The Fremantle Diary: Being the Journal of Lieutenant Colonel James Arthur Lyon Fremantle, Coldstream Guards, on his Three Months in the Southern States (review)

446CIVIL WAR history The Fremantle Diary: Being the Journal of Lieutenant Colonel James Arthur Lyon Fremantle, Coldstream Guards, on his Three Months in the Southern States. Edited by Walter Lord. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1954. Pp. xv, 304. $4.00.) it almost always holds that good "on the spot" reporting has a certain quality of candidness that other descriptions lack, no matter how weU done. The diarist not only notes the Uttle — sometimes trivial — occurrences and, depending on his skiU and accuracy, jots them down as exactly as possible as he observed them, but he is part of tìie scene itseU and brings to the reader the feeling of "belonging," of taking part in the experiences of tìie writer. In this diary kept by a young British officer who toured the South for three months in 1863, one senses the stark reality of life in the war zones in much the same way as one does when he examines Brady's pictures of the CivU War. On mUitary leave, Lieutenant Colonel James A. L. Fremantle toured the embattled Confederacy from Texas to Gettysburg and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic. During the months of spring and early summer, he was given opportunities to study conditions on die front and behind the lines such as were afforded few men of his period. He received a warm welcome by Confederate officers because of his military rank and by civil leaders because he represented a country which it was hoped would soon recognize the Confederate States as a nation. The personalities and thinking of some of the highest leaders of the South, both miUtary and civiUan, emerge from the pages of the diary with a clarity that impresses the reader. Obviously everything he saw or heard could not be written, but enough was set down to indicate that the young colonel discussed strategic moves and traded müitary wisdom with ranking general staff officers. He was given choice vantage points from which he observed actual combat maneuvers and witnessed at close range what no one at that time could know would be the turning point of the war, the battle of Gettysburg. The cores of several points of weakness and strength are disclosed, and it is a tribute to his powers of observation diat he saw some of these basic elements for what they were despite the radical differences in the conduct of the war in America from his own European experience. He was particularly impressed with how the war was being fought as successfuUy as it was under the obstacles of procurement of both men and supplies. Important abo are the colonel's lucid descriptions of the civilian life of the South hedged in by the war zones. Here his candid observation of little things provides much material for anyone engaged in a social analysis of the South at this time. AU the characteristics of a beleaguered people pass in review. Avarice, hate, sympathy, hospitaUty, hope, suspicion, perseverance, aU find their places in his description of individuals and their environments. Other visitors to the American scene have left valuable, indeUble impressions of the time and setting of their travels, and the pen of this young British officer does the same. What might have passed unnoticed to American eyes stood out vividly to him as he tried to explain the contemporary American scene to his own countrymen. It is a tribute to the warmth and sincerity of the document Book Reviews447 that ninety years after the end of a war that has been discussed and analyzed from almost every conceivable angle it is refreshing to take up tìiis diary and to witness witìi the author the daily experiences of a war-torn people. This book is a re-issue of the original as it was pubUshed in England by Colonel Fremande in 1863 after his return from his American visit. Mr. Walter Lord has done a good job as editor, and his notes are weU worth reading on their own account both for their lucidity and their content material. For aU students of the Civü War, diis volume is a "must" for the bookshelf and a happy obUgation...