"With Pen in Hand . . ."

'WITH PEN IN HAND. James I. Robertson, Jr. rrs scope notwithstanding, war basically remains a personal thing. From high emotions to complicated battles, the issues and outcome of any struggle still hinge on the performances of individuals. Therefore, if men such as Lincoln, Grant, Davis and Lee guided destinies in the Civil War, behind them were countless human forms who activated the plans laid down on paper. One group was as necessary to the total effort as the other. And in any war—especially a struggle with the peculiarities of a civil war, much depends upon the common people. The Civil War was an excellent case in point. The Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks who fought it out on the battlefields were, for the most part, provincial youths with a rather glib aplomb. Most of them spelled by ear and wrote phonetically. They lacked either the education or the social niceties to mitigate war into the dramatic, glorious spectacle that now seems to be the vogue. Rather, they and their generation described the period in which they lived with an asperity that may well be the only true picture we will ever obtain of how it was when a nation almost disemboweled itself. One of the more heartening byproducts of the Civil War Centennial has been the discovery and publication of many personal reminiscences by these common folk. Not only do these letters, diaries and recollections convey the real, personal feelings attendant to that intangible, impersonal monster called war, but they also enable one to look at military matters through social eyeglasses. If ever a struggle was truly sociomilitary , the American conflict of a century ago was undeniably that kind of war. In an effort to generate more interest in the humble people who were so integral a part of the Civil War, reviewed herein are some twenty new books that contain, or pertain to, personal reminiscences of this conflict. Some are newly discovered narratives; others are reprints of works now regarded as classics in the field; and a few are bibliographies that list individual participation by states and state units. As would be expected, some of these works are excellent contributions. On the other hand, some are disappointments. By far the largest and most commendable of the works under review is The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, edited by Clifford Dowdey and 64 Louis H. Manarin (Boston: Little, Brown & Company, xiv, 994 pp., $12.50). Little remains to be said of this splendid collection that was not stated in last issue's The Continuing War." The Virginia Civil War Commission deserves great credit for undertaking a work of this scope. The finished product is one that will grace every researcher's shelf for years to come. If this study does no more than to spur similar projects for the other outstanding Civil War generals—and if such works could be blessed with the expert editorship that characterizes The Wartime Papers of R. E. Lee, then the field of Civil War history would regain much of the prestige it has lost as a result of recent rehashes and tawdry potpourris. Also on the Confederate side, Walton Folk of the Continental Book Company in Kennesaw, Georgia, has republished three highly regarded soldiers' narratives. Perhaps the best known is Victor M. Rose's Ross's Texas Brigade: Being a Narrative of Events Connected with Its Service in the Late War between the States (185 pp., $7.50). While this noted unit history is largely a chronicle of military activities, it is not confined solely to summaries of battles. Ross's Texas Brigade consisted of the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 9th Texas Cavalry Regiments. Its first commander was General Laurence S. Ross who, ironically, was born in Iowa. After its organization late in 1861, the brigade campaigned in Arkansas and Missouri, then jogged to western Tennessee and northern Mississippi for several minor expeditions. In the spring of 1864 it joined "Uncle Joe" Johnston's Army of Tennessee and suffered with it through the slaughter at Nashville. Its activities thereafter were anticlimactic. Victor Rose was an officer in this brigade, and his narrative includes organizational lists, campaign summaries, biographical sketches, personal observations, and...