Band of Brothers: Company C, 9th Tennessee Infantry (review)

BOOK REVIEWS2ÓI those who enjoy perusing a regimental roster, a complete descriptive roster is included. The maps are plentiful enough and of satisfactory quality. The Red Diamond Regiment is a worthy addition to the scholarship on the experience of the Civil War soldier and a volume that even the old vets of the 17th would be proud of. D. Scott Hartwig Gettysburg NMP Band ofBrothers: Company C, çth Tennessee Infantry. By James R. Fleming. (Shippensburg, Pa: White Mane Publishing, 1996. Pp. xxiii, 155. $24.95.) The growing popularity of Civil War reenactment groups has produced a genre of literature designed to serve the interests of reenactors. As a result, there has been a proliferation of regimental and company histories during the past decade . At their best, these volumes of microhistory allow Civil War enthusiasts to gain an appreciation of the sacrifice individual soldiers were willing to make on behalf of cause and country. At their worst, they are overly romanticized prose, exaggerating the glory and accomplishments ofdistantrelatives involved in a great conflict. Band of Brothers has both the strengths and weaknesses typical of this type of literature. At the heart of this work is the remarkable narrative of Capt. James I. Hall, a veteran ofCompany C. Hall was a graduate of Centre College and a member of the faculty of the Mountain Academy in Tipton County, Tennessee. Fighting alongside many of his former students and neighbors, Hall provides the reader with a vivid description of life in theArmy ofTennessee. His detailed attention to illness, rations, fatigue, prayer meetings, family gossip, and battlefield heroics allow for an authentic mental picture of conditions within the Confederate army. Hall was wounded three times during the course ofthe war and was actually reported dead at Perryville. The Hall narrative is supplemented by early years of the war. In spite of the value of the Hall narrative to Civil War scholars, it must be noted that he apparently wrote this essay thirty years afterthe warended. Fleming notes that the narrative may have been written to coincide with the dedication of a Confederate monument in 1895. Hall's politics are largely ignored. That is unfortunate, since the struggle between Populists and Bourbon Democrats was at its height in the 1 890s and the mantel of the "Lost Cause" was claimed by both groups. The glorification of the "Lost Cause" also played a role in legislation designed to institute segregation during the Populist Era. Fleming's work also contains a shorter narrative by Charles Simonton on the organization of the company, a few letters by other members of the "Southern Confederates," and some obituaries. The obituaries are somewhat puzzling, since Fleming does not always indicate in what newspapers they were published or the date of their publication. 2Ó2CIVIL WAR HISTORY Fleming chose to provide only a brief description of the military campaigns of the 9th Tennessee, preferring to allow Hall to enlighten posterity as to the contribution of Company C to the Confederate war effort. In a real sense, Band of Brothers is not so much a history of Company C as it is a chapter in the biography of Captain Hall. The rest of that biography has yet to be written. Thomas D. Matijasic Prestonsburg Community College Voices ofthe 55th: Lettersfrom the 55th Massachusetts Volunteers, 1861-1865. Edited by Noah Andre Trudeau. (Dayton, Ohio: Morningside House, 1996. Pp. 258. $24.95.) The 55th Massachusetts (Colored) Volunteers may not have the present-day name recognition of its famous brother regiment the 54th of Fort Wagner and Glory fame, but Noah Andre Trudeau's editorial efforts should certainly alert readers to its contributions to the Union war effort. The regiment began to take shape in May 1 863 when young black men primarily from Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia began to assemble in Readville, Massachusetts. By July, the regiment found itself moving south. After a brief stay in North Carolina, the 55th spent most of its service in South Carolina, except for a foray into Florida and some garrison duty in Savannah, until its discharge in Massachusetts in September 1865. Along the way to victory, the African American soldiers of the 55th shared the hardships of the...