line to Richmond went dead just when it was most needed—accounts of such events provide the reader with a sense of vicarious participation. Criticism of this volume centers on several conceptual points. First, there is inadequate space allocation to the years before Sumter and after Appomattox. A Different Valor is a study of Johnston's Civil War career rather than a biography of the man. A more complete account is needed. Second, the excessively one-sided picture of the Davis-Johnston controversy and of Johnston generally requires more evenly balanced treatment. Surely Davis was hard to serve. But Johnston, who publicly criticized civilian superiors, intrigued through backstage champions (especially Texas' Senator Wigfall) as well as being the victim of others' conspiracies, and who received criticisms (which are rarely cited) as well as praises (which are), was often equally at fault. Third, I regret not finding discussion of a subject which the authors probably had no intention of dealing with in detail; the Davis-Johnston troubles offer an opportunity for close examination of Confederate civil-military relations which should be exploited. A Different Valor is an important and useful work, but it will not end the controversy surrounding Joseph E. Johnston. Harold M. Hyman Los Angeles, California Gunner With Stonewall: Reminiscences of William Thomas Poague. Edited by Monroe F. Cockrell. Introduction by Bell Irvin Wiley. (Jackson , Tennessee: McCowat-Mercer Press. 1957. Pp. 181. $5.95.) as the editor points out in his introduction to Gunner With Stonewall, the artilleryman's war has been largely overlooked in the many chronicles of the Civil War that have appeared in the ninety-odd years since Fort Sumter was taken under fire. Yet this toas an important period for the field artillery arm, and the employment of artillery during 1861-1865 marked the coming of age Book Reviews447 of the rifled cannon as the mighty instrument which would dominate the first World War. Despite the limited fame of the great Civil War artillerymen of both sides, it appears safe to say that to most readers they are regarded as possessed of considerably lesser fame than the great infantry and cavalry commanders of that era. Gunner With Stonewall therefore fills a definite void. It is not and should not be considered as an historian's history of artillery in the War Between the States. Nor is it, in the modern sense, a military historian's account of battle. It is a lucid narrative of one artilleryman's war: a colorful, honest, perceptive account by an unusually articulate soldier. The book consists of the wartime recollections of Colonel William Thomas Poague of Lexington, Virginia, who served with the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia from Hainesville in the Shenandoah Valley (May, 1861) to Appomattox on that fateful day in April, four years later. He was not by inclination or training a soldier, being a lawyer and a graduate of Washington College (later Washington and Lee). He sought no position of leadership when the 1st Rockbridge Battery was raised, "because I was not qualified for it." He was nevertheless elected a junior lieutenant, election of officers being...