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  • Last to Leave the Field: The Life and Letters of First Sergeant Ambrose Henry Hayward, 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry ed. by Timothy J. Orr
  • Evan C. Rothera
Last to Leave the Field: The Life and Letters of First Sergeant Ambrose Henry Hayward, 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Ed. Timothy J. Orr. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-57233-729-9, 344 pp., cloth, $52.00.

In Last to Leave the Field, Timothy J. Orr offers the reader a useful collection of letters written by 1st Sgt. Ambrose Henry Hayward of the 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. Born in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Hayward relocated to Philadelphia during 1860 and enlisted in the 28th Pennsylvania in 1861 for three years. Hayward and his regiment were attached to the Army of the Potomac and fought in the eastern theater through the Gettysburg campaign. In September 1863, Hayward’s regiment was sent west with two corps from the Army of the Potomac, participated in the battle of Chattanooga, and was transferred to William T. Sherman’s army for the Atlanta campaign. After reenlisting in 1864, Hayward was mortally wounded at the battle of Pine Knob, Georgia, on May 28, 1864.

Orr is a meticulous and thorough editor: he carefully organizes the letters, appends an informative introduction to each group, and does not silence Hayward’s unique and rather idiosyncratic voice. Still, here it would be appropriate to pose the question: given the plethora of edited letters of Civil War soldiers in print, do we really need another collection? I would say yes. Hayward’s letters, which are unique in several ways, provide some ideas for future analysis.

For one, Hayward’s letters allow consideration of questions about politics and Civil War soldiers. Orr describes Hayward as a staunch Republican and a supporter of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, but what do Hayward’s words suggest about the effects of military defeat and the limits of his Republican beliefs? In a letter written after Fredericksburg in December 1862, Hayward commented that he “would like to see this great Slaughter of human beings brought to a close only with the Union as it was” (115). “Union as it was” was utilized in Democratic rhetoric to refer to the status quo antebellum, the Union with slavery. It seems jarring for such a staunch Republican as Hayward to subscribe to that perspective and calls into question his commitment to emancipation.

Additionally, Hayward’s descriptions of African Americans merit comment. Orr suggests that Hayward, while not a racial egalitarian, was certainly antislavery and in favor of emancipation. Based on a careful reading of the letters, one wonders if this view is too rosy. Hayward generally used the word “nigger” to refer to African Americans, eschewing “black” or “negro.” Hayward mentioned, with some regularity, “old nigs and little darks,” “nigger servants,” “nigger boys,” “the niggers are free,” “nigger regiment,” and Banks’s “niggers” (30, 38, 60, 129, 154, 159). Infrequently, he used the words “blacks” and “negro,” but he seemed more inclined to use racial epithets (40, 105, 38). Orr misses an opportunity for comparison, because, while he includes the letters from Hayward’s brother Melville, he does not juxtapose the attitudes about race found in the letters. Melville wrote about “‘Aunty’ the old black woman,” and if [End Page 505] he was condescending and patronizing, he nonetheless did not use a racial epithet to refer to the woman in question (89). Very rarely do edited letter collections include correspondence from other members of the family, so this collection is useful insofar as one could use the differences between Hayward and Melville to grapple with ideas about race among members of the same family.

Finally, we would do well to consider a larger point about the nature of this collection. Orr contends that “Henry Hayward’s tale is both exceptional and representative” (xviii). While I agree with Orr that Hayward is representative of a certain group of soldiers, I am not sure that his story is exceptional. Orr contends that because Hayward did not shirk his duty he is exceptional, but how many other hundreds of thousands of soldiers did not shirk from their duty and displayed...

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