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book reviews169 exclusively on Paludan). O'Brien claims to have used "Civil War-era sources . . . extensively," but then adds this: "However, since many of these sources are relatively inaccessible in their original editions, I have cited secondary sources that quote from the originals wherever possible for the convenience ofthe readers " (xi). Most teachers and professors would flunk a student who submitted a term paper with such a disclaimer. Add to these weaknesses O'Brien's tendency to over generalize—with very little documentation—about issues of race, class, gender, and region, and one is left with a book that could have offered far more. Then again, it could be that O'Brien suffers mostly by comparison to Grace's masterful handling of the intricacies of the Confederate war in East Tennessee. Daniel E. Sutherland University of Arkansas "Desolating This Fair Country ": The Civil War Diary and Letters ofLt. Henry C. Lyon, 34th New York. Edited by Emily N. Radigan. (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1999. Pp. xi, 209. $31.50.) "Written in Blood": A History ofthe 126th New York Infantry in the Civil War. By Wayne Mahood. (Highstown, N.J.: Longstreet House, 1997. Pp. xiv, 552. $40.00.) During the Civil War no other American state equaled, in participation or in casualties incurred, the sacrifice ofNewYork. The Empire State furnished nearly 450,000 fighting men for the United States, over ten percent of whom—46,534 in all—died either upon the war's ghastly battlefields or in hospitals and prison pens. Two recent works detail the experiences of upstate New Yorkers in the internecine conflict, focusing upon a pair of regiments that served within the Army of the Potomac's vaunted Second Corps. The first, a collection of diary entries and nearly two dozen letters, recounts the brief wartime career of Henry Clinton Lyon of South Pulteney, New York. Born in 1837, Lyon grew into a young man of promise. At age twenty-three he served as a delegate to the Republican Convention in Chicago, emerging from the assemblage a fervent supporter ofAbraham Lincoln. After the outbreak of war, Lyon answered the call ofhis president, dutifully enlisting in Company I of the 34th New York Infantry. Mustered in as first sergeant, Lyon was breveted second lieutenant on May 26, 1862. He, along the rest of the 34th, first experienced sustained combat five days hence at Fair Oaks, the opening salvo of the battles for Richmond. He later saw action during the Seven Days, and on September 17 at Antietam Lyon received a mortal wound when his unit was overwhelmed by Confederates at the West Woods near the famed Dunker Church. He died on October 5, 1862 aboard a train bound for home. Lyon's diary and letters reveal an articulate recruit soUdly committed to his cause and his company. Though always desperate to hear from his family (and 170CIVIL war history often quite ill), Lyon never questioned his participation in the conflict. One is struck by his equipoise, whether in battle or amidst the numbing drudgery and miseries ofcamp life. Possessing utmost confidence in his superiors, Lyon typified the Army of the Potomac's rank and file in his unflagging adherence to Maj. Gen. George B. McCleUan (this in spite of the latter's conservative political leanings), indeed, Lyon emerges through his correspondence the very model of a citizen soldier—faithful, obedient, and eminently inteUigent. Regrettably, Lyon's early demise prevents the reader from learning more. Might the Ueutenant have developed the characteristic distrust of poUticians— Lincoln included—that pervaded his army in the wake of McCleUan's removal in November 1862? Would the awful carnage of Fredericksburg have dampened Lyon's enthusiasm for his leaders, or for the Federal cause? Such questions , ofcourse, remain unanswerable. But perhaps most unfortunate is Radigan's editorial presentation. There are many errors, including a reference to "Major John Sedgwick" (182) and the assertion that the four regiments of William A. Gorman's brigade (of which the 34th was a part) constituted the "Second Corps organization" (149). Moreover, several bibUographic citations are incomplete, and explanatory narrative of Antietam is insufficient and at times confusing (two ofthe finest secondary works on the battle, Stephen W...

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