When This Cruel War Is Over: The Civil War Letters of Charles Harvey Brewster, and: Hard Marching Every Day: The Civil War Letters of Private Wilbur Fisk, 1861-1865 (review)

266CIVIL war history few entries will disappoint; for example, readers will learn much more about Simon Bolivar Buckner's term as Kentucky governor than they will about his time as a high-ranking Confederate general. Other relevant entries, particularly that given to the Orphan Brigade, are unsatisfying in their briefness. While no compilation of this kind can hope to be all-inclusive, the absence of several Civil War figures is surprising. Union general John Buford gets his due, but his cousin (and Confederate general) Abraham Buford does not appear . Confederate general George B. Crittenden appears (along with his father , the compromiser), but his brother (and Union general) Thomas L. Crittenden does not. Both, however, can be found in other frequently used reference works, such as Ezra Warner's two standards, Generals in Blue and Generals in Gray, so their omission here is no great problem for researchers. Many pleasant surprises await Middle Period scholars who take the time to give a close reading to this encyclopedia. Each of Kentucky's counties and all its major cities and towns have entries that include many Civil War-era events, often those unrelated to military operations in the field but essential to understanding war on the homefront. Entries on important geographic features that had tactical or strategic value during the war also contribute to our understanding ofKentucky's role in the conflict; a few, however, most notably the Cumberland Gap entry, will fail to satisfy Civil War students who have come to recognize its utility as a protected route of invasion and supply. Other entries are as interesting as they are unexpected. An entry on ironclads describes the Union navy's ship construction efforts in the Ohio Valley and the deployment of these ships in Kentucky waters. By their very nature, compilations such as this will have both high and low points. The Kentucky Encyclopedia hits far more high notes than low ones, and it doubtless will, as well, be guilty of providing many informative and entertaining diversions into other parts of the proud history of the Bluegrass State, from basketball to bourbon, thoroughbreds to Daniel Boone. Carol Reardon Pennsylvania State University When This Cruel War Is Over: The Civil War Letters of Charles Harvey Brewster. Edited by David W. Blight. (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1992. Pp. 366. $35.00.) Hard Marching Every Day: The Civil War Letters of Private Wilbur Fisk, 1861-1865. Edited by Emil and Ruth Rosenblatt. Foreword by Reid Mitchell. (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1992. Pp. 383. $25.00.) Letters, diaries, and, to a lesser extent, memoirs are the building blocks of our understanding ofthe Civil War soldiers' experience. Unfortunately, many of the hundreds of personal accounts of the war that have appeared in the last thirty years constitute small building blocks indeed; they add little that is not BOOK REVIEWS267 already apparent to even casual readers. We are fortunate, then, that 1992 produced two Union letter collections that rate among the very best—each for quite different reasons. When This Cruel War Is Over is a collection of 137 letters written by L. Charles Henry Brewster to his kin in Massachusetts between July 1861 and October 1864. Brewster's service with the 10th Massachusetts (until July 1864) put him in a position to observe some of the war's most important events; his later service as a recruiter of African-American troops in Norfolk allowed him to view firsthand the transformation of slave to soldier, the most dramatic outcome of what had emerged as one of the war's most important objectives: freeing the slaves. Brewster's writings reflect the rhythms of army life as well as any collection of letters published in recent years. Not simply a travelogue or recitation of battlefield maneuvers (as many letters and diaries are), Brewster faithfully recorded the gamut of emotions that were a constant part of every soldier's life: loneliness, confidence, depression, enthusiasm. From these intensely personal letters emerges a vivid portrait of what itfelt like to be a soldier in the Civil War. Brewster likewise reflected constantly on the issues most important to him and his comrades: health, promotion, Union leadership, the enemy, and slavery . It is...