Inside the Confederate Government: The Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean (review)

Book Reviews443 Storm over Sumter, though much less abundantly illustrated than Mr. Meredith's previous books, contains some interesting pictures of persons and places figuring conspicuously in the secession crisis. Especially striking is the photograph of Major Anderson made at Fort Sumter in February, 1861, by George Cook of Charleston. Bell I. Wiley Atlanta, Georgia. Inside the Confederate Government: The Diary of Robert Garlick Hill Kean. Edited by Edward Younger. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1957. Pp. xxxvi, 241. $5.00.) This review, with minor alterations to reduce it from Mr. Wüey's original "double review" to a consideration of Kean's diary, is reprinted from the New York Times by permission of the Book Review editor. because of robert kean's maturity, his opportunity for observing highlevel activities, and the fact that his account extends from September, 1861, to October, 1865, his diary is a rich historical source. No other personal narrative throws as much light on the character and inner workings of the Davis government as does Kean's revealing journal. It is amazing that a document of such merit should have remained in obscurity. Robert Kean, a graduate of the coUege and law school of the University of Virginia, was 33 years old and a practicing attorney in Lynchburg when war came in 1861. He fought as a private at First Manassas, but early in 1862 he was commissioned captain and assigned to the staff of his wife's uncle, Brigadier General George W. Randolph. When Randolph in March, 1862, was apj >ointed Secretary of War, Kean accompanied him to Riclimond and was shortly made head of the Bureau of War. Because of superior abilities and an unusual gift for getting along with people, Kean achieved outstanding success in this responsible position. He continued in the office until the dissolution of the Confederate government. The major portion of Kean's diary is devoted to his experiences in Richmond . He was personaUy acquainted with many Southern leaders, and his position enabled him to keep weU informed about important happenings throughout the Confederacy. It is this intimate knowledge of key personaUties and their doings that gives the diary its exceptional interest value. He was by no means without prejudices and his impressions were sometimes erroneous; but his perception, his honesty, and his character were so outstanding as to inspire confidence in his testimony and give weight to his judgments. Some of his most notable strictures are of Jefferson Davis, whom he adjudged quarrelsome, inflexible, short-sighted, and inefficient. During the war he wrote of the President: "He is not a comprehensive man. He has no broad policy. . . . Mr. Davis' friends say that he is honest, pure, patriotic, but no administrator—the worst judge of men in the world—apt to take up with a man of feeble inteUect or character, and when he has done so, hold on with 444CIVIL W AR HI STOR Y unreasoning tenacity. ... It is the same way with ideas. . . . His time is consumed [with] little trash which ought to be dispatched by clerks. In a postwar entry, summarizing the reasons for Confederate defeat, Kean stated: "One cause which in a certain sense may be said to include them aU [was] the absence of a Representative Man—a leader in the council as weU as in the field who should comprehend and express the movement" for independence. For Lee, Kean had great respect, though he was sharply critical of some of the general's activities. He termed Marse Robert's report of the Pennsylvania campaign "as jejune and un-satisfactory a document as I ever read," and stated: "Gettysburg has shaken my faith in Lee as a general. To fight an enemy superior in numbers at such terrible disadvantage of position . . . seems to have been a great military blunder. The battle was worse in execution than in plan—the worst disaster which has ever befaUen our arms." Adjutant General Cooper and Bragg he held in very low esteem. Judah P. Benjamin of the Confederate Cabinet he rated "a smart lawyer . . . but perliaps the least wise of our public men." Christopher Memminger, another Cabinet member, he considered intelligent and polished but "tricky, shifty and narrow...