Book Notes

BOOK NOTES Civil War Naval Chronology, 1861-1865: Part 111-1863. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1963. Pp. iv, 169. $1.00.) Those Civil Warriors with a bent for naval affairs should hasten to purchase this paperback compilation—and its two predecessors, if they are not already on their shelves. Issued by the Chief of Naval Operation's Naval History Division, and prepared under the meticulous direction of Admiral E. M. Eller, the volumes are worth much more than their nominal cost. Each part contains a detailed, day-by-day account of naval activities at sea and on rivers; each is replete with illustrations, contemporary quotations, maps, and tables. As a reference guide for the navies of the Civil War period, this work has no equal. This particular part, treating in large measure of operations against Vicksburg and Charleston, makes fascinating reading in addition to presenting a wealth of information. Four Years on the Firing Line. By James Cooper Nisbet. Edited by Bell Irvin Wiley. (Jackson, Tenn.: McCowat-Mercer Press, Inc., 1963. Pp. xxi, 267. $5.00.) Four Years on the Firing Line first appeared in 1914 in a very limited edition. Since that time these trustworthy recollections by an educated and observant Georgia soldier have commanded a high price whenever an occasional copy appeared on the market. This quality reprint, therefore, will be greeted gladly. Captain Nisbet was only twenty-two when he and his company of the 21st Georgia became part of the Doles-Cook Brigade. He fought with Jackson in the Valley and with Lee through Fredericksburg. In 1863 Nisbet returned to Georgia, organized the 66th Georgia, and became that regiment's first colonel. He was captured in the battle of Atianta and spent the last months of the war on Johnson's Island. Nisbet's narrative is exceptionally good for personal observations and estimates. He records the unique with the usual, the heroic with the cowardly. The painstaking editorship of Bell I. Wiley further enriches this revealing account of life in two Confederate armies. John Ransom's Diary. By John L. Ransom. Introduction by Bruce Catton . (New York: Paul S. Ericksson, Inc., 1963. Pp. xvii, 281. $5.95.) Those reasonably well-versed in Civil War literature will immediately 444 recognize this as a new edition of John Ransom's 1881 narrative, AndersonviHe Diary, a popular postwar study that went through at least three editions . Ransom, a sergeant in the 9th Michigan Cavalry, was captured in East Tennessee in 1863, then sent to the notorious stockade at Andersonville. But his recollections of life inside the dreaded Georgia compound breaks sharply with the flood of propagandistic and manufactured "recollections" by other and questionable inmates of Andersonville. Ransom believed that Federal prisoners brought much suffering on themselves. He also described a compassion among Southern civilians generally overlooked in prison literature . Although the diary bears signs of having been edited for popular consumption, it is, in the words of E. Merton Coulter, "one of the better prisoner-of-war travel accounts." A lack of editing and index, however, makes this new editionsmall improvementover its predecessors. The Case of Private Smith and the Remaining Mysteries of the Andrews Raid. By Parlée C. Grose. ( McComb, Ohio: General Publishing Company , 1963. Pp. x, 131. $1.25. ) In this small paperbound study the author has attempted to throw some new light on the famed "engine thieves" led by James J. Andrews, and on Private James Smith of the 2nd Ohio in particular. Smith was one of Andrews ' original band; apparently he became detached from the group when it split into small parties and headed southward into Georgia to wreck a railroad. Of all the raiders under Andrews, Smith is the most enigmatic. He still remains so after this study—through no fault of the author. Grose does present an impressive number of circumstantial deductions and plausible conjectures. He also comments at some length on the various studies written about the Andrews Raid. Yet, as the author himself willingly concedes, much of the detail of that strange expedition remains shrouded in frustrating mystery. The Struggles of Petroleum V. Nasby. By David Ross Locke. Edited by Joseph Jones and Günther Barth. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963...