Sons of Privilege: The Charleston Light Dragoons in the Civil War (review)

W. Eric Emerson's brief but engaging conversion of his doctoral dissertation examines one of the Confederacy's unique and also most tragic cavalry troops, the Charleston Light Dragoons. Originally established as one of the city's oldest antebellum militia companies, the Dragoons maintained its elite membership throughout its service during the Civil War, reflecting more the attributes of a gentleman's club than the socio-economic diversity of a typical Union or Confederate combat unit. The political connections they maintained because of their elite status ensured that they received an easy assignment from the Confederate command near their Charleston home, where they enjoyed a relaxed, privileged quasi-military environment far from the dangers of combat. This life of leisure, however, ended in 1864 when the man-starved Army of Northern Virginia called the Dragoons into service against Grant's advance on Richmond. The ferocity of their initial engagements quickly dashed the romantic visions of battle that these elites originally imagined as their regiment took devastating casualties. By the conclusion of the war, the unit more closely resembled other veteran outfits in appearance and demeanor as the rigors of nearly a year of campaigning destroyed their chivalric visions of combat and decimated their ranks. Upon returning home, many of these once proud and influential leaders of Charleston society had to contend with ruined plantations, businesses, and fortunes. A handful of veterans revived the militia company as an instrument of the Redeemer cause, but it had lost all of its antebellum reputation of exclusiveness and participation limited to the city's finest gentlemen.

Emerson's study explores the unique social dynamic of the Dragoons to complement its brief, yet intense battle history. Even well into the war, they kept their high social standards of enlistment and took many of their privileged customs into camp with them such as dueling, wine drinking, and slavery. While most of these men could have avoided military service, all felt a sense of noblesse oblige to defend their society's institutions and privileges. The author provides excellent balance to both the prewar and postwar experience for these men, exemplifying the tragedy of the Southern elite's collapse as a whole. The book also has an appendix with detailed rosters, biographies, and service records of the Dragoons' members as well as ample campaign maps throughout. Given the distinctiveness of the company's socio-economic composition, this study could do more to explore the dynamic within the rank structure between the officers and enlisted personnel as well as the process of selecting the officer corps, since all members possessed similar wealth, education, education, and social status. The participation and influence of the wartime members of the Dragoons in the rejuvenated postbellum unit also occasionally remains unclear. These minor imperfections do not detract from Emerson's accomplishments with this effective and laudable narrative.