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80CIVIL WARHISTORY federate General D. H. Hill's acknowledgment that "throughout this campaign we attacked just when and where the enemy wished us to attack." Murfin is unconvincing, too, when he claims that McClellan was given proper orders to assume command of the Union field army to pursue Lee in western Maryland and bring him to open battle, and he ignores the unfortunate conflicting orders from Lincoln and Halleck to McClellan. It is also incorrect to have the southern ironclad Virginia threatening Washington in September, 1862; this was in March of that year. Too much is made of McClellan's coming into possession of the famous Confederate "Lost Order" No. 191; the northern commander had already , through his cavalry reconnaissances, diagnosed Lee's intentions and routes of march. A further serious flaw is the author's occasional attempts to tell the reader what persons were thinking at a given moment in the past. And while Murfin goes into considerable detail in describing the battles of the Maryland campaign, the descriptions are at times unclear and lacking in precision and balance. Furthermore, it is a gross mistake to claim that Lee had "about 35,255" effectives on the morning of September 17, 1862, as compared with McClellan's alleged 87,164; the comparative numbers were much closer. Murfin does admit, however, that if Bumside had attacked the Confederate right at Antietam as ordered by McClellan, "Lee would most assuredly have been overwhelmingly defeated ." The author holds that "Lee had beaten off each of the Federal attacks"; but certainly he had not done so at the Burnside Bridge or at Bloody Lane. Murfin declares that "there would be no Federal heroes on September 17," whereas, of course, there were literally thousands, including a number of generals. Nor can this reviewer agree that New York Tribune correspondent George Smalley's story of Antietam is "the outstanding battle account of all time"—Murfin should reread Wilkeson's or Haskell's accounts of Gettysburg. In addition, there are numerous overly-glib assertions , distortions, and errors of fact throughout this work. In short, rather than employing proper historical method, the author, a sales material manager for Kiplinger's, shows an unfortunate tendency toward polemics. One can readily agree with Murfin's self-evaluation of his own book: "The Gleam of Bayonets can in no way be considered the last word on Antietam." Amen! Warren W. Hassler, Jr. Pennsylvania State University One Gallant Rush: Robert Gould Shaio and His Brave Black Regiment . By Peter Burchard. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1965. Pp. x, 168. $4.95.) This is a little book, few in pages, narrow in scope, limited in depth. Within its imposed limits, it is readable and at times dramatic. It adds something to our knowledge of Robert Gould Shaw but little to our understanding of the Civil War and the Negro's role in it. BOOKREVIEWS81 The Shaw family was inextricably woven into the fabric of Boston's first families, although young Robert's parents moved to Staten Island when he was nine. He had an irregular schooling, including several years abroad, and wound up at Harvard. Uncomfortable and ineffective in the classroom, Shaw voluntarily left Harvard during his junior year and entered an uncle's mercantile firm in New York City. He drilled as a private with the New York Seventh Regiment and, immediately after Sumter, left with his regiment for Washington. The following year he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Massachusetts Second and saw action at Winchester, at Cedar Mountain during Second Bull Run, and Antietam. Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts, a friend of the Shaw family, was authorized, in late January, 1863, to raise a regiment of Negro soldiers. Almost immediately he offered its command to the 25-year-old Shaw, who first rejected, and then accepted, the commission. Shaw returned to Massachusetts, readied the regiment for active service, and took it by ship to Hilton Head, south of Charleston, S.C., where the 54th Massachusetts (Colored) would begin its distinguished career. Shaw led the first major assault against Fort Wagner, overlooking the Charleston harbor, and was killed in action. The assault failed but his Negro troops made...

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