For Courageous Fighting and Confident Dying (review)

BOOK REVIEWS179 around labor needs, military questions, and personal security matters. He argues that the "shift in authority from community autonomy toward more centralized decision making" took place during this initial period ofthe conflict (54). April 1862 to April 1863, according to Blair, was characterized by a "growing sense of injustice" as civilians grew discontented by food shortages, the wealthy hiring substitutes, and rising commodity prices. Focusing again on the three communities, Blair analyzes (table 3.1) the leading causes of military exemptions . He concludes that substitution, the overwhelming form of exemption , was not viewed critically by the lower segments of society who "otherwise had little opportunity to earn comparable money," as much as $2,000, from this practice (59-60). Where Blair, like many previous writers, carefully delineates the growing privations of this year, he differs in his conclusion that "the picture was by no means bleak." He finds that "unhappiness with the government did not overlap with disenchantment with the cause," particularly since "the success of Lee's army made continued sacrifice seem worthwhile" and allowed a "fragile stasis" to exist (80). During the third year of the war, Blair claims, "Momentum had swung toward turning the war into more of a rich man's fight," as officials "began to pay more attention to the needs of small slave owners, non-slave-owning farmers, and soldiers' families" (81). Blair highlights the military-related legislation passed by the Confederate Congress between December 1863 and February 1864, especially the "Fifteen-Negro Law." Blair contends that previous historians have ignored how this particular act dictated that planters who accepted this exemption were compelled to sell foodstuffs to the families of soldiers below market rates. While during the last year of the war additional problems with the government developed, Blair asserts that these difficulties "did not equate with the loss of hope in the Confederate cause" ( 1 3 1 ). He believes that the "Confederate identity forged among civilians was "good enough to win deep into 1864" (149-50). One minor concern with the book is Blair's unexplained decision not to analyze the letters to the secretary of war from the three Virginia communities for the remainder of the war after so effectively doing so for 1862. Despite this shortcoming, Blair's provocative interpretation about the role civilians played in the war's outcome will interest both scholars and students of this era. Robert C. Kenzer University of Richmond For Courageous Fightingand ConfidentDying. ByWarren B.Armstrong. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. Pp. xii, 171. $24.95.) The chaplaincy has played a significant role in American military history since colonial times. After the Mexican War and before the Civil War the chaplaincy became a point of some controversy and opposition, basically over the principle of the separation of church and state. However, because chaplains acquitted themselves so well in the war between the states, Warren B. Armstrong affirms ?8?CIVIL WAR HISTORY that "in a very real sense ... the Civil War rescued the chaplaincy from possible extinction as an American military tradition . . . [and] did much to commend the retention of this office in the army since that time" (x). Through impressive research of varied primary documents—letters, diaries, journals, official government reports—Armstrong has provided the reader with a comprehensive account as to the deeds, motives, influence, and example that chaplains rendered to the Union armies. In addition to the expected "religious" duties—conducting worship, ministry to the maimed and dying, pastoral counseling , ethical and spiritual instruction—the chaplains were also involved in writing letters for soldiers unable to write, maintaining libraries of both religious and secular literature, providing classes of instruction on a wide range of topics, foraging for food, serving as postmasters and financial agents, caring for freedmen in occupied Confederate territories, and on rare occasions engaging in fighting. Armstrong notes some qualities that marked effective chaplains, such as bravery , industriousness, and relational skills. Flexibility and open-mindedness seemed to be especially important because chaplains had to serve soldiers of diverse religious backgrounds. One chaplain wrote that "one good result of the Civil War was the removing of a great amount of [denominational] prejudice" (54). Recognizing that there were a...