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Review
| The Civil War Soldier: A Historical Reader, by Michael Barton and Larry M. Logue, eds. New York: New York University Press, 2002. 515 pp. $24.95, paper.
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| Anyone searching for a broad overview of the multifaceted experiences of Civil War soldiers will certainly find much of interest in this anthology. Emphasizing scholarship produced during the last twenty years, these twenty-seven edited essays explore both the interior and exterior worlds of combatants at every level. Barton and Logue, as editors and contributors alike, are intrigued with the question of the tactical, cultural, and psychological distinctiveness of Union as compared to Confederate soldiers. Consequently, the editors exhibit a keen interest in historiography by comparing recent scholarship with the much older work of Bell Irvin Wiley. Wiley's famous studies of Civil War participants had tended to emphasize the similarities between soldiers of opposing armies. Many of these recent essays suggest various degrees of revision with a subtle yet complex interpretative focus. However, this book is not intended to be a thorough refutation of Wiley's conclusions; on the contrary, the editors acknowledge his influence by including four excerpts of his work. Indeed, Wiley is the thread which pulls many of these essays together because the reader is invited to compare the changing nature of the discourse concerning what it meant to be a soldier in that war. |
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Spanning a broad chronological range, this volume contains a wide array of topics and exhibits methodological variety. Two of the contributions are actually primary source recollections by a Confederate soldier and a Union officer of an African American regiment respectively. In addition to the older contributions from Wiley, a few of these essays are over thirty years old. This includes a 1957 article by the well-known scholar David Donald and a 1927 contribution from Fred Shannon. Nevertheless, the editors still provide an abundant sample of relatively current history. Representative of some of the most unique contemporary scholarship is Elizabeth Leonard's study of the hundreds of females who disguised their gender and enlisted as soldiers in both armies. Grady McWhiney's and Perry Jamieson's provocative theory that the Confederacy lost because Southerners were too Celtic remains one of the most potent arguments in behalf of regional distinctiveness ever published. Joseph Glatthaar's article is a poignant examination of the battlefield experiences of African American troops. Many nonspecialists may be familiar with the tactical advantage of units armed with rifled muskets; however, contributions by Paddy Griffith and Earl J. Hess suggests that few battlefields possessed the open space necessary to capitalize on the extended range of that weapon. Thus a host of questions must be asked if military historians wish to understand what variables turned an engagement into victory or defeat. There is also a good balance of social/cultural history in this edited volume. Reid Mitchell examines the common soldier's sense of alienation from home and family with its accompanying emotional repercussions. Two contributions from Drew Gilpin Faust explore the impact of religious revivalism throughout the Confederate Army and the cultural and literal meaning of death for participants on both sides. Likewise, an essay by James McPherson tackles the difficult question of motive in an effort to understand why soldiers risked their lives in the first place. |
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This anthology, as one might expect, is flexible enough for an advanced college course covering the broad field of military history. Specifically, it would be an exceptional supplement for any course dealing with the Civil War. Due to its diverse assortment of topics and scholarship, it could take the place of several required texts without sacrificing too much analytical depth. However, those who enjoy teaching the Civil War as a dramatic narrative will find that this book offers much which can enhance any discussion of the variety and unpredictability of human endeavor.. |
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| University of Memphis |
Gary T. Edwards |
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