University of Texas Press
Reviewed by:
  • Oi Callie: The Civil War Letters of Brandt Badger
Oi Callie: The Civil War Letters of Brandt Badger. By Rex H. Stever and Barbara M. Stever. (Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company, 2004. Pp. 86. Acknowledgments, preface, illustrations, photographs, epilogue, appendix, index. ISBN 0965871916. $22.00, cloth.)

In this engaging volume, Rex and Barbara Stever successfully intertwine social and military history in interpreting a series of forty-two letters written by Brandt Badger to his wife, Callie Jones, during the Civil War. Excerpts from their letters form the heart of the text, which the authors supplement with a narrative drawn from a smattering of sources such as unpublished monographs, TheNew Handbook of Texas, and a Texas historical marker for Waul's Texas Legion.

The Stevers organize their chapters around Badger's movement with Waul's Texas Legion, Company D, during the Civil War. While tracing Badger's journey from Texas to Mississippi, the authors underscore Badger's devotion to Callie and his emotional journey through the war. The first sections describe how Thomas N. Waul, a plantation owner in Gonzales, and John Duff Brown, a doctor and drug store owner in Gonzales, originated Waul's Texas Legion. Brown became the captain of a cavalry unit, Company D, which contained just over one hundred and twenty men, including Badger. While in basic training at Camp Waul, Badger was assigned as the company's "hospital steward" because of his background in working with pharmaceuticals (p. 60). After basic training, Badger's cavalry traveled to the Brazos River and through Corsicana and eventually into Magnolia, Arkansas, in order to engage in the Vicksburg campaign. During the company's movement from Texas to Mississippi, Badger's letters displayed optimism for the quick demise of the war and a strong sense of Confederate patriotism. When the Union army captured his unit, Badger continued to work in a hospital as a prisoner in Panola, Mississippi. By this time, Badger's letters reveal the emotions of a weary soldier eager to return home to his wife. In the epilogue and conclusion of the book, the authors provide familial information about the Badger family and show pictures of historical markers such as the Badgers' house in Marble Falls, Texas.

Oi Callie is not only a contribution to scholarship within Texas and Civil War military history, but also to social studies as well. Even though Badger was clearly pro-Confederate, after reading his letters to Callie, one sees how his thoughts, emotions, and morale center on the relationship with his wife more so than the outcome in the war and the success of the Confederate army. While Badger held picket duty at Warrenton just south of Vicksburg, his letters reflected an aura of anxiety because Callie was approaching childbirth. Indeed, Badger's concern for his wife during childbirth is a recurring theme throughout the war, because she was a small woman who had difficulty and stillborns with her previous births. Badger's letters communicate the importance of family and return home after the war. Oi Callie is a valuable monograph for historians wishing to study social and Texas military history.

Madalyn Ard
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Share