Book Notes

BOOK NOTES Fallen Guidon: the Forgotten Saga of General Jo Shelby's Confederate Command: the Brigade that Never Surrendered and the Story of its Expedition across Texas and down to Mexico City in 1865. By Edwin Adams Davis. (Santa Fe: Stagecoach Press, 1962. Pp. xiii, 175. $5.00.) When Lee's surrender at Appomattox heralded the end of the Civd War, Confederate General Jo Shelby and his brigade of Missouri cavalrymen determined not to lay down their arms. Rather, they resolved to make their way to Mexico City and offer their couective services to Emperor Maximilian in his fight against the Juaristas. This book tells of the long ride from Fulton, Arkansas, to the Mexican capital—a journey marked by fights both widi outlaws and among the troops themselves. It was a battered little band that finaUy reached Mexico City, and Maximilian extracted die last strength from the brigade by refusing the assistance of die Americans. The saga is little known and exciting; yet diis version of it abounds with shortcomings. The author embarks consistendy on tangents, and he too often makes sweeping, debatable statements, such as terming Lincoln the Civil War's "guiding military genius." The book is not indexed. Aldiough heavy widi quotations, the volume is also void of documentation. Dr. Davis has relied for the most part on the writings of Shelby's adjutant, John Edwards. IronicaUy, his analysis of Edwards' style seems rather appropriate for summing up his own approach: "Flamboyant, overly dramatic, out of time and place. . . ." Diary of the Civil War, 1860-1865. By George Templeton Strong. Edited by Allan Nevins. (New York: Macmillan Company, 1962. Pp. hii, 664. $10.00.) This book is essentiaUy a reissued third volume of The Diary of George Templeton Strong, edited in its entirety by AUan Nevins and Mdton Halsey Thomas and published in 1952. The senior editor of the complete work now presents under separate cover the portion of the diary for the Civd War years, adorned widi a fresh introduction and a twenty-page supplement of "Additions from the MS Diary" representing some of Strong's comments on the conflict deleted from the original volume. The member of a prominent New York City law firm, a respectable patrician socialite, an active Trinity Church vestryman and Columbia CoUege trustee, Strong bent his best efforts at the outbreak of war to a project for which he was fitted by bodi status and temperament. In June, 1861, he joined with a number of prominent feUow townsmen in organizing the famous U.S. Sanitary Commission—die CIv109 110CIVIL WAR HISTORY il War version of the Red Cross—and was elected to a small executive group which directed its operations diroughout the conflict. He raised and disbursed funds, directed application of donated materials and labor, visited camps and battle zones, conferred widi Lincoln, Stanton, McCleUan, and Grant. The names running through his account comprise a Who's Who of the nation's wartime elite, and his first-hand observations of events like the New York draft riot are as readable as they are invaluable. The Trial of Mrs. AbrahamLincoln. By Homer Croy. (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1962. Pp. vi, 148. $3.95.) Prolific popularizer Homer Croy, relying heavdy on his own imagination, hasmanufactured a so-caUed factual narrative completely void of audienticity. He begins by teUing us that the pertinent trial records no longer exist, and dien proceeds to describe die event in intimate detad—foUowing "for the most part," he says, the story as reported in the Chicago newspapers. In fact, however , the trial records do exist, and even the allegedly consulted newspaper accounts show that Croy errs magnificently. For example, he devotes fifteen pages to Mary Lincoln's testimony, when in reality she was never even placed on the witness stand! But enough. Perhaps the less said about this outrageous potpourri of fiction and historical misrepresentation the better. Mr. Cray's volume may well be the worst thing that has befaUen Mrs. Lincoln since insanity. Confiscation of Confederate Property in the North. By Henry D. Shapiro . (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1962. Pp. x, 58. $1.50.) This smaU monograph, a revision of a master's thesis, wiU...