Stephen Harriman Long, 1784-1864 (review)

book reviews281 but the troubles of the originators become apparent with the realization that no dividends were possible until 1854; if the originators hoped to make their fortunes they did not show good judgment. The original lock canal carried its greatest tonnage in 1872. The canal was purchased by the federal government in 1919, enlarged, and the locks eu'minated. It is still in use. The canal was particularly important during the early stages of the Civil War, and not only because of its economic functions. The pro-Southern sympathy of Baltimore inspired mobs that practically stopped railroad traffic between the North and Washington, and particularly troop movements . For a time it seemed that Washington might be isolated from the North. The answer was to use steamboats which passed through the canal and then down the Chesapeake to Annapohs, where a railroad was available to Washington, thus bypassing Baltimore. Professor Gray has searched diUgently for his material, and presents it clearly and with good organization. The one obvious hazard for the reader is the large amount of minute detail. One sympathizes with Professor Gray's reluctance to omit material which he worked so hard to collect, but the reader should be warned that this is not a book for light summer reading. On the other hand, no later researcher will need to work over again the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal material. Here are all the facts. Robert E. Riegel Dartmouth College Stephen Harriman Long, 1784-1864. By Richard G. Wood. (Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1967. Pp. 292. $10.00.) Reviewers frequently criticize an author for not writing the kind of book they would have written had they ever gotten around to it. I do not wish to be guilty of such a charge, especially since I have been the victim of similar attacks. Even though Richard G. Wood makes no claim in his preface of presenting a "Life and Times" of Stephen Harriman Long, I am nevertheless disappointed. Such a book is long—no pun intended—overdue. No thorough biography of Long has been done for the simple reason that significant research materials heretofore have not been found. Nor are they likely to be in the future. Even so, the author could have done more with the resources at hand by careful attention to style, organization, and interpretation. As it is, his principal character appears much less colorful and exciting than his contributions as an engineer, explorer, and inventor would indicate. Stephen Harriman Long ranks among the explorers of the American west with Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Montgomery Pike, and John Charles Fremont. Even more important, he was responsible for creating the public image of the "Great American Desert," the region generally called the Great Plains. Much of the Great Plains now contains vast areas of wheat, cotton, sugar beets, alfalfa, and livestock—not to mention sprawUng cities and diversified 282CIVIL WAR HISTORY industries. A few dry years, however, and the land beyond the 98th meridian quickly takes on the character of the "desert wasteland" that Long described. Actually, Long was an engineer in uniform during a period when there were few professionals in civilian Ufe. His military career spanned a decade between the War of 1812 until his retirement at the age of seventyeight in 1863. Throughout this half-century he never fired a shot in anger. Judged in terms of a trail blazer for the pioneers, he cannot be said to have been a success. In confusing the Canadian River for the Red he failed completely to accomphsh the main objective of his expedition of 1819. Moreover, many of his scientific collections and papers on this famous journey to the Rocky Mountains were lost or stolen. Unless by some miracle these materials should be found, Long's fame will continue to rest upon the magnificent mountain named for him in Colorado. That, plus his rather mundane work of clearing rivers and harbors of snags and sand bars. W. Eucene Hollon University of Toledo Texas Riverman: The Life and Times of Captain Andrew Smyth. By William Seale. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1966. Pp. xiv, 181. $5.00.) Andrew Farney Smyth, who h'ved and died in eastern...