The Cormany Diaries, A Northern Family in the Civil War (review)

178civil war HrsTORY ideology as reflections of a powerful strain of cultural conservatism in the state. Through an analysis of voting at the convention Bruce first identifies two solid blocs of delegates—one "conservative" and one "reform"—as well as a group of nine "moderates" whom the conservatives had to win over on the crucial issues. Bruce essays to explain precisely how the conservatives made their appeal to these moderates and why they succeeded. In so doing he downplays die significance of the slavery issue or any other specific appeal to "interest." The conservatives , he argues, attackedreform arguments with aresonantrhetoric that dramatized "the weakness ofhuman achievements and thevulnerability of man to time and nature" (p. 99). Equatingdemocracy with the frightening specter of disorder and exuding pessimism about human nature and the potential for social improvement, the conservatives strove to evoke among moderate delegates a compelling fear of change. They also appealed successfully to a nostalgic vision of gendemanly leadership in a homogeneous community. Bruce's elaborate analysis of conservative rhetoric reflects his general interest in "questions of how political language and poUtical beliefs work andofhow one can understandtheirmeaning" (p. vii). Much ofhis discussion of political culture in early nineteenth-century Virginia is interesting (especially, I think, in his final chapter, where he sketches in very broad strokes the enduring legacy of this cultural conservatism in the South), but much of it is also simply too general—and sometimes too obvious—to advance very far our understanding of the specific case at hand. His analysis of ideology does not cut very deep; as inteUectual history it is superficial. Although he effectively dramatizes the significance of many conservative concerns, his analysis often merely skims the surface. He indicates clearly, for instance, that"sincerity" was avital concept in conservative political culture but fails to explore its rich meaning. Given the book's rather narrow focus and range of analysis, readers may have cause to question its length. Drew R. McCoy University of Texas at Austin The Cormany Diaries, A Northern Family in the Civil War. Edited by James C. Mohr. (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982. Pp. xix, 597. $29.95.) The year 1976 had much to offer to museums, journalists, and historians. Encouraged by the bicentennial celebration, Americans in considerable numbers dusted off private family documents and brought them to public attention. Few among these documents can surpass in value to students of the Civil War era thosepresentedby adescendent ofSamuel and Rachel Cormany to John C. Mohr, professor of History at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The Cormanys, who met at Ohio's Otterbein CoUege in 1858 and married in 1860, had much in BOOK REVIEWS179 common. Both were of German stock and, althoughRachel's familyhad moved to western Canada, both had roots in easternPennsylvania. Both were intensely religious members of the evangelical United Brethem Church, and both kept diaries from 1858 through 1865. As editor Mohr points out, much of thevalue of thesediaries lies in the fact that, although Rachel was an exceptional woman to have earned a coUege degree, the Cormanys' views and experiences are those not of poUtical leaders but of common people. The bulk of their entries cover the Civil War years. From 1862 to 1865 Samuel served in the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and Rachel Uved among his relatives in Chambersburg . In Samuel's entries there is a great deal of information about army Ufe and the great battles of the eastern theater of the war from the viewpoint of an earnest young man who advances from private to first heutenant and regimental adjutant. Rachel's entries during the same period convey the spirit of life on the Union homefront in aregion twice invaded by Confederate armies. To an extent these wartime accounts overshadow the earlier sections of the diaries, which nevertheless contain much of interest about life in antebeUum America. One is struck by the physical mobility of both diarists, far-flung family bonds, and the pervasiveness of reUgion. For those interested in antebellum reform, Rachel in particular provides a concrete example of how a straightforward desire to do good as an indication of spiritual worth could stimulate involvement in a variety of reform activities. Mohr...