John Milton Hay: The Union of Poetry and Politics (review)

286CIVIL WAR HISTORY The Man Behind the Guns: A Biography of General Henry Jackson Hunt, Chief ofArtillery, Army of the Potomac, by Edward G. Longacre. (South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1978. Pp. 294. $15.00.) Somehow the brigades of scholars and writers who have gleaned the field of Civil War history like a potato patch have overlooked Henry J. Hunt. Until now historians have not accorded him a biography or even a decent article. He remains a much praisedbut shadowy figure, best seen in a work like L. Van Loan Naisawald's Grape and Canister. Edward G. Longacre attempts to rectify this neglect, but his effort is at best disappointing. The writing is turgid and forced, the sort of prose that makes a short book seem long. Although his research seems diligent, Longacre applies its fruits with little imagination. The first six chapters, devoted to Hunt's prewar career, read like a forced march throughnote cards, an endless parade of places and names with little to illuminate their significance. The discussion of Hunt's wartime career lacks cohesion and clarity. There is no doubt that Hunt exerted a crucial if not decisive influence on the development of Federal artillery, but the reader is hard-pressed to discover his precise contribution. Longacre provides little background on the evolution of artillery against which Hunt's role might be evaluated. Nor does he offer a cogent summary of Hunt's achievements. The result is a study that raises more questions than it answers. Part of Longacre's problem may be Hunt himself. A hard-driving, cantankorous perfectionist, Hunt possessed a curious knack for being where the action wasn't. Though he would have preferred otherwise, his administrative efforts far outstripped his field command service. Somehow the lavish praise heaped on him by superior officers rarely found its way into their reports. Nor did his political loyalty to George B. McClellan, Fitz-John Porter, and Charles P. Stone further his popularity or his career. Longacre makes a good case that Hunt was ill-used during the war and shamelessly ignored after it, but he does not show convincingly why this occurred. The biography reveals neither the man nor the mysteries of his star-crossed career. In striving to explain the enigma of Henry Hunt, Longacre has managed only to deepen it. Maury Klein University of Rhode Island John Milton Hay: The Union of Poetry and Politics. By Howard I. Kushner and Anne Hummel Sherrill (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977. Pp. 217. Henry Adams always envied his friend and next door neighbor, John Hay, for, unlike Adams, Hay actually held power and acted in the BOOK REVIEWS287 tumultuous political arena of the late nineteenth century. Ironically, however, Adam's reputation has steadily grown, while Hay's has not extended much beyond his lifetime (1838-1905). This volume in Twayne's World Leaders Series seeks somewhat to redress the balance. In their preface, Sherrill and Kushner modestly state that their account of Hay "is less a biography than an essay on his life." Given the size limitations—124 pages of text plus a short appendix—they have done an admirable job. They discuss the highlights of Hay's career in a wellresearched , clearly written study. They also offer a re-interpretation of Hay's political life. Hay himself always maintained that he had never prepared for his governmental service; he had simply accepted what "the strong god Circumstance" thrust upon him. Favorable circumstances may have played some role in his rise, but from his early acquaintance with Lincoln in Springfield to his appointment as Secretary of State under McKinley, Hay demonstrated his astuteness in seeking political office. In addition to his diplomatic career, Hay was also widely respected as a man of letters. The authors argue that his service as Lincoln's secretary provided the source and pattern for all his later literary works. Hay considered violence against the South as legitimate but he saw no need for any further social upheaval after the Southern aristocracy was destroyed. In the post-Civil War years, he attributed all social problems solely to evil individuals. Thus, John Hay remained conveniently blind to all the...