“Forward My Brave Boys!”: A History of the 11th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A., 1861–1865 by M. Todd Cathey and Gary W. Waddey

Abstract

Reviewed by: “Forward My Brave Boys!”: A History of the 11th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A., 1861–1865 by M. Todd Cathey and Gary W. Waddey John D. Fowler “Forward My Brave Boys!”: A History of the 11th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A., 1861–1865. By M. Todd Cathey and Gary W. Waddey. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2016. Pp. [xx], 503. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-88146-544-0.) Since the Civil War ended, countless regimental studies have been published. The earliest were often sentimental reminiscences written by the members of a particular regiment. Later regimental studies were written by the descendants of those in the regiment or by antiquarians from the communities that produced the regiments. Finally, in the late twentieth century, professional historians began to research and write the stories of regiments. Using a wide variety of primary sources, especially census records and compiled service records, these scholars have been able to draw accurate conclusions about the individual soldiers who made up Civil War armies. By using quantitative analysis, they could use their data to compare units across states and regions. While regimental histories have something to offer students of the Civil War, it is these modern studies that have the most to offer. “Forward My Brave Boys!”: A History of the 11th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A., 1861-1865 by M. Todd Cathey and Gary W. Waddey is a mixture of the old and the new. Cathey and Waddey are descendants of men from the regiment. Their work contains a wealth of primary resources and recounts the wartime story of the Eleventh Tennessee Volunteer Infantry Regiment, composed of men from five counties in Middle Tennessee. The unit had an interesting combat history, participating in the major campaigns and battles of the western theater. As it stands, “Forward My Brave Boys!” is a well-researched wartime account of the regiment. The authors have written a fine history for those who want to know what the Eleventh Tennessee did during the Civil War. Yet the authors have produced a rather old-fashioned account in that it fails to place the regiment into any proper perspective. Absent is a meticulous search of the records that could have told us more about these men in the pre– and post–Civil War worlds. The men of the Eleventh Tennessee, [End Page 184] like all Civil War soldiers, were products of their communities, and the Civil War was only one part, albeit perhaps the defining part, of their lives. Focusing merely on the war years turns these soldiers into one-dimensional individuals. By examining community records, census records, newspapers, letters, diaries, and pension records for the soldiers and their families, the authors could have made the men themselves and not just their wartime service the focus. Moreover, through an exploration of their medical histories, prisoner of war experiences, and desertion incidents, a clear picture of the “real war” would emerge. The statistics that could be generated would allow the men to be placed in their proper context and would allow comparison with the men of other regiments. An examination of the records mentioned could also answer a number of questions useful to modern scholars. Did the men come from basically the same districts in their respective counties? How wealthy were the officers compared with the enlisted men? How old were the men on average? How large were their farms? What crops did they grow? How many came from urban areas? How did the men do economically after the war? How many were slaveholders? The answers to these questions and others would allow for patterns to be detected, and these patterns could be used to understand the world from which these men came. Cathey and Waddey’s work is well written and contains a wealth of primary sources, but not enough. Moreover, they did not extract enough information from the sources they did use. If one is interested in the wartime exploits of the Eleventh Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, this is an excellent book. Indeed, it is better than most regimental accounts. However, the work falls far short of the type of regimental history that modern scholars produce. The extra effort...