Look to the Earth: Historical Archaeology and the American Civil War (review)

BOOK reviews89 makes a special effort to determine whether or not Battery Wagner's commanding officer, Brig. Gen. Johnson Hagood, did indeed insist that the commander of the 54th, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, be "buried with his niggers." Wise concludes that while Hagood probably did not utter those exact words, he did in fact order that the corpses of black men be tossed on Shaw's remains in a trench in front of Wagner. Neither author is apparently aware that a black man possessing a fair complexion fought with Confederate forces in the defense of Battery Wagner. John Wilson Buckner was a private in the ist South CaroUna ArtiUery. He was wounded on July 12, 1863, as infantry from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Maine failed to take Wagner. But Buckner remained in the army until October 1864. After the war, local whites who knew he was black commended him as a "faithful soldier." He was one of the few people of color who whites would praise in the years foUowing the conflict. Rosen's short epilogue on postwar feelings and attitudes reveals much about Reconstruction and the decades ofracial hostiUty and discord that have persisted since in American society. It is, of course, understandable that Charleston whites were severely traumatized by military defeat, emancipation, and the occupation of their city by black troops. The haughty behavior and criminal activities of some troops and black residents surely exacerbated deeply felt racial passions. However, far more frequent were instances of black men and women who were kind, thoughtful, and compassionate toward white inhabitants amid the ruins ofthe city. Therefore, the unremitting bitterness, contempt, and meanspiritedness that whites showed in return to black civihans and miütary personnel is one ofthe more regrettable developments in this nation's past. William C. Hine South CaroUna State University Look to the Earth: HistoricalArchaeology and the American Civil War. Edited by Clarence R. Geier, Jr., and Susan E. Winter. (KnoxviUe: University of Tennessee Press, 1994. Pp. xvi, 325. $35.00.) Look to the Earth pubüshes twelve papers given to a conference on historical archaeology held in Richmond in 1991. As scholarship, the essays are working papers and progress reports on topics in historical archaeology ranging from bullet analysis at battlefields, excavations of fortifications and camps, as weU as marine salvages to an analysis oftechnology transfers in the development of American armaments using material evidence from industrial sites. Overlaying all the articles is the argument thathistorical archaeology is ifnot actuaUy central to Civil War historiography a coequal with other discipUnary and methodological approaches to the conflict. As Steven D. Smith writes in "Archaeological Perspectives on the Civil War," 'To ignore archaeological remains is to exercise a partiaUty researchers cannot afford" (8). The authors are especially sensitive 90CIVIL WAR history to the ways in which uncovering material evidence can reveal the lives of ordinary citizens. They also perform the laudable function ofreminding us how much the American land was shaped by man and is itself a historical document that needs to be treated with respect and preserved whenever possible. As advocates for their discipline, the authors sometimes claim too much for what can be derived from fragmentary material remains. They do not always fully articulate what the connection or relationship ofrecovered objects is to the larger problematic of the Civil War. Conversely, in attempting to link objects to the conduct of the war, the authors occasionally argue reductively that the object taken in isolation was history. The object forms a talismanic function, as when WiUiam B. Lees writes, "The fact that these data do not seem to comment beyond the battlefield is, in fact, the most profound comment of all" (57-58). Well no, it must be said, it's not. But overall, as works in a field undergoing the process of self-definition, these essays demonstrate the value of historical archaeology. As the discipline develops, it is expected that it will sharpen its goals and focus, recognizing the limits while emphasizing the strengths of historic archaeology. This volume is a fine initial survey of the ground with initial siftings indicating the valuable evidence to come with deeper digging. David C. Ward Smithsonian Institution ...