Mr. Lincoln's General U. S. Grant. An Illustrated Autobiography (review)

Book Reviews209 Instead of a study in political warfare, the author has attempted to show how the Civil War affected Lincoln and Davis and their capitals, Washington and Richmond. Lincoln and Davis never come to grips as antagonists. What emerges is a familiar picture, drawn largely from secondary sources and done in an impressionistic style that accents the purple patches. It should hardly be a matter for surprise that both capitals were crowded in wartime and that among the crowds could be found office-seekers, lobbyists, and contractors. Readers may be titillated to learn that gambling houses and scarlet women existed in the wartime capitals, but the importance of vice is easily overdone. As far as the combatants were concerned, vice was important only to the extent that it acted as an anodyne to jangled nerves, diverted resources, or added to themedicalproblems oftheservices. One may doubt that "mountains" of luxury goods were brought into the Confederacy through the blockade. Quantities of goods of that proportion would no longer remain in the category of luxury goods. That the South could only import luxury goods would indicate the efficacy of the blockade; moreover , luxury goods had a high value for a small bulk and were easier to smuggle ashore. One may also indicate fatigue with the oft-repeated criticism of the mobilization difficulties and scandals of both contestants. What is amazing is not the scandals of the mobilization period, but the speed with which both the North and the South raised, trained, equipped, and moved large bodies of men into battle. If it is worthy of note that the North had from the beginning a strategic concept that eventually led to victory, it is also notable that the South in a few months fashioned a governmental apparatus that carried on large-scale resistance for four long, bitter years in the face of a determined offensive bya superiorpower. Ithas been the fashion to elevate the Southern generate—Lee in particular—and to denigrate Davis and the Confederate Congress in an effort to excuse or explain the Southern defeat in terms of the devil theory of history. A more reasonable explanation is that in a war of attrition the side with the greater resources will in the end triumph. One gets the impression that the author had a longer book in mind and that for some reason he made a hurried ending. About nine-tenths of the book deals with the first two years of the war; the last two years are slapped together . In spite of the author's efforts to emphasize Lincoln, Davis, and the two capitals, he has produced a superficial popularization of the early years of the Civil War. Those readers who enjoyed his account of the draft riots in New York Citywill bedisappointed with thispotboiler. Rodney C. Loehr University ofMinnesota. Mr. Lincoln's General U. S. Grant. An Illustrated Autobiography. Edited and arranged by Roy Meredith. (New York: E. P. Dutton and Company , Inc., 1959. Pp. 252. $6.95.) in recent years it is fortunate that a much needed re-assessment of Gen. U. S. Grant has been going on. The result has been to restore Grant to his proper 210CIVILWAR HISTORY position and remove some of the tarnish that had piled on his figure over the years. It was therefore inevitable that a picture history of the general should be produced. Roy Meredith, whose most valuable contribution in the Civil War field has been in the illustrative branch, recognized the need for such a volume. However, in the case of Grant this task appears to have been difficult; for while there are many pictures of the general available, they are apparenüy not sufficient in quantity nor in subject value to comprise a full volume. The author has adopted an interesting and challenging technique. After an introduction, there is a necessarily sharply abridged text taken from the Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. This outìine of his life from his own words is as well condensed, probably, as it can be. It is a pity, in a way, that this could not have been a longer book with more of the orginial text left intact. To illuminate...