Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy (review)

88CIVIL WAR HISTORY the history of the black experience, and will be used and cited by scholars for decades to come. Aucust Meier Kent State University Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy. By Jon L. Wakelyn. Frank E. Vandiver, Advisory Editor. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977. Pp. xii, 603. $29.95.) Wakelyn's title is misleading. Although the bulk of this book consists of biographical sketches of leading Confederates, the heart is contained in four introductory chapters of collective biography. There are also five appendices, listing key biographical data for each individual found in the sketches. Wakelyn examines 651 members (six are women) of the Confederate elite, including 265 generals and naval officers; all 267 congressmen; the president, vice-president, cabinet, and key subcabinet leaders (72); state officials, such as governors, unusually influential legislators, and judges (39); and a few businessmen, farmers, scientists, and cultural leaders (57). (These figures total more than 651 due to dual positions.) The focus of the sketches is upon wartime activity, buttressed by prewar activities that tended to shape wartime experiences and rounded out by some account of postwar careers. Data include dates and places of birth and death, geographical movement, fathers' occupations and political affiliations , relationships to other Confederate elite, education, attendance at key conventions (Nashville 1850, Charleston 1860), military experience (Black Hawk, Seminole, and Mexican wars), secession position in 1860, civil and military promotions, support of the executive, reasons for resignation, postwar occupations, postwar mobility, and restrictions on postwar activity. Wealth and slaveholding information is not included, since other research indicates there was little correlation between these two attributes and political behavior. Sources include national and state biographical directories, county histories, wills, marriage records, city directories, census returns, biographies, and the extensive monographic literature of the period. With such a vast amount of material one expects a detailed collective biography and one is not disappointed. Selecting only a few random conclusions by way of illustration, 166 military leaders were related to important families, but only 53 received family assistance in their entrance into public life; high echelon Confederate bureaucrats were less prepared in terms of public service than were Confederate congressmen; most war leaders had been Democrats, but they had not been major figures in the secession BOOK REVIEWS89 movement; turnover in office had a debilitating effect upon both civil and military leadership; the most important, best educated, and most experienced generals were more likely to have served with the Army of Northern Virginia than with the Army of Tennessee; and in postwar politics ex-Unionist congressmen were more influential (in proportion to their numbers) than former secessionists. Unfortunately these conclusions are sometimes presented in a confusing manner, as paragraph after paragraph simply recites a litany of numbers; the four analytical chapters contain not a single chart, table, or graph. There are no cross tabulations and no summary statistics beyond the percentage—even a simple device like median could help to clarify the significance of the age factor, for example. Part of Wakelyn's problem is the difficulty of combining numbers with a minimum of literary grace; he has been no more successful than most historians have been (including this reviewer). However, the defect is frequently mitigated by clearly stated summary conclusions. Another difficulty is that Wakelyn's figures do not always agree with other tabulations. For example, he counts 93 congressmen having military service; my count is 115. He reckons that 15 legislators favored Bell in 1860; my own figure is 45. This is not to say that Wakelyn's figures are necessarily wrong; it is to emphasize the inevitably slippery nature of this sort of material. In collective biography the figures can be taken as approximations only. This is illustrated further by inconsistencies in Wakelyn's data. The analysis indicates three congressmen were born in Mississippi, but the sketches indicate there were four; analysis counts 60 born in Virginia, sketches list 67. Nevertheless, collective biography is an exceedingly promising device for answering the "who were ..." questions; we have a better picture of the Confederate elite now than heretofore. If the analytic chapters are somewhat disappointing the sketches definitely are not. Here we have the most extensive and hence most useful directory of...