Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War (review)

book reviews363 a colony of American silver miners in Maximilian's Mexico. This reviewer is convinced that these activities, which led to his imprisonment by the Johnson administration and have long clouded his reputation, were motivated by Gwin's pecuniary and expansionist interests, not by his fondness for the Confederacy. Finally, and perhaps most interesting, there is Thomas' contention that slavery was not the major issue in California politics of the 1850's. When one recalls other recent studies which have come to similar conclusions, it may not be presumptuous to suggest that historians of the 1970's will interpret the Civil War within a much broader framework than did historians of the last two decades. Charles Desmond Hart York University, Toronto Artillery and Ammunition of the Civil War. By Warren Ripley. (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1970. Pp. 384. unpriced.) This book gives "the reader a fighting chance to identify various types of Civil War ordnance with, in certain instances, a bit of history on a few weapons themselves." The National Park Service still has some faked Napoleons. Its 660 illustrations, elaborate tables, and careful scholarship make this an ideal handbook in "Civil War cannon hunting." The first nine chapters end with "Cannon Miscellaneous." The others are on carriages, "The Art of Artilleryman," smoothbore and rifle ammunition, and a conclusion which is not a "summary," but a treatise on Civil War rockets. Non-cannon hunters will use it for browsing, with Chapter 6 rather typical of what they will have to browse on. It begins with two columns on Robert Parker Parrott, his cheap rifles, and their manufacture , fifteen columns on identification, and one on "why bursting Parrotts discouraged Army officers somewhat less than their Navy brethren." Then come eight columns on the 8-inch "Swamp Angel" that bombarded Charleston at 8,000 yards from a counterbalanced mud emplacement that was one of the engineering wonders of the war, and an argument that Trenton, N. J.'s "original" is one of four such guns which burst at the vent—on the 36th round in the Swamp Angel's case—and were junked in the same heap. The chapter ends with seven columns on the identification of 10-inch and Confederate Parrotts and two columns of notes. 'The Art of the Artilleryman" treats "the miscellanies of the artilleryman 's art, . . . such diverse topics as implements for handling and firing weapons, manufacture, markings, gunpowder, and fortification." There is nothing on tactics. What the artillerymen did in battle, who they were, and even how many there were of them are not mentioned in this work on ordnance artifacts and whatever the author decided should be connected with them—from the details of gun spiking to a modern rig for deactivating black powder shells and shipboard precautions against 364CIVIL WAR HISTORY their explosion. But if his treatment is less comprehensive than that of the fifth volume of Miller's Photographic History, Mr. Ripley's very personal blend of scholarship and eccentricities may well make his book a kind of classic. Cannon buffs will have to have it. What other readers will learn from it—half of the chapter on smoothbore ammunition is an expert essay on fuses—will depend on their particular interests. Theodore Ropp Duke University The South Reports the Civil War. By J. Cutler Andrews. (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1970. Pp. xiii, 611. $15.00.) Battlefield correspondents are now so integral a part of combat that no war is really complete without them. Yet a scant century ago, when the United States succumbed to civil war, how to report firsthand on military developments was for American newspapermen a problem as novel as it was perplexing. Most of the major newspapers ultimately sent reporters into the field to accompany the armies and report the facts. Meanwhile, the publishers back home used freely the editorial pages to voice opinions on the general course of the struggle and the specific actions of individuals. The southern press during the Civil War years suffered from a number of handicaps. A shortage of manpower, machinery, paper and ink was constant; all transportation and communication facilities went slowly from bad to worse; inflation sent printing...