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?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 few poor chaplains—and he specifically notes some of them—Armstrong goes on to assert that "for every poor example . . . there are many times over the good examples" (59). Armstrong's concluding chapters prove to be especially interesting. Most chaplains, he notes, were convinced "that the institution of slavery was at the root of all causes to which the war had been attributed" (95). Quoting the words of the chaplains, and adding his own observations and opinions, Armstrong emphasizes that "despite the rather cynical tendency today to dismiss moral principles as motivation for men's actions, it now seems evident that the chaplains of the Union armies and many of the thousands of solders they influenced fought not for the economic subjugation of the South, or the political supremacy of the North, but for the end of human bondage as well as for the preservation of the Union" (115). Many will question this conclusion, but Armstrong makes a strong case. This is an excellent book, well researched and well written. For the person seeking to understand the role of Union chaplains, this work cannot be ignored. David B. Chesebrough Illinois State University Memoirs ofa Nobody: The Missouri Years ofan Austrian Radical, 1849-1866. By Henry Boernstein. Translated by Steven Rowan. (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1997. Pp. xix, 412. $34.95 cloth, $22.95 paper.) Henry Boernstein was one of the most important leaders of mid-nineteenthcentury German-speaking immigrants in the American Midwest, but his memoirs have long been language-locked to most readers. Steven Rowan has now BOOK REVIEWSl8l provided a key to the American portion of the memoirs, translating them into a highly readable English. The result is a fresh perspective on the German-speaking community and their struggles in America, as well as important new information on the German immigrants' role in the Civil War, particularly in Missouri, where German immigrants were crucial in keeping this slave state in the Union. The son of a liquor and perfume factory manager, Boernstein was born in 1805 Hamburg, but raised in Galizia (now in the Ukraine). As a young man Boernstein lived a peripatetic existence, as a soldier, journalist, medical student , theatrical director, and actor. By the 1840s he was living in bohemian Paris, where he combined acting with political journalism and had a fleeting collaboration with Karl Marx. In 1849 Boernstein decided he had had his fill of Europe and European politics and joined the many hundreds of thousands German-speaking emigrants who came to the United States at mid-century. Quickly rejecting romantic notions about farming life, he settled in Highland, Illinois, where he set himself up as a hydrotherapeutic physician. Little more than a year later, however, a twist of fate made him the editor of the Anzeiger des Westens in nearby St. Louis. Through indefatigable energy he soon turned the paper into one of the most important German-language...

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