The Pen Before the Sword

THE PEN BEFORE THE SWORD Carl Bode So rich and full is the writing about the Civil War that it seems almost impossible that anything—major or minor—has been ignored including Lincoln's doctor's dog! The military strategy is being endlessly explored. The political side of the war has been for generations the source of a great debate. The economics of the war are constantly being reassessed. The lives of the leaders are often re-examined. Even some of the human side is re-created through letters, diaries, and memoirs. We see the soldier inbivouac and battle; we see him on the parapet or in prison. The guns of Gettysburg are heard again and the cries at Andersonville. And yet one minor but human element has been overlooked. We know nothing about the soldiers and their officers as normal, more or less cultivated human beings with an interest—pushed down by the war but still a part of their essential humanity—in reading a book, looking at a picture, watching a minstrel show or a play. No one would argue that the culture of the participants was very important to the conduct of the war. But it can be argued that their cultural history had enough significance to justify at least a modicum of attention. To open up the subject, suppose we take one man—instead of man inthemass—andseewhathisculturewaslike,particularlyinconnection with his character. Suppose we take a citizen from Ohio who served through the entire war. He will not be the perfectly average man, for he will end as a general officer. He can, however, represent the typical cultivated man. We might watch his cultural growth during his young manhood and mature life. We would watch it with more interest if we knew that he was later to be a President of the United States. And we could realize that this would not make him any less representative, for it is nothing new to have in the White House a President typical in his culture though extraordinary in his political abilities. Such a man was Rutherford B. Hayes. Currently on leave from the University of Maryland, Carl Bode is visiting professor of English and history at the University of Wisconsin. His recent book, TheAnatomyofAmericanPopular Culture, 1840-1861, isthe second of three projected volumes on the history of culture in the nineteenth century. 63 64CARL BODE There will be an additional point to discovering his developing interests during the 1840's and 1850's, for the general cultural forces at work during the two decades before the war were highly significant in themselves. They produced the first modern period in our culture. Culturally the United States was a simple nation when the 1840's began but a complex one when the 1850's ended. This was a pivotal time. Let us begin with something about Hayes's education and then his growing personal and public interests. They need to be sketched first in order to set the scene for his strictly cultural development. We need to know enough about his life to understand his culture. As the decade of the 1840's opened, rich with promise, Hayes was in the middle of his sophomore year at little Kenyon College in Ohio. His letters home contained the pleas for money and favorite foods (sweet potatoes preferred) still characteristic of the college student. He was a handsome, long-nosed, lively young fellow, given to an occasional prank but nonetheless top scholar in his class. He had, he confessed in his diary, more than the normal share of self-esteem; but his sparkle of humor kept him from pomposity and his merits proved so obvious to other people that any conceit could be excused. His college record proved to be good. His time at Kenyon passed as pleasantly as anyone could wish. The subjects of his studies were the standard classical ones of the time and he emerged with a sound basic education. In October, 1842, not long after graduation, he started reading law in the office of a firm of Columbus attorneys. He pored over Blackstone and scolded himself for failing to learn enough. "I am not satisfied," he wrote...