Never Call Retreat (Volume III of The Centennial History of the Civil War) (review)

BOOKREVIEWS69 lashed out against the government and the churches did so not because they were philosophical anarchists but because these institutions defended slavery. When the Civil War committed American institutions to the destruction rather than the preservation of slavery, most abolitionists modified their anti-institutionalism but did not abandon their role as moral reformers. Nor did the Civil War entirely "thwart the drive for Tiumanitarian democracy.' " As Arthur Mann, Daniel Aaron, and others have shown, the social justice element in Progressivism had definite ties with antebellum reform. This book is based on skillful use of a wide range of secondary sources and of such printed primary sources as collected letters, essays, and sermons. But since the author intended his study to represent "a fairly detailed record of thoughts and reactions," it is surprising that he made only limited use of manuscript collections and of contemporary periodicals and newspapers. Moncure Conway, a southern-bom abolitionist, receives extended treatment in the book, but Fredrickson has evidently made no effort to look at the rich and well-fndexed collection of Conway's papers at Columbia University. Several sweeping generalizations are made about the abolitionists, yet the author has not consulted a single abolitionist newspaper or manuscript collection. A more thorough job of research might have saved Fredrickson from several errors. On balance, this is a stimulating and worthwhile book, but its defects should be recognized and its conclusions must be approached with caution. James M. McPherson Princeton University Never Call Retreat (Volume III of The Centennial History of the Civil War). By Bruce Catton. (Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965. Pp. xni, 555. $7.50.) When Bruce Catton turned from journalism to history many years ago, he did not lose the habit of meeting deadlines. His Centennial History of the Civä War in three volumes has appeared with enviable punctuality. The Coming Fury, tracing events from the campaign of 1860 to the first battle of Bull Run, was appropriately published in 1961. Terrible Swift Sword (1963) carried the story forward to the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, and Never Call Retreat brings the project to completion right on schedule. There is, to be sure, a quickening of the pace in this third volume. It covers a considerably longer span of time than either of the other two, beginning with the battle of Fredericksburg and ending with the final surrender of Confederate troops some seven weeks after Appomattox. As a result, the narrative is highly compressed, much in the manner of This Hallowed Ground, Mr. Carton's one-volume history of the Civil War on the Union side, and in contrast with the richer detail of A Stillness at Appomattox, the third volume of his earlier trilogy on the Army of the Potomac. The battle of Cold Harbor, for example, 70CIVIL WAR HISTORY takes up two pages in Never Call Retreat and nearly thirty pages in A Stillness at Appomattox. Thus the greater comprehensiveness of the Centennial History has not been achieved without some sacrifice. This third volume is disappointingly thin at times—all the more so because of its otherwise superb quality. That is, Mr. Catton says everything so well that one often wishes he had said more. Never Call Retreat, like the two foregoing volumes in the set, is based upon an exhaustive program of research directed by E. B. Long. The author therefore writes with masterful knowledge and unsurpassed professional authority. Furthermore, from his vast reservoir of source material , he repeatedly draws forth just the right incident or quotation to drive home his meaning and illumine the narrative. Literary skill of a high order is now expected of Bruce Catton, but in this case, I think, he has outdone himself. His style has become leaner, shedding some of its earlier ornamentation but losing none of its dramatic power. Indeed, his eloquence, when it flames up, is more brilliant than ever, because it never seems forced. Yet there is more here than sound scholarship and literary artistry. Mr. Carton's peculiar genius is the universality of his understanding, with its multiple levels of insight. He can view the Civil War with intellectual detachment and even Olympian irony, bringing its largest configurations into...