The Long Arm of Lee (review)

Book Reviews433 comt>ed the mass of printed sources, including the many letters and diaries of soldiers and officers, which he has used to give color and detail. He paints many excellent biographical sketches of the leaders on both sides, though occasionally they are marred by distracting details. The volume contains no photographs either of the Gettysburg country or of the participants, but it has a dozen helpful maps. All in all, this is one of the best of the current flood of Civü War books. It is based on sound research, and it is written to be read. Bratnerd Dyer Los Angeles, California. The Long Arm of Lee. By Jennings Cropper Wise. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1959. Pp. xlvin, 957. $10.00.) we are approaching the civil war centennial, and this fact alone adds to the increasing interest in all phases of the years 1861 to 1865. The Long Arm of Lee, first pubhshed in 1915, has long been out of print. The present reissue is a requisite for all general students of the Civil War and for all scholarly soldiers and civilians who are especially interested in the employment of Lee's artillery. In 1915 the author was Commandant of the cadet corps at the Virginia Müitary Institute. He personally interviewed many survivors of the men who manned the field batteries of Lee's army, and included in his account a summary of the development of artillery from colonial times to 1861. In the third volume of Lee's Lieutenants, Douglas S. Freeman recognizes Wise's contribution : "The artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia is analyzed. Sketches of the corps and battalion artillery commanders are excellent." As always, the battles and the men who fight them are more interesting than tables of organization and equipment; nevertheless, this book contains many readable statistics. For years after the battle of Gettysburg, artillerymen have speculated on the expenditure of artillery ammunition. Here we are confidently told that the total was 90,000 rounds; although dwarfed by twentieth century wars, this total was unprecedented in 1863. A chapter is devoted to each day of the fighting at Gettysburg on July 1, 2, and 3, 1863. The importance of Lee's artillery in this battle is probably overemphasized ; still, it is difficult not to conclude that the lack of reserve ammunition for the Confederate batteries on Seminary Ridge presaged Pickett's heroic faüure far more than did Longstreet's "cold feet," Ewell's "inertia," or Stuart's "diversion." Even if the artillery, as General Leeknew it, now reposes in a dusty museum alongside the catapult and the crossbow, the names of his splendid artillerymen will live on: Alexander, Pendleton, Haskell, Huger, Pelham, and others. They and their war deeds might be forgotten were it not for this obviously partisan but wonderful account of Lee's "long arm"—the artillery of the Army of Northern Virginia. John K. Hulston Springfield, Missouri. ...