Life in the North During the Civil War: A Source History (review)

Abstract

376CIVIL WAR HISTORY sonalities of opposite polarities. Politics also exacerbated professional antipathies; it was Johnson-Welles-Isherwood against Porter and the Radicals . The election of Grant was therefore decisive, and Isherwood's removal as bureau chief followed the inauguration by just one week. But engineer critics had also bored in on the embattled bureau head. Chiefly, they charged that his huge, low speed Wampanoag-type engines, with twin cylinders of over eight-foot diameter and geared up propeller speeds, while they accomplished vibration reduction in wooden hulls, were yet extravagant of fuel and low in cruising endurance under steam. After stepping down in 1869, Isherwood never again assumed major responsibilities in the navy. Confining himself to his heat and propeller researches, he increased his scientific stature and earned professional honors over a long life. At his death at ninety-three in 1917, he was the acknowledged dean of American engineers. And he has been fortunate in his present biographer, an even-handed judge in many controversies. Porter, perhaps, shines in these pages with less candle power than in the standard navy histories, and Isherwood with probably more than many engineering contemporaries would have approved. His famous engines were, after all, conceptually opposed to the mainstream of engineering development for a century afterwards, which has postulated steaming efficiency on high engine speeds relative to propeller speeds. But if, in fact, Isherwood erred here, it was the error of genius. Readers of this excellent book will appreciate why the principal engineering building at the Naval Academy is named Isherwood Hall. Neville T. Kirk United States Naval Academy Life in the North During the Civil War: A Source History. Edited by George Winston Smith and Charles Judah. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1966. Pp. xvi, 397. $6.50.) This collection of documents, drawn from a variety of sources, is divided into nine chapters dealing with topics such as: the secession crisis; pohtical developments; northern attitudes toward slavery and the Negro; the problems of mobilization and military discipline in a citizen army; the impact of the war on the northern economy; northern attitudes toward reconstruction; and the influence of the war in moulding and changing the thinking of northern intellectuals about the nature of American society. The broad coverage attempted by the editors suggests the ambitious nature of the enterprise, and some chapters, especially those dealing with the economy, the Negro, and social dislocations caused by the war are quite to the point, and are organized with sensitivity. The remainder of the book, in this reviewer's opinion, fails to do justice to the questions and issues to which it is addressed. For example, the chapter on the secession crisis is lifeless, revealing little about the underlying dynamics which caused the North to fight rather than acquiesce in disunion. The same BOOK REVIEWS377 holds true for the chapter entitled: 'The Voice of Politics." While abundant evidence is provided attesting to the existence of bitter partisanship in the North, very little editorial or documentary analysis is utilized which casts light upon the complexities that produced it. Much the same thing can be said about the chapters on "Credos of the North," "Ways of Life," and "Promises and Threats of Victory." With some notable exceptions, the editors obviously chose to substitute scope for depth. The choice was not a happy one. Richard O. Curry University of Connecticut The Black Codes of the South. By Theodore B. Wilson. (University, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1965. Pp. 177. $5.95.) This is the first book to be devoted entirely to southern legislation on the Negro during 1865-1866, and the author treats the subject with a judicious mixture of censure and understanding. He begins by surveying the history of legislation on the free Negro during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—a useful and desirable enterprise, except that the author's discussion of race relations is unfortunately marred by vague and unnecessary sociological jargon. Wilson recognizes that legislation cannot be divorced from its social and economic context, and the resulting discussion of southern conditions in 1865-1866 is a careful one. In analyzing the laws themselves he concludes that the 1865 codes were harsh largely because of southern...