High Tide at Gettysburg: The Campaign in Pennsylvania (review)

Book Reviews431 Mr. Weigley explains the reorganization of Meigs's office, for which he secured Congressional approval in 1864; it is interesting not only in itself but for the differences it points up between the mission then and now of the Quartermaster Corps. Animals, forage, and wagons purchased then by the Quartermaster Department have been replaced by motorized vehicles purchased elsewhere in the government. Control of transportation is no longer a function of the Quartermaster Corps. On the other hand, purchase of subsistence, which is now a major function, was then under the Commissary General. While adding subsistence was discussed while Meigs was Quartermaster General, the change was not made until 1912. Meigs's thorough knowledge of the Army and his concern for the good of the country led him to present his ideas in fields beyond his assigned duties. As a young captain he consulted with the Secretary of State and the President on the early conduct of the war. He prepared recommendations on the number and kinds of guns to procure. After the war he had a plan for reconstruction for which he worked hard until it was turned down by the President. A highly developed sense of moral rectitude and an absolute belief in his own views were characteristic of Meigs throughout his career. He was convinced that the Confederate cause was morally and criminally wrong, and after the war he was unrelenting and even vindictive in his attitude toward those, even including his brother, who had fought on the side of the South. This attitude must have made his presence uncomfortable to his superiors when the general effort was toward reconciling differences. It may well have accounted for Grant's offering him the post of Ambassador to Russia in 1874, which he refused. The postwar conditions facing Meigs, while wearing, were no real challenge to his abilities. He dealt competently with the problems of demobilization and of maintaining service with inadequate appropriations, but his last years of duty were not distinguished. It is rather unfortunate that once in a while Mr. Weigley, probably in a mistaken idea of "livening up" his story—note the opening paragraph of Chapter XI—verges close to the technique of fiction. But, on the whole, he presents his material in a clear, orderly, and straightforward way. Mr. Weigley has not only written a sympathetic biography of Montgomery Meigs but has given an excellent account of the working of the Quartermaster Department between 1861 and 1882. William W. McCollum Chicago, Illinois. High Tide at Gettysburg: The Campaign in Pennsylvania. By Glenn Tucker. (Indianapolis: The Bobbs MerriU Company. 1958. Pp. x, 462. $5.00.) as its title suggests, this volume is an account of the Gettysburg campaign from the Confederate point of view. It opens with Lee's Army of Northern Virginia confidently on the march northward in early June and closes with the same army's discouraged retreat to Virginia a month later. This does not 432CIVIL WAR HISTORY mean, however, that this is a one-sided or biased volume. Mr. Tucker maintains a high degree of objectivity, but his focus is on the Confederates and, like many another Gettysburg Justorian, he is more concerned with why the Confederates lost than with why the Federals won. Mr. Tucker finds no simple answer to this question; rather, he points out that hundreds of decisions made by the leaders on both sides over the threeday period contributed to the final outcome. These decisions he reviews and evaluates, distributing blame and praise with careful judgment. No one is whitewashed, and no one is made the goat. He rejects the view of a sulking Longstreet and what he regards as "the settled verdict of popular history," that the battle was lost because Longstreet faüed to carry out Lee's order for a sunrise attack on July 2, but he criticizes Longstreet for failing to make good use of the wasted morning hours. As for Longstreet's actions in the afternoon, "they may have been filled with mistakes, but not with stalling." The responsibility for Jeb Stuart's long absence the author leaves with Lee or his Aide, Colonel Charles Marshall whose final instruction, written at...