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84CIVIL WAR HISTORY ity lies the value of her recollections. Thousands of "Célines" lived during the same grim years in the deep South, and probably endured the same terrors and privations suffered by the author. She, almost alone, speaks to the present for the rest. Mark T. Carleton Louisiana State University The Rough Side of War: The Civil War Journal of Chesley A. Mosman, First Lieutenant, Company D, 59th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Edited by Arnold Gates. (Garden City: The Basin Publishing, 1987, Pp. xii, 442. $25.00.) On August 7, 1861, nineteen-year-old Chesley A. Mosman from Marine Prairie, Illinois was mustered into Company D ofthe Ninth Missouri Volunteer Infantry in St. Louis. Apparently because most of the men in this regiment came from Illinois it was redesignated the 59th Illinois in early 1862. Mosman's journal covered the entirety of his wartime service and eventually totalled some thirteen volumes. The first two ofthese, however, are missing. Thus, Mosman's journal under review here commenced in April 1862 and ended when his regiment was mustered out at the close of 1865. The 59th saw plenty ofcombat action as it took part in most ofthe major western campaigns and in battles such as Pea Ridge, Stones River, Chickamauga , Lookout Mountain, Resaca, Franklin, and Nashville. During the last six months of 1865 the 59th served as an occupation force in south Texas. Chesley Mosman served with distinction. He was wounded at Pea Ridge and at Nashville and was promoted to his ultimate rank, first lieutenant, by May 1863. A reliable and dependable officer, he served as acting commander of another company in the 59th for four months in 1864 and was regularly assigned command of the regiment's pioneer detachment. Much of Mosman'sjournal chronicles the routine and mundane events ofsoldier life in wartime. Recurrent comments on the quantity of rations and on the constant search for warm and dry shelter provide some ofthe major themes of Mosman's life in the army. Mosman was methodical and meticulous in his habits and lifestyle and he made every reasonable effort to see to his own welfare and to the welfare of the troops under his command. The reader should be aware that much ofwhat Mosman recorded is not very exciting. On the other hand, Lieutenant Mosman was a voracious reader who could express himself very well. During his campaigning he saw lots of country and he appreciated the occasional tranquil beauty around him as he noted while in Tennessee in May 1863, "This is a splendid spring morning . Wild turkeys gobble in the distance, mingled with bugle notes from the BOOK REVIEWS85 distant cantonment—everything conspires to make these southern mornings delightful" (p. 55). A wry sense ofhumor highlights Mosman's chronicle . For example, while enduring a forced march in Arkansas during 1862, Corporal Mosman reported that "the boys swear that the point is Nova Scotia, the direction northeast, and the time next week" (p. 13). Mosman was also astute enough to sense the changing nature of the war. While serving under Sherman near Atlanta in August 1 864, he pointed out that earlier in the war there were often long pauses between Union campaigns but that generals such as Sherman and Grant "go at it like a man at a day's work . . . they don't seem to care for clean clothes, but require clean guns" (p. 264). Editor Arnold Gates does a generally effective job. There are eighteen pages of very useful explanatory notes at the end of the text and Gates provides very interesting details of Mosman's life after 1 865. The total absence of maps will frustrate many readers and the purpose for the 59th's assignment to Texas is left largely unexplained. For hardy and patient readers seeking fuller knowledge of Civil War soldier life from the perspective ofan intelligent and literate infantry officer The Rough Side of War is highly recommended. Larry T. Balsamo Western Illinois University Witness To Gettysburg. By Richard Wheeler. (New York: Harper & Row, 1987. Pp. 288. $19.45.) Richard Wheeler has made something ofa career writing "eyewitness" histories on such diverse military conflicts as World War II, the American Revolution...

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