1 comments about Clingman's Brigade in the Confederacy, 1862-1865.

1. 
   Clingman's Brigade and its leader for whom it was named, has received a mixed assessment for their Civil War activities. Often on the losing side of engagements, the brigade has been ranked "below average" by some; Robert E. Lee, however, after the affair at Drewry's Bluff in May 1864, said that Clingman's men "did their duty well," and Jefferson Davis, who witnessed Clingman's charge at the same battle, described it as "the most gallant ... he had ever witnessed." Casstevens's purpose in this book is to examine the military activities of the Brigade in order to determine its impact on various battles and affairs. In this she does a credible, evenhanded, and thorough job.
   
   Thomas Lanier Clingman was a proud man from a proud family. A "scholar-soldier," he was born and raised in North Carolina and loved nothing more than to wander the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains, mainly in pursuit of minerals and gems. He studied for the law and was elected to both the state and national legislature; he had no military training. Clingman's Brigade was formed late in 1862 and was sent to the eastern part of the state, where it saw its first action at the Neuse River (RR) Bridge near Goldsboro, in December. Ordered to protect the bridge, an overwhelming Federal force was able to capture it and burn it. Clingman and his men fought bravely, however, and blame for the failure rests on an insufficiency of men to do the job properly. Thus a pattern formed that attached itself to Clingman's Brigade like a curse: he and his men would perform their orders and their duty well, but circumstances beyond their control would intervene and diminish results.
   
   The Brigade also saw action at Battery Wagner, New Bern, the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and Globe Tavern, where Clingman was severely wounded in the leg and was out of the war until almost the very end. Like most fighting units, Clingman's Brigade had some successes, some failures; had luck and better planning been on their side at some engagements, they might have done better; they certainly could have done worse. Most of the time they did what they could under the circumstances, which might be high enough praise for anyone.
   
   Casstevens presents a very full picture of the Brigade and its leader. She is honest and shows the men in good and bad light, though usually presents an "excuse" for the group's failures (most seem reasonable). She also draws a thorough picture of Clingman himself, his years as a congressman and his character. My favorite description of him is from Mary Chestnut's Diary, where at a party she is critical of Clingman's dancing, which is "a serious business with him." When his partner insisted on talking while they were dancing, Clingman told her, "Pray, withhold all remarks. It puts me out. I cannot do two things at once. If you will talk, I shall have to stop dancing." Reams could be written about the man from that statement alone. Civil War buffs and historians will find much to appreciate and debate in this excellent regimental history. Highly recommended.

4 comments about Cynthia Ann Parker: The Life and the Legend (Southwestern Studies).

1. I suggest reading this book before reading "Ride the Wind". It serves as a chronicalled historical foundation before reading the novel "Ride the Wind" that will definitely prepare you for an unimaginable journey into the world of the American Indian of 150 years ago.



2. This is a compact history ... but it does just what you want - gives what history is known of Cynthia Ann Parker. This is an excellent resource if you are wanting to know about Cynthia Ann Parker from the settler's perspective - the people she left behind, the family she had come from, and the search for her that continued throughout her 'captivity'. The author seems to steer clear of any area of conjecture, such as why Cynthia Ann got shuttled between family members after her return or what may have happened to her pension, and sticks only to documentable history. She also avoided sidetracking into the history of Cynthia Ann's famous son or the other people in her life except for as far as they pertain to Cynthia Ann's life. Focus is very tight, very informative.



3. On May 19th, 1836 nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker, a member of a group of religious families occupying Fort Parker in Texas, witnessed the massacre of friends and relatives by combined bands of Caddos, Kiowas and Comanche warriors. Abducted by the Comanches, Cynthia was raised for the next 25 years as a tribal member and became "fully" Comanche, giving birth to Quanah Parker, the last Comanche Chief and one of the most influential intermediaries of his time, a representative of both the Native American and White cultures. Abducted a second time as an adult by a well-meaning Texas Ranger, Cynthia Ann was forced to return to White society, but mourned deeply for her Comanche family, ultimately starving herself to death out of grief.

   Much lore and legend has grown around the story of Cynthia Ann Parker over the years, and it has often been difficult to separate the myth from the reality of her dramatic story. However, Margaret Schmidt Hacker has done just that. Over a period of five years, Ms. Hacker painstakingly researched the archives in Texas, Oklahoma, California and Washington, D.C. and objectively weighed all the accounts of Cynthia Ann's life. The result of her efforts is what is considered the most authoritative book on the subject. Although scholarly, it is at the same time, a gripping drama of the Texas prairies, and very readable by anyone with an interest in the Old West. Highly recommended reading.




4. Countless folk tales and sagas have focused on the story of Miss Parker, a captive of the Comanches for more than 15 years. Many of them deal only with her years as the mother of the famous Quanah Parker. Author Margaret Schmidt Hacker devoted five years to researching the life of the Cynthia Ann to reveal the history behind the myth. This is the tragic story of the abduction of a nine year old girl who returned reluctantly to white society when she was 24. A fascinating portrait of her life among the Comanches on the Texas frontier.

5 comments about John Ransom's Diary Andersonville.

1. I appreciate this book more, also having read the novel ANDERSONVILLE, which is loosely based on this diary.
   
   John Ransom was a michigan artilleryman captured and imprisoned, first on Belle Isle, and then in Andersonville. The language is accessible and the diary never descends into squalor, fear, or depression. Ransom and his comrades made a pact to stay as healthy and positive as possible during their imprisonment, and that comes through in the diary, written in three journals and hidden throughout his captivity. Ransom does not dwell on the horrifying details of the prisons, but focuses on the good and bad in the characters around him. His horror comes through, especially when he lists the dead of his acquaintance, or even just quantifies the daily death rate -- 15 per day... 20 per day ... 40 per day ... over 100 per day.
   
   If you want the shocking gory details, read the novel Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor -- it isn't *near* the book that this diary is. But you will get physical descriptions of the prison that will turn your stomach. You will get physical descriptions of the diseases afflicting the prisoners -- much more detail than you probably want. But the novel Andersonville suffers from being way too depressing and maudlin, which never happens in John Ransom's diary.
   
   This diary is by far the better of the two books.



2. Although, Catton took this book on, it does not make it more valid to me. A person has to understand that Ransom's book was written at a time that the country needed to blame someone for the horrible atrocities on both sides of the war. They took his book and ran with it rather than running with the less sensational account of a Northern Soldier, like Eugene.. Someone had to pay for what happened. Ransom pointed his finger at Winder (the head of the prison) which set up the man for a death sentence. Yet, how could a man solve the problems of 20.000 men when the Southern army could not even pay to put their men in shoes. He was the fall guy. Did his death absolute the atrocities of the war? I think not. Even today, the war is still fought. Ransom never mentions the deaths and suffering of Southern solder in prisons. Someone has to pay, and he was the one to pay the painful death that we as Americans had inflicted on our population. It probably helped that Winder was not an American citizen. How convenient.



3. When I was encouraged to read this book I saw it as a bore. However, upon embarking on this read, I could hardly put it down. I was intrigued on a major level. I've been to the old prison site three times and this book really sets you up to visualize the prison the way it was. The prison is all sad, however I was very disturbed by the way the north treated the fellow who was in charge of the prison during it prime. This was unmitigated revenge and spite.



4. Ransom was a member of the Ninth Michigan Cavalry during the Civil War when, in Nov. 1963, he was captured in eastern Tennessee; he spent the next year a prisoner in a number of Southern prison camps, most notably Andersonville. He was finally able to escape and make his way back to Union lines. What distinguishes this book is Ransom's humor in the face of such adversity: "July 26 - Ain't dead yet. Actually laugh at the Rebel who thought if I wasn't dead I had better get inside. Had an onion." He writes of the hardships, mainly hunger and disease, but also makes it clear that the prisoners, because of poor self-discipline and low morals (stealing from one another was rampant) made their bad lot even worse. Prisoner exchanges, once frequent early in the war, were just about suspended by this time, thanks to U.S. Grant's belief that they helped the South more than the North. At one point Ransom writes that about 130 prisoners a day were dying in camp, mostly from disease. An interesting book, lively and always in celebration of the living, at least in spirit.



5. When one considers that John Ransom, at the time of his interment at Andersonville, was not a professional writer, and that much of his recounting of his horrible experiences was censored, this diary is compelling, gritty, gruesome, and all too credible. This unblinking look at a part of Civil War history that is often overlooked, captured my attention as few diaries have. (The diary of Anne Frank, of course, being the most engaging and heart-rending of the genre.)

   The stories of mistreatment of the Union soldiers abound--by other Union soldiers as well as the Confederates! But no scourge was more frightful than the natural ones: the weather, insects, and contaminants were just as unfeeling and effective in their decimation of the prison population. This is not a diary for the weak-hearted. The constant tales of humiliation, hunger, and brutality, along with the growing list of Ransom's associates who were dying all around him, are incessant. Just when things get to their grimmest, the reader is treated to the suspense of Ransom's breakout and escape, which you have to read to believe. Whether you are a devotee of Civil War stories or not, John Ransom's "Andersonville Diary/Life Inside the Civil War's Most Infamous Prison" is a fabulous story of toughing it out in the worst of situations, and a thorough examination of one of the Civil War's darkest times and places.

   Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points.

No comments about John A. Logan: Stalwart Republican from Illinois (Shawnee Classics (Reprinted)).

No comments about An Edited Edition of Anna Ella Carroll's the Great American Battle (Studies in American History).

1 comments about Mary Boykin Chesnut: A Confederate Woman's Life (American Profiles).

1. This is one of the best books around in the growing fields of both women's history and the history of the American South. DeCredico, a professor at the United States Naval Academy who is one of today's most respected Civil War historians, paints a fascinating picture of one Southern woman's life before, during, and after the Civil War. A must read for scholars and interested lay readers alike!

2 comments about Nelson A. Miles and the Twilight of the Frontier Army.

1. Robert Wooster has picked an excellent subject (Nelson Miles) to show the transition of the US Army from the Civil War to WWI. General Miles was a man who seemed to be in the thick of things at just about every stage of the way. What was of particular interest for me in this book was the changes in the military brought upon by the end of the Civil War. Brevet officers full of past glory were suddenly fighting for junior officer posts and finding advancement almost non-existant. Through his stubborn perseverance, Miles slowly but surely rose in the ranks. Along the way he was involved directly or indirectly with the Civil War, the Great Sioux War, the capture of Chief Joseph, the capture of Geronimo, the Battle of Wounded Knee, and the Spanish American War. At times he seemed lucky, conniving, able, and inept. "General Miles and the Twilight of the Frontier Army" is a book that deals equally with both of its' title subjects. Wooster brings us both the glory of history and the drudgery of its' shadows. It leaves one with a rather melancholy feeling as a way of life drew to a close along with its' century.



2. When I read this book, I really wanted to focus just on Miles and his contributions to the Indian Frontier since he virtually closed it out. I learned far more about Miles, a highly skilled and brave field commander who rose all the way to command of the Army by the Spanish American War, than I expected. I was aware of his tremendous ego but I learned more about his political intrigues, compulsion for rank, rivalries with other officers and attraction to crowds and newspapermen. Wooster takes you rather quickly through Miles' youth and astounding CW achievements and spends a good portion on Miles and the Indian Frontier. He outlines quite in impressive detail Miles constant maneuvering for command and reforms, his controversies with Generals and Presidents including Teddy Roosevelt. Miles was involved in the Sioux campaigns, Sitting Bull, Grey Beard, Cheyenne, Nez Perce and Geronimo and the Spanish American War. After reading the book you will have a mixed feel for Miles. Did he want to be in the midst of the action just to participate in an intense challenge or was it always to as a platform to achieve rank? His politics later in life were anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant but he later worked to get the Indians a better deal and he preferred the emancipation of the Philippines after the Spanish American War. He is an important read, he was even in over all command but not the field officer at Wounded Knee. Miles saw many of the most famous Chiefs at their peak and literally escorted them to their final homes, the reservations. Wooster writes an incredibly objective book on a person who contributed tremendously to our history from 1860 to 1910.

No comments about Pombo: A Man of Che's Guerrilla : With Che Guevara in Bolivia 1966-68.

3 comments about Forgotten Faces: A Window Into Our Immigrant Past (Forgotten Faces - America's Lost History).

1. Galleys and unfinished titles typically aren't mentioned here but keep an eye out for the finished version of FORGOTTEN FACES: A WINDOW NTO OUR IMMIGRANT PAST: it's a unique coverage of photo-ceramic memorial grave portraits and provides an outstanding survey of memorial portraiture as its own art form. This could have been mentioned under our art review section but is featured here for its important cultural insights as well: California immigrant history comes to life in an outstanding visual and written survey of a unique art and memorial form which should not be missed.



2. Forgotten Faces explores a unique aspect of America's history - the photo-ceramic memorial portraits upon tombstones, long-forgotten art in plain sight. Black-and-white photographs througout reveal the skill and emotion behind these images, which remain perfectly preserved despite ornamenting tombstones for almost a century. The text discusses epitaphs and inscriptions on the tombstones with the portraits, as well as surveying what is known about the men and women whose likenesses have been captured to heartrending perfection. Images of immigrants from 28 nations from cemeteries in various American and European locations combine to create a unique cross-section of photographic art and history combined.



3. Forgotten Faces offers a surprisingly detailed look into our history. The text is easily read. Although the portraits are the heart of the book, the author's descriptions and insights enliven the images.
   I was impressed by the breadth of knowledge about the portraits. Questions I had while reading were often answered in a following chapter. The book is a pleasantly thorough treatment of a little known area of our history.
   This book has left me with a new outlook on memorials in general and with a hope that around the country further research into these memorial portraits will be undertaken.

No comments about FOR THE UNION: OHIO LEADERS IN THE CIVIL WAR.