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  • Editor’s Overview

Our first issue for 2017 offers groundbreaking explorations of the Mine Run campaign and the question of loyalty in Louisiana. Adam Petty analyzes the interaction between the environment and contending generals, armies, and soldiers during the Mine Run campaign. Conducted from November 26 to December 2, 1863, it produced few casualties and fewer results; thus, historians have neglected the campaign. An environmental analysis reveals an intriguing case study of how nature can influence strategy and act on armies and individuals, even as armies and individuals act upon the environment. This analysis also demonstrates Mine Run’s importance as a model for the subsequent Wilderness campaign and as a precedent for an army’s ability to literally remake its surroundings through field fortifications—a practice that would become standard in the Overland campaign.

During the Union army’s brief 1864 Red River campaign, more than twelve hundred free residents from central Louisiana parishes swore oaths of future loyalty to the Union in Alexandria. David Ballantyne examines wartime and postwar civilian loyalties in central Louisiana, especially in Rapides Parish. He makes substantial contributions to scholarly debates over Confederate nationalism and the inability of the postwar Republican Party to attract white support in the South. While there were some sincere unionists in central Louisiana, most civilians took the Union oath pragmatically, to protect their property or for commercial gain, and returned their lukewarm loyalties to the Confederacy when Union troops left. Ironically, the Red River campaign weakened the position of local unionists and incubated guerrilla conflicts that made postwar reconciliation increasingly unfeasible.

Our review section touches on a number of important issues that have come to define recent scholarship in the Civil War era. As we see, questions surrounding citizenship, identity, place, and republicanism expand our understanding of citizens and soldiers during the mid-nineteenth century. A variety of topics are tackled, including the Union and Confederate junior officer corps, German and Irish Catholic immigrants, and the rise of anti-slavery ideology. The books reviewed also include two important new edited collections on southern cities and the Border States. [End Page 5]

In the December 2016 issue, we incorrectly listed the title of David Carlson’s article as “Citizens of the County of Their Domicile” rather than “Citizens of the Country of Their Domicile.” We regret the error. [End Page 6]

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