The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans, U.S.A., and: Lee's Maverick General: Daniel Harvey Hill (review)

Book Reviews93 But these are matters of little consequence. Far more significant are the happy abilities of the author to organize material and to write English. Books of this scope and character are too often soporific; Virginia Railroads in the Civil War is clearly not. It is of such quality that this particular theater of historical operations will require no reinforcements in the foreseeable future. An attractive format and typography add to the appeal of the volume. Robert C. Black, III Trinity College The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans, U.S.A. By William M. Lamers. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1961. Pp. ix, 499. $6.95.) Lee's Maverick General: Daniel Harvey Hill. By Hal Bridges. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1961. Pp. viii, 323. $7.50.) that major generals William s. rosecrans, u.s.a., and D. Harvey Hill, C.S.A., were military enigmas in the Civil War is not their only similarity. Rosecrans was born in Ohio of a migrant family. Hill entered the world in South Carolina, but made the sister state to the north his home. Rosecrans and Hill were at West Point together, and in the famous fifty-six-man Class of 1842, Rosecrans ranked fifth and Hill twenty-eighth. In the Civil War both men displayed great promise in the first stages; Rosecrans in western Virginia and at Stone's River, Hill at Williamsburg and Sharpsburg. Then both met again at Chickamauga. The result proved a Waterloo for each. Rosecrans went to pieces on the brink of a Federal rout; Hill wrecked his corps vainly trying to dislodge an immovable George H. Thomas. After the battle Rosecrans came under heavy fire from Stanton and Grant. Likewise did Hill encounter the enmity of higher-ups, especially Davis and Bragg. Both officers were then shelved—Rosecrans at first given an unimportant departmental command, and then forgotten; Hill sent home (without confirmation of a lieutenant-general's commission) to await further orders that never came. Even in personality the two officers had much in common. Rosecrans was a devout Catholic, Hill a pious Calvinist. Each displayed able leadership, prodigous energy, and an inexorable devotion to his respective cause. On the other hand, each possessed the same weaknesses; an outspoken independence , a knack for alienating the wrong people, and an unconcealed—oftentime unlimited—criticism of others. For example, Rosecrans once informed copperhead Clement Vallandigham that if the Ohio congressman ever again entered the Federal camp, "111 be God damned if I don't hang you!" And when Hill once received a furlough request from a regimental musician, he scrawled across the bottom of the page: "Disapproved—shooters before tooters." Both of these studies are military biographies treating principally of Civil War careers. Both reflect painstaking research, as much into manuscript as 94Cl VIL WAR HISTORY into printed sources. Dr. Lamers, an assistant superintendent of schools in Milwaukee, spent the better part of a decade in the preparation of his study. Dr. Bridges, a member of the history staff at the University of Colorado, labored for several years on his biography. Both works are extensively documented . Though Bridges' footnoting is more precise, Lamers has written a more inclusive account. Neither work is illustrated, which is strange, yet both have full bibliographies and indexes. And needless to say, both authors show a definite prejudice toward their subjects. Napoleon once stated: "Unfortunate is the man whose history is written by his enemies." Such has been the century-old fate of "Old Rosey" Rosecrans and "Old Rawhide" Hill. It is heartening that two thoroughly researched studies now place two misunderstood commanders closer to the lights of truth and objectivity. James I. Robertson, Jr. State University of Iowa Education in Violence: The Life of George H. Thomas and the History of the Army of the Cumberland. By Francis F. McKinney. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1961. Pp. xvi, 530. $9.50. ) biographies of George H. Thomas have appeared roughly every decade but this is a crescendo. The Old Warrior is between these covers. That is not to say there will be no room for another Thomas biography in the next ten years, for "the Virginian...