Civil War History, September 2008

Civil War History
Published Quarterly by the Kent State University Press

Volume 54, Number 3 (September 2008)

Civil War History Web Site

Everyman’s War: A Rich and Poor Man’s Fight in Lee’s Army…..229
by Joseph T. Glatthaar

Joseph Glatthaar, author of General Lee’s Army: From Victory to Collapse (2008), takes a statistically valid sample of men from Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia to show that the wealthy (in this case those in families with $4,000+ of wealth) were in fact overrepresented in Lee’s army, were wounded and died more often than the poor, and deserted less often than the poor.  He concludes that the saying “a rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight” is not accurate in the case of the Army of Northern Virginia.

“An Abiding Faith in Cotton”: The Merchant Capitalist Community of New Orleans, 1860-1862…..247
by Scott P. Marler

Scott Marler discusses the New Orleans merchant class, their dependency on the Southern aristocratic slave holding community, and their unexpected enthusiasm for the Confederacy.

“Fighting It Over Again”: The Battle of Gettysburg at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition…..277
by Susanna W. Gold

Susanna Gold covers the reasons why Peter Frederick Rothermel’s painting Battle of Gettysburg: Pickett’s Charge was so widely panned by critics who viewed it at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition .  Gold coontrasts the criticism of Rothermel’s painting to the applause for other Civil War art displayed at the exhibition.  She believes this criticism was due to the lack of reconciliation displayed in the painting, which would only serve to increase sectional angst in a time where sectional reconciliation was the goal.  All of the other Civil War art displayed there allowed all Americans, North and South, to form a positive remembrance of the war.  Rothermel’s painting of Pickett’s Charge, on the other hand, depicts Southerners in retreat.

Book Reviews…..311

1. Women’s Rights and Transatlantic Antislavery in the Era of Emancipation edited by Kathryn Kish Sklar and James Brewer Stewart
2. The Harp and the Eagle: Irish-American Volunteers and the Union Army, 1861-1865 by Susannah Ural Bruce
3. More Damning Than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army by Mark A. Weitz
4. Lincoln’s Resolute Unionist: Hamilton Gamble, Dred Scott Dissenter and Missouri’s Civil War Governor by Dennis K. Boman
5. Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia by William A. Link
6. A Perfect War of Politics: Parties, Politicians, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1824-1861 by John M. Sacher
7. A Civil War Soldier of Christ and Country: The Selected Correspondence of John Rodgers Meigs edited by Mary A. Giunta
8. Ohio Volunteer: The Childhood and Civil War Memoirs of Captain John Hartzell, OVI edited by Charles I. Switzer
9. The Civil War Letters of Joseph Hopkins Twichell: A Chaplain’s Story edited by Peter Messent and Steve Courtney
10. The Grand Old Man of Maine: Selected Letters of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, 1865-1914 edited by Jeremiah E. Goulka
11. The Doom of Reconstruction: The Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era by Andrew L. Slap

Endnotes…..330

Did you enjoy this blog entry?  Subscribe to TOCWOC’s RSS feed today!

If you enjoy Civil War Magazines, check out the American Civil War Magazine & Journal Index.