Parties, Slavery, and the Union in Antebellum Georgia, and: Under the Guardianship of the Nation: The Freedmen's Bureau and the Reconstruction of Georgia, 1865-1870 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS51 mas maintained one of the war's most elaborate mapping facilities. Anyone unfamihar with the real workings of a miliary organization might be surprised, however, by the crucial roles ofunsung lower ranking men. Some ofthem were products of West Point, others were prewar civil engineers. One of the most effective (and a civilian employee) was Stonewall Jackson's mapmaker Jed Hotchkiss. The author includes biographical sketches ofeach ofthese mapmakers, including the Union's little-known but highly innovative William E. Merrill. These men's maps are inevitably the heartofthe book. Most ofthem have not been reproduced in color or at all. Some throw light on famous battles such as the Confederate approach to Gettysburg indicated by the detail from Jed Hotchkiss's famous map ofthe Shenandoah Valley extended. Others show such lesser known fight as Honey Hill. There are excellent series ofmaps illustrating the Red River Campaign and Shermans's March from Atlanta to Savannah. But no one should buy this book primarily as a functional atlas. It is well printed, as might be expected by this publisher. Still, as the introduction says, "This is an art book as well as an atlas" (12). Small print and lack of contrast make many maps difficult to read. Indeed, a few might appeal more to lovers of late-twentieth-century abstract art! Still, this book tells much about the state of knowledge and the conditions under which Civil War solders fought. It is truly unique and should be read by anyone interested in the war. Frank L. Byrne Kent State University Parties, Slavery, and the Union inAntebellum Georgia. ByAnthony Gene Carey. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997. Pp. xxii, 339. $60.00.) Under the Guardianship ofthe Nation: The Freedmen 's Bureau and the Reconstruction ofGeorgia, 1865-1870. By Paul A. Cimbala. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997. Pp. xx, 395. $60.00.) Anthony Carey and Paul Cimbala have written the best books now available on their respective subjects. Carey focuses on politics and political parties in Georgia from 1830 to i860, tracing the interrelationship of local, state, and national political concerns in the process that led up to secession. Cimbala's work attempts to understand the Freedmen's Bureau in Georgia by delving into its organizational working and institutional politics, providing by far the most fully conceived study of that agency during Georgian's Reconstruction. Both books reflect an immersion in their respective sources, but therein also lie these books' weaknesses. Anthony Carey presents a chronological political history ofantebellum Georgia , focusing on the rise and demise of political parities in Georgia and their sometimes tortured relationship to the national party system. Prior to Andrew Jackson's campaigns for the presidency, political parties in Georgia could not be clearly identified with national issues. Rather, local issues and personal loyalties dominated state politics, preventing coherent identification ofparty groups 52CIVIL WAR HISTORY with national parties. Cary argues that these local issues and personal loyalties continued to play an important role through the 1 830s but that national issues that had local ramifications—such as the bank, tariffs, and nullification—soon tied State parties to national parties. By the late 1 830s, in a transformation somewhat confusing due to the state party names, Georgia's States Rights Party had become the Whigs and Georgia's Unionist Party had become the Democrats. Even as these national ties were created the questions of Texas annexation and slavery's expansion into western territories began to polarize national politics , soon, what John Lamar called the "nigger question" (103), began to rip apart national party unity, first for the Whigs, then for the Democrats, a foretaste ofpolitical disunion that wouldfollow. National party ties dragged Georgia's parties into these conflicts and destroyed some of the State's leading politicians . Georgiapoliticians who successfully survived the late 1 840s and the 1 850s did so by increasingly distancing themselves from the national parties. This process, Carey argues, led almost inevitably to secession. Without question this is the most complete account ofparty politics in Georgia before the Civil War, and it supersedes Horace Montgomery's Cracker Parties . The narrative, however, is so focused upon political rivalries and developments that the story sometimes...