Confederate Georgia, and: Columbus, Georgia, in the Confederacy, and: Wormsloe: Two Centuries of a Georgia Family, and: The Atlanta Cyclorama: The Story of the Famed Battle of Atlanta (review)

Book Reviews*23 Confederate Georgia. By T. Conn Bryan. (Athens: University of Georgia Press. 1953. Pp. x, 299. $4.50.) Columbus, Georgia, in the Confederacy. By Diffee William Standard. (New York: The William-Frederick Press. 1954. Pp. 77. $2.00.) Wormsloe: Two Centuries of a Georgia Family. By E. Merton Coulter. (Athens: University of Georgia Press. 1955. Pp. xv, 322. $5.00.) The Atlanta Cyclorama: The Story of the Famed Battle of Atlanta. Compiled by Wilbur G. Kurtz. (Atlanta: The City of Atlanta. 1954. Pp. 32. $1.00.) these four books wrap up a lot of Georgia history, and all but Wormsloe are directly concerned with the history of the state during the Civil War. Wormsloe, the finest book of the group, relates interestingly but only incidentally to that conflict. All four volumes belong on any shelf of Georgia books, and those by Mr. Bryan, Mr. Standard, and Mr. Kurtz should be in any selfrespecting collection on the Confederacy. In Confederate Georgia, T. Conn Bryan tells the story of the state during the rapidly moving years of war. He tells it factually and well. Assembling a multitude of facts from a wide variety of sources, including many not previously used by historians, he has achieved a highly satisfactory compendium. On the debit side, there remain too many marks of the impedimenta which characterize academic scholarship, and the book is relendessly factual. Some interpretation from the author's thoroughly qualified point of view would have been both justified and welcome. Georgia was a key state in die Confederacy, and its part in the war has been treated many times. Mr. Bryan, however, has found much worthy of new exposition in his re-sorting of the facts. He has found much fresh ground in his discussion of the social and cultural activities of the Confederate period. On the whole, Confederate Georgia is an adequate and interesting study of the state during crucial years of war. Like Mr. Bryan's work, Diffee Standard's Columbus, Georgia, in the Confederacy is a product of academic scholarship, admirable as a first publication and leading to expectations of more substantial contributions to Confederate history from his pen in the future. Although his little book leaves much unsaid about Columbus during the Civil War, it still says much more than had ever been previously put together. Designed to serve as a guide to the monumental painting in Adanta's Grant Park, Mr. Kurtz's compilation admirably serves that purpose. It also provides an excellent, concise history of the Atlanta campaign. Primarily a professional artist, Mr. Kurtz has long been an amateur student of history, and The Atlanta Cyclorama is a product of his experience in both fields. He directed the WPA restoration of the Cyclorama's painting of the Battle of Atlanta, and years of study of the Sherman-Johnston campaign have made him the final authority on it. The booklet is vividly illustrated with fine color reproductions of the realistic painting and with excellent maps from Mr. Kurtz's own hand. Needless to say, it is essential as a guide to those who plan to make the battlefield tour 124CIVIL WAR HISTORY to North Georgia; moreover, it is an item imperatively needed by Civil War collectors. Mr. Coulter has been equally at home in writing Confederate history and in writing Georgia history. Wormsloe belongs in the latter category. It is a distinguished account of the eminent Jones-DeRenne family, but the chief periods of interest are the colonial and early federal eras. There is relatively littie relating to the Civil War, but the volume is a good antidote to the current cult of the common man as the hero of history in that it demonstrates how a cultured and articulate family wielded an influence important out of proportion to its numbers. Richard Barksdale Harwell Richmond, Virginia. Love Is Eternal. By Irving Stone. (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company. 1954. Pp. 468. $3.95.) a good many years ago Honore Morrow wrote a Üiree volume novel, sympathetic and detailed, of the married life of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd. Now Irving Stone, the author of several vivid biographical novels, has presented a praiseworthy novel on the...