Green Mount: A Virginia Plantation Family during the Civil War (review)

Book Reviews333 Green Mount: A Virginia Pfontation Family during the Civil War. Edited by Betsy Fleet and John D. P. Fuller. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1962. Pp. xxv, 374. $8.50. ) Civil War letters and diaries as a class are not scarce. Yet this book contains a unique collection of such documents: the interlocked wartime writings of four members of the same famUy. The Fleets represented the Baptist aristocracy of Tidewater Virginia. Head of the family was Dr. Benjamin Fleet, a physician with philosophical thoughts and a penchant for the bottle. His wife Maria was a devoted mother who weathered several adversities. Fred, the oldest of seven chüdren, enlisted in the Confederate army at the age of seventeen. His younger brother Benny, only thirteen at war's outset, helped his father manage the modest plantation. Benny became a volunteer Confederate scout in 1864, only to be kiUed whüe on his first assignment. The bulk of this composite work is the rambling journal that Benny kept. Daüy notations tell of plantation life, Virginia politics, civilian activities, and war events—aU seen through the eyes of a teen-ager in the complex process of maturing. Interspersed chronologicaUy with journal entries are letters from "Ma" and "Pa" to Fred, and Fred's letters from the field to his parents. The last-named items are the book's chief asset. Fred served in "Jackson's Grays" of the 26th Virginia Infantry. He saw action during the Peninsular Campaign, at ChanceUorsviUe and Gettysburg, and later around Charleston. His letters are valuable for observations of the war in general and commanding officers in particular. Fred had litde faith in the ability of the Southern chain of command—as evidenced by pointed criticisms of Jefferson Davis, Henry Wise, and John Pemberton, and he was once moved to speculate: "It seems if we ever do gain our independence, it wül be by the assistance of Providence, in spite of our Generals & leaders." Dr. Fleet's letters are realistic and pessimistic in tone. After the faU of Fort Donelson, for example, he wrote Fred that "an Egyptian darkness seems to hover over our land." Mrs. Fleet, obviously a lady of tender feelings, once expressed deep sadness over "the sufferings of our poor soldiers." Unfortunately, the volume suffers from two editorial shortcomings. The reader receives little or no warning of the innumerable breaks from Benny's journal to letters from other members of the famüy. The result is at first confusing, then annoying. Secondly, too many errata appear in explanatory footnotes. Wrong dates are given in three instances (pp. 125, 174, 314); battle summaries are factuaUy garbled on two occasions (pp. 118, 148); tile Peninsular Campaign is consistently misspelled; and General George McCleUan in one footnote is rechristened John McCleUan. These are smaU weaknesses in comparison to the total text. Moreover, end-paper maps, a fuU index, a good introduction, and editorial summaries at the beginning of each chapter enhance an important coUection of Confederate writings. The comprehensiveness of the journal and letters makes tiiis book a work for reference as much as for reading. James I. Robertson, Jr. U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission ...