Frederic Augustus James's Civil War Diary: Sumter to Andersonville, and: Memoirs of a Swiss Officer in the American Civil War (review)

74CIVIL WAR HISTORY opposition to the war caused him great personal and financial loss. Although the author contends Milligan's loyalties were to basic principles of government as he saw them rather than to the Lincoln administration , it is apparent that Milligan's legal position paralleled the southern stance on secession. Indeed, Milligan seems very southern in attitude and sympathies. Kelley contends that race "made no difference" (p. 16) to Milligan's opposition to the war, but reports on page 49 that he served as chairman of a Democratic Resolutions Committee which condemned the Union army because abolitionists commanded it. While he asserts that Milligan "had more points of friction than ties of unity" (p. 46) with Clement Vallandigham, on page 67 Kelley refers to a published account of Milligan's association with the Ohioan in the Sons of Liberty. The author makes no attempt to refute the charge until page 78 when he contradicts the earlier statement with no data to support his refutation . Kelley's book suffers from a number of other problems. Stylistically it is encumbered with excessively long quotes. Occasionally the author wanders from his main subject. Furthermore, the book is based overwhelmingly on Huntington County newspapers and secondary sources. There is no bibliography and the author asks us to accept his contention that this would have required another book by itself. At no point is there any explanation of the total lack of Milligan papers—or even whether any exist. Despite Kelley's efforts to glorify Milligan the lawyer emerges as a narrow individual. Milligan, it seems clear, was concerned with his legal principles regarding secession rather than with a concept of freedom of speech. The important civil rights case was incidental to Milligan's intentions in opposing the war. In Women Spies for the Blue and the Gray Oscar Kinchen recounts the exploits of "Rebel Rose" Greenhow, Emma Edmonds, Elizabeth Van Lew and eighteen others. This series of short stories is taken from memoirs, newspapers and secondary sources. While some of the ladies, such as Laura Ratcliffe, barely qualify as spies, all are interesting. The book is intended for the general reader. Kinchen's style makes a readable work which will serve as a good introduction for those interested in the topic. The bibliography should provide further areas for additional reading. Lee Scott Theisen Office of Presidential Libraries National Archives Frederic Augustus James's Civil War Diary: Sumter to Andersonviüe. Edited by Jefferson J. Hammer. (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1973. Pp. 153. $8.00.) Memoirs of a Swiss Officer in the American Civil War. Edited by Heinz K. Meier. (Bern, Switzerland: Herbert Lang, 1972. Pp. 193.) BOOK REVIEWS75 The publication of personal diaries and memoirs of our most "popular" war continues with undiminished vigor. F. A. James was a carpenter's mate aboard the U.S.S. Housatonic until he was captured during the abortive September 8, 1863 assault on Ft. Sumter. Incarcerated for almost a year in four Confederate prisons (including almost four months at Andersonviüe), he began, in February, 1864, to record cryptic , yet often literate observations of the monotonous prison routine. That he was a sensitive individual is indicated by his poignant reaction to the news of the death of his daughter (pp. 49-50) and the death and burial of a comrade at Salisbury, N.C. (pp. 52-56). His initial carpenter's-eye description of Andersonviüe is also somewhat revealing (pp. 78-79). Even after he became ill in July (he died in mid-September ), James stoically maintained his equilibrium amid brutal circumstances . There is an introduction, appendix, and index plus a genealogy of the James family and forty illustrations. Despite substandard editing and loose scholarly standards by Mr. Hammer, who is a Civil War "buff," this prisoner's diary may have some appeal to the reading public . First published in Switzerland in 1865, Memoirs of a Swiss Officer in the American Civil War is young Rudolph Aschmann's matter-offact , unemotional (and Victorian) account of three years service in the Army of the Potomac as a member of Berdan's elite New York sharpshooter's regiment. Enthusiastic for the military life in 1861, Aschmann...