The Dark Corner of the Confederacy (review)

BOOK REVIEWS71 so the trouble might have been averted. ActuaUy the Provost Marshal General, James B. Fry, went out of his way to secure close cooperation between federal, state, and local officials, hoping to soften the impact of the draft. A few factual errors creep in, such as listing Joel B. Erhardt as the 9th District provost marshal (48) The Erhardt error, however, was due to the author's dependence upon Herbert Asbury's The Gangs of New York. Asbury identified Erhardt as the 9th District provost marshal and McCague, foUowing Asbury closely, describes the same incident concerning Erhardt, and then mentions the 9th District link. And on the next page McCague correctly identifies Thomas Jenkins as the 9th District provost marshal. The extensive use of Asbury is disquieting. Since there are no citations the reader cannot be sure Asbury is being relied upon, but in many places he can find passages from Asbury used almost verbatim by McCague. Perhaps a word is changed here and there, but it sounds like Asbury. Or maybe they both copied from the same newspapers without changing the language. If one is not troubled by the absence of documentation or by a few minor errors, he wül enjoy the book. The suspense, the terror, the valiant but futile struggles of the Metropolitan Police to bring order out of anarchy, a close look at the rioters—it is all there. And one may find answers to some of the questions that have perplexed historians for a century. Were the riots planned in advance? were there any real leaders of the mob? what was the role of "Andrews of Virginia"? was it aU a Confederate conspiracy? The author, with good reason, doubts that the mobs were organized on a very high level, or that there were any official leaders. He correctly plays down Andrews' role and dismisses the Confederate conspiracy theory as nonsense . Thus, whüe "The Second RebeUion" is of some value, it is not the definitive study—if there ever can be such—of the draft riots of 1863. Eugene C. Murdock Marietta CoUege The Dark Corner of the Confederacy. Edited by B. P. Gallaway. (Dubuque , Ia.: William C. Brown, 1968. Pp. xvi, 188. $3.95.) The subtitle of this soft-cover volume teUs the purpose of the compüation—Accounts of Civil War Texas as Told by Contemporaries. Editor GaUaway of Abüene Christian CoUege has assembled forty eye-witness accounts of various phases, both military and civilian, of the participation of Texas in the great conflict of the Sixties. Several of the accounts are set a few years before or after the war. GaUaway has not neglected such important and weU-known Texas Confederate incidents as the Twiggs giveaway of the Federal forts in February, 1861; Dick Dowling's great victory at Sabine Pass in September, 1863; and the battle of Galveston , New Year's Eve and Day, 1862-1863. Along with these famous Civü War events in the Lone Star State the editor has judiciously woven in eye witness accounts of such things as the organization of selected Texas military units, blockade running off of the Texas coast, the mass hanging of Unionists at Gainesvüle, and stagecoach operations in south central Texas. Prior to each article GaUaway has written a background sketch that sets the stage for the reporting of the incident. Dr. Joe B. Frantz has written a short forward, and editor GaUaway has prefaced his compüation with a weU-written, capsuled general introduction. Lengthy appendices include: Confederate Military Organization; Notes on Chronology: Events in Texas During the War; and Biographical Notes: An Essay on Texas Civil War Historiography. The Dark Corner of the Confederacy is an outstanding compüation of Texas Confederate history. Harold B. Simpson HuI Junior CoUege ...