Admiral of the Amazon: John Randolph Tucker, His Confederate Colleagues, and Peru (review)

360CIVIL WAR HISTORY valuable guidebook to America's military parks. This book will help introduce tourists and buffs alike to both familiar and obscure battle sites. Richard A. Sauers Lewisburg, Pennsylvania The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest, Mississippi 1770-1860. By John Hebron Moore. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. Pp. xii, 323. Cloth $40.00, paper $17.00.) John Hebron Moore's The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest is a worthy companion to his earlier study, Agriculture in Antebellum Mississippi. It is not merely an update of the earlier volume, however; it is a more extensive examination of topics and issues that were raised but not thoroughly treated in that study. Moore traces the agricultural revolution of the 183Os and 1840s, which introduced new planting techniques and a new machine technology that in turn spawned a revolution in water and rail transportation. In a chapter on manufacturing, Moore details the "complementary industries [which] developed in the towns to provide essential services for farmers, planters, and townsmen as well as for steamboats and railroads." This long recognized agricultural historian takes a turn at social history in such chapters as "Agricultural Slavery," "Rural Whites," "Towns and Villages," "White Inhabitants of the Towns," and "Urban Blacks." In the brief final chapter, "Secession from the Union," Moore assesses the political ramifications of the Cotton Kingdom's renewed "confidence in the slave worked cotton plantation that was the basic unit in [its] socioeconomic system." Moore's well-conceived and well-written study of the Old South's leading cotton-producing state is enriched by the generous use of maps and charts, two appendices, a bibliography, and a thorough index. And the Louisiana State University Press, which richly deserves its high standing among university presses, maintained its high design standard. The book is a happy blend of good narrative and interpretive history. It is essential reading for students of the American South and for those interested in understanding the long-term underlying and more complex causes of the Civil War. David G. Sansing University of Mississippi Admiral of the Amazon: John Randolph Tucker, His Confederate Colleagues , and Peru. By David P. Werlich. (Charlottesville, Virginia, and London: University Press of Virginia, 1990. Pp. xv, 353. $29.95.) Few people have ever heard of John Randolph Tucker. Even most Civil War historians do not seem to be aware of his many contributions to BOOK REVIEWS361 the Confederate navy during the conflict. While most people are satisfied with one career, Tucker had four: one of thirty-five years in the U.S. Navy; another of four years in the Virginia and Confederate navies; eight months as "almirante" (admiral, hence the book's title) of the combined naval forces of Peru and Chile against Spanish intervention on the west coast of South America; and finally six and one-half years as head of the Hydrographie Commission of the Amazon for the goverment of Peru (1867-73). David Werlich, Professor and Chairman of the History Department at the University of Southern Illinois, in this first biography of a neglected man whose life spanned the period 1812-83, brings together his expertise in three areas: naval history, the Civil War, and especially Peruvian history. His research is mostly in unpublished materials from the United States and Peruvian archives, along with private collections containing relevant documents. This is one of the most notable attributes of the book, but Werlich also reveals his extensive knowledge of secondary materials pertaining to the period and the events of Tucker's lifetime. His familiarity with materials in English is surpassed by his knowledge and use of sources written in Spanish, both contemporary and recent. Although this book may be classified as a biography, it is much more than that. Throughout its 276 pages of text, the author concentrates not only upon his subject, but on a wide range of explanatory material about the events and periods in which Tucker was involved. Werlich also explains in detail each of the persons with whom Tucker worked and came into contact, both in the United States and Peru. Furthermore, he places his subject within the time frames and contexts of...