Book Notes

BOOK NOTES Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army from Its Organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903. By Francis B. Heitman. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965. Two Volumes. Pp. 1069; 626. $20.00.) MiUtary historians will find an introduction to this two-volume set unnecessary . Because it has no peer in content, it is an absolute must for anyone delving into the history of the U.S. Army and its officers. This official government publication first appeared in print in 1903—on the heels of the final volume of the Official Records—and it has since been one of the most sought-after items in military annals. A partial listing of its contents will explain why. Volume I contains, among other headings, tables showing promotions of West Point graduates and numbers in each class, a complete chronological roster of field and staff officers, summaries of U.S. regiments, and a 920-page alphabetical, detailed list of the careers of all commissioned officers in the Army during the 17891903 period. If that is not enough, Volume II consists of twelve sections ranging in content from an alphabetical list of Federal field officers during the Civil War to a similar Ust of officers who resigned from the Army to cast their lot with the Confederacy. Also included are statistical tables on army strengths and losses in ten wars, an alphabetical list of all campaigns, batdes, and skirmishes during the 115 years treated, and an alphabetical list of forts, blockhouses, camps, reservations, etc.—including the location of each. In releasing this offset repubUcation, the University of Illinois Press added no modern editorial trappings. None was needed. Memorials of a Southern Planter. By Susan Dabney Smedes. Edited by Fletcher M. Green. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965. Pp. lxx, 337. $6.95.) Mrs. Susan Dabney Smedes was one of three nineteenth-century women who wrote provocatively on the slavery question. The damning novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe and the sarcastic observations of Frances Ann Kemble both belonged to the pre-Civil War era. Mrs. Smedes's compilation spanned a much wider period, though it is largely a product of Reconstruction bitterness. That it enjoyed universal popularity is attested by the eight editions published between 1887 and 1914. Mrs. 426 Smedes grew up on her father's 4,000-acre Mississippi plantation. She knew intimately most of the 500 slaves who tilled the family cotton fields and, as editor Green concludes, "she seems never to have questioned either the legaUty or the morahty of the institution of slavery." This book is more a compilation of family papers than it is an autobiography. The tide appUes to Mrs. Smedes's father, not to herself, and the family stories, correspondence, etc., give a vivid picture of Ufe on the upper crust of southern antebellum society. For this ninth and new edition, the editor has supplied his customarily thorough introduction and a minimum of annotation. Yet, how such a skillful, scholarly team as Alfred Knopf and Professor Green could omit an index for a work of this scope and importance is a mystery. History of the Rhode Island Combat Units in the Civil War (18611865 ). By Harold R. Barker. (Pascoag, R.I.: The Author, 1964. Pp. xx, 338. $7.50.) The Uttle state of Rhode Island gave more than its share to the preservation of the Union, although many remember only Ambrose Bumside— and shudder. For a century no work existed that provided a full summary of the state's military units and operations during the Civil War. General Barker, a much-decorated veteran of two world wars who undertook this study as a labor of love, goes far in filling that long extant void. While he discusses unit organizations and individual officers at some length, the bulk of his work is a narrative account of Rhode Island units in such engagements as Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and KnoxviUe. The author apparendy reUed solely on unit histories, the Official Records, and other printed sources; his statistics and quotations are undocumented. The many illustrations in the book were lifted for the most part from Battles and Leaders. General Barker was not a trained historian. His book...