No comments about Personal Traits Of Abraham Lincoln (1912).

No comments about General Sherman and the Georgia Belles: Tales from Women Left Behind.

3 comments about Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William C. Oates.

1. On July 2, 1863, the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate Lieutenant Colonel William C. Oates let his troops, the 15th Alabama, in the fateful and unsuccessful charge against Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine on the far left of the Union line at Little Round Top. Chamberlain and the 20th Maine have become American heroes, but far less attention is given to Oates. In "Gettysburg Requiem" (2006) Glenn Lafantasie offers the first full-scale biography of Oates (1833 -- 1910). It is an intruiguing picture of a man and his times and of the changing South after the Civil War. LaFantasie is a professor of Civil War history and Director fo the Center for the Civil War in the West at Western Kentucky University. He is the author of "Twilight at Little Round Top", a book which focuses on the stuggle for this famous hill on the second day of Gettysburg.
   
   Oates lived a long and eventful life. He was raised in poverty. In his mid-teens, he fled Alabama to avoid prosecution for incidents resulting from what would become his lifelong propensity to violence. For several years, he lived the life of a wanderer in Texas and Louisiana. Oates returned to Alabama, disciplined himself, and became a successful attorney. An ardent Confederate, he raised a company, served with Stonewall Jackson, and with Lee, and participated in many important battles of the Civil War. He was wounded six times and ultimately lost his right arm. After the Civil War, Oates returned to Abbeyville, Alabama where he became wealthy through his law practice and land speculations. He served seven terms in the United States House of Representatives and one term as the Governor of Alabama. Oates was named a Brigadier General in the Spanish-American War, but he never saw combat in that conflict. In 1905, Oates published a book on which he had worked for years, "The War between the Union and the Confederacy and its Lost Opportunities."
   
   Lafantasie gives a full picture of Oates's career, and he describes Oates's character as well. Throughout his life, Oates was courageous, but he remained prone to violence. After losing his right arm late in the war, Oates fathered a child with a young African American woman who was his servant and was nursing him back to health. Later, Oates fathered another illigitimate child with an adolescent 14 years of age. At the age of 48, Oates married a young woman, "T" who was 19. The marriage was lasting (over 28 years) and Oates loved his family and supported the education of his children, including the two illigitimate sons, through college, graduate school, and successful careers. According to LaFantasie, Oates' life was driven by a desire to have power over others. He describes Oates as racist, sexist, and xenophobic. Yet he recognizes many fine qualities in his subject. In 1901, Oates acted courageously at the Alabama Constitutional Convention where he was in a distinct minority in opposing changes which led to the disenfranchismement of Alabama's black citizens.
   
   The best parts of this book are those which describe Oates's early rootless days of wandering in Texas and those which describe Oates's career in the Confederate Army. Lafantasie has a close, detailed knowledge of the fighting for Little Round Top. By focusing on Oates' role in the struggle, Lafantasie made the battle, and the combat between the 15th Alabama and the 20th Maine clearer to me than many accounts which try to discuss the totality of the action. Lafantasie convincingly shows that the Battle for Little Round Top was the pivotal event of Oates's life. Oates's younger brother, John, was fatally wounded in the fight for Little Round Top. John had been ill, and Oates tried to keep him out of the combat, but John insisted on moving forward. Oates never forgave himself. Many soldiers close to Oates died on the hill. Oates relived his brother's death, the terrible combat, and the failure to take Little Round Top many times during the ensuing 46 years of his life. He tried, unsuccessfully, to get a monument to the 15th Alabama at the point of their closest penetration of the Union position and he corresponded with his one-time foe, Joshua Chamberlain.
   
   Lafantasie also gives a good picture of the changes in the South following the Civil War as mirrored in Oates's long life and in his career as Congressman and governor. Oates became a proponent of the "Lost Cause" school of the Civil War, which romanticized the Old South and blamed the defeat of the Confederacy solely on the Union's superiority in numbers and material. Much in Oates life suggests he remained an unreconstructed Confederate to the end. But he did have moments, especially at the 1901 convention, that show he was finding his way to a different, broader view.
   
   It is good to have a biography of Oates. Lafantasie's study is thorough and well-documented. In places it is also polemical, insufficiently historical, and psychologistic, as Lafantasie criticizes sexist attitudes in the South, in particular, and is overly harsh in his speculations on the reasons underlying Oates' attraction to young women. Lafantasie also at times adopts the tone of a historical novel more than that of a history as he tries to read Oates's thoughts and mind in the absence of hard evidence. With these qualifications, I enjoyed and learned something about Oates, the Civil War and the post-Civil War South from reading this book. Readers with a deep interest in the Battle of Gettysburg or in the South after the Civil War will benefit from Lafantasie's study.
   
   Robin Friedman



2. Two men who have had a very significant impact on the Civil War as we know it today lived a century after it ended. Neither was a soldier; neither was a professional historian. Michael Shaara was a novelist. Ken Burns is a documentary filmmaker. As evidence of their influence, just take a look at that standard reference, Mark M. Boatner's Civil War Dictionary, first published in 1959. Look there to see what you can find out about William C. Oates, the colonel of the 15th Alabama who led the attack against the 20th Maine on Little Round Top. What will you find? Nothing. Oates isn't in the book. Now, however, nearly fifty years after Boatner compiled his dictionary, Oates is a very well known character to anyone who has read Shaara's book or seen Burns's Civil War series.
   This past summer the first full-length biography of Oates appeared, more than 400 pages about a man who never actually attained the rank of colonel, a man who was replaced as commander of the 15th Alabama after leading it for nearly two years, a man who fifty years ago did not warrant a footnote in one of the Civil War's standard reference works. So, does he warrant being the subject of a full-blown biography?
   You bet. Glenn W. Fantasie has done a terrific job of telling Oates's tale, and of using him as a tool to delve into the greater issues that filled Oates's own life and times. Oates's path through life was one that easily lends itself to the telling of a great story. He began as a hot-tempered brawler who frequented the small towns of pre-war Texas. He ended as a Southern politician who could actually entertain, and fight for, the idea of giving black men the vote. In between he raised a company to fight for the Confederacy, was brave to a fault (or so his men thought), lost an arm at Petersburg, served seven terms in Congress fighting against railroad land grants and for free silver, and one term as the governor of Alabama.
   As the title suggests, the cause of the Confederacy was not his only "lost cause," and it is by laying those others before us that Professor LaFantasie makes this biography so much more than just another biography about a Civil War soldier whose main attraction to an author is that he has not been written about before. Oates was a fascinating character. His constant desire to lead from the front made him a prominent figure throughout the times in which he lived. This fine biography does him the justice denied him in times past.



3. William C. Oates, the subject of Glenn LaFantassie's "Gettysburg Requiem" is a bundle of contradictions: born poor, died wealthy; apparently racist, secretly intimate with his black servant; a respected attorney and newspaper publisher but shot and killed a man; wounded six times in battle but rose no higher in rank than lieutenant colonel; saw Lincoln's election as a danger to the South, lamented Lincoln's assassination.
   
   LaFantasie's research reveals a Confederate hero whose life was characterized by anger, violence, guilt,inconsistencies, weaknesses, and relentless struggle for success. Oates may well be described as one of those souls who can resist anything but temptation.
   
   The book's bibliography is a compendium of excellent Civil War
   sources, the research seems to be as complete as anyone could compile, and the presentation is as clear and easy to follow as the subject matter will allow.
   
   Those who have climbed Little Round Top at Gettysburg, who are fascinated with the battle between the 20th Maine and the 15th Alabama, who want to know more about the post-war conflicts between General Joshua Chamberlain and "Colonel" Oates over the placement of monuments on the battlefield will find "Gettysburg Requiem" required reading.

No comments about Lincoln's White House Secretary: The Adventurous Life of William O.Stoddard.

2 comments about Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln.

1. This important reference book evaluates the dependability of quotations attributed to Lincoln. They are listed alphabetically by name of the person who claimed to hear Lincoln. A copious index to this nearly 600-page book gives further assistance in locating alleged quotations. The book was compiled by two Lincoln experts and is authoritative as any Lincoln book can be.



2. I can not imagine how many hours of checking and rechecking it took for the Fehrenbachers to compile this book. They offer not only the words of Lincoln as recalled by others, but also their opinions on the probable accuracy of the person who recalled the words. I found quotes I had never heard and I noted that some quite famous "quotes" were debunked. This is as close to the "real words" of Lincoln we are able to get outside his writings and newspaper reports of his speeches. Of course, written words, carefully crafted speeches and spontaneous spoken words are all different. Thanks to the editors for massive amounts of careful work.

No comments about Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

2 comments about Timothy Pickering and the American Republic.

1. By Gerard Clarfield's account, he first took an interest in Timothy Pickering because he thought that his subject may have been unfairly maligned by history. A close examination of Pickering's life convinced him that his predecessors were right to scorn Pickering.

   Clarfield has written a thorough and well-researched biography of Pickering as an archetypal "man on the make" in colonial and Revolutionary America. His book is very well researched and well written. It is an invaluable resource for those of us interested in Pickering.

   However, Clarfield may have gone too far in his repudiation of Pickering. As Garry Wills wrote in "Negro President" it is doubtful that one would find Pickering personally likeable. Still, there is more to an individual than his personality. Clarfield's indictment of Pickering rests largely on his personal traits: a tendency toward paranoia, unflinching self-righteousness, and a great capacity for anger. However, in light of this portrayal, it's hard to see how Pickering ever got anywhere or accomplished anything.

   Garry Wills has found that Pickering was a dedicated family man. From Pickering's own record, it is clear that he was a respected member of the Federalist Party, with genuine and lasting friendships. His career in public service was quite long. He was hardly the failure that Clarfield seems to think he was. Clarfield seems loathe to give Pickering any credit at all.

   Other aspects of Pickering's career - those that make him more interesting to us - receive short shrift. Clarfield does detail Pickering's efforts to protect the rights of Native Americans, but does not explore his anti-slavery sentiment or his support of the freed slaves of St. Domingue (Haiti). These topics are delved into more thorougly by Wills.

   I would recommend reading this book and Clarfield's other book on Pickering. Also, I would recommend reading "Negro President" by Wills, which gives Pickering a more sympathetic treatment.




2. It was fascinating (actually refreshing) to read a book by an author who is not an "advocate" but an expert on his subject. Pickering held many important positions in his life; ADC to Washington (in fact, his account of the attack on the Chew House during the battle of Germantown is what attracted me to this book in the first place); Quartermaster General to the Continental Army; Postmaster General; Secretary of War (under Washington); Secretary of State (under Washington and Adams); followed by a term in the Senate and terms in the House of Representatives. He was instrumental in settling the Pennamite War between Connecticut and Pennsylvania (which incredibly enough, outlived the American Revolution), pioneered acculturalization of the native Americans in Pa. and Ohio, was probably the biggest advocate of the Jay Treaty, and had possibly the most violent reaction of anyone to the XYZ Affaire. He disliked Washington and Jefferson alike (and was thus an equal opportunity abuser among Federalists and Republicans, though he seems to have favored abusing people from Virginia unless their name was Adams). Like some bundle-of-sticks Ichabod Crane, Pickering awkwardly struts through the halls of government "Picking" battle after battle. But for all of this little of the man actually shows through. I would have liked to have read something of his reaction to the death of Washington, for instance. Clarfield's Pickering seems to have lacked any humanizing characteristics (but for one brief moment of concern for his dimwitted son). Maybe that's how he was, a life consisting of facts, opportunities and reactions. His death thus lacked pathos, like a semi-comical stick figure that simply fell apart in the end. This book is well written and scholarly.

No comments about Randall Lee Gibson of Louisiana: Confederate General and New South Reformer (Southern Biography Series).

No comments about A Woman Doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' Diary (Women's Diaries and Letters of the Nineteenth-Century South).

5 comments about Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company.

1. Morris' biography of Bierce is thorough and has a lot of insight, but one thing that irritates is the implication that Bierce is not a "major" writer. There's even a a blurb on the book jacket from some critic at the Washington Post referring to him as a "lesser" writer.
   
   Are you kidding? Bierce wrote at least four or five of the greatest short stories in American literature. He pioneered the idea of showing readers that they weren't paying attention; he explored near-death experience masterfully in "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"--as well as delivering a scathing criticism of war; he wrote the most riveting Civil War story of all time, "Chickamauga," and he inspired dozens of modern and postmodern writers--Hemingway through Joseph Heller.
   
   Yes, Bierce's work was inconsistent. But so was Twain's, Crane's, and the work of dozens of other "major" writers.
   
   The best Bierce criticism is Richard O'Connor's _Ambrose Bierce: A Biography_, published in 1967. If you're interested in Bierce, read that one first.



2. Conventional wisdom and history books have it that Ambrose Bierce died in Mexico during the Revolution. But Morris, in this in-depth biography, offers a fairly plausible alternative. (Sorry, not giving the store away as part of the review; you're going to have to get your hands on this book.)
   
   Much of the rest of the speculation in which Morris engages is psychological. He first analyses Bierce's childhood and parents, then takes note of his Civil War head wound, and wonders just how much the two of these things combined to contribute to the Ambrose Bierce we know today.
   
   That said, while not denying either childhood or adult causes of personality development -- or personality change -- I give more credence to genetic causes, i.e., the ideas of evolutionary psychology, properly applied.
   
   I find it likely that Bierce was pretty much born with tendencies toward the character he later exhibited. His upbringing and his war wound may have intensified it, but I think he came by much of his cynicism naturally. Life events probably added the dollop of churlishness to it.
   
   I teeter on a rating and end up at 4 stars. If I were to fine tune, it would probably be about 3 2/3 stars. The psycho-speculation is interesting, but in addition to being incomplete, if not somewhat wrong, too much of a focus on it means less focus on historical biography or on literary analysis.



3. I am perfectly aware that to say that Ambrose Bierce was the most original, provocative and fascinating of all American writers (not to say the most brilliant of all) is like preaching in the desert. It is probably going to cost me a lot of negative feedback to say what I'm going to say, so I won't extend myself more than what it is absolutely necessary in order to speak my mind.
   
   The main reason for me to write this review is that this laughable biography by Roy Morris is so flagrantly detrimental on Bierce's accomplishments that I personally didn't want to lose the opportunity to advise you against reading such a lot of blather. The author even puts an awful novel like "The Red Badge of Courage" above Bierce's war stories (hilarious, isn't it?). After that, what else can be said about this biographer's ineptitude? Let's draw a veil over it and forget it.
   
   Anyone wishing to know something about the skilled artistry and posterior influence of the Ohio writer would be better looking for another book written by someone who had actually grasped Bierce's significance. But the best thing to do is reading Bierce's stories on your own and make up your mind about them instead of losing your time with the prejudices and lack of perspective of others.
   
   After reading some passages of this book, I reassure myself in my opinion that literary critics are, well, funny...
   
   In a world where mediocrity runs rampant and where authors like Mark Twain and the hideous Henry James have always been praised, it is difficult that really worthy authors like Bierce can find the recognition they deserve. But, perhaps, it is better that way, I don't know.
   
   What I know for sure (because I've seen it) is that, when a genius is born, all nefarious souls tend to ally themselves against it. Anyway, how could a writer like Bierce be enjoyed by a majority? It's impossible.
   
   Well, I don't think this review is gonna get anywhere, so I'd better stop here. Thank you for your reading.
   
   Note- sorry for any bad grammar on my part. I don't usually write in the language of the "Empire".



4. "Bitter Bierce" they called him because of his scathing sarcasm. After the Civil War, in which he fought valiantly for four years, he went to San Francisco and began writing for the Hearst newspapers. Satire was his game. He wrote a couple of decent short stories ("Chickamauga" and "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"), THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY, and that's about it (other books, mainly short story and poetry collections, have been forgotten, in some cases unfairly so). His wit, as revealed in the DICTIONARY is clever, but at times sophomoric. Influenced by Poe, many of his stories deal with the supernatural and are laced with horror. He disappeared in Mexico in 1913 and was never seen again. Speculation, from suicide to fighting for Pancho Villa, has been rampant ever since. Morris does a good job relating the events of Bierce's strange life, who must have been a very difficult man to know.



5. This book gives insight into one of the American literary greats. There are times that the book drags, but I think this is due as much to the author as to the fact that some moments in Bierce's life are so interesting that when you read about the "average" moments in his life, you are left, well , bored. This is a good book for a Bierce fan or someone that would like to learn about an American writer who, deservedly, lived in the shadow of Twain.