Rescue by Rail: Troop Transfer and the Civil War in the West (review)

170CIVIL WAR HISTORY Rescue by Rail: Troop Transfer and the Civil War in the West. By Roger Pickenpaugh. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. Pp. xviii, 244. $27-95·) Despite the seemingly never-ending flood ofpublications on the CivilWar, some subject areas of the conflict continue to be slighted. One of the most neglected is the admittedly unglamorous world of logistics. Roger Pickenpaugh, a journalist and teacher in Caldwell, Ohio, has tackled the troop movement aspect of that world with this volume that examines the transfer of soldiers en masse by rail from the Virginia theater of the Civil War to the campaign for Chattanooga in the western theater. Unfortunately, the author chose not to explain in a preface his purpose for writing the book, his thesis, or his methodology. Information on the dustjacket says that "this is the story of the first great Federal troop movement by rail and of the corresponding Confederate transfer of General James Longstreet's troops a few weeks previously. The contrast between the two operations points up the Union advantages in technology, infrastructure, and mobility that would offset the Confederate advantage ofinterior lines." Though a"study ofa critical movement , the work also benefits from an assembly of anecdotes and comments from the troops involved." So we have an idea ofwhat to expect; nevertheless, a good introduction would have enhanced what is otherwise an excellent study of Civil War railroads and how they were used by military strategists. The book begins with an examination of the history ofAmerican railroading prior to and through the first two years of the war. The author skillfully traces the technical and administrative stories of the infant transportation systems. His analysis demonstrates not only that the South was woefully behind the North in developing agoodrailroad system, butalso why this happened, citing such Southern deficiencies as a lack of manufacturing, no central coordinating effort, scarcity of locomotives and rolling stock, and severe maintenance problems. The remainder ofthe book details the troop movements by train and provides insightful looks at the railroad officials, government officials, military officers, and common soldiers who shared the varying experiences ofachallenging transfer of large numbers of men and materiel. The focus of the narrative seems vague at times. One gets the impression that the author had trouble deciding whether to focus on the mechanics of the movement or on the troops and their trials and tribulations.Admittedly, these two aspects ofthe story are intertwined, but often the railroad aspect of the movement, which supposedly is the main theme of the book, is lost in the fog of military movements and actions not related to trains. Chapter 9 is devoted to action along theWauhatchie, which has nothing to do with the transfer of troops per se, but what they did after they arrived. A brief summary would have sufficed and kept the emphasis of the study where the title suggests it belongs. That criticism aside, Pickenpaugh has made a valuable contribution to our understanding of Civil War transportation and logistics. Thoroughly researched BOOK REVIEWSI7I and entertainingly written, Rescue by Rail will hopefully inspire others to investigate further the various aspects of military science that made it possible for Civil War armies to function. Michael B. Ballard Mississippi State University Wilson 's Cavalry Corps: Union Campaigns in the Western Theater. October1864 through Spring 1865. By Jerry Keenan. (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 1998. Pp. vii, 263. $32.50.) In the introduction to his definitive three-volume study, The Union Cavalry in the Civil War, Stephen Z. Starr intimated that James Harrison Wilson was perhaps one of the best cavalry commanders during the conflict. However, his accomplishments in western theater have been largely ignored by scholars who favor focusing on more flamboyant horsemen such as George Custer or J. E. B. Stuart. In his new book, Wilson 's Cavalry Corps, Jerry Keenan sets out to fill this void by producing a comprehensive study of the campaigns and mounted raids that Wilson's troopers conducted in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama in the closing months of the Civil War. During his famous Atlanta Campaign of 1864, Gen. William T. Sherman had been constantly plagued by Confederate horsemen under the able leadership...