Book Notes

BOOK NOTSS A Confederate Marine: A Sketch of Henry Lea Graves with Excerpts from the Graves Family Correspondence, 1861-1865. Edited by Richard Harwell. (Tuscaloosa Ala.: Confederate Publishing Company, 1963. Pp. 140. $4.00.) The smallest branch of service in the armed forces of the South was the Confederate Marine Corps. This arm never came close to reaching its authorized strength of 988 men. Of fifty-one officers who held Marine ccmrnksions during the war, thirteen dropped along the way from one cause or another. Henry Graves was one of those who served until the end of the war. A private in the 2nd Georgia Infantry Battalion, Graves transferred to the Marine Corps in the fall of 1862. His unusual service terminated with hk parole at Greensboro , North Carolina, in 1865. Because so little k known about Confederate marines, Graves's letters have much value. Yet thk k but one small asset of Mr. Harwell's book. He has ako included correspondence of Henry's brother, Iverson, who served in the CS. Navy. These letters reveal a great deal of both the naval and social history of the wartime South. Annotation k comprehensive and enlightening; die index k full; and Mr. Harwell's introduction k a model from which other editors could profit. The Port Hudson Campaign, 1862-1863. By Edward Cunningham. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963. Pp. xiii, 174. $5.00.) To most Civil War buffs, Port Hudson was a Confederate stronghold of questionable strength somewhere on the banks of the lower Mksksippi; its importance was nebulous, and its fall came automatically after the surrender of Vicksburg. In reality, the defense of the fortress north of Baton Rouge was as heroic as any epkode of the Civil War. For seven weeks ragged Confederates withstood constant besiegement and four large-scale Federal assaults. Fought out and starved out, the garrison capitulated on July 9, 1863. Thk study is the first tiiorough treatment of a campaign marked by valor on botii sides but too often overlooked in die larger scheme of Civil War affairs. The autiior has an obvious endiusiasm for hk subject; under hk guidance Port Hudson may appear to be of greater import tiian actually it was. Yet a fluent writing style, prodigious research, careful documentation, and useful index compensate immeasurably for this one weakness. 109 110C I VIL WAR ? I STO R Y Just South of Gettysburg: Carroll County, Maryland, in the Civil War. Edited by Frederic Shriver Klein. (Westminster, Md.: Newman Press, 1963. Pp. xiv, 247. $3.95. ) Drawing upon manuscripts, newspapers, and some printed works, editor Klein has amassed an impressive collection of personal accounts of a Maryland border county in die turbulent years of civil strife. The bulk of the material treats of die Gettysburg campaign; yet otiier military movements and wartime activities inside die county receive ample discussion. A portfolio of illustrations, plus an accompanying loose map, add to die wealtii of information contained in die more tiian 115 excerpts from wartime reminiscences . Bibliography and index are adequate. As a center of conflicting opinions and sentiments, Carroll County was representative of die whole Civil War period. Lying in die path of botii Lee's and Meade's armies, the county played an integral role in die conflict's most famous campaign. This anthology should prove of much value to students of the Eastern Üieater. The Emancipation Proclamation. By John Hope Franklin. ( Garden City: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1963. Pp. x, 181. $3.50.) The Emancipation Proclamation was controversial from die moment of its birth in 1862; it remains controversial still. To a host of modern Americans, it stands as a monumental lever of freedom, and a springboard for die equality of all men. To odier Americans, die Proclamation is an empty document, originally designed not for freedom's sake so much as it was to block European intervention on the side of the Confederacy. No unanimity of opinion, therefore , will greet tiiis new, brief study of die Proclamation. Professor Franklin interprets die evolution of die document, its impact at home and abroad, its significance in U.S. history, and its ramifications for all Americans. The Proclamation, he concludes, gives "real meaning and...