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318civil war history original edition, so indicating when this has been done. The introduction is well written and informative, the footnotes are in good order, and the index of personal and place names is acceptable despite a few errors and omissions. In his preface Mr. Harwell states, ". . . the length of the narrative has required that explanatory notes be kept to a minimum." While conceding that this is a decision for the editor and his publisher, this reviewer regrets that such notes have been confined to the bare minimum. Miss Cumming 's diary is a versatile parade of names of both famous and unknown persons, as well as a catalogue of allusions to events, feuds, and controversies . Being the sort of person she was, she did not go into any lengthy discussion or explanation of what was so familiar at the time. Here the editor had the challenge to identify briefly and explain these so that one not well-versed in the history of the war might better comprehend what is being said. Certainly Surgeon-General Samuel Preston Moore merits identification in a work of this kind. The reviewer understands the difficulties involved in deciding where to draw the line, but she believes that the book would have been greatly improved had it been drawn beyond where it has been. The only other omission that is of major significance is a map or maps to indicate the location of Miss Cumming's assignments and the path of her journeys. Errors are few and in most cases are mere oversights. The title of Phoebe Yates Pember's volume should read A Southern Woman's Story (p. v), but it is correctly cited elsewhere. Several misspellings or typographical errors were noted. In the index, "Gen. Brown" would seem to be General John Calvin Brown, " Sen. Clement Comer Clay" should be Senator Clement Claiborne Clay, and "Gen. Philip Dole Roddy" should be General Philip Dale Roddey. Despite these and other minor errors and omissions, Mr. Harwell is to be congratulated on his many corrections and additions to the original edition of this valuable Civil War diary. Mary Elizabeth Massey Winthrop College Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War. By Ludwell H. Johnson. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1958. Pp. 317. $5.00. ) very few of the hundreds of Civil War books published during the last two or three years have contributed anything of significance to the understanding of that four-year period of national tragedy. Professor Johnson's Red River Campaign: Politics and Cotton in the Civil War is one of the worthwhile few. He has chosen an almost virgin field of study—the Trans-Mississippi West. The story of that ill-fated Federal campaign, which took place in Louisiana and Arkansas in the spring of 1864, is here explored fully for the first time. The basic strategy of the Red River Campaign is simple. Union General Nathaniel P. Banks and Admiral David D. Porter with some 30,000 troops and 60 ships were to advance up the Red River while General Frederick Steele's force of over 10,000 men was to move southward from Little Rock, Arkansas. Book Reviews319 The first major objective of both forces was Shreveport (near the junction of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas), the heart of a rich cotton empire and the headquarters of Confederate General E. Kirby Smith. The ultimate goal was Texas. The author has handled the Louisiana phase of this two-pronged campaign with considerable skill. Porter's problems with the gunboats in the shallow waters of the Red make fascinating reading. The story of Banks's difficulties with the civilian cotton speculators, his defeat by Confederate General Richard Taylor at Sabine Crossroads, and his subsequent retreat and abandonment of the expedition is concise, clear, and colorful. An excellent set of maps has been furnished. Perhaps the most important contribution of Professor Johnson's book can be found in the first two chapters. It is here that he provides a most interesting example of how military operations during the Civil War were often "intimately interwoven with political, economic, and ideological factors which frequently determined the time and place of a Union offensive." He...

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