Campaigning with Parsons Texas Cavalry, C.S.A. (review)

BOOK REVIEWS285 he married during the course of the correspondence. The editor was Douglas ' daughter by his second wife. Miss Douglas finished the manuscript for this book in 1942 (as a seminar project for Professor Charles W. RamsdeU at the University of Texas) but refused to allow its pubUcation during her Ufetime. Her death, in 1964, made the letters available for pubUcation. In addition to Douglas' letters, the editor or pubUsher (it is not clear which) has thrown in, as lagniappe, a short historical sketch of the art ülery unit, written in 1907 by one of the former members, and fragments of diaries kept by Douglas and another member of the battery, one Private Sam Thompson. Captain Douglas' letters are worth reading, not only for the soldier's-eyeview which they present of the important action in which the battery was engaged, but also for their colorful depictions of camp life and their reflections of both the exultation and loneliness that have been the soldier's lot as long as men have gone to war. The letters describing the defense of Atlanta and the subsequent effort of Hood to draw Sherman out of Georgia by invading Tennessee are particularly interesting. The book is handsomely bound and printed, but Douglas' letters deserved a better editorial fate. Although the editor is referred to by the publishers as a "distinguished historian," her editing often seems amateurish and more the work of a devoted daughter than that of a professional. Her foreword is so sentimental as to be maudlin. The footnotes shed more Ught for the antiquarian dian for the historian or general reader; they consist largely of identifications of members of the battery and Smith County residents mentioned in die correspondence (some are identified more than once). Where the battery's movement need fitting into the context of a battle or a campaign, the editor more often than not is remiss. The reader frequently must infer from the text developments that should have been clarified in the notes. One must conclude that the editor lacked either the understanding or the desire to relate the battery to the rest of the war. There are numerous misspellings of proper names which should have been noted by the editor, e.g., Fremont is spelled "Freemont;" Sigei "Sigle;" Vallandigham "VaUandingham;" Rosecrans "Rosencranz" (a mistake which probably owes itself to Douglas' penchant for reading Shakespeare). Donald Reynolds East Texas State University Campaigning with Parsons Texas Cavalry, C.S.A. Edited by John Q. Anderson. (Hillsboro, Tex.: HiU Junior CoUege Press, 1967. Pp. xv, 173. $6.00.) Not long after Bull Run, the Orr brothers of ElUs County, Texas, began entering the Confederate miUtary service. The oldest, Henry, compiled a journal and wrote a long series of informative letters to his "home folks." Robert joined with Henry, but James and Lafayette came in a year or so 286CIVIL WAR HISTORY later. Although his three younger brothers never matched Henry's Uterary talents, they did contribute a few letters that Professor Anderson indulgently describes as "classics of orthography" from "the Texas frontier. . . ." Henry and Robert Orr served throughout the war in the 12th Texas Cavalry, raised around Waxahatchie by Col. W. H. Parsons. Scouting and picket work in southeastern Arkansas and northern Louisiana was typical of their experiences. In fact, it was not until June, 1862 that they first drew bead on Federal troopers, near Searcy, Arkansas. The younger boys joined a dismounted cavalry regiment and feU into Yankee hands at Arkansas Post in January, 1863. After sampling the horrors of Camp Douglas, near Chicago, they were sent east to the Army of Tennessee. They fought on the fields of Chickamauga and Chattanooga with Bragg, in northwestern Georgia with Joe Johnston, and finaUy at Franklin and Nashville with Hood. Jim was certain, after the carnage of Nashville, that the marriageable girls of Ellis County would do weU not to count on his return, "for it isant very healthy to stay in this army. . . ." The Orrs had come to the fertile Texas plains in 1854 as small farmers with no roots in the aristocratic plantation traditions of their native Tennessee , but they had quickly developed that 'Texas nationaUsm" still familiar to...