The Papers of Zebulon Baird Vance (review)

274CIVIL WAR HISTORY land forces, and the testy naval officer, he gives the latter full credit for subduing the two main works in the way of free passage of the river. The fascinating chapter dealing with the city's surrender is also notable. Focusing on the maddened crowd threatening federal officers, the uncooperative mayor, and the retreating Confederate military authorities, Hearn highlights the heroism of Comm. Theodorus Bailey and his assistant, Lt. George H. Perkins, in braving the mob to demand the capitulation ofNew Orleans. In view of the fact that Farragut threatened to shell the city if it did not comply with his demands and that Pierre Soulé and Mansfield Lovell calmed the crowd and evacuated in time, the author credits them with saving New Orleans. This tribute is merited, while the obloquy heaped on Lovell after the surrender, as Hearn points out, was undeserved. Concluding with a brief summary of the courts of inquiry and the controversies after the end of the war, the author well justifies his conclusions with the findings of these tribunals and additional evidence pointing to Richmond's responsibility for the loss of New Orleans. There are, of course, some shortcomings in this book. Nonspecialists in naval warfare may find some of the details and technical terms wearying, and Hearn misses some points by failing to use the best secondary works available. For example, the exact nature of the construction and outline of the forts was provided for Farragut not only by the chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac, Brig. Gen. John T. Barnard, who had collaborated with Pierre T. Beauregard in rebuilding Fort St. Philip and strengthening Fort Jackson, but also by Butler's engineer officer, Geoffrey Weitzel, who had been stationed at the forts for several years before the war and now was able to give the flag officer additional information. It may also be said that after the publication of Charles L. Dufour's The Night the War Was Lost, no further study of the capture of New Orleans was necessary, but this book is so well written, illustrated, and supplied with appendices and maps that it serves as a valuable supplement to the earlier work. All in all, it is an impressive contribution to the history of the Civil War. Hans L. Trefousse Brooklyn College and Grad. Center, CUNY The Papers ofZebulon Baird Vance. Vol. 2. 1863. Edited by Joe A. Mobley. (Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1995. Pp. 436. $35.00.) Even today white North Carolinians consider the charismatic Zebulon Baird Vance (1830-94) one of their foremost heroes. In the pre-Civil War years the proslavery Vance served as aWhig in the state legislature, as a newspaper editor, and in the U.S. Congress. A supporter of John Bell in the i860 election, during the secession crisis Vance favored compromise and the Union but ultimately felt betrayed when Abraham Lincoln's administration failed to abandon Fort book reviews275 Sumter. After organizing an infantry company in Buncombe County, Vance had an undistinguished career as colonel of the 26th North Carolina Volunteers. He returned to politics in September 1862 when conservatives, who opposed the war and objected to Confederate policies, elected him governor. Reelected in 1864, Vance served for the remainder of the war, constantly juggling his devotion to North Carolina and to the new Confederacy. Volume 2 ofVance's selected papers (Frontis K. Johnston edited volume 1 in 1963 and Gordon B. McKinney and Richard M. McMurry edited a comprehensive thirty-nine reel microfilm edition in 1987) prints 387 letters to and from Vance in 1863. Meticulously introduced, transcribed, annotated, and indexed by editor Joe A. Mobley, the correspondence underscores Vance's dual allegiances to North Carolina and the Confederate republic. Vance's 1863 papers provide a valuable window through which to observe the tensions that flared continuously between the Raleigh and Richmond governments. Conscription of North Carolinians for Confederate service, for example, remained a constant bone of contention between Vance and Jefferson Davis's administration. In March 1 863 Vance informed Gen. Gabriel J. Rains, superintendent of the Bureau of Conscription, that he supported Confederate policy fully. "Though," Vance argued, "I have not...