The Siege of Charleston, 1861-1865 (review)

book reviews359 consult the Official Records, for the months of March and April 1861, will discover for himself or herself that the "narrative" omits various facts which are available to anyone in the published records. John B. Heffernan Washington, D.C. The Siege of Charleston, 1861-1865. By E. Milby Burton. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1970. Pp. xvii, 373. $14.95. ) Mr. Burton's work is a narrative of military events along the South Carolina coast, focusing on Charleston, and covering the period from secession to war's end. The story of the Sumter siege is followed by the Battles of Port Royal and Secessionville, and an account of the unsuccessful Union attempts to obstruct channels into Charleston. The Union blockade, which the author deems ineffective, is created, maintained , and evaded. Military action on Morris Island, reaching its peak in the 1863 attack on Battery Wagner is detailed. The last half of the Siege of Charleston concerns the 1863 and 1864 bombardments of Sumter, the bombardment of the city itself, and the continuing story of the blockade and its challengers. Most interesting of the latter were the Confederate attempts to torpedo blockaders and the development of the submarine Hunley. The best that can be said for the Siege of Charleston is that it gathers together all Civil War military and naval actions along the South Carolina coast. It is doubtful if this compensates for the book's many deficiencies. Most of the actions included ( Sumter in particular ) have been amply detailed before and Burton adds little to our knowledge. The tragedy of the work is that the author neglected so many areas in which he might have made a contribution. No real picture of the people of Charleston during these trying years emerges. Especially lacking is any treatment of black-white relations in the "fire eater" citadel. Studies of Reconstruction in South Carolina could have benefited from such information. Daily life on the blockade and among Union troops ringing Charleston is also sketchy. The controversy surrounding the attack on Battery Wagner is virtually ignored. Much of the story of the battle, including much of the material on the 54th Massachusetts, fails to mention black troops. Lastly, his material on Sherman's march shows little knowledge of Sherman biographies or of studies of the Carolina campaign published in the last forty years. His statement "Sherman had a mania for tearing up railroads," is absurd. Why is it a "mania" for a general to destroy the transportation network of his enemy? The section dealing with Sherman and with Charleston at war's end is reminiscent of Claude Bowers' Tragic Era. Mr. Burton's work also suffers from general carelessness. Johnson Hagood, introduced as a brigadier, is demoted to colonel a few pages later. The author is a "name dropper." Many persons mentioned are 360CIVIL WAR HISTORY never identified. His research is local in the extreme. The wealth of materials in the Library of Congress, National Archives, and in numerous state archives is ignored. Even many recent secondary works appear nowhere in bibliography or footnotes. Finally, was Charleston really under "siege" for four years? Although the author argues that "it was a siege even though the back door was open," he is not convincing in portraying all that a "siege" implies. It is doubtful if the citizens of Vicksburg would have agreed that Charlestonians were truly besieged from 1861 to 1865. The open back door did make a difference. James P. Jones Florida State University Yankee Cavalrymen: Through the Civil War With the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry. By John W. Rowell (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1971. Pp. 280. $7.50.) John Rowell's story of the Ninth Pennsylvania Cavalry is a successful attempt to evoke a feeling for the patriotic fervor of the plain people who became the common soldiers of the Union Army. "From Maine to Iowa," he writes, "people responded [to the crisis of Civil War] with an enthusiasm and a determination that exceeded any demonstration of patriotism before or since." The book was inspired by the diary of the author's grandfather, Cornelius Baker, an enlisted man of the Ninth Pennsylvania, who kept notes on the daily activities...