From Huntsville to Appomattox: R. T. Coles's History of 4th Regiment, Alabama Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A., Army of Northern Virginia (review)

i66civil war history and Atlanta, Clark finally settled in Rome, Georgia, where he became a successful businessman. He penned this account in 1891 solely from memory. Marion B. Lucas Western Kentucky University From Huntsville to Appomattox: R. T Coles 's History ofä,th Regiment, Alabama Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A., Army ofNorthern Virginia. By Jeffrey D. Stocker. (Tuscaloosa: University of Tennessee Press, 1996. Pp. 304. $32.95.) The publication of Robert T. Cole's memoirs of the 4th Alabama Volunteer Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia, edited by Jeffrey Stokes, is a welcome addition to the field of Civil War study. Robert T. Cole was a student at LaGrange Military College when the Civil War began. He enlisted in the Huntsville Guards, which became the 4th Alabama Volunteer Infantry when the regiment was organized at Dalton, Georgia, in May 1861 . Cole was made adjutant of the regiment, a position he held for the duration ofthe war. Cole and the 4thAlabama were in almost every major engagement of the Army of Northern Virginia, except Chancellorsville. Cole was also present with the4thAlabama at the battle of Chickamauga. He participated in battles from First Manassas until the regiment "stacked their rifles" at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Cole was wounded at Gaines Mill in 1 862 but returned to his unit later that same year. He remained in relatively good health for the remainder of the war, which was a remarkable achievement during the Civil War. Cole's constant presence with the 4th Alabama allowed him to observe the unit in an almost unbroken chronology from the earliest engagements through the surrender atAppomattox, ending with his return to his home in Huntsville, Alabama. Cole's narrative of the 4th Alabama is a perceptive, thoughtful, and often humorous account ofthis Confederate regiment. Jeffrey D. Stocker's editing of Cole's history with explanatory notes on the members of the regiment has added a dimension frequently lacking in histories of military units. The reader often learns the fate, sometimes tragic, of members of the unit. The deaths of two members of the regiment come to mind: Alex Murray, who was permitting a comrade to pass him in the trenches of Petersburg, exposed his head and was killed by a sharpshooter (181); and William Caldwell, who was lying asleep on his back after the battle of Fredericksburg when an unaimed bullet struck him in the heart, killing him almost instantly (83). Cole's account is sprinkled with humor. In writing of the Gettysburg campaign, Cole writes, "We had breakfasted in Virginia, dined and wined in Maryland and taken supper in Pennsylvania . It was reported by some we had marched in four states that day, the fourth being in a state of intoxication" (102). John Young, who had been an editor before the war, had his middle finger on his right hand shot off by an enemy sharpshooter; but he took the loss of his middle digit philosophically when he stated, "Well, boys, there is one consolation about this loss; I can, when this book reviews167 cruel war is over, set type as well as ever" (1 10). In sprite of Robert T. Cole's caveat " I have come to the conclusion that history is nothing more than a 'Blue Book' of lies anyhow," he is determined to correct a number of published conclusions he knows to be wrong because he realized that "there will soon be none of us left to contradict the many errors committed." Cole himself discounts the full quota of "exaggeration" by Gen. Joseph Hooker about the Confederate losses at the battle of Wauhatchie in the Chattanooga campaign. Hooker claimed enemy losses of 1,500, whereas Cole states that the losses of all categories in the four Confederate brigades involved was 418. Cole's book is extremely readable and is very useful in evoking the daily life of the soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia. This work should be included in college and university libraries. The most disappointing part of the book is its maps. Not only are the two maps inadequate for this type of book, but they are placed inconveniently at the beginning. More maps should have been included...