A Woman Doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' Diary (review)

362CIVIL WAR history with members of his family "dressing up" in costume in 1875. In addition, Richard G. Hardorff considers the logistical difficulties associated with Custer's pack train in the 1876 campaign in a superb fashion. He adds a great deal of practical information to our understanding of the difficulties in conducting nineteenth-century military operations. It would appear that all of these essays are well researched; they are certainly well illustrated. However, the remaining selections make little contribution to our understanding of events. David Dixon's essay dealing with Custer's activities in the 1868 Indian campaign is tedious. Gregory Urwin fails in his attempt to present an enlisted man's perspective on the 1876 Indian campaign. On balance it says little about the campaign and adds nothing that Urwin has not said on other occasions concerning the enlisted experience in the regular army. Neil C. Mangum's discussion of evidence found during the recent archaeological survey of the Custer battlefield does not essentially challenge standard interpretations of the engagement. The selections by Ray Meketa and Bruce A. Trinque are equally disappointing. Custer and His Times is uneven in quality as some of the selections fail to provide a sense of perspective and ultimately fall into the category of trivia. Other selections, which induce the reader to consider the astonishing public interest in Custer, illustrate his career. Custer and His Times is a volume containing a great deal of information for the student of "Custeriana" and is in a limited manner also useful for the serious student of nineteenth-century America. Norman S. Stevens The Virginia Military Institute A Woman Doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' Diary. Edited by Gerald Schwartz. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1984. Pp. 301. $21.95 cloth; $12.95 paper.) Retrieved by observant homeowners from the trash of an apartment under renovation, the journal of Esther Hill Hawks came into the hands of Gerald Schwartz. With A Woman Doctor's Civil War, Schwartz has successfully rescued Esther from obscurity. His foreword—providing background about the doctor's youth, her marriage, and her medical background—adequately supplies the reader with information about Hawks before and after her war years. Schwartz's meticulous attention to detail is evident in footnotes throughout the work. A Woman Doctor's Civil War chronicles the varied activities and travels of Esther Hawks in the Atlantic South during the Civil War. Although she was a trained physician, a graduate of the prestigious New England Female Medical College, most of her wartime service was spent as a teacher of freedmen. Her abolitionist sentiments and missionary BOOK REVIEWS363 zeal are evident throughout her writing. Hawks is a keen observer of her surroundings and often critical of the actions of fellow Union supporters in the war zone. The least satisfying aspect of the book is endemic to primary material such as this. Hawks raises as many questions about herself and her life as she answers. Much more is learned in the foreword about her eccentric husband, Milton, and their marital relationship than in the journal itself. She recounts separations from friends such as James C. Beecher with more detail and sadness than her partings from her spouse. Esther is aware that her gender alone kept her from many leadership positions and limited many choices. Not revealing her feelings about her secondary role in the federal service, she rarely comments on the treatment accorded her sex. When a "beardless young fellow" is given charge over her and her "resolute" female companions, and all the women "meakly followed his direction," Ester exclaims, "Oh, what a big thing it is to be born a man!" (33). Yet even this comment is ambiguous; did she intend humor or lament? Readers interested in the educational activities of Esther and her colleagues will be generally pleased with the work. Esther's descriptions of her schools, her pupils, and her fellow teachers, both white and black, are detailed and extensive. Those wanting to know more about wartime medicine, the work of physicians, and the conditions of hospitals will be less satisfied. Considering her earlier determination to receive a legitimate medical education, and her lengthy career as a physician...