Cities and Camps of the Confederate States (review)

Book Reviews115 fessional historian nor a professional man of letters; Vandiver is both. The difference is significant in both historical and literary style. We need to remember that Vandiver merely wrote the best biography of Jackson; Hassler wrote the first biography of A. P. HiU. It is time we rescued Lee's Lieutenant General, not from oblivion but from neglect. He deserves better of posterity and Confederate myth makers. His red beard is as luxuriant as Jackson's brown beard, his red battle shirt as colorful as Stuart's black plume. He gaUoped furiously across bloody fields and brandished his sword at frightful carnages. Longstreet had the misfortune to outlive the war and become a detested Republican. HuI lived and died with the Confederacy. Innately a fighter, he has rested too long in peace; he deserves a larger share of glory. Martin Staples Shockley Denton, Texas. CitiesandCampsofthe Confederate States. ByFitzGerald Ross. Edited by Richard B. Harwell. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 1958. Pp. xxn, 262. $4.50.) rr is highly unlikely that an outsider visiting an embattled land plans such a journey with the idea that he wül view the proceedings of war with an unbiased eye. The very fact of his presence on one side of the lines or the other often establishes his preconceptions regarding the causes of the conflict and the aims of the combatants. Thus in the Second World War very few American correspondents or military observers accompanied the German advance into Poland, or the Japanese occupation of the North China Plain. Even when traveUing in an unofficial capacity, as a sort of tourist, such excursions are improbable. The outsider interested in observing and perhaps reporting on the scenes of war generaUy does so on the side of the cause he champions. As such, his observations cannot be considered without taking into account his personal bias. So it is with FitzGerald Ross's account of the Confederacy from June, 1863, to April, 1864. Underno circumstances may these be regarded as the writings of an unprejudiced observer—Ross warmly espoused the Southern cause and presented even the smaUest details in a light favorable to the Confederacy. But these are the observations of an outsider, and a somewhat expert outsider at that—a cavalry officer on leave from the Austrian army. However evident the personal coloring of conditions and events in the Confederacy at this time, the comparisons and reactions of the writer are of interest. Ross arrived just before the Battle of Gettysburg. His descriptions of that scene, the conditions of the march, and the attitudes of both Southern troops and Northern noncombatants are perhaps the high point of the book. Following Lee's withdrawal, Ross made his way through much of the Southeast. Unfortunately, an inordinate proportion of his time was spent in the larger cities, and his thoughts here seem to dwell more on the menus presented him than with the environment and its inhabitants. Nevertheless, he did observe 116civil war history the battlefield at Chickamauga while the ground was stiU hot, so to speak, and some of the fighting in the vicinity of Chattanooga. Several pertinent comments are made on these activities, particularly with regard to the use of cavalry in this country. His reactions to the port cities and their defenses do not appear to be as lucid as the commentary of Fremantie. Indeed, it is with this latter author that his work bears comparison. Fremantie was in the Confederacy for a much shorter length of time, only three months. He, for the most part, did not cover the same ground or events as did Ross. The two accounts serve to complement and supplement each other, and fortunately, have been edited in their modern editions by the same man. Much of the pertinent commentary made by Fremantie and other observers of the situations experienced by Ross have been included as footnotes. These are most useful, and make the reading of Ross's work much more informative than would be the case had they been omitted. Ross's finest descriptions are of Havana, where he had little in the line of a cause to support. It is to be regretted that his commentary...