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Book Reviews EDITED BY CHARLES T. MILLER B-Il University Hall Iowa City, Iowa A Different Valor: The Story of General Joseph E. Johnston, C.S.A. By Gilbert E. Govan and James W. Livingood. (Indianapolis: The BobbsMerrill Company. 1956. Pp. 470. $6.00.) it has been more than a HALF-CENTUBY since R. M. Hughes, a great-nephew of Joseph E. Johnston, published a biography of the Confederate general. The rich additions to scholarship which have appeared since then are profitably mined in Govan and Livingood's book. A comparison of the 1893 volume with the current one indicates, however, that the two studies of Johnston are not fundamentally different in purpose, execution, or conclusion. In part, this reflects the fact that the earlier biographer built unusually well. More importantly , it marks the essential similarity of viewpoint between the two sets of authors, who are separated from each other more in time than in admiration for their common subject. Both studies picture Johnston as a great man and a great commander whose martial talents never found release. Jefferson Davis is the devil of this tale. A continuing personal antipathy between the general and the President brought the former personal indignities, official injustices, and historical inequities. The authors suggest that Johnston, out of his loyalty to the Confederacy, bore this cross as best he could, but never as well as Lee was able to manage. The effects of this personality conflict on the course of the war are the matters of primary significance in this book. It is clear that Govan and Livingood , like Hughes, accepted Johnston's own view of the matter: that in strategy and tactics Davis' interferences and errors cost the South so heavily that defeat was the final price the Confederacy had to pay. In my opinion this is an erroneous judgment. I cannot find the same promise of Confederate victory from an examination of Johnston's strategical concepts, when compared with political, diplomatic, and logistical realities then existing, that the authors have derived. This is less a criticism than a suggestion that the Davis-Johnston feud, like the more recent Truman-MacArthur episode, will remain a basis for historical difference of opinions. 445 446CIVIL WAB HISTOBY The authors deserve high praise for the lucidity which marks their descriptions of the skirmishes and battles in which Johnston took part, and for the manner in which they have interwoven military events with political and other developments. Praiseworthy, too, is the careful and complete use of sources (unfortunately, documentation is inconveniently lumped into the back of the book). Excellent maps grace pages in useful juxtaposition to textual material dealing with the mapped region. Careful proofreading left few errors to mar the final presentation. Equally noteworthy is the contribution this volume offers to the growing body of information on the internal workings of the Confederate army strueture . In this connection A Different Valor is a valuable supplement to such works as Frank Vandiver's Rebel Brass. And Johnston's Civil War experiences tell again of the often-incredible obstacles which Yanks and Rebs alike faced in their trial of arms. When railroad travel from Gordonsville to Manassas consumed thirty-six hours even in early 1862, or when, during critical days on the James Peninsula, the telegraph line to Richmond went dead just when it was most needed—accounts of such events provide the reader with a sense of vicarious participation. Criticism of this volume centers on several conceptual points. First, there is inadequate space allocation to the years before Sumter and after Appomattox. A Different Valor is a study of Johnston's Civil War career rather than a biography of the man. A more complete account is needed. Second, the excessively one-sided picture of the Davis-Johnston controversy and of Johnston generally requires more evenly balanced treatment. Surely Davis was hard to serve. But Johnston, who publicly criticized civilian superiors, intrigued through backstage champions (especially Texas' Senator Wigfall) as well as being the victim of others' conspiracies, and who received criticisms (which are rarely cited) as well as praises (which are), was often equally at fault. Third, I regret not finding discussion of a subject which the authors...

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