The Edge of Mosby's Sword: The Life of Confederate Colonel William Henry Chapman (review)

John Singleton Mosby left an abundance of writing covering the exploits of his Confederate Partisan Rangers, which helped establish the battalion's legacy in Confederate lore. While much has been written about Mosby and his battalion, less is known about the officers who served under him. In The Edge of Mosby's Sword, Gordon B. Bonan examines the life of William Henry Chapman, who became one of Mosby's most trusted officers. Through the examination of Chapman's military and personal life, Bonan also illuminates social and political conditions prevalent during the rise and fall of the Confederacy.

Chapman attended the University of Virginia during the secession crisis, and Bonan recounts the pro-secessionist atmosphere cultivated on campus by both students and professors. Like many of the young students, Chapman volunteered for a military company raised at the university and assisted in an excursion to Harpers Ferry to capture its arsenal. After Harpers Ferry, Chapman returned home and volunteered for service in the Confederate army. Realizing the best way to procure a commission as an officer was with the artillery, Chapman helped raise a company that became known as the Dixie Artillery.

The small and poorly equipped Dixie Artillery was not present at the Battle of First Manassas, but thirteen months later, in August 1862, it played a significant part in the Battle of Second Manassas. On the last day of the battle, the timely arrival and placement of the Dixie Artillery helped decimate a large Union attack. While the Dixie Artillery had an important role in the repulse of the attack, accounts of the battle did not give it the credit it deserved, and Chapman spent the rest of his life defending his battery. The Dixie Artillery was not in existence much past the battle; it disbanded in the fall of 1862 during a reorganization of the Confederate artillery. Chapman lost his command and looked for another avenue of fighting the war.

In the spring of 1863, Chapman joined with Mosby and his newly formed battalion of Partisan Rangers. Although he would fight in no more large-scale battles, Chapman was attracted to this new style of warfare, which consisted of constant raids and action, rather than the long periods of inactivity with the regular army. Chapman quickly became one of Mosby's most trusted officers, the second in command at the age of twenty-four. While historical accounts often romanticize the actions of Mosby's Rangers, Bonan shows how the violence by the rangers and Union forces attempting to suppress them intensified as the war dragged on. Union forces instituted a harder war on the Confederacy and began burning the homes and materials of civilians whom they believed harbored the rangers. Union forces also began executing captured rangers. In retaliation against this new style of warfare by the Union army, the rangers also began to execute captured Union soldiers. When Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, there was uncertainty whether the rangers would receive the same terms of surrender, because of their irregular style of warfare. Deciding not to surrender, Mosby disbanded the battalion. In his final act as an officer, Chapman led roughly two hundred rangers to the Union army and arranged for terms of surrender.

Following the war, Chapman spent much of his life working for the federal government, which many southerners saw as treachery. Despite this, Chapman still attended soldier reunions and wrote his recollections of wartime events, particularly trying to give the Dixie Artillery credit for its role in securing a Confederate victory at Second Manassas. Understandably, Bonan mostly focuses on Chapman's life during the war, but it would have been useful if he had given more attention to the compelling story of Chapman following the conflict. Despite this minor critique, Bonan has written an excellent account of an obscure, yet...