The Cruise of C.S.S. Sumter (review)

BOOK reviews85 ate authorities, feeling that the Valley was secure, left its defense mainly to reserves and a small token force under Imboden. To meet this new threat of invasion, General W. E. Jones, commander of the Department of Southwestern Virginia, met the Union force at Piedmont. Fearing a juncture of General Crook's forces and Hunter's army, Lee ordered Jones to stop Hunter before Crook could reach Staunton. A heavy skirmishing drove back advanced Confederate units. Jones, despite the protests of Imboden, fortified the heights at Piedmont instead of Mowry's Hill. In the ensuing batde a serious gap quickly developed in the southern ranks between the infantry and the cavalry on the right. Jones's attempt to rectify the flaw ended in his death. Meanwhile, the cavalry and mounted infantry under Imboden and Vaughn merely watched, while southern lines disintegrated. The breakdown in coordination and the failure of the cavalry to protect the exposed right flank of the infantry cost die Confederacy the batde and 1,500 casualties, and the upper Shenandoah Valley was prostrate before a Federal army for the first time. Professor Brice, a retired colonel of infantry, is presendy a professor of English at Mary Baldwin College. His military background serves him well in describing the troop movements surrounding the batde of Piedmont . He has synthesized a mass of regimental and personal histories into a manageable form, although there are times when the minutiae detract from the well-written narrative. As an analysis of a batde the book does have value; but in a broader context, it has serious limitations. Unfortunately, Conquest of a Valley gives more promise in its tide than is realized in its content. Professor Brice has principally centered his narrative on the military aspects of the battle without offering much evidence in support of his thesis, that the engagement is worthy of greater consideration . Litde attempt is made to analyze the Union victory in terms of its effects on the upper Shenandoah Valley, on Lee's army in eastern Virginia, or on the Confederacy in general. It would seem that the answers to these questions must determine the relative importance of the batde. The assumption cannot stand alone. Even though the book is a good account of the battle, participants, and immediate consequences, a reader may well wonder at the justification for such an extended treatment. Richard R. Duncan University of Richmond The Cruise of C.S.S. Sumter. By Charles Grayson Summersell. (Tuscaloosa , Ala.: Confederate Publishing Company, Inc., 1965. Pp. 187. $4.00.) In a farewell salute to the C.S.S. Sumter, one of her officers wrote: "I have always felt that the litde Sumter has never had full justice done her. . . ." Professor Summersell has rectified this oversight. The Cruise of the C.S.S. Sumter, the twenty-seventh and last of the Confederate Centennial Studies series, is a balanced and scholarly account of the South's 86CIVIL WAR HISTORY pioneer commerce raider. Summersell has chosen, however, a disarmingly modest title for a work that is much more than operational history. This monograph not only describes the Sumter's actions at sea, but records and interprets the complicated diplomatic maneuvers concerning the belligerent rights of the Sumter and contains informative sections on Confederate shipbuilding, recruiting, and supply. After a brief introduction, Summersell explains in detail the conversion of the steamer Havana into the warship Sumter. In April, 1861, the capabilities of New Orleans' shipyards, far removed from the source of took and skilled workmen, were vastly inadequate for the task of constructing ships-of-war. Indeed, the shipbuilding resources of the entire South were pitiful in comparison with the large and well-supplied yards of the Union. Diplomatic developments were intimately connected with the operations of the Sumter. Even before she evaded the Federal blockade off New Orleans, Great Britain had conferred belligerent recognition and rights upon Confederates afloat and ashore. Most other nations followed suit. Such actions were a necessary condition for successful naval operations, but the nature and extent of such rights provoked questions which recurred with regularity during the cruise of the Sumter. When the raider steamed into her first foreign port, Cienfuegos, Raphael Semmes...