Confederate Guerrilla: The Civil War Memoir of Joseph Bailey (review)

2??8Book Reviewsg7 housed the less affluent residents of the city, many of whom were African American , at first slaves, then servants after the Civil War, and later blue collar workers. The author uses a wide range of primary sources including Sanborn insurance maps, city directories, and personal interviews to ferret out the fragments of information on alley dwellers that can be found in the historical record. The historical narrative is spiced with firsdiand accounts and brief stories about individual alley dwellers taken from personal interviews, period newspapers, and court records. The book also includes information on how to use Sanborn insurance maps and historic "bird's eye views" of cities to research historic buildings and cityscapes, which is particularly useful. Beasley's book seems primarily aimed at readers who live in or otherwise have a close connection widi the city of Galveston. While the book covers its subject very thoroughly, Beasley's story of die Galveston alleys could have been more meaningful. The research is impeccable, but more social history and fewer details of alley planning and physical conditions would have made the book more interesting . If die author had included more background on alley life in die United States in general during die periods covered, the specifics about alley life in Galveston would have had more significance for the reader. In addition, the more fascinating social realities of alley life such as prostitution, labor strikes, and crime are only touched upon and could have been developed further. The issues surrounding race, poverty, and segregation are of the most interest , but are not elaborated upon. The addition of more context about the status ofand discrimination against African Americans during slavery, the Civil War, and Jim Crow—the eras which the book focuses on—would have created more relevance . The book presents very detailed information about Galveston alleys and the people who inhabited them, but that information exists mosdy in a vacuum. The Alleys and Back Buildings of Galveston provides a detailed and thorough study for anyone interested in Galveston alley architecture and culture, and I recommend it for those who have a specific interest in historic Galveston. The illustrations are excellent. The book also provides good examples of methods of using primary historical documents to research historic structures. Texas Stale University-San MarcosPeter Dedek Confederate Guerrilla: The Civil War Memoir ofJoseph Bailey. Edited by T. Lindsay Baker. (Fayetteville: University ofArkansas Press, 2007. Pp. 168. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 9781557288387. $ 29.95, cloth.) One of the most fascinating aspects of the War Between the States is the guerrilla fighting that occurred throughout the Confederacy and the Border States. The level of barbarism in which both sides freely indulged is amazing, especially since the guerrilla fighters were often close neighbors to one another. Accounts of this fighting are part of the narrative that Joseph Marion Bailey— captain in the Sixteenth Arkansas Infantry, guerrilla fighter, and then as the war ended, lieutenant in the First Arkansas Consolidated Regiment—dictated late in g8Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJuly life while living in Texas. Bailey's narrative is deftly edited by T. Lindsay Baker, professor of history at Tarleton State University. Joseph Marion Bailey was born in Polk County, Tennessee, in 1841 and moved with his family to Carroll County, Arkansas at age twelve. When hostilities began in 1861, he joined a home guard unit, and later traveled widi the Joe Wright Guards to Missouri. After joining the Sixteenth Arkansas, Bailey participated in the Batdes of Wilson Creek, Pea Ridge, Farmington, Iuka, and Corinth, Mississippi, and die siege on Port Hudson in Louisiana. When the Confederates surrendered at Port Hudson, Bailey expected as an officer to endure imprisonment in a Federal prisoner-of-war camp, but he and a comrade elected instead to escape back into Arkansas. From September 1 863 through October 1 864, he served as a guerrilla fighter in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri. His guerrilla service forms the core of his narrative and is die most thrilling part to read. It was during his guerrilla period that Bailey wed Mary Matilda Baines, but it was also the period when the Federal presence in his home county intensified; therefore, shortly after his marriage...