Pierce M. B. Young: The Warwick of the South (review)

104CIVIL WAR HISTORY It deserves to be warmly received by students of Confederate naval afFrank J. Merli Indiana University, Northwest Campus Pierce M. B. Young: The Warwick of the South. By Lynwood M. Holland . (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1964. Pp. viii, 259. $6.00.) Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd edition, defines the term "warwick" as a person who is a "statesman or a politician, especially one without office who exercises a dominant influence over public affairs— so called from Warwick, the King Maker." Professor Lynwood M. Holland's narrative study of Pierce M. B. Young, whose military and political career spanned the latter half of the nineteenth century, bears only a tenuous relationship to this definition. "Pierce Manning Butler Young might be called the Warwick of the South," he writes in the final paragraph, "since he was more often a supporter of leaders than a leader; he assumed leadership himself only when it appeared necessary and unavoidable. More often he remained in the background—willing for his friends to get full credit." This summary description hardly supports the romantic epithet of a "warwick." What, then, would be a proper assessment of the life and career of Young? To Professor Holland, his study is of "a minor but representative" figure of the Civil War and the postwar period. Young's activities during this significant and disruptive period may well be described as relatively minor. A West Point cadet who resigned his commission when Georgia seceded from the Union, Young had the distinction of being the youngest major general in the Confederate army. After the war he became the first Georgian to take his seat in Congress. He eventually assumed the posts of consul-general in St. Petersburg, and minister to Nicaragua and Guatemala. Young emerges as an individual who brought credentials of warmth, competency, and generosity to these respective roles, but little in the way of creativity. As a commander Young displayed courage under fire, but added little to the development of military tactics. In his congressional capacity he directed his efforts toward a reintegrated Union and an industrialized South. As consul-general in St. Petersburg he frequently complained of the blustery Russian winters; and as minister to the two Central American republics he found it equally difficult to adjust to the tropical climate. His one major contribution was arranging for the Central American exhibit at the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in 1895 in an attempt to strengthen and increase trade relations between the South and the Central American countries. In only one other particular was Young truly representative of certain groups in the New South— the war had literally demolished his family's moderate financial base and Young was constantly scrounging for credit with which to repay old loans and to keep his family structure intact. BOOK REVIEWS105 It is possible that certain persons who have held minor posts are indeed "representative" of their periods, but Holland's narrative approach obfuscates rather than validates his contention. The author admirably continues the nineteenth century melodramatic school of biography. His conclusions faithfully reflect his feelings toward his subject: Young was "a Southern gentleman, a gallant soldier of the Confederacy, a worthy public servant—and a proud and loyal American." Apart from the strong attachment to Young, the author is remiss in stylistic content. Footnotes are lacking in imporant passages and, when used, are frequendy inadequate; and sophomoric statements detract from the seriousness of the study. However, Professor Holland has arranged the family materials of a figure who wrote colorfully of the decades which affected the South. Throughout the text are long quotations from Young's letters and diaries which contain interesting information relating to life at West Point in the antebellum days, to the conflicts between the Bourbons and the Populists in Georgia, and to the political and diplomatic affairs in Russia, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. In fact, the skillful editing of these primary materials might have made for a more substantial contribution to historical scholarship . Joseph Bosktn University of Southern California Check List of Texas Imprints, 1861-1876. Edited by Ernest W. Winkler and Llerena Friend. (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1963. Pp xii, 734. $20.00...