Virginia Railroads in the Civil War (review)

92CI VIL WAR HISTORY performed. If a narrative is to go beyond recounting action, the value of any analysis is why a general performed as he did under the precise circumstances controlling him as an individual. For example, Stackpole points out truly that Early, a bitter man and hard loser, was ungenerous in his attitude toward Sheridan. But why was Sheridan ungenerous to all the Confederates who opposed him? Moreover, did either personality affect the results? Rather, in their separate ways they were rough, hard men who played to win, and one was on the stronger club. Clifford Dowdey Richmond, Virginia Virginia Railroads in the Civil War. By Angus James Johnston, II. (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Published for The Virginia Historical Society by The University of North Carolina Press, 1961. Pp. xiv, 336. $6.00. ) this is a superior piece of work. It is more than a monograph, and it is concerned with more than wartime transportation by rail. Indeed, it presents a quite admirable résumé of military operations in Virginia from 1861 to 1865. Mr. Johnston does not, to be sure, stray very far from his railheads, but neither did the major campaigning. For the Confederates, especially, the military effort seldom departed from a railroad base, and it is significant that when it did the Southerners usually found themselves in trouble. By contrast, it was the true interest of the Federal forces to make maximum use of the estuary system of the Chesapeake, and on those numerous occasions when they emphasized the iron horse, they performed with little distinction. That the peculiar geography cum rail net of central Virginia was responsible for these things, the author makes altogether clear. In the immediate theater of conflict, the Federals, though it took them over three years to grasp this, could do rather well without railroads. The Confederates, and here it did not take quite so long for the facts to sink in, could not. It is obvious that the author has performed an extraordinary amount of research; his notes are so elaborate that it is a matter of gratification that they are placed at the end of the volume. They are, however, eminently worth consulting. If they convey an impression of enormous detail, it will be recalled that the Virginia doings of the early 1860's were themselves more than a little extensive. Nevertheless, Mr. Johnston deftly avoids any significant personal derailments . There are no striking errors of fact, except perhaps the assertion (on page 225) that Savannah was one of the Confederacy's last ports. The overcritical may deplore the comparative lack of attention to the higher echelons of military railroad administration. On the Union side, Daniel McCallum never really comes to life (though Herman Haupt does); behind the Confederate lines, we seldom encounter William M. Wadley, or Frederick W. Sims, while William Shepperd Ashe is wholly confined to the notes. Book Reviews93 But these are matters of little consequence. Far more significant are the happy abilities of the author to organize material and to write English. Books of this scope and character are too often soporific; Virginia Railroads in the Civil War is clearly not. It is of such quality that this particular theater of historical operations will require no reinforcements in the foreseeable future. An attractive format and typography add to the appeal of the volume. Robert C. Black, III Trinity College The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans, U.S.A. By William M. Lamers. (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1961. Pp. ix, 499. $6.95.) Lee's Maverick General: Daniel Harvey Hill. By Hal Bridges. (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1961. Pp. viii, 323. $7.50.) that major generals William s. rosecrans, u.s.a., and D. Harvey Hill, C.S.A., were military enigmas in the Civil War is not their only similarity. Rosecrans was born in Ohio of a migrant family. Hill entered the world in South Carolina, but made the sister state to the north his home. Rosecrans and Hill were at West Point together, and in the famous fifty-six-man Class of 1842, Rosecrans ranked fifth and Hill twenty-eighth. In the Civil War both...