Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa (review)

book reviews171 politics, and prejudice. Yet the acute perceptions and hard-won convictions were uniquely his own. Few diaries on military Southern Unionism exist, but Woodcock's pilgrimage exceeds expression of sociopolitical factors. Instead, his story is that of a resilient and bluntly honest individual's journey to selfdiscovery , a revelation derived more from experience than geography. Eyewitness testimony distinguished by detail and insight, A Southern Boy in Blue clarifies the dynamic between history's chorus and a single voice. James Russell Harris Kentucky Historical Society Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa. Edited by Barry Popchock. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995. Pp. 272. $24.95.) Editing the letters of Civil War soldiers has become something of a cottage industry in recent years. Countless soldiers used letter writing to pass idle hours in camp and to maintain contact with faraway families. Over the years, many of these collections have found their way into print, providing a glimpse into the lives ofordinary Americans living in extraordinary times. However, their sheer number makes it difficult to assess the relative importance of each collection. Into this vast literature comes Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters ofCharles O. Musser, 29th Iowa, edited by Barry Popchock. Charles Oliver Musser enlisted in the 29th Iowa infantry regiment in the summer of 1862 and served for the remainder of the war. Throughout the three years of his service, he regularly wrote detailed letters home that proved remarkably observant. They contained typical descriptions of Ufe in camp and encounters with the enemy, but also discussed his views on the draft, Iowa Copperheads, national politics, and his hopes for the future. These letters also reveal a man wrestling with a number of troubling issues, particularly the emancipation of slaves and their role in society and the fate of his brother William, who joined the Confederacy and spent much of the war in a Union prison camp. Musser's observations offer interesting insights into the life of a typical Union soldier, but the real value of his letters lies in the fact that he served in the Trans-Mississippi theater, an area of operations traditionally bemoaned by historians for its lack of primary-source materials. Musser spent most of his career in Arkansas, taking part in the defense of Helena in July 1863, the battle of Jenkins' Ferry in April 1864, and a number of smaller engagements. He also witnessed the darker side of war in this fringe theater—guerrilla warfare , overzealous foraging, and atrocities committed against African American soldiers—providing a valuable record in the process as he diligently recorded it all for his family. Once Confederate forces no longer presented a significant threat in the Trans-Mississippi, Musser and the 29th Iowa found themselves 172CIVIL WAR HISTORY transferred further east, where they participated in the siege and capture of Mobile, Alabama. After the cessation of hostiUties, the 29th Iowa spent the summer of 1 865 in southern Texas near the mouth of the Rio Grande River before mustering out of service at the end ofAugust. Popchock lets Musser speak for himself, interjecting only with informative passages that summarize forthcoming letters and provide necessary context. He has left Musser's rough prose, uneven spelling, and haphazard capitalization and punctuation largely intact. Although distracting at times, this editorial choice preserves the flavor of a young, twenty-year-old Iowa farm boy off to war. Readers might take issue with Popchock's explanatory notes and bibliography . Where written, his notes provide the necessary detail, but there are references in the text that pass without any supplemental clarification. Popchock also relied on a somewhat limited bibUography in drawing up his notes, which prevented him from taking full advantage of more recent scholarship. Despite these relatively minor quibbles, Charles Musser's letters home offer valuable insight into the lives of ordinary soldiers in the Trans-Mississippi theater and are weU worth reading for those interested in this aspect ofthe Civil War. Kurt Hackemer University of South Dakota The Political Education ofHenry Adams. By Brooks D. Simpson. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996. Pp. xvi, 154. $24.95.) Few writers have done more to define a...