Footprints of a Regiment: A Recollection of the 1st Georgia Regulars, 1861-1865 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS27I Footprints ofa Regiment: A Recollection ofthe ist Georgia Regulars, 18611865 . Edited by Richard M. McMurry. (Atlanta, Ga.: Longstreet Press, 1992. Pp. xv, 220. $19.95.) Sadly, the role of the common foot soldier rarely captures the romantic imagination of the reader, but without him there would be little glory for his officers . Fortunately for that soldier, ist Sgt. William Hill Andrews focuses on him, not the generals, in Footprints ofa Regiment and provides an array of engaging insights into army life. AU the tedium of the camp, the ever presence of sickness and privation, the exhilaration of battle, and the despair of defeat are there. In January 1861 , twenty-three-year-old WUliam Andrews, caught up in the excitement of the secession crisis and "a firm believer in the doctrine of State's rights and secession," joined the local Fort Gaines Guards (2). Fearing a delay in the local militia being called up, Andrews quickly enlisted in the Georgia army. Ultimately his company was consolidated into the ist Georgia Regulars. Initially the regiment was assigned to the Fort PulaskiTybee Island area, but in July the Georgians were sent to the Virginia theater. There his regiment participated in the Peninsula and Maryland campaigns before returning to Georgia in January 1863. In March the ist Georgia was temporarily dispatched to northern Florida, but with the threat to the GeorgiaSouth Carolina coast it was soon shifted northward. Finally the ist Georgia, after evacuating Savannah in the onslaught of Sherman's army, joined in the arduous trek to North Carolina where surrender ultimately awaited. The editors oíFootprints ofa Regiment candidly caution readers at the outset that "Andrews' memoir presents no startling revelations about the war or about life in the Confederate army" (xiv). Yet the book does have its merits. Many ofAndrews's descriptions and anecdotes of military life and campaigns carry a fascination that should intrigue Civil War buffs and provide scholars with additional detail, color, and appreciation for the common foot soldier. He covers a wide range of topics, from camp diversions and punishments, to vignettes and anecdotes of leaders ranging from Robert Toombs to Robert E. Lee, to behavior on the battlefield with its gore and personal tragedy. Often Andrews writes refreshingly with a critical and reflective eye. The usual cautions might well apply to Footprints ofa Regiment. Andrews began writing various accounts of his regiment's experiences in the 1890s for the Atlanta Journal and later for the Confederate Veteran, nearly thirty years after the war. For his material he drew from his own "books," other sources, and from contacts with fellow veterans. This manuscript, probably written for his family, is vivid in its narrative and often specific in detail. However, his writing is unusually candid and lacks much of the self-serving style of reminiscences . The editors wisely divided the manuscript up into chapters and subdivisions. Footprints is well annotated by Richard M. McMurry. A few 272CIVIL WAR HISTORY minor errors, although not serious ones, did escape the annotator. Additional and better maps would have enhanced the book. Both the general reader and scholar will find Andrews's memoir interesting and useful. Richard R. Duncan Georgetown University Trials and Triumphs: The Women of the American Civil War. By Marilyn Mayer Culpepper. (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1992. Pp. 427. $24.95.) Marilyn Mayer Culpepper's book is filled with colorful anecdotes and quotations about the philosophical, emotional, and economic challenges Union and Confederate women faced. Drawing on a wide range of published and unpublished diaries and letters, she includes well-known women, such as Southern diarist Mary Chestnut, but also quotes less prominent chroniclers, including a wounded soldier's wife from Courtland, Michigan, and a woman who raised funds for Confederate troops in Columbia, South Carolina. The result is a book that is both readable and informative. The best sections of this book focus on the emotional tribulations of Civil War women. The author devotes an entire chapter to "Anxiety—The Irrepressible Companion," in which she discusses the mental strains especially of Southern women, who worried constantly about the safety of men in uniform and feared the possibility of serious illness for their children at...