Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of North Carolina in the Civil War (review)

book reviews315 Longstreet's version of the story. Also, compare accounts written during the war to those written after the war for subtle changes in attitudes. Afinal suggestion would be to include a more complete bibliography and an index. Some of the accounts are fascinating, and readers who would like to follow up on the story have no easy way of finding the material. Still, Cry Heart tells a story that will interest Civil War buffs, especially Southerners. The story ofthe average soldier and the typical civilian in America's greatest war deserves more attention. Hopefully more works such as Cry Heart will follow and meet this need. Mr. Jacobs has done a fine job in collecting this account, and I enjoyed reading Cry Heart despite my desire for some organizational changes. I can recommend this book to anyone interest in the Confederate war experience. Damon Eubank Cambellsville University Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History ofNorth Carolina in the Civil War. By Richard B. McCaslin. Foreword by Bobby Roberts and Carl Moneyhon. (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997. Pp. xi, 392. $75.00.) The early photographers of North Carolina were a collection of small businessmen who tried to earn a living taking photographs through a variety of means but were only partly successful. They moved about in search of a better location or supplemented their income in order to better provide for their families. North Carolina's nural population and general poverty made it difficult for early photographers to make a steady living. Despite the instability of employment, there have survived a considerable number of ambrotypes, tintypes, and older daguerreotypes that provide rich images of North Carolina during the Civil War. Richard McCaslin has done a marvelous job tracking down these early pictures of North Carolina soldiers and Union soldiers who fought in North Carolina. Organized in nine chapters that review the history of photography in North Carolina, the state's entry into the war, North Carolina troops in the Army of Northern Virginia, troops in the West, home guards, and Reconstruction, the book does an admirable job of blending broad information about the North Carolina Civil War experience with specific facts about the individuals photographed . The familiar story of North Carolina being the last southern state to secede from the Union and yet also contributing a disproportionate number of soldiers and suffering more casualties than any other Southern state is clearly laid out. McCaslin does not ignore the North Carolina peace movement or the high number of North Carolina deserters, but he does also note several times that North Carolina soldiers fought with distinction. The book is the product of enormous research in Civil War literature and photograph collections. It has an extensive appendix that lists additional information about many North Carolinians whose photographs appear in the book. 3l6CIVIL WAR HISTORY There are helpful endnotes and an extensive bibliography and index. These features will assist genealogists, and McCaslin has done a great service to local historians. Yet the book is not a full account of all aspects of the Civil War and North Carolina. Although there is a picture of a North Carolina soldier and his wife, women are hardly present in the book. African Americans soldiers are mentioned and included in photographs, but there are sparse references to the experience of North Carolina slaves during the war. The North Carolina home front and the economic problems caused by the war receive little attention. This book will appeal to Civil War buffs, North Carolina historians, and libraries with interests in either area. It is well conceived, and the writing and research enhances an impressive collection of photographs. Peter C. Murray Methodist College Melting Pot Soldiers: The Union 's Ethnic Regiments. By William L. Burton. (2d ed., New York: Fordham University Press, 1998. Pp. xvi, 282. $32.50, cloth; $19.95, paper.) The republication of William L. Burton 's Melting Pot Soldiers comes at an appropriate time. The debate about the validity or falsity of the idea ofthe Melting Pot is as lively today as it was in 1988 (reviewed in CWH, Dec. 1988, pp. 359-60) when this book was first published, and Fordham University Press is to be...