Kearny's Own: The History of the First New Jersey Brigade in the Civil War, and: Banners South: A Northern Community at War (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Kearny’s Own: The History of the First New Jersey Brigade in the Civil War, and: Banners South: A Northern Community at War Allan Peskin Kearny’s Own: The History of the First New Jersey Brigade in the Civil War. By Bradley M. Gottfried. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2005. Pp. 301. Cloth, $36.95.) Banners South: A Northern Community at War. By Edmund J. Raus Jr. (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2005. Pp. 333. Cloth, $39.00.) At a time when narrative history is under attack as old fashioned and even condemned as "imperialistic," traditional storytelling continues to find a refuge in Civil War studies. And why not? Civil War historians have such good stories that it would be a shame not to tell them. Unfortunately, these stories have been told so often that they are in danger of losing their power. What is left to say about such a twice-told tale? One solution is to tell the Civil War story from the bottom up—from the perspective of the small units that constituted a tiny part of the grand mosaic. The problem with this approach is how to deal with the microcosm without lapsing into trivia. These two books confront that problem, but with mixed success. Both deal with units that served in the Army of the Potomac: the New Jersey [End Page 314] brigade for the duration of the war; the New York regiment for two years, Both endured the confusion of mobilization, the rigors of training, and the ineptness of early commanders. They even participated in many of the same military campaigns. Yet despite these overlaps, the two books are sufficiently different to prompt some useful comparisons. The 1st New Jersey Brigade was initially led by Philip Kearny, though he soon moved on to higher command. Unlike most brigades that were fluid aggregations of various regiments, often assembled for a specific purpose and then disbanded, this brigade was more permanent. According to the dust jacket of Kearny's Own (but not the author), it was the only federal infantry brigade to have "experienced the entire Civil War as a cohesive unit"—a claim that could be disputed by the Vermont Brigade of the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Whether unique or merely unusual, the brigade's distinctive tenacity raises interesting questions as to its cause and its impact on the men who were so tightly bonded together. These questions, as well as all matters that fall outside the limitations of the book's strict chronological organization, are not addressed. This narrative strategy leaves little room for digressions or even explanations. The brigade does something one day and something else the next as disjointed paragraphs follow each other often without connection or transition. In the process, the larger picture gets lost in the mass of minutiae. It is not merely that the reader cannot see the forest for the trees, but often he or she cannot even see the trees for the leaves. To compound matters, the book is written in a clunky prose that cries out in vain for the hand of an editor familiar with the fine points of English grammar and usage. And yet, despite all these shortcomings, such is the power of the Civil War story that readers may be drawn, almost against their will, into this narrative and feel at the end as if they have lived it along with these New Jersey boys. Art is not everything. But it helps. Banners South demonstrates how even a great story can be improved through skillful telling. Rather than plunging immediately into the military activities of the 23d New York Volunteers, Edmund J. Raus sets the stage by describing the Cortland, New York, region from which this two-year infantry regiment was drawn. Raus also gives us capsule sketches of the leading characters in his story and even a collective portrait of the regiment itself—"the typical county volunteer was twenty-two years old, five feet seven inches tall and single" (12). Unlike the New Jersey study, Raus sometimes interrupts his narrative to set it within a broader context, both military and [End Page 315...