Richmond at War: The Minutes of the City Council, 1861-1865 (review)

274civil war history range Parrott guns destined for Lee's army were being made in 1863 when fire seriously damaged the plant and delayed their completion. Professor Dew speculates upon the possible different outcome at the battle of Gettysburg if Lee's artillerists had had batteries of these devastating weapons. Two fundamental reasons for the South's failure to furnish an adequate flow of munitions to its forces, Professor Dew concludes, were the underdeveloped raw materials base of its economy and the Confederate government 's largely negative approach to the problems facing private manufacturers . In the face of diese handicaps, however, Tredegar's showing was impressive. Only one northern foundry, that of R. P. Parrott at Cold Spring, New York, turned out more cannon than Tredegar during the war; Parrott's production was 1,557 and the Richmond firm's 1,099. Ironmaster to the Confederacy is more than a company history or a biography of Joseph R. Anderson. It is a thoroughly researched and weUwritten addition to the few accounts dealing with antebeUum industry in the South and with wartime industriaUzation. The author's valuable, critical bibUographical essay shows the paucity of works dealing with the South's economy during the Civil War, noting particularly the few that are concerned with its heavy industries. His study of the Tredegar Iron Works is a major contribution to this area of southern and Civil War history. „, IT . . . Norman B. Wilkinson The Hagley Museum Richmond at War: The Minutes of the City Council, 1861-1865. Edited by Louis H. Manarin. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1966. Pp. xn, 645. $12.50.) As capital of both Virginia and the Confederacy, Richmond in the 1860's held an unmatched strategic importance. The city was Lee's focal point of defense; it was also the Union's main target for conquest. Richmond's 37,000 inhabitants were thus forced to weather a host of tribulations as their town slowly but progressively became a swollen bastion. In June, 1864, the Richmond Examiner editorialized: "Since [the beginning of war] our hotels have been pressed to supply other government accommodations; court martials sit in our churches; committees in our school houses; Yankee prisoners cram our warehouses; the wounded ful our dwellings; the refugees are quartered among us by the thousands, and the original citizens are pushed into the smaUest comer. We do not make these assertions in a spirit of fault finding; far from it. Richmond does not murmur. . . . She battles and suffers in hope, and looks for the day of deUverance." The group on whom the exigencies of war pressed most heavily was the Richmond city council. The multitudinous issues it faced, and how it sought to cope with seemingly insurmountable problems, have never fuUy come to Ught. With the pubUcation of this handsome, fact-fiUed BOOK REVIEWS275 volume, those unknowns are erased. It almost goes widiout saying diat die Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee (which sponsored die preparation of the work) and historian Louis Manarin could not have performed a greater service for the cause of Confederate local and social history. Manarin has meticulously transcribed the detaüed minutes of councü meetings for the April 5, 1861-April 3, 1865, period. He has identified principal persons mentioned and annotated events discussed. Manarin's heavy reliance in footnotes on newspaper sources provides additional primary material. Appendices contain such useful data as wartime city ordinances and biographical sketches of councü members; iUustrations are sprinkled UberaUy throughout the text; and an exhaustive index makes a highly useful work just as usable. The councü minutes obviously are iU-suited for Ught reading. Nor wül one encounter humor among the pressing issues the aldermen had to face. Thus, this book wiU be more a basic reference source than a popular volume for bedtime perusal. But above aU else, Richmond at War is a testimonial to the fact that die now-concluded Civü War Centennial produced items more lasting than batde re-enactments and worthless souvenirs . James I. Robertson, Jr. Virginia Polytechnic Institute Illinois in the Civil War. By Victor Hicken. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1966. Pp. xiv, 391. $7.50.) Another very worthwhile result of the...