One Surgeon's Private War: Doctor William H. Porter of the 57th New York (review)

354civil war history war, as has recent scholarship on the Chesnuts and Hammonds. The present volume is highly recommended for overnight guests at aptly named Welbourne, today a popular bed and breakfast in the genteel northern Virginia countryside. C. Stuart McGehee West Virginia State College One Surgeon 's Private War: Doctor William H. Porter ofthe 57th New York. By John Michael Priest et al. (Shippensburg, Pa.: White Mane Publishing, 1996. Pp. 158. $19.95.) This book is a reprint of a Civil War memoir that first appeared in 1888. It is a gem for two reasons. First, it is an account of a Buffalo, New York, doctor who spent three years with the Army of the Potomac. The good doctor offered his services after the first call for troops, was commissioned an assistant surgeon in September 1861, and along with other Buffalo volunteers became part of the Army of the Potomac. From the vantage point of a junior medical officer, he observed the Peninsula campaign, the Maryland campaign, and the Fredericksburg disaster. He was captured by the Confederates in 1 862, had an "interview" with Stonewall Jackson, and was locked up in the Libby Prison in Richmond. He was then released with the first exchange of prisoners, spent a brief time aboard the hospital ship Louisiana, and rejoined his old regiment. Promoted to surgeon after the Battle ofFredericksburg, he tended to the wounded during the Chancellorsville and Gettysburg campaigns and then was put in charge of a Union hospital, where he served until the end of the war. The Buffalo doctor, in short, saw much of the war and tells about it from a surgeon's perspective . The other interesting feature about this book is that it was put together by high school students. Under the supervision ofJohn Michael Priest, a Maryland high school teacher, seven students met after school for two years to research and edit the doctor's account of the war. Essentially, they learned about the craft ofthe historian and the archivist, and they learned well.Who was PatrickCorbley, the "good groom" mentioned on page 62? Or the man shot for desertion on page 83? Or Richard Alcoke, the captain who suffered a chest wound an page 108. The students provide the answers in the endnotes, and in some cases rather extensive answers, tracing the man's background back to the time of his enlistment , recording his promotions and demotions, and explaining what happened to him after he left the doctor's narrative. All in all, they did a splendid job, and we owe them and their teacher a vote of thanks. Leonard L. Richards University of Massachusetts, Amherst ...