Autobiography and Letters (review)

320CIVIL WAR history tion. It was again die Herald which carried a report widely reprinted, of an engagement near Port Hudson, apparendy written by an eyewitness reporter "up a tree"; actually the correspondent was in die Gulf on die way to New Orleans when die engagement occurred. While the correspondents· were at times inaccurate, Mr. Andrews shows many an example of how their reports caught die spirit of die war, often witìi an intense personal identification, and how their product was influenced by the fact tìiat "die building of bodi civilian and military morale generally was considered an essential part of dieir work." Here, for instance, is Benjamin Franklin Taylor of the Chicago Journal describing die charge at Missionary Ridge: "They dash out a little way, and dien slacken; diey creep up, hand over hand, loading and firing, and wavering and halting from die first line of works toward the second; diey burst into a charge witìi a cheer and go over it. Sheets of flame baptize diem; plunging shot tear away comrades on left and right; it is no longer shoulder to shoulder; it is God for us all. . . ." The volume shows abundant evidence of Mr. Andrews' work over a tenyear period, during which he has gadiered great quantities of new material; tiiere are only minor problems of transition, of failure to give autìiorship, and of inadequate backgrounding. The annotation is usually excellent, and the 1,893 notes are grouped in an appendix of 91 double-column pages. The volume also contains a list of "Northern Reporters," a 20-page bibliography, an excellent 23-page index, maps of the Eastern and Western theaters, and a 16page insert reproducing photographs, letters, and documents. All in all, the work gives a superb impression of die highly fluid nature of die war, of die great alternations of fortune, of die problems in reporting diese changes, and of the manner in which the "special" (this "gendeman of the ravenous pen") worked in an atmosphere of intense competition, difficult communication, and personal hardship to help build the tradition that it is the obligation of the newspaper to "get the news" for its people. Leslie G. Moeller Iowa City, Iowa. Autobiography and Letters. By Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey. Edited by William B. Hesseltine. (Nashville: Tennessee Historical Commission, 1954. Pp. xvi, 367. $5.00.) among historians, dr. j. g. m. Ramsey of Knoxville, Tennessee, is best known for his Annak of Tennessee, published in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1853. This history of die beginnings of Tennessee has long been considered a source book and a valuable addition to John Haywood's earlier work, The Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee, published in 1823. That Dr. Ramsey wrote his autobiography in the 1870's has not been generally known until recent years. Because it constitutes a fascinating story of the activities and life work of one of early Tennessee's romantic characters, it has now been published by the Tennessee Historical Commission. This was done largely because William B. Hesseltine of the University of Wisconsin many years ago became interested in the history of the Civil War in East Tennessee Book Reviews321 and discovered a typed copy of Ramsey's autobiography in the Lawson-McGhee Library of Knoxville. While working on the Lyman C. Draper collection of historical material on the early history of die trans-Allegheny region, Mr. Hesseltine had Tound many of Dr. Ramsey's letters and had become increasingly impressed with the importance of his contribution to early Tennessee history. The present volume is the result of Mr. Hesseltine's further investigation. It is a remarkable portrayal of life on the frontier west of the Allegheny Mountains and covers the tragic period of the Civil War in East Tennessee. Historians will be impressed with the versatility of Tennessee's early historian . Born of Scotch-Irish pioneers in western North Carolina and Tennessee, Dr. Ramsey was a physician, historian, canal commissioner, school commissioner , bank president farmer, Presbyterian elder, poet, register of deeds, contributor to magazines, Confederate treasury agent, railroad promoter, postmaster , operator of a ferry, college trustee, and a true Soudiern gentìeman representing the culture and...