The Liberty Hall Volunteers: Stonewall's College Boys (review)

420CIVIL WAR HISTORY difficulties will acquire useful information and an appreciation of the considerable significance of Confederate commerce raiding. James E. Sefton San Fernando Valley State College The Liberty Hall Volunteers: StonewalTs College Boys. By W. G. Bean. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1964. Pp. x, 227. $3.25.) In June, 1861, the Liberty Hall Volunteers, a company of college boys which had formed at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) during the secession crisis, reported to Harper's Ferry and were assigned to the first brigade of the Army of the Shenandoah. In Jury the new soldiers fought their first battle and in May, 1864, a lifetime later to these youthful veterans of the "Stonewall Brigade," the unit was captured practically intact during Hancock's assault on die Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania. This is their story. It is not the usual battle narrative culled from the Official Records, although die author contends that only one other college company in Lee's army could boast a comparable record; this book seeks to portray the attitudes and the unvarnished reactions of a group of intelligent, high-minded soldiers as revealed in surviving family letters and the printed recollections of survivors. Through their eyes we get an unspoiled view of the war—the idealism of volunteers eager to "fight the battles of liberty," the novelty of their first camp ("a prolonged picnic" but for the constant drills), everyday problems of administration and personnel, and the sobering effects of battle. Because the company served as headquarters guard until Antietam, when there no longer remained enough men with the colors to perform the necessary duties, this book contains frequent glimpses of Stonewall Jackson, who from the very first inspired confidence in his men and after Bull Run commanded "perfect devotion." "With him," wrote one of the volunteers at the time of Jackson 's feud with Loring, "we are ready to go anywhere, and to endure everything. But if he is to be run down, our spirit is utterly broken, and we can never re-enter the service with cheerful hearts." Their hearts were not destined to remain cheerful in any case, for the war eroded them in spirit as well as number. (Only three of the original seventy-three were present to answer the roll call after Gettysburg.) In 1861 "one thought of the cause in which we are engaged is enough to scatter all gloom and fill us with gladness"; after Gettysburg, where "we were not whipped though we suffered heavily," one ragged survivor wrote home: "I know this letter is rather complaining, but as it is the first one of that stamp and considering the desperate state of affairs I hope you will excuse it." In their first camp the boys could scarcely conceal their excitement as they described the army as "very fine schooling for us air and boasted that they took to camp life like "ducks to water." But by BOOK REVIEWS421 1863 they were lonesome for fallen comrades and felt isolated and rather destitute. If their determination to see the war through never waned, they lived to return home. "I SUpPOSe," wrote one, "if I were at home I would be discontented . . . but ... I would like to try ft again for a while. I think I would be contented until the tomatoes were gone." Even die fighting itself had deteriorated in character. At Bull Run the company had "crossed bayonets" with the New York Zouave Regiment and afterwards had drilled by the Zouave manual until the bayonets would "fairly hum." In contrast, by the end of 1863 one wrote almost apologetically that "we . . . have become quite a good set of dirt diggers, but I do not think there is any disgrace in using all lawful means to preserve our Uves, for enough gallant spirits have already fallen in this carnal war." The conscripts sent as replacements were by and large a sorry lot; the old hands probably preferred to see mud "as it will retard military movements as long as it lasts. You see we are as big cowards as ever. This thing of soldiers being anxious to engage the enemy, or as our papers term it "spoiling...