Seige Train: The Journal of a Confederate Artilleryman in the Defense of Charleston (review)

book reviews271 people in Latin America. On this, as on many other issues, Bailey was ambivalent and inconsistent. At times he favored working with the Whigs or the Democrats, at other times heproposed a separate, antislavery party. Even his closest friends could not always rely on his support. On three differentoccasions, forwhat he believed were pragmatic political reasons, he urged friends not to become candidates for president. Because there is no collection ofGamaliel Bailey papers, much of this book is based on his published writing. Thereaderlearns moreabouthis ideas as expressed at a specific time than of his private views or his personality . In addition to writing and editing, Bailey provided information to antislavery congressmen. His home was a center of social life for the Free-Soilers and others who leaned toward that position. More details on those weekly gatherings would have helped round out the picture. A scholarly biography of Gamaliel Bailey was long overdue. His many contributions as an editor alone would make this work worthwhile. His lengthy service as an advocate of a clearly defined antislavery political party adds to his importance. However, along with his ability and willingness to work long hours, Bailey was a difficult colleague. He was a loner who sparked several political movements but seldom followed through. None of the antislavery political parties he helped create enjoyed his consistent and unreserved support. The same was true for individuals . Nevertheless, Bailey, along with many of the other abolitionists with whom he disagreed and publicly argued, all contributed to the emergence of a northern climate of opinion which eventually made slavery intolerable. The biography is thoroughly researched and well written. It is a welcome contribution to the history of abolition. Larry G ara Wilmington College Seige Train: The Journal of a Confederate Artilleryman in the Defense of Charleston. Edited by Warren Ripley. (Columbia: Published for the Charleston Library Society by the University of South Carolina Press, 1986. Pp. xxii, 364. $24.95.) In the early morning of July 10, 1863, United States naval and military forces traversed the narrow waters between Folly and Morris islands, near Charleston, South Carolina, and by the end of the day stood ready to launch a frontal assault on the rebel metropolis. That same day, just southwest of Charleston, the 18th Artillery Battalion of the Confederate Army, or South Carolina Seige Train, assumed a blocking position on James Island, and its commander, Major Edward Manigault, a civil engineer with slight military experience in the Mexican War, began the diary, continued for thirteen months, which is published for the first time in this book. 272civil war history The seige of Charleston constituted a minor event in the grand movement of the Civil War—the fate of the Union did not depend upon the outcome. During the567 days the seige lasted, violencewas intermittent and largely ineffectual and after a while was almost reduced to routine. (Although usually in the field, Major Manigault was able sometimes to take lunch at home.) Large forces were not committed on either side; in the decisive engagements of February, 1865, approximately 200 Confederates contended with no more than 1500 Federal soldiers. The value of Manigault's journal is in the revelation of the day-to-day experiences of war by an intelligent officer personally involved. There is enough martial contention to make the diary vital, enough monotony to make it ring true. Pages of the diary are filled with minutia no more exciting than daily weather reports—which are in fact faithfully recorded. But the major's disclosure of problems of military supply, descriptions of artillery training , detailed analyses of cannon performance, and summaries of daily administration and local war news contain graphic data not found elsewhere . A matter-of-fact tone pervades the whole discourse, extending even to the most consequential intelligence. "The US Steam sloop 'Housatonic ' was sunk to night by a Torpedo Boat" is the way the diarist filed away the incident in Charleston harbor of February 17, 1864, in which "CS. Hunley" earned a niche in history as the first submarine to destroy an enemy ship ofwar (p. 122). Yet one finds more than occasional flashes of humor, as when, after Manigault's horse...