The Continuing War

The Continuing War EDITED BY JAMES I. ROBERTSON, JR. Department of History, Emory University Atlanta, Georgia John estén CXX)Ke was the most famous novelist to serve in the ranks of the Confederate armies. Appointed to Jeb Stuart's staff early in the war, this professional writer proved such a competent officer that he was promoted to captain and was twice cited for gallantry by Lee's cavalry chief. Cooke became completely imbued with the sacredness of the Southern cause, and he retained tins spirit long after the last Springfield had spit its death-dealing pellet. Although he gained considerable fame with laudatory biographies of Jackson and Lee, Cooke's high literary reputation rests on a series of novels revolving around war themes. Foremost among his stories are Surry of Eagle's Nest (1866), Mohun (1869), HiU to Hilt (1869) and Hammer and Rapier (1871). By the time of his death in 1886, he was considered one of the leading romanticists of the postwar South. Always on the lookout for the dramatic and the spectacular, Cooke perhaps became too susceptible to myths and fireside tales, particularly if the story he heard enhanced the stature of a Confederate hero. Yet his pen pictures of Jeb Stuart, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Turner Ashby are so skillfully drawn that no writer since has equally captured the glamour of these cavalry warriors. Cooke's Wearing of the Gray, originally published in 1867, is a series of sketches of these Confederate cavaliers. It is also the closest thing to an autobiography that he ever wrote. ( Portions of his war diary were printed in the 1940 volume of the Journal of Southern History.) This sketchbook is undoubtedly the best of the many works that Cooke wrote, not because it is steeped in müitary history and strategy—which bored him, but because it contains the social and little things that he observed in such leaders as Jackson, Stuart, and Lee. Cooke had little interest in campaigns, unless they proved a reservoir from which he could extract unique and personal 321 322JAMES I. ROBERTSON nuggets. Because of his close observation of headquarters life, and his deep affection for Confederate stalwarts, Cooke's Wearing of the Gray is a polished work of color, drama, and, at least to tiie author, sincerity. This faU Indiana University Press wül release a new edition of Wearing of the Gray. Philip Van Doren Stem has annotated tiie reissue and added, in Esten Cooke fashion, tiie little things that give luster to the saga of the sixties. For a romantic treatment of the Confederacy and its champions, tiiis book is unrivaled. Two otiier works are slated for faU release in Indiana's Civü War Centennial Series. Richard Current has edited a new edition of John B. Hood's provocative Advance and Retreat. A. J. Hanna's Flight into Oblivion , the story of Jefferson Davis' desperate journey from Richmond to Georgia, will also be reissued. Incidentally, a weU-known historian wiU soon embark upon the first scholarly appraisal of Davis' career as Confederate president. The riddle of the Southern sphinx has too long deserved a solution. The widow of FrankOwsley has revised tiiat distinguished historian's famous King Cotton Diplomacy. The University of Chicago Press has republished this classic on Confederate foreign relations. Kenneth P. Stampp has contributed a better insight into the background of our struggle with his The Causes of the Civil War, published in paperback form by Prentice-HaU. Also in soft covers is a new edition of Dwight Dumond's Antislavery Origins of the Civil War in the United States. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., has written the foreword for this University of Michigan Press release. On the other side of tiie war, Vintage has republished Paul Buck's The Road to Reunion, 1865-1900. Yoseloff has slated a fall release for its repubUcation of Dyer's Compendium . Bell Irvin Wiley has written the new introduction for this work that should grace every collector's shelf. C. E. Dornbusch is now devoting fuU time to the preparation of the up-to-date edition of the Bibliography of State Participation in the Civil War. The Blue and Gray Press has released...