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BOOK REVIEWS265 with opportunities to bring charges against Gwyn—the supposed root of the ? i8th's problems—Donaldson waffles, rationalizing his lack of resolve by arguing that the regiment's reputation would suffer back home were Gwyn's indiscretions publicized. Impersonal in some instances and self-absorbed in others, Donaldson is nevertheless more insightful than the average student of war, and his unbridled contempt for inappropriate tactics and orders marks him as such. Effective editing enhances this worthwhile read. J. Gregory Acken, a member of the Board of Governors of Philadelphia's Civil War Library and Museum , where the Donaldson papers have resided since 1928, sharpens the work's focus by omitting correspondence of a strictly personal nature. Moreover, he scrupulously notes the disparities between Donaldson's version and those found in official records, as well as the more consensus-oriented reminisces of Donaldson's fellow soldiers. As a result, Inside the Army of the Potomac will enlighten as well as entertain. John Daley Pittsburg State University In Armageddon 's Shadow: The Civil War and Canada 's Maritime Provinces. By Greg Marquis. (Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998. Pp. xx, 389. $34-95) While Robin Winks's Canada and the United States: The Civil War Years, first published in i960, remains the most important work in British North AmericanUnited States relations during the 1860s, the work of other scholars has helped fill in some of the topics previously touched upon only lightly. Tom Brooks, an independent researcher in Gravenhurst, Ontario, has committed himself to uncovering as much as can be uncovered about every British North American who fought in the American Civil War; the present reviewer has contributed articles on French Canadians and the Civil War to Quebec Studies and the Catholic HistoricalReview. The work now under review, Greg Marquis's InArmageddon 's Shadow, focuses on what in the 1860s were the unconfederated British colonies of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick, and it is the first lengthy work of its kind. In a sense this book makes much ado about very little, particularly from an American point of view. Yes, Confederate shenanigans in the Maritime provinces and off British North American coasts—spurred on by a predominant anti-Yankee sentiment—were a thorn in the United States's side; yes, a small number of Maritimers fought in the war—primarily on the side of the Union (the Confederacy offered British North Americans no bounties); yes, Maritime militia drilled, preparing themselves for the American invasion they though possible. But all that hardly figures into the "big picture" ofthe war. As Marquis observes, the Maine-New Brunswick frontier "was not exactly bristling with American bayonets" (28). 266CIVIL WAR HISTORY From a Canadian point of view, however, Marquis's subject is of considerable import. For ifthe idea that New Brunswick's puny forces—or all of British North America's forces, for that matter—could really have thwarted a sudden American invasion seems improbable, the fear that impelled British North Americans to concern themselves with such a question also contributed to the drive to bring their provinces into a confederation, as four provinces did in 1867. While In Armageddon's Shadow thus has interesting things to say about the American Civil War, it also provides important background for students of the Confederation of Canada. It therefore contributes to a debate little known in the United States, though occasionally fervent in Canada—namely, the extent to which the American Civil War contributed to the birth of the Canadian nation. Unlike many of his Canadian compatriots, Marquis, a lectprer in history at Saint Mary's University in Nova Scotia, believes that the American war's importance in that regard—particularly the way the war helped shape pro- and anti-confederation debates—was great. On the one hand, some British North Americans advocated confederation as a way to create a common front against an imperialistic United States; on the other, some cited the war itself as proof that a confederacy of the British provinces would not work. In either case, the war mattered. In Armageddon's Shadow is rich in details, perhaps too much so. Occasionally laden with superfluous points, it...

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