From Cedar Mountain to Antietam: August-September, 1862 (review)

Book Reviews215 as the casuality lists grew, the poverty of the advocates of the Lost Cause as they stood surrounded by graves and ruins when the war was done. Most important , itshows the character of a young man torn from the springtime of life in a Virginia college town, thrust into the fires of war and developing in those fires, still deeply religious, occasionally still an undergraduate at heart, intellectual and literary interests still strong in chance hours of leisure, the indomitable will and ingrained devotion to duty leading inexorably on from Chancellorsville to Fisher's Hill and the grave at Lexington, hard by the grave of the great general he served. Dudley T. Cornish Kansas State College ofPittsburg. From Cedar Mountain to Antietam: August-September, 1862. By Edward J. Stackpole. (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Stackpole Company, 1959. Pp. 459. $5.95.) this, the fourth of Mr. Stackpole's books about the War, is essentially a critique of tactics and strategy. Its chief assets are its careful chronology and concise detail. Such matters as precise figures on division and even regimental strength, the times at which orders were received and when their execution begun, and the hour-by-hour location in major actions of both troops and their commanders, are of much concern to Mr. Stackpole. The book therefore is a convenient single-volume reference book; this is where one can find in a hurrywhowas doing what to whom andwhen. The book also stirs up again a raft of familiar arguments for those who like arguments about functional military wisdom. Most of Mr. Stackpole's opinions grow out of two basic convictions: The Union high command during the period was uniformly inept, and Union staff work was dreadfully inefficient. He could find a multitude of supporters for both arguments, of course, but it will be difficult for most readers to avoid reflecting once more how much simpler it is to exercise hindsight than foresight. Mr. Stackpole has had a connection with modern military command, and this reader, at least, cannot avoid feeling that the author frequentìy judges both command decisions and the intricacies of staff work in terms of modern military communication. Mr. Stackpole is aware of this hazard, and indicates that he has tried to avoid it, but he still seems to forget sometimes that command was much different when the comamnder could only give a courier a penciled note and say, " Go find Richardson and givehim this." The writer who is primarily concerned with tactics and strategy cannot, of course, be expected to deal at length with what might be lamely called the "human" aspects of the War. This book, like many others, often sounds as if these were not battles, but an elaborate form of outdoor sport. Mr. Stackpole cannot be described, even charitably, as a talented writer; he hacks his way grimly through the factual jungle using as his only weapons a few dull-edged metaphors, and the outdoor sport metaphor to which he is most addicted is football: 216CIVILWAB HISTORY Conversely, while the Federal team would be engaged in the timekilling pastime of exchanging views on what to do, Lee and Jackson and Stuartwouldbe making forwardpasses and endruns as Longstreet waited contentedly for the moment when he could carry the ball in one of his characteristic line plunges, to wrap up the ball game. If somebody doesn't Blow the Whistìe on him, Mr. Stackpole is likely to end up a couple of volumes from now declaring that Lee lost because he did nothave enough bench strength. WrLLiAM E. Porter State University of Iowa. The Causes of the Civil War. Edited by Kenneth M. Stampp. (Englewood , N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1959. Pp. vi, 181. $1.75.) rr has been asserted that each generation must re-write its history. This would certainly seem to be the case with reference to a determination of the causes of the Civil War. A century of historical writing has not yet brought definitive answers to the basic questions involved in assessing the responsibility for the tragic conflict of 1861-1865. The editor of this well-organized collection of documents—excerpts from speeches, editorials, books, and articles , etc.—has...