Parole, Pardon, Pass and Amnesty Documents of the Civil War: An Illustrated History by John M. Davis Jr., George B. Tremmel (review)

The Civil War, as a watershed moment in American history, continues to draw the attention and fascination of numerous authors and scholars. Although many of the battles, personalities, and incidents of this period have been thoroughly explored, interpreted, and reinterpreted, other important aspects of the conflict remain less understood, even by students of the era. The purpose of Parole, Pass and Amnesty Documents of the Civil War is to examine and explain the intricate and complicated legal processes necessitated by the rebellion of citizens of several states against the lawful national government. Davis and Tremmel have thoughtfully and carefully researched their subject and supplemented their work with visual reproductions of the documents in question.

Davis and Tremmel begin their work by examining Americans’ views of treason and loyalty during the nineteenth century. They note that oath-taking was of paramount importance in determining loyalty, and that common thread undergirds all of the attempts to reestablish loyalty to the national government during the Civil War and Reconstruction. The authors then approach their subject matter in a chronological fashion. They place particular emphasis on loyalty oaths, which were particularly important in border states such as Maryland and Missouri, where pro-Confederate sentiment threatened disobedience to the federal government. Davis and Tremmel also deftly explain the complicated issue of paroling enemy forces. Their explanations of the means of providing paroles to captured foes and the mechanics of prisoner exchange are particularly useful. They discuss in detail presidential pardons, along with a close examination of President Lincoln’s 10 Percent Plan. Perhaps the most valuable part of the book is their discussion of Reconstruction policies on amnesty for former Confederates. They examine the minutiae of Reconstruction pardon policies in a manner that is both understandable and accurate.

The valuable discussions of legal issues in this book are supplemented by numerous pictures of the documents in question, both in the running text of the book and in appendices. These illustrations personalize these matters for the reader; seeing the names of parolees or army officers granting passes remind us that the Civil War affected people of all walks of life, leaving virtually no one in the country untouched. Of particular interest to Texas readers are discussions of loyalty oaths along the few Union-occupied areas of the state’s coastline, the exchange system in Texas’s prisoner-of-war camps, and the surrender of the Confederacy’s Trans-Mississippi forces by General Edmund Kirby-Smith. In short, this book is an ideal resource for all historians wading through the complicated detailed legal issues during the Civil War and Reconstruction, for teachers trying to accurately but clearly convey these issues to their students, and for history buffs who enjoy studying every aspect of the Civil War and looking at reproductions of valuable documents.