The May 2006 issue is the next issue of America’s Civil War that I’ll be reviewing for this blog. ACW is not quite as high in quality as North & South and Blue & Gray. It is virtually identical to Civil War Times Illustrated at this point, because both magazines are published by Primedia. There are no endnotes for the articles, although the maps are definitely improving over the quality of even a few years ago. I’m not particularly fond of the lack of footnotes. Despite this generally lower quality, good authors still find their way into ACW’s pages. Eric Wittenberg, who guest blogs for me from time to time, is just one example. Kevin Levin, who blogs at Civil War Memory, is another. This issue includes articles on myths at Shiloh, the Stonewall Brigade at Chancellorsville, and the Battle of the Crater. As mentioned, the article on the Crater was written by fellow Civil War blogger Kevin Levin, who runs the Civil War Memory blog.
| Page 10 |
| Personality: Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson by Louis V. Netherland |
| The author covers Stonewall Jackson’s time at VMI, and how he came to be the most respected man at the Institute, despite numerous peculiarities. |
| Page 14 |
| Eyewitness to War: George Washington Healey by Edward E. Deckert and Constance R. Cherba |
| George Washington Healey served in the Western Theater with the 5th Iowa Volunteer Cavalry. He survived an ugly head wound suffered on June 25, 1863. In August 1864, Healey was captured and spent time at the infamous Andersonville POW camp. He was paroled and eventually served with a detail designated to guard captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis. |
| Page 18 |
| Commands: 154th New York Infantry by Mark H. Dunkelman |
| Mark Dunkelman chronicles the career of the 154th New York, a regiment who for a time commonly relied on fortune tellers to see if they would survive the war. Unfortunately for many of them, they would fight in some of the major battles of the Eastern Theater, including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and later transferred to the West, participating in the Atlanta Campaign and suffering losses of 50%. |
| Page 22 |
| ‘The Earth Seemed to Tremble’ by Kevin M. Levin |
| Fellow blogger Kevin Levin makes an appearance in America’s Civil War with an article on how the Battle of the Crater was remembered by Confederate soldiers. It was fascinating to read about the Confederate attitude after their victory. Levin points out that, contrary to established views, the Confederates were by no means resigned to losing the war at this point (late July 1864). They believed the North immoral for their use of Black soldiers, and believed the Crater result was a punishment sent down from God for this Yankee “sin”. The article is the first chapter of a Crater manuscript Kevin is working on. After reading the article, I’ll definitely be buying the book when it comes out. |
| Page 30 |
| Myths of Shiloh by Timothy B. Smith |
| Timothy Smith’s article on myths at Shiloh is adapted from a chapter in his upcoming book The Untold Story of Shiloh : The Battle and the Battlefield. Some of the stories Smith challenges include the surprise of the Union soldiers, the amount of stragglers greeting Grant at Pittsburg Landing, Prentiss’ role as the “hero” of Shiloh, the Bloody Pond, Johnston’s ability to win the fight if he had lived, the “saving” of the Army of the Tennessee by Buell’s Army of the Ohio, the last Confederate attacks on April 6, and the Sunken Road, among others. I found this particular article to be extremely interesting, and my own personal examination of the “Sunken” Road last year especially seems to bear Smith’s assertions out. |
| Page 38 |
| Reflections on Chancellorsville by Peter S. Carmichael |
| Peter Carmichael’s article on Chancellorsville is definitely of the “new military history” variety, looking at how two Confederate soldiers in the Stonewall Brigade, Henry Kyd Douglas and Owen T. Hedges, handled their experiences on the battlefield at Chancellorsville. He relates Douglas’ fabrication of how Brigade commander Franklin E. “Bull” Paxton met his end, and then goes into the reasons why Douglas might have done so. Carmichael goes on to commend Hedges for his “honest self-assessment”. One of the main themes of the author’s article is that military history is “dry” without liberally sprinkling in social history. I agree that looking at how soldiers’ felt is an important and perfectly valid topic of study, and that some might find this topic interesting. As a military history buff, I don’t believe it is needed as much as some would claim in traditional campaign and battle studies. There is plenty of room for both types of book in the study of the Civil War. As a member of the Society of American Baseball Resarch, I liken this to Jackie Robinson and his role as the first African-American to play in the modern (post-1900) game. A history of a given season of the Brooklyn Dodgers, say 1951, would not focus on the fact that Robinson was Black. Instead, it would focus on his contributions on the playing field (i.e. the “tactics” of a baseball game). Other books concentrate on Robinson’s role in paving the way for non-White players, as they rightly should. To me it is simply a matter of what is interesting to the individual reader. |
| Page 46 |
| Opening the Cracker Line by Gordon Berg |
| Gordon Berg weighs in with a more traditional battle study covering the opening of the “Cracker Line”, a water route on the Tennessee River that allowed the starving Union troops beseiged in Chattanooga, Tennessee to finally eat regular meals again. Baldy Smith, with the approval of his superiors Grant and Thomas, executed a plan that called for an amphibious night time assault across the Tennesee River at Brown’s Ferry. James Longstreet unintentionally helped the plan by removing several regiments from the Ferry, believing any Union attack would not occur in that area. Instead, Brown’s Ferry was exactly where the Union force, made up of rgiments from William Hazen’s Federal brigade, launched a surprisingly confusion-free attack. Casualties were light on both sides, but the result was of far more consequence to both sides. Smith, Thomas, and Grant had completed the first needed step to break the Siege of Chattanooga. At Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, they finished the job. |
| Page 58 |
| Men and Materiel: Lee and Traveller by Carolyn S. Kazmierczak |
| Carolyn Kazmierczak paints a picture in words of the bond Robert E. Lee and his famous mount Traveller shared. The author allows Lee’s own words and those of his son to tell part of the tale, and fills in the background of this famous horse and how he came into Lee’s possession. |
| Page 62 |
| Reviews |
| Books reviewed in this issue:
1. Virginia 2. Retreat Reviews in Brief: 1. Boy |
| Page 74 |
| Preservation by Kim A. O’Connell |
| Kim realtes that the Shiloh Battelfield is well-preserved, especially when compared with some of the Eastern battlefields that have faced increasing pressure from developers. With that said, the State of Tennessee and the National PArk Service contiune to buy land from landowners in possession of historical ground when possible. Recently the Civil War Preservation Trust was able to purchase 200 acres at the Davis Bridge battlefield, a fight that occurred after the Battle of Corinth. |
Check out Beyond the Crater: The Petersburg Campaign Online for the latest on the Siege of Petersburg!
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