One of Morgan's Men: Memoirs of Lieutenant John M. Porter of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry ed. by Kent Masterson Brown (review)

One of Morgan's Men: Memoirs of Lieutenant John M. Porter of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry reads as a biography, military chronicle, and personal narrative of antebellum history. It is a valuable exploration of what family, home, and country mean in the mind of one soldier. It will best please those who have a vested interest in the history of the Confederacy and, more specifically, of Kentucky during the war.

Porter is an honest narrator, and the affection he felt for his Confederate comrades and their collective cause is palpable. The tasks facing the regiment, and therefore the greater Confederacy, weighed heavy on the minds of Porter and the rest of Morgan's men. He writes honestly of the emotional toll of the war, and is especially fond of home. On several occasions, he writes openly of his love of Kentuckians and his frustration at the men's "inability to permanently rescue them from the hands of an unscrupulous enemy" (84). Notwithstanding the obstacles Porter encounters on a consistent basis, his prose never ceases to hope for a resolution and a proud victory for the Confederacy.

Despite his affinity for the causes of the Confederacy, Porter is unwilling to discuss the influence of slaves in his narrative. While he does briefly mention black prisoners of war, referring to them as "the property of the southern people," he virtually ignores African Americans (190). As Brown mentions in his introduction, Porter came from a family of slaveholders; this undoubtedly influenced his identity as both a man and a southerner. Nevertheless, this exclusion is not wholly peculiar, considering the memoir as Porter's personal war narrative, written for the benefit of himself, his family, and the Confederate memory of the war. It is doubtful that he ever hoped his words would become a political manifesto.

Porter may be the primary author of the narrative, but the work benefits greatly from the brilliant editing of Kent Masterson Brown. At approximately two hundred pages, Porter's text is slight, but Brown's endnotes and expansive bibliography provide the details Porter excluded. Included in Brown's notes are short descriptions of the environs Porter inhabited during the war as well as logistical information and biographical sketches of the numerous characters Porter encountered. Maps, illustrations, and photographs further define Porter's experiences and add to the reader's experience.

Morgan's memoir is an intriguing example of the toll the war took on individual men, their families, and their homes; however, the book represents a very specific niche in local Civil War history. The subject of Porter himself and his individual experiences as a Confederate soldier will not suit readers whose Civil War interests are more macro than micro. Despite this, One of Morgan's Men is a work of great interest; from Porter's original transcript to the superb editing by Brown, the memoir represents the individualized effect of war, as well as the celebration of one man's memory.