A History of the Southern Confederacy (review)

Book Reviews85 This was, if not the maturity, at least the adolescence of the newspaper as an American institution. He demonstrates also that although good reporting was relatively uncommon, it was sometimes very good indeed. For example, he quotes at length an account of the surrender at Appomattox, written by Jerome B. Stillson of the New Yoik World. It was dated April 12, and ended as follows: The campaign has made General Grant what he never was before — a great general in the estimation of the whole army. It has elevated every corps commander into the pride of his command; it has given the Army of the Potomac that decisive victory for which it has heretofore striven in vain through four years of almost constant fighting; it has given the Union a fresh and final assurance that "it must and shall be preserved." This is not only good and lucid prose; it is also sound history, written not with the assuring perspective of years, but while Confederate rifles were still stacked in surrender on the new spring grass. William E. Porter Iowa City, Iowa A History of the Southern Confederacy. By Clement Eaton. (New York: The Macmillan Company. 1954. Pp. ix, 351. $5.50.) although an excellent volume has appeared in The Confederate States of America, 1861-1865, by Professor E. Merton Coulter, there is undoubtedly room for a shorter, less fully comprehensive history of the Confederacy. That is not to say that this volume is not comprehensive, for the reviewer was frequendy surprised by the many, varied subjects which the author was able to introduce, even if sometimes sketchily. Each chapter is packed with details; even such small details as the naval training school of the Confederacy, the naval powder works at Columbia, the lack of salt, and the signal system have found a place in the volume. The writer frankly avows his purpose to seek "a balance between the social, political, and military history of the Southern Confederacy" (viii). In this he has succeeded, for he has restricted the discussion of the stricdy military aspects to three chapters (VIII, X, XIV), with an additional chapter concerning naval operations. In the three chapters devoted to the conflicts on land he has sketched admirably in brief compass a clear account of the military side of the war. Space is thus secured in which to note the political background which produced the war, to trace the diplomatic history of this transitory nation, to give attention to the life of the soldiers, to indicate the narrow economic basis which disintegrated under four years of conflict, and to discuss the society and culture under war conditions. Chaper VI, which deals with the generals and the strategy, offers, in the judgment of this reviewer, discriminating thumb-nail sketches of the chief Confederate generals. Moreover, one of the major contributions of the book is the chapter devoted to the loss of the will to fight, which is here analyzed carefully rather than being merely stated as a fact. The research is excellent. Such a wide subject as the Civil War period in the South involved the examination of an enormous body of printed material on many varied subjects. In addition to the well-recognized sources, many recent 86civil war history books and articles have been cited. Mr. Eaton has also made good use of manuscript sources in widely scattered depositories, which first-hand material has given freshness to many passages. The author is at his best, in the opinion of this reviewer, in the conclusions he draws from the perspective of almost a century after the events described. Many examples arrest the reader's attention. His criticism of Confederate strategy (124-129) is a case in point. Other illustrations are his appraisals of the inadequacies of the government (58-60), of the errors which cost Lee the victory at Gettysburg (200-204), of the weaknesses which caused the fall of Vicksburg (207), and of the reasons for the ultimate victory of the North (285). On the economic side, Mr. Eaton points out that aside from the Erlanger loan (which benefited only the Paris bankers, for it yielded the Confederacy less than three million dollars in...