This Infernal War (review)

Book Reviews227 a territory while it was being exploited. His only solution lay not in reform but in honesty in government and the recruitment of a civil service from such aristocrats as the United States turned out. Ideals like diese have a social dimension, and Mr. Armstrong suggests Godldn 's similarity to the Boston Brahmins. Consistently enough, Godkin became a member of die Saturday Club, was a friend of Charles Eliot Norton, and held Lowell to be the ideal American ambassador. Although, like the Brahmins, Godkin took a dim view of die West as appallingly vulgar and like some of tiiem, he despaired of American democracy, he converted such educated westerners as James Ford Rhodes to his views. Three chapters of the seven in this book deal widi die aftermatii of the Civil War; they include Godldn's views on Reconstruction (Chapter One), the Maximilian episode in Mexico, and the Alabama claims. On all these issues Godkin was somewhat inconsistent. For example, though he was no radical reconstructionist, he favored for a time die impeachment of President Johnson, but he was pleased when die attempt failed. This is an excellent work, interestingly written, well proportioned, and solidly informed. While Mr. Armstrong knows much more than he has space to record, his treatment has enough breadth so that it is of at least as much interest to intellectual historians as to Civil War or diplomatic historians. Indeed die only defect is tiiat die audior is perhaps too critical of Godldn's inconsistencies, for the virtue of political journalism lies rather in stimulation tiian analysis of changing events from an unchanging point of view. While it is far from certain tiiat Walter Lippmann, much less Drew Pearson, would have done better in diplomacy tiian Dean Acheson or John Foster Dulles, tiiis does not mean that journalistic inconsistency lacks social utility. Alexander C. Kern Ankara, Turkey. This Infernal War. By Edwin H. Fay. Edited by Bell I. Wiley. (Austin: University of Texas Press. 1958. Pp. viii, 474. $6.00.) Edwin fay of Minden, Louisiana, a village near Shreveport, enlisted in the Confederate army on April 4, 1862, and remained in die ranks till the end of the war. His continued service was not of his own choosing, for almost from die beginning he was disillusioned and schemed how to get back to his wife and children. The Southern army perhaps had no soldier who hated the war as much as did Fay. Six weeks after joining up, he wrote to his wife that "the patriotism of our Company at least is about consumed," and wanted desperately to get out of the service. This desire never left him, but all his efforts failed. His misfortune proved to be die good fortune of die present generation, to whom his frequent letters furnish much valuable and interesting information . Fay did not take part in any big batties, nor were his experiences in any way spectacular; but he was a keen observer and, being a graduate of Harvard with an M.A. degree, his letters were written in excellent style, often intermingled widi Latin and French phrases. He wrote much about the food and 228CI VIL W AR HIST OR Y clothing furnished to die soldiers, die prices tiiey paid for substitutes, die mail service, and camp equipment, all of which he criticized without restraint. The Minden Rangers, the cavalry outfit to which Fay belonged, were combined with Forrest's troops, and formed part of Van Dorn's Army of West Tennessee, which later was put under the command of General John C. Pemberton. For all generals under whom he served, Fay expressed the utmost contempt, widi the exception of General Albert Rust, whom he considered a good and humane soldier. In his opinion the generals made their own laws, and acted like despots in their respective districts. For his Northern opponents Fay conceived an intense hatred. "I expect to murder every Yankee I ever meet," he vowed. So far as appeared in his letters, he did not kill many of them, because in September, 1863, he complained that "this cavalry has done nothing for a year but hold reviews for generals and dress parades for lonesome...