Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns (review)

BOOK REVIEWS65 interpretations. These include the legends of Lincoln's or his mother's alleged illegitimacy; Lincoln's love for Ann Rutledge; Lincoln's religious beliefs; and the nature and quality of Lincoln's relationship with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln . For students especially concerned with Nancy Hanks Lincoln and her numerous kinfolk, the editors have provided a Hanks family tree by Paul H. Verduin as an appendix. There are 634 documents in all, representing over 250 contributors; the editors have listed them chronologically, not with respect to content, but according to the date oftheir accession into the Herndon, orHerndonWeik , collection. No. 2 14 is the longest: a report from the Allan Pinkerton Agency on the alleged plot to assassinate President-Elect Lincoln on his way to his inauguration , and the stratagems by which he traveled safely from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania , to Washington. This book scarcely needs a review to recommend it: the materials are priceless, the editing imaginative and erudite, the subject essential. Even the price is a bargain, considering the quantity and quality ofthe contents. Robert McColley University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Six Armies in Tennessee: The Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns. By Steven E. Woodworth. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 257. $29.95.) It is pleasing when a work lives up to the claims ofits general editors. Steven E. Woodworth does "offer readers concise syntheses of the [military operations in Middle and Eastern Tennessee during summer and fall 1863], reflecting the findings of recent scholarship." He does manage to avoid the distortions that come with oversimplification and splotchy coverage. This is an art. Woodworth marshals facts, concepts, and sources with a scholarly assurance and a stylish competence that makes the complex manageable, the vast comprehensible, and dim history vital. The understanding he shares is quite remarkable in its clarity. The military geography of middle and eastern Tennessee becomes intelligible; the importance ofthe key block of terrain between the Dry Valley and Lafayette Roads at Chickamauga is realized instantly; the idea that Missionary Ridge, tactically, was the reversal ofChickamauga makes wonderful sense; and no longer is Knoxville "and all that" so disconnected. Boldly Woodworth brushes aside accepted conclusions, continuing the work begun in his Jefferson Davis and His Generals. He raps Polk and Longstreet on the head, minimizes and criticizes all four of the Confederate cavalry leaders (Wheeler, Van Dorn, Morgan, and Forrest), and dismisses Kentuckians Buckner and Breckinridge. Only Cleburne and Bragg escape his sharp pen, the latter earning compliments as strategist, organizer, and tactician—at the expense of his subordinates. 66CIVIL WAR HISTORY Woodworth seems, this time, far more interested in discussing the merits and doings of the armies Grant will come to command. Burnside (Army of the Ohio) is nothing short of a bungler; Hooker (Army of the Potomac) seems balky and lacking the necessary "can-do" attitude; Sherman (Army of the Tennessee), on the other hand, is the reverse image of Bragg's Confederate subordinates: he obeys orders; he hits hard and swiftly; he is loyal; and he commands an army of "sturdy and resourceful" men. The cautious George Thomas (Army of the Cumberland) does not impress Woodworth, nor does William Rosecrans. The latter conducts the Tullahoma Campaign in a manner "nothing short of brilliant , complex yet practical and perfectly adapted to his army's capabilities," although the result is "most striking in its incompleteness." Everything changes when Grant assumes command in the gloom following Chickamauga. Grant is magnificent—seeing the military significance of terrain, handling details and problems personally, and utilizing the talents of Baldy Smith, Hazen, Sheridan, and Sherman. Woodworth joins Grant in searching out complacency and despising it. Some will quibble with the praise heaped on Minty and Wilder and Willich and others. Some will point out that Jefferson C. Davis was not a West Pointer, that Garfield and Dana did bear close watching. Doubtless readers will react strongly to Woodworm's audacious analyses and pronouncements, particularly of Union and Confederate leaders. But, on the whole, even the most critical will admire the clarity and insight he brings to the Tullahoma Campaign and Chickamauga. Few historians can deal so skillfully with so large a canvas. None have managed to offer...