Garret Larew Civil War Soldier: With an Account of His Ancestors and of His Decendants, and: Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman, and: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Combat Diaries of Union Sergeant Hamlin Alexander Coe, and: Window on the War: Frances Dallam Peter's Lexington Civil War Diary (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 169 Garret Larew Civil War Soldier: With an Account of His Ancestors and of His Decendants. Edited by Karl G. Larew (Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc., 1975. Pp. viii, 279. $12.00.) Civil War Letters of George Washington Whitman. Edited by Jerome M. Loving (Durham: Duke University Press, 1975. Pp. xvi, 713. $11.75.) Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Combat Diaries of Union Sergeant Hamlin Alexander Coe. Edited by David Coe. (Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1975. Pp. 240. $10.00.) Window on the War: Frances Dallam Peter's Lexington Civil War Diary. Edited by John David Smith and William Cooper, Jr. (Lexington : Lexington-Fayette County Historic Commission, 1976. Pp. iii. 53. $4.50, paper.) The publication of four more volumes of Civil War diaries and letters will distress those individuals who seek simple answers to complex questions. For those who seek a deeper understanding of that conflict, each new work will be accepted as another part of a giant jigsaw puzzle. The diaries of Garret Larew and Hamlin Coe and the letters of George Washington Whitman provide the reader with vivid accounts of their wartime experiences. All three volumes are remarkably similar in their description of the day-to-day concerns of the common soldier. Each account is dominated by thoughts of home, family and the monotonous routine of army life. David Coe's edition of his grandfather's diary is very readable. The editorial comments, although minimal, are usually unnecessary and lack depth. Footnotes, which are totally lacking, would have been useful to the general reader and the scholar. More importantly , a detailed index and a bibliography would have been valuable additions to this work. Despite the absence of the normal scholarly paraphernalia, "Ham" Coe's account of his service, especially his part in Sherman's campaign in Georgia, is a useful contribution to the literature of the Civil War. Jerome Loving's edition of George Washington Whitman's letters is scholarly. It contains useful footnotes and editorial comments, where appropriate, and a detailed index. While the letters will be of value to students of the Civil War, they will be of even greater interest to scholars working on the career of Walt Whitman, George's older brother. The letters contain a vast amount of information about Whitman's service with the 51st Regiment of New York volunteers from February, 1862 until his capture on September 30, 1864. There are also numerous letters that deal almost exclusively with Whitman's feelings, thoughts and concerns about his family. Included with the letters is a diary which Whitman kept from September, 1861 until September 6, 1863. The letters and 170CIVIL WAR HISTORY diary paint a vivid picture of the Civil War and may help to explain Walt Whitman's perception of that conflict. Garret Larew Civil War Soldier by Karl G. Larew is only incidentally about the war. Only forty-nine of the 263 pages are devoted to Larew's military service; the remainder of the book is devoted to his ancestors and descendants. When allowed to speak for himself, Larew writes eloquently of home, loved ones, and war. But too frequently, the editor intrudes and disrupts the narrative. Larew's volume is of less interest to the historian than the Loving or Coe volumes. However, the geneologist pursuing the Larew family will find that this volume contains a wealth of information. John D. Smith's and William Cooper's edition of Frances Peter's diary provides a fascinating picture of life in Lexington, Kentucky during the Civil War. The diary, covering the period from January 31, 1862 to March 31, 1864, was compiled by a perceptive young woman with a strong Union bias living in a town deeply divided by the sectional conflict. The editors have done their work well, providing notes where necessary and eliminating purely local and family matters unless they "have some bearing on the war, or revealed attitudes of Lexingtonians toward that conflict (p. ii)." Window on the War can be read for pleasure and profit by both the general reader and the scholar. All four volumes are valuable contributions to the historiography of the Civil War. The historian can still learn much...