A Mississippi Rebel in the Army of Northern Virginia: The Civil War Memoirs of Private David Holt (review)

282CIVIL WAR HISTORY is clear and easy to follow. Taylor's assertion that the Confederate forces were so weakened by this apparent victory that it contributed to their later defeat and abandonment of the effort makes sense. Glory, Glory, Glorieta does more than its title implies. It is a survey of the entire New Mexico campaign with emphasis on the climatic battle at Glorieta Pass. A popularly written account, Scott's book lacks notes and contains only a rudimentary bibliography. Scott goes against the accepted opinion of both contemporary observers and modern commentators by asserting that the commander of the invasion forces, Henry Hopkins Sibley, was "one of the most competent officers" (vi) in the Confederate army and absolves him of charges of drunkenness. Instead Scott suggests that the Confederate government deliberately disparaged Sibley as a way of disguising the importance placed on the Western theater and its intention to renew the effort there later. No evidence is offered, and this, combined with the general lack of documentation, suggests caution in accepting the argument at face value. The general reader seeking a concise summary of the New Mexico invasion will enjoy reading Glory, Glory, Glorieta. The more knowledgeable will find themselves frustrated by the lack of authority for many of Scott's assertions. Josephy's Civil War in the American West is still the place to begin for those interested in that theater of the war. Bloody Valverde tells all one needs to know about an important part of that campaign. Glory. Glory, Glorieta is not essential and adds little to our understanding of the war in the West. It might be included if a complete collection of studies of the Western war is desired, but it is not otherwise a necessary acquisition. Michael D. Pierce Tarleton State University A Mississippi Rebel in the Army ofNorthern Virginia: The Civil War Memoirs ofPrivate David Holt. Edited by Thomas D. Cockrell and Michael B. Ballard. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995. Pp. 354. $34.95.) A native of Wilkinson County in southwestern Mississippi, David Holt tried to enlist in the Wilkinson Rifles, better known as Company K of the 16th Mississippi Regiment, when barely seventeen, in the winter of 1 86-61 . Looking even younger than his age, he was derided by the local sheriff, who also served as enrolling officer, "Do you suppose we can carry along a wet nurse for your benefit?" Determined to participate in the fighting, as an older brother had done in the Mexican War, David helped organize a group of other teenagers as "The Cadets." They drilled with a single rifle in mock exercises. When the Wilkinson Rifles went to the Virginia front in the summer of 1 861 , the Cadets stayed home to perform local police duty. They built a shack for a shelter, and each boy furnished his own gear and rations. book reviews283 Finally, in the spring of 1862, Holt and some of the others were allowed to enlist as reinforcements for the Mississippians in Virginia. An exuberant Holt suddenly became sober when he saw "my little sweetheart with her handkerchief to her face, crying in a perfect passion of grief as the train carrying them out of town pulled from the station (67). Overcome, he leant from the train for one last hug and then ran down the track after the departing train (à la a Mack Sennett comedy) to be pulled aboard by his companions. Holt served first in the Valley campaign with Stonewall Jackson and then with the Army of Northern Virginia throughout the war, except for Second Manassas and Antietam, when he was recovering from a severe illness in a Richmond hospital and at the plantation home of some relatives. Captured during the Petersburg campaign, he was sent to the Federal prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, where he spent the fall of 1 864. Paroled that November, he returned to Savannah and from there found his way across war-torn Georgia and Alabama to his home in Mississippi in what seems an incredible and somewhat implausible journey. Regardless of this, Holt, who wrote this memoir near the close of a long and busy life (he served as an...