The War for the Union, Vol. III: The Organized War, 1863-1864, Vol. IV: The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS The War for the Union, Vol. Ill: The Organized War, 1863-1864, Vol. IV: The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865. By Allan Nevins (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971). At the close of a long and distinguished career, Allan Nevins completed two more volumes of his epic Ordeal of the Union and thus brought his account of American history, starting with the end of the Mexican War, to the conclusion of the Civil War. That he had already written six large volumes, highly praised by his colleagues in the historical profession, is ample evidence of the scope of this great project. Anyone who is familiar with the whole work can vouch for the literary quality, historical depth, and broad canvas of Nevins' writing. These last two volumes are worthy successors to their six predecessors, and indeed to all of Nevins' works, which include two Pulitzer Prize winning biographies . Unfortunately, this most remarkable author and teacher died in the late winter of 1971, thus failing to carry the story through Reconstruction as he had originally planned. These two volumes offer the reader a many faceted account of the last two years of the war. The detail is astounding. Of course, Nevins tells us of the military events of this period beginning with pivotal Vicksburg and Gettysburg through to Appomattox; he also has chapters on the armies, the politics of these crucial years, economic developments , racial matters, and foreign affairs. In a chapter entitled, "The Great Boom in the North," Nevins covers such topics as agriculture in the West, immigration, Land Grant colleges, farm machinery, war-time music and literature, inflation, wages, meat-packing, mining in the far West, the lumber and oil industries, railroading, iron production , banking, speculation in securities, and strikes, all in sufficient detail to fill the reader in on the salient points of each topic with ample statistics and documentation. The heart of these two volumes is the chapter, "The Sweep of Organization ," which fully develops the author's theme. The key paragraph reads: "That the Civil War brought a systematic shift in American society from an unorganized society to a well-organized nation is undoubtedly much too strong a statement. But that the Civil War accentuated and acted as a catalyst to already developing local tendencies toward organization, there can be no doubt. As in so many fields of thought and endeavor, the war changed and stimulated the impulse toward organization, and served as a proving ground or experimental 345 346CIVIL WAR HISTORY phase for numerous tentative expressions of organization. There seems no doubt that this momentum sprang primarily from necessity or pragmatic impulses, rather than from philosophical devotion to organization for its own sake. That such a pragmatic trend would have occurred without wartime demands is unquestionable, but it certainly would have been different and perhaps slower. The war imposed requirements and opened opportunities. Organization met the demands and grasped many of the opportunities." (Ill, 272-273) Nevins then proceeds to discuss the lack of organization in pre-war America and follows with an account of war-time organization (e.g. the Treasury Department, and other government agencies, particularly the Quartermaster Department of the Army headed by Montgomery C. Meigs, the Sanitary Commission, and the Christian Commission). This account is wholly within the Nevins tradition, expanding on and elucidating thoughts and themes of his earlier works. Never one to gloss over the crudity, selfishness, and inefficiency of the American economic system, Nevins nonetheless does not attempt to hide his admiration for what individual and corporate America accomplished. It could be expected that in a work of this size and detail certain errors would creep in. Some might say that there are more than should have been. But surely the mistakes ( Seddon did not work "to exhaustion until Appomattox" [III, 41] Breckinridge succeeded him in the post of Confederate Secretary of War several months before Appomattox), and the occasional inconsistencies, e.g., the conflicting statements concerning the Peterhoff case (III, 367, 505) cannot detract from the overall accomplishment of the author. Where Nevins might be challenged in his interpretation is in his treatment of the Radical Republicans and especially their contest with Lincoln...