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80CIVIL WAR HISTORY As for the documents themselves, they seem well chosen and intelligently annotated. Regrettably, the president's own writings are quite sparse, and one gets little sense of the private man. Still, the incoming letters, almost entirely from supporters, hold several features of interest. Nineteenth century politics revolved around patronage, but it is instructive to be reminded of how allpervasive this concern was. Correspondents seldom wrote him about anything else. Most compelling are the plaints of supporters of Johnson's abortive centrist third party, the National Union movement of the 1866 campaign. Johnson had abandoned them to ally with the Democrats, leaving them furious. Another striking point is the racial hatred expressed by Johnson's supporters. Almost nothing contradicts the depiction of them as wholesale racists—one searches hard for any indication of concern for the emancipated slaves. Johnson himself, however, comes off a bit better. There are a few references to personal contributions by the president for charities benefiting the freedpeople. The documents do demonstrate some arresting features. One refers to rumors —spread by allies—of sexual favors to Johnson in exchange for presidential pardons. Another letter offers, apparently in earnest, to bribe someone on Johnson's behalf to avert a scandal. Several obscure missives suggest political espionage by the president. One letter might even suggest involvement by Johnson in the Lincoln assassination. One frustrating feature of the editorial policy of the volumes is that some of the most striking allegations receive little annotation, leaving it to the reader to evaluate the credibility unaided. The editors might also have found the space to explain that the "Canadian Cherokee Delegation" refers to a river in Oklahoma, not the nation (136). These caveats aside, this is a fine collection that should be of interest to a range of scholars. For Southern historians, there is a bounty of firsthand reports on the Reconstruction process, especially from Johnson's native Tennessee. Scholars of the African American experience will find this a cross-section of hostile commentary on the social changes accompanying enfranchisement. This compilation provides access to political viewpoints that have not received much sympathy in recent years. Michael W. Fitzgerald St. Olaf College Custer. The Controversial Life ofGeorge Armstrong Custer. By Jeffry D. Wert. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. Pp. 462. $27.50.) Jeffry D. Wert calls his new biography of George Armstrong Custer "the first full-scale study of his entire life in over three decades" (9). This is surely a propitious time for a fresh appraisal ofAmerica's most flamboyant soldier. The thirty-seven years since the publication of Jay Monaghan's 1959 landmark, Custer. The Life of General George Armstrong Custer, have witnessed a stupendous outpouring of Custer material. More books, articles, and films have book reviews8i been produced about the long-haired cavalier and his final hours at the Little Bighorn than about Abraham Lincoln or the Battle ofGettysburg. Going beyond the legendary "Last Stand," a small army of buffs and scholars have also written a series of groundbreaking works exploring less familiar aspects of the Custer story. Drawing on the best of these previous works and fresh sources located by his own research, Wert offers the most accurate account of Custer's meteoric rise in the Civil War yet to see print. This comes as no surprise, as Wert is the author of three popular books on the war in the East, where Custer launched his spectacular military career. Graduating last in his class at West Point in June 1 86 1, the charismatic Ohioan with a love for combat won a dramatic elevation to the rank of brigadier general in only two years. By the war's end, he was a major general commanding the best cavalry division in the Army of the Potomac — and still seven months short of his twenty-fifth birthday. Wert succeeds in portraying the combination of tactical skill and daredevil courage that turned Custer into the idol of his troopers and Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's favorite subordinate. Custer lived for eleven tumultuous years after Appomattox, but he never again tasted the glory and satisfaction he enjoyed while helping to destroy the Confederacy. Ironically, Wert's coverage...

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