The Captain Departs, and: Kemper County Rebel. The Civil War Diary of Robert Masten Holmes, C.S.A., and: Banners and Bugles (review)

book reviews281 Few Confederate memoirs enjoy more popularity now than Henry Kyd Douglas' Í Rode with Stonewall (Chapel Hill, 1940). Born in Ireland and the son of a Reformed Church minister who migrated to the Shenandoah Valley, Douglas became one of Stonewall Jackson's youngest but most reliable staff officers. Douglas' Civil War recollections are still a fundamental source on Jackson's Corps. They are as charmingly personal as they are militarily revealing. Douglas was eighteen when, in 1856, he entered the junior class at Franklin and Marshall College. His diary of the two years he spent at that liberal arts school is a chatty, sometimes witty and oftentimes dramatic chronicle of purely local happenings and people. It is the type of journal one would expect of a youth in the transition from adolescence to maturity. Yet here it is not so much the journal that is important as it is the writer; for in the final analysis, the diary simply supplies an interesting introduction to the man whose major mark came later. Similar in size and appearance to the original, the printed diary is qualitatively produced. The editors hint that Douglas also maintained extensive postwar journals. If that be so, let us hope that those also will find their way into print. Following the Civil War, Douglas became an outspoken critic, unsuccessful office-seeker and eccentric bachelor—in short, the type of character that average people find fascinating. James I. Robertson, Jr. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University The Captain Departs. By Thomas M. Pitkin. (Carbondale and Edwardsville , Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973. Pp. 129. $6.95.) Kemper County Rebel. The Civil War Diary of Robert Masten Holmes, C.S.A. Edited by Frank Allen Dennis. Foreword by Thomas L. Connelly . (Jackson, Mississippi: University and College Press of Mississippi, 1973. Pp. 106. $4.95.) Banners and Bugles. By Will Plank. (Marlborough, N.Y.: Centennial Press, 1972. Pp. 122.) At first glance one would think that enough books had been written about central Civil War figures, such as Grant and Lee, to serve generations yet unborn. But first glances can be deceiving. Mr. Pitkin has produced an excellent book dealing with Grant's last campaign; his struggle to complete his memoirs, while battling terminal throat cancer. After the failure of the Wall Street firm of Grant and Ward, Grant was left penniless and in debt. His only hope for paying off his debts and leaving an estate for his family was the sale of his memoirs. Through the generosity of a wealthy friend he and his family were given the use of a cottage at Mount McGregor where he wrote and 282CIVIL WAR HISTORY sometimes dictated his war memoirs. The struggle of his physicians to keep him alive, the indefatigable efforts of Mark Twain in promoting advance sales of the memoirs is a familiar story, yet it is told in a suspenseful manner and although we know the outcome the author holds our interest until the end. Grant's two volumes of memoirs turned out to be one of the most successful commercial publishing ventures in publishing history, and he left his family comfortable in the end. This book contains no discernible "typos." The printing job is excellent . There is an abundance of illustrations, fine notes and it is well indexed. An introduction by Dr. John Y. Simon, distinguished scholar and director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, adds to the book's stature. Some book reviewers end their reviews with fault finding, no doubt to prove that they know more than the author, yet sometimes legitimately pointing out an error that should not go unnoticed. This book contains no faults and it proves that Grant is an inexhaustible subject. This brings to mind that we live in an age of revisionism in history. Surveys taken over the years evaluating the Presidents have sometimes placed Grant at the bottom of the list. Perhaps Grant's presidency should be re-examined. It is possible that Harding or Nixon might nudge him out of last place as our worst President. Kemper County Rebel is a gem. As the title indicates it is the diary of a private in the Twenty-fourth Mississippi...