The Twentieth Maine: A Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War (review)

116civil war history the battlefield at Chickamauga while the ground was stiU hot, so to speak, and some of the fighting in the vicinity of Chattanooga. Several pertinent comments are made on these activities, particularly with regard to the use of cavalry in this country. His reactions to the port cities and their defenses do not appear to be as lucid as the commentary of Fremantie. Indeed, it is with this latter author that his work bears comparison. Fremantie was in the Confederacy for a much shorter length of time, only three months. He, for the most part, did not cover the same ground or events as did Ross. The two accounts serve to complement and supplement each other, and fortunately, have been edited in their modern editions by the same man. Much of the pertinent commentary made by Fremantie and other observers of the situations experienced by Ross have been included as footnotes. These are most useful, and make the reading of Ross's work much more informative than would be the case had they been omitted. Ross's finest descriptions are of Havana, where he had little in the line of a cause to support. It is to be regretted that his commentary throughout the rest of the book was not of the same order of thoroughness, detaü, and thoughtful reflection. Neil E. Salisbury Iowa City, Iowa. The Twentieth Moine: A Volunteer Regiment in the Civil War. By John J. Pullen. (Phüadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 1957. Pp. x, 338. $5.00.) we already have many regimental histories, and the next five years wfll see the publication of many more. It is unlikely that many wül be better than this one. This is an altogether first-rate book. The fact that its author is little known in the field and that it appears amid a great outpouring of books about the Civil War probably means that it wiU be largely neglected by the widelycirculated reviewers; its shoulder has gone untouched by the sword of the big book clubs. Alas. This is far more than a regimental history; it is a wonderful book about the war. In attempting to describe why, one is tempted to do some speculating about the author. This, obviously, is a dubious practice. The dust jacket says only that Mr. PuUen comes from Maine, that his grandfather was at Appomattox, that he was an infantryman in the Second World War, and that he works for an advertising agency (or perhaps for a book publisher, since N. W. Ayer is both). There is no mention of any previous published writing. It all fits too neatly, because the rare quality of tiiis book is a kind of freshness , as if the writer had discovered aU this magnificent material only recently and was trying to tell everybody about his rich enthusiasm for it. He sounds like a young Cation, newly arrived on the field, or Kantor in the days of Long Remember. The vintage works of these two men have particular virtues, but there was in their early years a kind of catch-you-by-the-lapels intensity that madehundreds ofthousands ofus addicts forever. The man who can stiU grow gooseflesh by simply reciting to himself the names of the towns of the upper Book Reviews117 Shenandoah VaUey was, more often than not, hooked first by a writer who had poetic insight and historiography marvelously confused. Mr. Pullen is that kind of writer. Even when both the material and the reader are weU used, the light can stiU shine. This book once again teUs the story of Little Round Top, of Fredericksburg, of the Wüderness; here again is that "typical day" of the infantryman, the explanation of the Table of Organization of the Army of the Potomac and the semiclinical discussion of various lands of weapons. None of this is new, certainly, but it is seen through a new pair of eyes. Most of the great quantity of detail about the 20th Maine itself is not familiar, however, and it is of high interest (for example, an amusing examination of Casey's Infantry Tactics, the manual used by the 20th Maine). The letter-writingmen in...