Victims, A True Story of the Civil War (review)

90CIVIL WAR HISTORY it inflicted upon its foe. Bragg's army was still at large and, indeed, would sting Rosecrans once more at Chickamauga and end his career. The greatest significance of Stones River, then, was simply that "the Federal army had prevented a Confederate victory at a time when the Union cause could hardly stand another defeat." And that alone was enough. Confederate morale in Tennessee took a deep dive, a direction vastly enhanced by thewar thatBraggpromptly began to wage upon his own generals. Within the high command of the Army of Tennessee, the repercussions of Stones River were heard for more than a year after the guns stopped. It began the demoralization and disintegration of a great army from within and gave a loss-weary Lincoln a New Year's win in what would be a year of victories, 1863. William C. Davis Civil War Times Illustrated Victims, A True Story of the CivilWar. ByPhillip S. Paludan. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1981. Pp. xvi, 144. $11.95.) Phillip Paludan has combined the findings of the social sciences with an exercise in la petite histoire to create an intriguing study. From his base point, the massacre of thirteen Unionist mountaineers atShelton Laurel, North Carolina, the author expands the investigation to embrace larger issues, such as the impact of the Civil War on small communities, the causation and characteristics of guerrilla warfare, and the forces underlying human perversity. Faced with a scarcity of primary material, Paludan turns to anthropology, sociology, and psychology, together with a frank appeal to the emotions, in seeking to explain why the atrocity occurred and what were its long-range effects. Although borrowing ideas from the social sciences, the author shuns their arcane jargon, writing instead in a lucid, forceful style which gives Victims the flavor of a fast-paced historical drama. However, Paludan educates as well as entertains. For example, he clarifies the complex nuances of southern Appalachian society and pohtics and sheds new light on Civil War guerrilla operations. Moreover, several minor errors notwithstanding, the author provides thoughtful insights into the characters of his protagonists, killers and victims alike. Yet this imaginative approach provokes doubts, questions inherent in any attempt to employ the techniques of the "New History," but particularly acute in this instance because of the lack of substantiating evidence. How reliably can the generalizations of modern social scientists depict the psyche of a lone, long-dead mountaineer? To what extent can the hving generations of a clan, no matter how "intertwined with the land" they might be, speak for ancestors who never watched television or rodein a pick-up truck? How precisely do the emotions ofa soldier raised on "Howdy Doodie" and Dr. Spock, fighting hah0 a world book reviews91 away from home, match those of a nineteenth-century partisan out to kill his neighbor with a Harper's Ferry musket? Suchreservations do not necessarily invalidate, but they do enjoin caution. This is not to suggest thatPaludan is disingenuous. On the contrary, he forthrightly discloses his aim and methodology atthe outset. Nor is there reason to suspect that more conventional sources, had they been available , would have contradicted his interpretations. Victims probably is a "true story." The question is whether it is true in the Thucydidean or Rankean sense. Whichever the case, this book deserves careful study by every serious American historian. James L. Morrison, Jr. York College of Pennsylvania Appomattox Commander: The Story of General E. O. C. Ord. By Bernarr Cresap. (San Diego and New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1981. Pp. xii, 418. $15.00.) According to Bernarr Cresap, West Pointer Edward Otho Cresap Ord was an "inventive and resourceful" troop commander—an Indianfighting subaltern in Florida, a general in the Civil War, a general and director of Indian-fighting along theTexas-Mexican border in the 1870s. He retired from the army in 1880. Theauthor carefully detailsOrd'swar service, but it is obvious that the general held no significant positions until 1864. In 1861, Ord was forty-three years old and a captain serving on the Pacific coast. Cresap points out that Ord pulled strings in the Adjutant General's Office to gain his promotion to brigadier general of...