Book Review

Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1865. Ed. by Henrietta Stratton Jaquette. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. xx, 173 pp. Paper, $9.95, isbn 0-8032-7312-6.)

Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military Experience in the Civil War. Ed. by Ira Berlin, Joseph P. Reidy, and Leslie S. Rowland. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. xvi, 192 pp. Cloth, $49.95, isbn 0-521-63258-7. Paper, $14.95, isbn 0-521-63449-0.)

Beyond their focus on the Civil War years, it would appear that these three volumes share little in common. Two are collections of documents; the third is a military biography of a Confederate general. Each deserves consideration on its own terms. On the other hand, taken together, they do suggest something about the state of scholarship on the Civil War era.	1
In an army full of colorful characters, Richard S. Ewell stood out as an odd bird. A veteran of West Point, the Mexican War, and various antebellum adventures battling on the western frontier, "Old Baldy" earned wartime fame for, among other things, his odd appearance, peculiar eating habits, and—even by army standards—colorful language. Students of the Civil War know Ewell best for his controversial actions, and inactions, at the Battle of Gettysburg, where he commanded Robert E. Lee's troops on the Confederate left. Donald C. Pfanz's massive biography of Ewell fills an important void in the Civil War literature, while also providing valuable discussions of antebellum military life and a portrait of the planter class in the postwar South.	2
Ewell's Civil War involved a series of stages, starting with nearly a year in which he barely saw military action. In April 1862, Ewell—now a major general—was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley, where he served under Stonewall Jackson's command and in his shadow. Still, Ewell had several opportunities to distinguish himself, earning a reputation as one of the Confederacy's more reliable officers. After losing his leg at the second battle of Manassas, Ewell returned home for an extended convalescence. In the meantime, Jackson fell—killed accidentally by his own men—at Chancellorsville, prompting Lee to elevate Ewell to lieutenant colonel in command of the newly reorganized Second Corps.	3
Shortly after his return to active duty, Ewell commanded the Second Corps in Lee's 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania. It was at Gettysburg that Ewell, according to his critics, failed to press the advantage at the close of the first day, leaving Culp's Hill in Union hands. After Gettysburg, Lee seemed to have lost confidence in his fellow Virginian, eventually using Ewell's failing health to ease him from battlefield command. For the war's final months, Ewell directed the defenses at Richmond, earning further public scorn for his role in the burning of Richmond during the evacuation. Captured shortly after the evacuation, Ewell spent three months in prison before beginning a peacetime career managing his wife's extensive farm holdings. He died in 1872 at the age of fifty-four.	4
Pfanz summarizes Ewell's life with meticulous care, producing a lengthy volume full of interesting anecdotes. Although not merely a celebration of its subject, Pfanz's book certainly presents the material, even in acknowledging mistakes, from Ewell's perspective. Few decisions—or moments of indecision—go unexplained. This is not the place to look for a careful weighing of scholarly debates about Ewell's actions. The author also offers few larger interpretive explanations of Ewell's career. A biographer inclined to psychohistorical interpretations could have a field day with Old Baldy. By many accounts his performance, and perhaps even his personality, changed midway through the war. The timing of those changes roughly coincided with three important events: he lost his leg, he became a devout Christian, and he married the dynamic and wealthy Lizinka Campbell Brown. Pfanz charts these events and notes contemporary commentary about all three, but he declines to impose an interpretive schema on his narrative.	. . .