Do They Miss Me at Home? The Civil War Letters of William McKnight, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry ed. by Donald C. Maness, H. Jason Combs (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 92 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY Taney’s thinking evolved as he wrote and rewrote his opinion. In the end, Taney recognized he was presiding over a session of the circuit court but nonetheless altered his opinion to reflect (and “exploit”) his position as chief justice. Lincoln, too, wrestled with both interpretation and presentation of his constitutional viewpoints. Particularly in determining how to handle the border states, the president understood the challenges of balancing the need to punish treason and using his pardoning power to create a greater commitment to the Union. White determines that the Merryman case represented the turning point in Lincoln’s thinking . Following Taney’s opinion, the president learned that if he “needed to do something to win the war, he would interpret the Constitution for himself and would, if necessary, bypass both Congress and the courts” (89). This realization had significant implications for the president’s wartime legal action from the issue of conscription to emancipation and beyond. Rachel A. Shelden Georgia College Do They Miss Me at Home? The Civil War Letters of William McKnight, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry Donald C. Maness and H. Jason Combs, eds. Lieutenant William McKnight of the 7th Ohio Cavalry did not survive the Civil War. McKnight died in June 1864 at Cynthiana, Kentucky, in an engagement with the horsemen of Confederate Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan. McKnight left behind a widow, Samaria, and six children, along with a revealing and intimate collection of more than one hundred wartime letters. A twenty-nine year old blacksmith from Meigs County, Ohio, and a devoted father of six at the time of his enlistment, McKnight was not a typical Union recruit. Born in Canada to Scottish parents, McKnight joined Company K of the 7th Ohio Cavalry in 1862 and was quickly promoted to sergeant, eventually winning a second lieutenant ’s commission (and perhaps the rank of captain, though his final rank remains unconfirmed ) shortly before his death. McKnight was not formally educated, and the editors have wisely chosen to preserve his inconsistent grammar and spelling despite the difficulties these might pose for some modern readers. Throughout the collection, McKnight’s unique voice shines through. He describes many of the routine events in the life of a Civil War cavalry regiment. Although McKnight’s regiment was not famous, it saw its share of hard service in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama in the last three years of the war, and McKnight’s correspondence provides tantalizing details about his unit’s numerous skirmishes and engagements. McKnight’s letters also illustrate the problems soldiers faced due to long absences from home. Homesickness and the strain on his marriage are persistent themes in McKnight’s letters, and at times he had to soothe his wife’s anxieties caused by gossip . For example, when Samaria confronted him about rumors of his infidelity, McKnight replied, “I think the folks at home must have BOOK REVIEWS SUMMER 2012 93 very little to do and you dear Wife inflicted a severe wound in my Heart when you intimated that I had been unfaithful to you God bless. You are all the world to me” (31). McKnight’s letters also reveal that he was a sensitive and compassionate man. When Samaria wrote to him in October 1863 asking for financial help, he answered her sorrowfully : “My heart Ackes for you. I never felt so bad about you in my life. There is no chance for to help you as I am out of money. I have the best Horse in the Regmt that I would send home but I cant share him now but hope to put him into market soon and then I wil be able to help you a little. You must do the best you can. I hope to be with you again. It is the one great and uppermost thought of my Heart” (128). Later that month, McKnight described the battlefield death of his friend, Captain Joel P. Higley, to Samaria. “The feeling that came over me at that moment I never can Describe. I raised him gently in my arms walking bacward I draged him 3 Rods up the hill laid him behind a log...