William Montague Browne: Versatile Anglo-Irish American, 1833-1883 (review)

BOOKREVIEWS357 ships and antagonisms with obscure clergymen. Other dilemmas of Scott's career, including his unexplained fears of interdenominationalism, might have been clarified by a more analytical treatment of his pubUshed writings . Well-researched but undocumented, sympathetic but not adulatory, this biography is weak on Scott's theology but thorough on the large and small events of his Ufe. Drury frequently mentions his sources and research activities within the text and includes an important list of manuscripts and church reports in a brief bibhography. Enlightened about the contributions of one prominent clergyman, some readers may find this Ufe of Scott useful for sociological and reUgious studies of the ordinary Western Presbyterians whom this extraordinary man served. Roderick N. Ryon Towson State College William Montague Browne: Versatile Anglo-Irish American, 1833-1883, by E. Merton Coulter. (AÜiens: University of Georgia Press, 1967. Pp. vni, 328. $7.50.) Professor Coulter has been producing historical articles and books on the Old South for many years. Beyond his major works he has rescued from obUvion many southerners who worked with the traditional heroic figures, but who themselves Uved at the secondary level of historical significance. WilUam Montague Browne was such a man. Browne came to America in the early 1850's and first worked for the New York Journal of Commerce. He came suddenly into the national limeUght in 1859 as editor of Buchanan's new administration newspaper, the Constitutwn, successor to the Washington Unkn. Buchanan withdrew poUtical support and disclaimed any connection with the paper after Browne came out for southern secession in January, 1861. "Constitution" Browne then moved to Alabama to help organize the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis made him personal aide-de-camp, appointed him Assistant Secretary of State and later Commandant of Conscription in Georgia, where the state government had been resisting the draft. After Appomattox, Browne suffered both from the Union occupation and from his close association with Jefferson Davis, which some southerners resented. In his later years, Browne made a precarious Uving as an occasional newspaper correspondent, editor of a farm journal, secretary of an insurance company, and finally as a professor at the University of Georgia in Athens, where he made his home. In addition to its function as biography, this book provides much collateral information on the social and intellectual outlook of southerners during and after the Civil War. Browne never seemed aware of any but the southern view of the events he experienced. As an Irish-bom immigrant who was himself often condemned as a foreigner, he seemed to feel a special compulsion to conform to the folkways of his adopted region. From 1860 until his death he unflinchingly defended the concepts and prejudices of the antebellum South, and sharply attacked all who disagreed. 358CIVIL WAR HISTORY Coulter used sources relating to the Old South with which he is thoroughly famiUar: official documents, manuscripts and newspapers. In addition to the well-known papers of men like Davis, Holt, Black, Buchanan and Cobb, Coulter drew extensively from the Samuel L. M. Barlow manuscripts, only recently available to scholars, which contain many letters from Browne. Considering the difficulty of writing a full-length biography of a man who left no collection of his own papers, the author has done a good job of reconstruction and produced a well-balanced story. There are necessarily some gaps. Browne's early years receive sketchy treatment because data proved unobtainable. In view of Browne's violent hatred of Lincoln, it seems odd that there is no reference to the assassination. Sherman's march and the defense of Savannah in which Browne participated receive only brief attention . On the other hand, a great deal of material is included which may be labeled trivia. The chief justification for it may be that, as it is unhkely that other biographies of Browne will appear, the full record ought to be preserved even though some of it clutters the narrative. The author has provided copious and careful end-notes, but too many errors escaped the eyes of proofreaders. The table of contents and appendix differ on the way to spell Pickett. Buchanan's book on his presidency is cited in notes and bibhography as his...