Rank and File: Civil War Essays in Honor of Bell Irvin Wiley (review)

90CIVIL WAR HISTORY have reviewed in the last two years; both make inadequate use of quantitative findings of legislative studies of the Confederate Congress. No doubt there is a lesson here, but for whom is an open question. Richard E. Berincer University of North Dakota Rank and File: Civil War Essays in Honor of Bell Irvin Wiley. Edited by James I. Robertson, Jr., and Richard M. McMurry. (San Rafael, CaI.: Presidio Press, 1976. Pp. 164. $8.95.) In 1974 Bell I. Wiley "was retired" from teaching at Emory University after a quarter century of service to that institution. The words in quotes are used deliberately, for one suspects that Wiley du not want to retire. He has, in fact, retired only in that he has left Emory. He has held several visiting professorships and has continued his usual busy schedule of writing and lecturing. Two years before his retirement several of his former graduate students discussed the possiblity of publishing a book of essays honoring their master. James Robertson, later joined by Richard McMurry, agreed to act as editors of the project, and as a first step they contacted all of Wiley's doctoral students to request contributions. In their preface the editors are not quite explicit in describing the reation they evoked. It seems, however, that they received such a multiplicity of proposals as to give them pause: too many essays would make the projected book too lengthy or deprive it of a theme. The editors decided, therefore, to limit the subject matter to essays "treating of individuals or groups primarily associated with the Civil War." The resulting volume contains seven essays on the war, a bibliography of Wiley's writings, and a graceful tribute to him by Henry T. Malone. Most books of this kind do not come off well. The festshrift carries within itself several seeds of possible destruction, the two most potent being unevenness of quality in the contributions and lack of a unifying theme. This book escapes the usual dangers. The quality of the essays is fairly uniform, not distinguished but solid and scholarly. The literary style of each article is also good, definitely above the average of academic writing, a result that reflects Wiley's own respect for the language. And thanks to the decision of the editors, the book has a theme. Four of the essays deal with men or movements in the CSA, and three with similar subjects in the USA. Only one of them treats a professional soldier, namely, John B. Hood. Three discuss secondary or minor military figures, one analyzes an aspect of Secretary of State Seward's diplomacy, one describes the tribulations of a Pennsylvania BOOK REVIEWS91 Peace Democrat, and one relates the activities of a number of men of military age in the North who elected to make money instead of to fight. The distribution of subjects reveals the breadth of Wiley's interests. Usually thought of as an historian of the Confederacy, he was really interested in the whole war. The teaching of graduate students has been only one of Wiley's contributions to the profession of history. He has also influenced undergraduates and countless numbers of persons outside the academic community. Probably no other academic person has been so active or so successful in carrying the story of the Civil War to the lay reader—or the lay listener. His scholarly reputation will probably rest on his two best known works, the books treating of the common soldier of both armies. After the appearance of The Life of Johnny Reb, Thomas D. Clark observed that Wiley had opened a new field of history. Clark's statement was acute and accurate. Wiley had discovered a hitherto unexplored area of American life. The Civil War called into being mass armies, the first hosts of their kind in our history. The citizens who composed these armies had been wrenched away from their homes, and put down in a new environment they had an urge to tell the folks back home about their experiences. The common man suddenly became articulate, and in letters and diaries he revealed much about himself , about his army, and about the society from which he...