Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer (review)

466civil war history Recollectionsof a Confedérate Staff Officer. By Brigadier General G. Moxley Sorrel. Editedby Bell I. Wiley. (Jackson, Tennessee: McCowat-Mercer Press. 1958. Pp. xxii, 322. $5.00.) this volume is another of the primary sources of the Civil War now being published or re-edited with a view to the approaching centennial. It is one of the best reminiscences about the conflict between the states. Sorrel was twenty-three when the Civil War broke out Like most contemporary Southerners, he could hardly wait to get into battle. Long before Georgia seceded, Sorrel joined the Georgia Hussars, an elite cavalry company. When the attack on Fort Sumter became imminent, he left his banking duties to participate in the activity at Charleston. Subsequendy, he served as a volunteer aide to Longstreet and developed a close association with "Lee's War Horse." He became the chief of staff for Longstreet with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and eventually was made a Brigadier-General as a result of a brave and successful execution of a flanking movement against Federal troops. He was seriously wounded at Hatcher's Run on February 7, 1865. So certain were the Federals and his close associates that his injury was a mortal one that his obituary was published in the New York Herald. He eventually recovered, but before he could get back to his troops, Lee had surrendered at Appommatox. Sorrel, in all probability, was a most modest man with a great deal of humanness . An interesting feature of this volume of memoirs is the series of candid sketches of many leaders on both sides. Early, Longstreet, Hill, Jones, Stuart, Pickett, McClellan, Jackson, Burnside, Thomas, and others are described with candor plus an ample sprinkling of admiration. Sorrel had rare opportunities of obtaining points of information on command decisions and in getting to know many high-ranking Confederates. Evidence to this effect is well shown throughout the volume. Present-day students of the Civil War, armed with the advantage of abundant information and a fuller time perspective, may question Sorrel's understanding, but few will doubt his sincerity. His critical appraisal of Longstreet reveals an impartiality which is most enlightening. Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer is made most readable by Mr. Wiley's editing skill. Particularly is this noticeable in his introduction where he presents an excellent description of the author in addition to evaluating the place of this book in the literature of the Civil War. Incidentally, Lee's distinguished biographer, Douglas Freeman, listed this book among the dozen best personal narratives by Confederate participants. The editor also is to be commended for scrupulously refraining from making revisions which would alter Sorrel's intended meaning. In several instances of doubt, Mr. Wiley has added an explanatory footnote without tampering with the statement itself. He has also put forth a good deal of effort to facilitate the recognition of names by inserting first names wherever desirable. This volume is to be welcomed on every bookshelf concerned with the Civil Book Reviews467 War. It is a book which should really come into its own with this third edition and obtain the wide circulation it richly deserves. Arthur Lerner Los Angeles, California. The CivilWar: A Soldier's View. By Colonel G. F. R. Henderson. Edited by Jay Luvaas. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1958. Pp. xi, 323. $6.00.) most civil war students are acquainted with Colonel Henderson's Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War, a splendid biography of Lee's most able lieutenant, wherein the author's style, ability, and capacity as a military historian, student, and analyst are excellently demonstrated. In the present volume, Jay Luvaas has selected some of Colonel Henderson's other writings: "The Campaign of Fredericksburg" (1886), an essay written for the second edition of Mary Anna Jackson's Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson (1895), and four chapters from The Science of War (1905). Henderson was the first English officer to undertake a serious study of the Civil War after 1870, although prior to that time the Civil War had been a popular subject at the Royal Staff College. The swift, decisive campaign of the Prussians, overrunning and destroying what had been...