The Union Reader (review) (1959)

Book Reviews EDITED BY CHARLES T. MILLER B-Il University Hall Iowa City, Iowa The Union Reader. Edited by Richard B. Harwell. (New York: Longmans , Green and Company. 1958. Pp. xxii, 362. $7.50. ) "the war was more than Lincoln and his generals, more than batties and heroes," states Mr. Harwell in his Introduction. "For more than four years, war was our national life. War was the climactic event of a generation—of a century—of American life. The story of the war has been told many times. Its vast literature still grows by, conservatively, a book a week. Though historians ' interpretations of the war have changed from generation to generation . . . the facts of die war have not changed. Nearly a century after the fighting, die closest we can come to diese facts is still in die writings of die people of its own times. It is in dieir words diat die war is fixed in print and on paper for us, as it was for them. . . . The words of those who participated in our Civil War run with blood as well as with ink. In these words, hot from the heart, that the Americans of another day wrote for each other, their day remains alive. This, then, is dieir own story, the story of the war they fought. This is the Union Reader." These are stirring words and stirring thoughts, and, mindful of the myriad available sources, diey evoke anticipation of a collection which would rival some of the great literary anthologies in bulk. Instead, the author has come up with a rather meagre selection, chronologically arranged, from the fall of Fort Sumter to the re-raising of the flag tiiere. But there is great merit in the care with which the contents have been chosen and in the excellent brief prefatory introductions. If many of die letters and accounts of well-known engagements are simply personal narratives which differ in no way from die mass of such untutored writings which pour home from the front in every war, it is well to remember that diese were what die folks at home were waiting for; diese were what diey talked about to their neighbors; these were their most vivid pictures of die struggle. The accounts of Bull Run, Shiloh, and Fredericksburg, and die 220 excerpts describing prison life, are typical examples of this category. But there are also some very expertly written and sophisticated contributions . The chapter from Louisa May Aloott's Hospital Sketches is completely c&arming. To be introduced to Ovando Hollister's History of the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers is practically worth die price of the book (which is considerable) , and Seward's letter to Charles Francis Adams on the Peace Conference at Hampton Roads is a model of clarity of exposition. For straightforward reporting, the accounts of die batties between die "Monitor" and die "Merrimac" and the "Kearsarge" and the "Alabama," which answer every factual question that could arise, are notable. So is Quartermaster General Meigs's report to Stanton of the Batde of Chattanooga. Dr. Lewis H. Steiner's report on the occupation of Frederick leaves litde to be desired, including as it does the Barbara Frietchie incident before it became distorted and ennobled in living verse. While on die propaganda front, die letter of General Banks to General Halleck is reprinted—and must have been taken widi a grain of salt, even in the emotional days of 1863. The autiior has dealt unkindly widi McClellan. Only his faults are highlighted until he is reduced to complete incompetency. A picture of him accepting the command from Lincoln before Antietam, and an excerpt or two about his enemies would have been generous. For surely die North was divided in its opinion of him, and any kind of picture, as presented here, should reflect diis. It is in omissions such as diis tiiat die book is disappointing. Anodier example is that after Chancellorsville, there is only Hooker's bombastic General Orders, No. 49. What die country really felt was probably best expressed by Noah Brooks in his account of die effect of die news of die defeat on Lincoln: "The dispatch was ... to the effect that...